★★★★★ 4
Well thought-out features. Hopeful that the seals hold on this newer variant of the Classic 100.
Color: Black/Green
6 years ago, I tried my first variant of the Classic 100. The features were mostly, as expected, but the unit failed a short while into usage. This was disappointing, because the classic 50 had been a reliable goto until my last classic 50 started to fail this month.
The current classic 100 variant arrived in a damaged box, but the watch appeared to have no physical damage. All functions operated as expected, save for the audible alarms, and beeps. Amazon/Timex offered to discount or replace. As I need the audibles for specific workouts, and daily meds, I opted for the replacement.
I'm a day into the replacement and am very satisfied with the purchase. So far, it exceeds the classic 50 in many functions, but I am still partial to the button feel of the older unit. I've made it through a swim workout with no adverse performance. I'm hopeful that the current variant proves to have more reliable seals than the earlier model that I tried. If so, this is a worthy upgrade to the classic 50.
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(Details from 2020 purchase)
Over the last 15 years, I've purchased several ironman watches for a variety of workouts and incorporation into timed/scheduled home and work activities. Until this 100-lap model, all others worked great and continued to work well beyond the band failure (yeah, count on it) after 3 or 4 years.
For this model, the indiglo stopped working within 3 months and now, 11 months in, the watch has fully reset 3 times unprompted during the past 2 weeks. This is fairly aggravating since it made me late for an appt on one failure and on another wiped out a number of workouts that I was tracking for an upcoming tri. Visibly, the watch looks new, no marks, no apparent moisture, but it has now proven itself to be thoroughly unreliable. This is very sad, because I found multiple uses for each of the features included in this model, and I had even adjusted to operating the very stiff split and stop buttons during swim/bike/run sessions.
I gave this model 3 stars on water resistance, because I have no evidence either way as to whether this or the stiff buttons had anything to do with its failure.
I'm going back to the 50-lap version. If I see a hint of non-band related problems with that, I'll have to assume that Timex is no longer in the business of making ironman watches for athletes.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2019