My Garmin Forerunner 305 arrived today! For the uninitiated, the Garmin Forerunner 305’s a GPS watch. No, it’s purpose isn’t (like my mom thinks it does) to let me know where I am and how to get to where I want to go; rather, it’s a running companion that tells me where I’ve gone and lets me track my runs! (Kudos to the review over here that really got me from vaguely interested to very interested.)
I got mine over at Amazon.com, which was selling it at a relatively cheap US$128.54 (converted to SGD at a rate of about 1.22 SGD to 1 USD, it’s a little over S$155), inclusive of the HRM or heart rate monitor. I had actually wanted to get it at Sim Lim Square, but it was either two expensive (one shop quoted me something like S$350) while another told me it was discontinued, though that might not be true.
The postage cost me about S$32 through vPost (without insurance as this really isn’t that high price an item), which was subsequently reduced to S$12 through credit card rebates (I used UOB, which offset the postage by S$20; Maybank goes even further with a S$30 discount, pity I didn’t have one). FYI the price isn’t so much due to the weight of the item itself, but rather because the Amazon.com box containing it is so huge, causing the “volumetric weight” to hit over 2KG.
The Run with the Forerunner 305
I did my first run today with it and I must say that it was thoroughly intuitive to use. The distance measured was roughly the same as what I got through mapmyrun.com (a great site for mapping your running routes, by the way). The watch looks really big, and a tad uncomfortable, but once it’s on your hand and you’re on your way you kind of forget about it. I’ve read it before in other reviews, and trying it myself I must say it’s true. If you’re thinking of getting one of the other Forerunners because of the size, well, you might want to reconsider as this isn’t really that bad.
Suddenly running’s become fun again.
Donn, fragments 
Hi, may i know how long did it take for your Garmin Forerunner to arrive? I’m thinking of getting it from amazon too, is it safe?
I also saw it on the website stating “Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.” on this model Forerunner 110 which I wish to buy. How about yours?
Looking forward to you reply.
Thanks.
Hi, I was just as worried as you when I ordered this, but would like to say that it’s as safe as any other online purchase I’ve made (i.e. YES, it’s safe!) In total it took about 19 days to arrive (I’ve included the details at the bottom of this post)
I bought the Garmin Forerunner 305 — it’s huge, but still I wear it for 95% of my runs — the 5% of runs I don’t wear it are during races and when I forget to bring it 🙂
As for the shipment, you’ll have to use something like vPost’s service that will allow you to get stuff that currently don’t ship outside of the US (like the watch). Just go the vPost website and follow the instructions (remember to use the credit card discounts if you have, as you can potentially save more than 50% of the shipping charges).
Also, remember that for overseas shipping they use this thing called “volumetric weight”. I hadn’t realised this before I bought this watch, but thankfully I had the credit card discounts or else I’d have been paying more than $30 for shipment (instead of $12). Volumetric weight simply refers to the size of the package (the Garmin Forerunner 305 was packed in a huge box, making it quite costly to ship).
Feel free to let me know if you need any more details 🙂
As promised, here are the shipping details with timeline:
I went with the super saver shipment from Amazon (the cheapest one). I placed the order on the 1st of May, and it shipped on the 6th of May (from Amazon) to the vPost warehouse. On the 10th of May, the vPost USA warehouse e-mailed me to say that they had it processed. I made the vPost payment on the 11th of May, and on the 16th it was shipped to Singapore. I believe that I received the shipment on the 18th or 19th of May. All in all, it took about 19 days in total from the actual order at Amazon to arriving at my house (this was, again, with all the cheapest options for shipping)