Epson, one of the world’s largest printer manufacturers, is expanding their footprint in the highly competitive fitness watch industry. The Japanese company will now join the likes of Samsung, Nike and Garmin with the United States release of three “Runsense” watch options.
The three models track measurements including distance, pace, speed, intervals, and laps. That means Epson equipped the Runsense collection with all the goodies you might find in a high-end smartwatch like GPS, gyroscopes and accelerometers.
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“Epson’s Runsense is the ideal GPS watch for keeping me on track with real-time data on my pace, heart rate and distance,” said Meb Keflezighi, Olympic silver medalist and winner of the 2014 Boston Marathon. “I use the Runsense GPS watch every day during my training, and it is a great companion as I work towards the Olympic Trials in 2016.”
The SF-810 is their flagship device and unlike the middle ground SF-710 or budget SF-510 (don’t ask what happened to 610) includes a built-in optical heart rate monitor, an upgrade from the optional chest strap required for the 710 and 510.
The SF-810 and 710 also have a vibration alert feature not found in the SF-510.
All of the watches are water resistant for up to 50 meters and sport a circular monochromatic non-touch display. That decision helps boost the flagship’s battery life to 20 hours and an even more impressive 30 hours for their mid and budget devices.
Every new fitness tracker is released with an accompanying mobile app, and the Runsense collection is no exception. Epson Run allows users to upload their workout data directly to the cloud and gives them a custom dashboard. It also keeps track of their daily fitness and body condition.
The SF-810 and SF-710 allow users to program their laps, set a variable pace, create custom interval training sessions, and track gradient and altitude.
But those extra features do not come free.
As expected, the SF-810 is the priciest of the bunch costing $440 at launch. The SF-710 will run you $350 and SF-510 goes for $310.
The Runsense collection is for sale today on Epson’s website, and the Epson Run app is free on iOS and Android.