Many people have a love-hate relationship with the sports watches of TomTom. The interface of the watch is designed by a technician, not an athlete. And the software on the desktop screams at the most awkward moments for an update. But it measures your heart rate very well indeed. TomTom Spark should make things easier to exercise while listening to music.
TomTom Spark: all about music
The TomTom Spark is the fourth generation sports watch of the company. The emphasis on the TomTom Spark is to listen to music. TomTom has commissioned research which showed (surprise!) that it is stimulating if you listen to music while exercising. Therefore, you can easily store music in this new sports watch. Playlists from both iTunes and Windows Media Player are supported, but support for Spotify is not yet certain. There’s 3 GB of storage, enough for about 500 songs, or 40 hours of music listening. TomTom also provides a music mix of the Ministry of Sound along, geared to runners. The playlist of 11 songs on the TomTom website, so you can easily copy it by making the same playlist with your favorite music.
The TomTom Spark is designed to carry all day. You wear this sports watch not only during a run, but you can also track throughout the day how many steps you’ve put and how many calories you burn. The watch also displays a picture of your sleep behavior. You can get a TomTom Spark with and without a heart rate monitor, where the price is $249. All measurements can be stored in TomTom MySports, RunKeeper and Nike+.
TomTom Spark only works with Bluetooth earphones. The TomTom Spark is more focused than ever on ordinary consumers. You can easily replace watch straps by other colored bands. Listening to music can only be via wireless earphones, as is the case with the Apple Watch. You do not get notifications and there is no touch screen. You operate it via a large button below the screen, as with the previous sports watches from TomTom. With a voice coach, you get instructions on how to exercise so that you are training in the right heart rate zone. You can order the wearable via the TomTom website and Amazon.com.