Wahoo takes on the Garmin Forerunner 945 with new GPS triathlon watch

Wahoo Elemnt Rival
(Image credit: Wahoo)

Wahoo has launched its first sports watch, the Elemnt Rival. Wahoo has made a name for itself with smart bikes, turbo trainers, bike computers, heart rate monitors and cycling cadence sensors, but this is the first time its sports-monitoring tech has been fitted into a wrist-mounted fitness tracker.

While many multi-sports watches (such as this year's Coros Apex and Polar Grit X) have dedicated triathlon modes, they often require you to spend precious seconds finding and pressing the appropriate button to switch modes. Not ideal if you've trying to make your transitions as swift as possible.

The Elemnt Rival offers Touchless Transitions, which use data from motion sensors and Wahoo's algorithms to shift between modes with no extra input from you. Race data can also be transferred to Wahoo's Elemnt GPS bike computers automatically during events so you can always see your stats at a glance.

The watch can also track advanced running metrics when used with Wahoo's TICKRx heart rate monitor. Data is synced with the Wahoo app, and can be automatically uploaded to third-party services like Strava and TrainingPeaks. The watch can also be linked to Wahoo's smart turbo trainers for indoor bike training during the off season.

Wahoo Elemnt Rival

(Image credit: Wahoo)

Price and battery life

The Elemnt Rival is reasonably priced for a high-end sports watch, launching at $379 / £349.99 (about AU$520), and is available to buy from Wahoo now.

Wahoo claims a battery life of up to 14 days in watch mode, or 24 hours in GPS mode, which makes it suitable for long events, but not multi-day ultras. For that, you'll need something like the Garmin Instinct Solar, which is topped up by sunlight via a photovoltaic glass face.

Cat Ellis

Cat is the editor of TechRadar's sister site Advnture. She’s a UK Athletics qualified run leader, and in her spare time enjoys nothing more than lacing up her shoes and hitting the roads and trails (the muddier, the better)