Polar M430 Advanced Running Watch

Polar M430 Advanced Running Watch Info

The Polar M430 is a running watch that works with GPS and an optical heart rate sensor so you can be both plugged in and feeling instrument free.

The optical heart rate sensor is a great little bit of tech packed into the back of the watch. So long as the watch is against your skin, it can read your heart rate through your skin. No strap needs to be worn. Likewise, thanks to GPS, you don’t need to wear a foot pod to know how fast and how far you’ve run.

GPS, of course, means that the watch battery wears down fast. That’s why they’ve included a charging cable. It can record up to eight hours of training time on full power. There’s a way to adjust the recording intervals from recording every second to recording once every 30 or 60 seconds, which is great if you’re doing ultra-distance training or racing. Most folks can get away with charging it once or twice a week—and it only takes an hour.

The short charge time is a great thing, as the M430 can actually analyze your sleep, a plus for dialing in training and recovering. It can also determine training benefit, training stress, training load, recovery, calories burned, and more. You can program up to eight screens via the app. You can also use this for many sports, including swimming and cycling, and pair with Bluetooth-enabled apps.

Bluetooth Smart is how the unit communicates with the world. There’s a mobile app as well as their Flow cloud-based training program for setting up your watch, uploading and analyzing data, and sharing with other social media and training platforms, including: MapMyFitness, TrainingPeaks, and Strava. Check your phone and you computer to ascertain compatibility; most are.

The Polar M430 comes with watch, charge cable, and instructions.