Cheap(er) GPS Watches

I love my Garmin 210. In fact, it has helped my training/racing immensely because it assures me I'm not dying and lets me know that I'm not losing my mind when something feels hard. And this is coming from someone who didn't really ever see the point of running with a GPS watch.

However, even though it's Garmin's "entry level" one, it's still expensive for a watch. Luckily, there are some other options out there for ~$100. The Timex Marathon GPS, Soleus GPS 1.0, and New Balance GPS Runner will all track time and distance (which they use to calculate pace). The hardware in all three watches is about the same, so satellite reception and battery life don't differ all that much. The main difference resides in the display and "features". The New Balance watch is apparently the easiest to read while running and allows you to customize the amount of time that the backlight stays on. Timex has been making watches for a while (so quality control might be a bit better), and it is actually rated in terms of water resistance to a depth of 30m (the others are not depth-rated). Additionally, Timex and New Balance have some "nicer" lap options.

The main disadvantage between these watches and the Garmin watches is the ability to upload and analyze your runs... Garmin has this, others don't. Personally, I use this feature a lot, but I know others don't. Also, the Garmin watches tend to "locate satellites" a bit quicker.