TomTom Spark Cardio + Music GPS Fitness Watch

Have you ever been out on a walk or run and wished you could use just one device instead of three or four? Personally I use my FitBit, then my Polar M400 for my GPS and heart rate tracking and my phone or iPod for music (and then spend most of my walk or run adjusting headphones). The headphones are the worst. Especially when running, you don’t want too much slack or you’ll get tangled up, not enough and you feel like you are strangling yourself. At least that’s my problem. Enter my new BFF: the TomTom Spark Cardio + Music GPS Fitness Watch.

Let me start off by saying until this showed up at my door I had never used bluetooth headphones. And now I’m entirely obsessed. They are pretty much the best things to happen to music since the MP3 Player. Seriously, if you are still fighting with regular headphones every time you go for a workout you owe it to yourself to get some bluetooth ones. They will change your life.

The headphones that come with the Spark Cardio are of course TomTom brand headphones, and though it took me a few minutes to figure out how to sync them to the watch, a quick trip to the TomTom Youtube channel sorted that out for me. They have great videos explaining all of the features of the watch, making it super easy to use.

The headphones come with a variety of headphone covers so you can choose the ones that best fit the shape of your ear. I have small ears but was pleasantly surprised at how comfortably these fit and how well they stay in place.

Transferring music onto the device is easy too, once plugged into your computer it’ll bring up a window where you can quickly select playlists or podcasts that you want to add (and yes, there’s a video for that too!). It has room for up to 500 songs so you won’t be stuck listening to the same 10 songs over and over – unless you only put 10 songs on it! 😉

Once on it starts tracking all on its own, you don’t need to do anything besides wear it to get your daily step count and sleep statistics.

I’ve still been wearing my FitBit, and can’t tell you how well the tracking compares as I wear my watch on my left hand and my Fitbit on my right (I’m a lefty so the watch is undoubtably going to pick up more “false” steps than my Fitbit). But as far as sleep goes it’s pretty close to my Fitbit reading. In the above picture it shows I slept 7hr 57min last night and my Fitbit says 7hr 54min.

As far as everyday use goes, my favourite thing about the TomTom is the strap/clasp.

Instead of your usual watch fastener, it has these little connectors that click into place on either side of the strap holding is securely, and then another set to hold the excess strap in place. I have small wrists, and teaching Zumba means my arms are flying around everyday, haha. It drives me crazy when I wear my Polar and the strap comes loose and starts flapping around in the middle of a song and because I’m teaching it’s hard to find a free second to fix it. That is not a problem with the TomTom, I’ve not once had the strap come loose in the nearly three weeks I’ve been wearing it.

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The strap and watch itself is also really comfortable to wear. I feeling like I’m basking my Polar, which I really do love, but that sucker is huge and not the most comfortable thing out there. I find it so square around the top that it frequently hits my wrist bones painfully, and that doesn’t happen at all with the TomTom. The watch face is smaller and sits much more nicely on my wrist for day-to-day use.

One more super cool feature on the TomTom? The light. Instead of having to push a button to get the screen to light up, you put your hand over the screen for a second or two and it lights up on it own! It’s really helpful for me while teaching yoga because it’s silent (many other watches beep when you push any button) so I can quietly check the time while my class is in final relaxation to make sure I finish class on time.

All in all I’m pretty darn smitten with the TomTom Spark Cardio + Music. It has quickly become my day-to-day watch during the work week, and I love that I am able to swap out the straps if I decide I want a more exciting colour than plain black!

October 2017 Update: 

One of my best friends now has this watch instead of me. I still adored it, but once I got my FitBit Blaze, it took the #1 place in my heart (Sorry TomTom) so I got it in the hands of someone who will use it. She wears it everyday and loves it!

Disclosure: I was provided with a TomTom Spark Cardio + Music GPS Fitness Watch in order to facilitate this review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.