I’m not the biggest fan of chest straps, though I have a few. Battery life seems to be indefinite, so they work well for centuries and such.
For a number of years I’ve been using the Mio Link. Wrist optical and they worked very well for me. They did keep dying though. I could get them pretty cheap, but now they have been discontinued for some time.
Just recently I got the Scosche Rythym24. Within a month the body broke right where the band pin goes in, on both sides of a single pin. I did not know that was a known issue. The whole body does seem pretty flimsy.
Scosche replaced it, but with a green strap; not the black I had. #vanity
I got it for long battery life and the recording ability.
I want to try and record HR while swimming. In 50+ years of swimming I’ve never had that ability. I don’t care about swimming metrics or whatever like on the newer tri watches. I know my workouts, I just want to see what my heart does during a workout.
I haven’t tried it yet in the pool, I do hope it will transmit to a watch for open water swimming, but if it won’t at least it should record my HR.