Amateur ran, I bought a GPS running watch a few years ago. The first call is to show the distance traveled to run. Not really related to travel …
However, recently, I used this watch on my way for several reasons. The point is in 2 cases. I will discuss this topic in this post.
Monitor your trip
The first possible use on a trip and the most natural: record your trip, either during a city trip or for a walk or hiking in nature.
I recently used my GPS watch to record tracks in parks in West America. I don’t use it systematically, far from it. But on a trail of several kilometers, it is interesting to have distance, but also differences in altitude.
In the city, GPS watches can also be interesting like the luxury watches such as Breitling Transocean Chronograph but in different perspective because it allows you to record courses You can then export them on Google Maps or in other software and visualize your trip in the city and the distance traveled! This is quite impressive. When traveling, in the city, you can walk a lot in one day …
There are other solutions to track your trip and more specifically trips, whether walking in the city, by car during the trip or to ride in the jungle / mountains. I recently talked to you about the LiveTrekker application. LiveTrekker of course offers other features such as taking pictures or videos.
The advantage of a GPS watch is its autonomy. Indeed, many GPS watches offer around 24 hours of autonomy in GPS coordinates. On a typical day, you will use it for up to 8 hours. Refilling every 2/3 days is enough and you can keep your smartphone for surfing or other.
The software included with the watch is often quite complete and allows you to sort, edit, or share your route.
SportTracks free software, sport oriented, will still allow you to sort your travel route easily!
Finally, you can also integrate your travel route on Google Maps on the “My Route” section. GPS watches offer the possibility to export routes in various data formats.
Geotag your travel photos
The second use to consider your GPS watch on the go: geotag your travel photo. The most common solution for geotagging photos of a trip is to have a camera equipped with an integrated or optional GPS sensor. For most SLRs, it is possible to add external modules that offer geotagging of your original photos. Large enough and some models can empty your battery very quickly.
This is where the GPS watch comes
The concept is quite simple: your GPS watch stores your position regularly (setting the clock, every second, every 5 seconds, …). At the end of your trip / trip, you can export the file containing for every second your GPS position. Then, using software (there are many), you can match the time of the photo with the appropriate position in your GPS tracking file. The software will automate the task and will then inform EXIF ​​of each photo with the GPS position. Personally I use HoudahGeo 3 software, on Mac. It is paid but very well designed! In addition, if you have a good synchronization between your watch and your camera time, you can set some parameters like time difference or a few minutes difference.
