Yep. I have my 4 year old Garmin 735 and been looking at the Rival for a couple years. But the feature rollout seems to have fallen below a trickle even tho improvement is still much needed in a few areas.
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Due to the lack of health stuff on the Rival I’ve actually been trying out a subscription-free ring option for that stuff, Ringconn. It’d be nice to just use Rival for it all but alas.
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Was looking at the Rival as well but it’s getting a bit long in the tooth and the lack of updates is also a bit worrying.
Ended up ordering a Garmin 965 (feature creep on my requirements list 
)
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I’m still using my Forerunner 920XT. I’m quite convinced it’s bomb-proof and does everything I need with fantastic battery life.
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Yep. I’ve changed the bands out a number of times. Gone thru a lot of silicone watch covers. But my 735xt seems like it will last forever. My only complaint is the vibrating alert for notifications is really loud and my wife complains it wakes her up and my kids laugh because they can hear it across the house. Not so subtle. Lol.
So at least I have plenty of time to wait for the Rival to improve as my Garmin should last at least a few more years it seems. 
I’ve been looking at the 945, 955, now 965. But hoping the Rival improves before I eventually need to replace my 735. At least it seems in no danger of that. 
But I do occasionally look at used 945’s that pop up on our local Tri club’s fb marketplace.
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This is leading to one of the reasons that replacing my 920 will be so difficult. I have no interest in notifications from the watch (except when it’s in use when I’m running or cycling).
It’s rarely on my wrist when I’m not exercising (I have no interest in step counting) and the Bluetooth is always off unless I’m uploading a recent workout.
I just want the most basic functions but modern devices are so (over)loaded with features that even the cheap ones are too expensive because I don’t want that other “crap”.
Hoping the 920 lasts longer than I do to avoid this problem 
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@tbronder How about Apple? Seems like they are doing okay.
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I have almost all my notifications turned off except for text messages and phone calls. I don’t get many of either. I use it mostly as my morning alarm as when it’s set to vibration-only I am usually the only one to feel or hear it. But it’s loud enough that it wakes my wife up more often than I would like.
I wear it 24/7 for resting heart rate, the alarms, and as a watch to tell time. lol. And the text message notifications which I don’t get too many of, fortunately.
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As part of the Zwift/Wahoo lawsuit settlement, Wahoo will start to offer one-year bundled subscriptions to Zwift when trainers are purchased through Wahoo. Not sure if that signals a change of direction regarding Wahoo’s commitment to WahooX/RGT; pointing new trainer customers to Zwift is not the way to drive increased users on RGT/WahooX. I think many new customers will realize they don’t need both subscriptions, and would choose to pay for only one. There is a article on ZwiftInsider.com and DCRainmaker.com regarding settlement of the lawsuit. Increased cooperation between both companies could be a win with respect to compatibility/feature issues if both companies do indeed work hard on two way cooperation.
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I’m trying not to feel pessimistic about the future of Wahoo X, having just read that Wahoo is to start selling Zwift bundled with its trainers, but it’s a struggle. All I would say is that Wahoo can’t let is software offering stagnate and still expect people to re-subscribe to it. One of the keys to successful training is variety, and keeping it fresh.
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Never heard of them, must be some newcomer “been successful as an integrated hardware + software fitness platform”
Looks like Wahoo / Zwift settlement points towards Wahoo trying to move more of their hardware. I vaguely recall a podcast interview with Chip Hawkins where he stated the % of regular bike riders that had a trainer is very low and his belief that there’s still growth to be had in the market. So this move seems reflective of the “grow the pie” strategy rather than one that focuses on trainer + WahooX bundling.
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Apple built up their expertise slowly over the years as both a hardware and software provider. They did not start as a hardware provider trying to do software, or a software provider trying to do hardware.
They also had some failures, and at one point looked like they were headed for bankruptcy.
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Lol, and here I am wanting as many features as I can get in one device.
The golf functions and Garmin Pay were what pushed the decision to the 965. I can get a good deal on the Garmin sensors so the Arccos subscription can go. That breaks even within a year.
Then broadcasting the HR from the watch for SYSTM and for the bike computer makes I don’t have to buy another HR strap (seem to have bad luck with those and every time that’s another EUR70-100).
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It does seem that the HR sensors on watches are better than the HR straps.
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In some cases. The current batch of watches are very good, but I’ve noticed differences between my Garmin Fenix andy Garmin HRM-Dual. One will be reading way higher than the other. I tend to think the HRM is more accurate.
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Better in terms of durability? My understanding was that ECG chest strap monitors are almost universally more accurate than optical wrist or arm sensors, although optical accuracy has been improving.
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@Heretic Sure I remember the Newton. I was always impressed by Apple’s packaging - very different opening a Macintosh box versus a PC from IBM.
While I do understand the argument it seems like the future winners in sports tech need to be very good at both software and hardware.
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Watch HR tech is definitely improving. But chest straps are still more accurate due to the differences between LED optical technology and the electrical reading for chest straps. The difference is most noticeable during high intensity exercise when your HR is high it’s most important
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@Heretic Maybe for road cycling but for MTB the watch data is all over the place so I generally go with a strap.
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I have had many connectivity problems (whether Bluetooth or ANT+) with chest straps from several vendors. I have never had connectivity issues with watches.
A ECG chest strap may be more accurate, but if I cannot reliably connect to it, it is useless.