PROS
Classic watch design.
Comfortable.
Waterproof.
Long battery life.
Tracks active minutes, calories, distance, and steps.
CONS
Lacks notifications.
Not the best choice for runners.
Sleep tracking must be manually activated.
App requires subscription to unlock all features.
Runtastic, recently acquired by Adidas and best known for its fitness apps follows up the Orbit , its first fitness tracker with the Runtastic Moment Fun ($129.99). It's a watch with a built-in accelerometer that looks similar to the Withings Activite Pop ($89.99 at Amazon) and tracks active minutes, steps, calories burned, and sleep. Oh, it also tells the time with a traditional but stylish round face that comes in a number of colors and styles. Add in a lithium battery that you don't have to charge and lasts for up to six months, and things are looking good. But you need a paid subscription to unlock many of the Fun's interesting features, and the analog watch face means you can only see your stats on the Runtastic mobile app. For the money, you can get a more robust tracker, like the same-price Fitbit Charge ($140.00 at Amazon) .
Availability and Design
There are four versions of the Runtastic Moment ($129.99 at Adorama) : Moment Fun, Moment Basic, Moment Classic, and Moment Elite. My review unit, the Moment Fun, is, as the name suggests, bears most lighthearted design in the series. It also sports the smallest watch face, which measures 1.5 inches in diameter. That's nearly the same size as the Apple Watch Sport ($300.00 at eBay) . The Moment Fun comes with a silicone strap and case available in four colors, including indigo (dark blue), plum (purple), raspberry (pink), and sand (beige).
The Moment Basic looks slightly sportier than the Moment Fun, but with a larger 1.7-inch diameter face—about the same size as the large Apple Watch. It's available in beige or black, with the same $130 price tag as the Moment Fun. The $180 Moment Classic offers a higher-end look, with a 1.8-inch diameter face, leather strap, and cases available in gold, rose gold, or silver. Finally, the Moment Elite combines casual and classic styles, with a 1.8-inch diameter face and a black, nylon-covered leather strap covered in nylon that's only available in black. It also retails for $180.
Each model has a stainless steel case, scratch-resistant glass, and can be outfitted with any 22mm watch band. The watches are water resistant up to 300 feet (though none of them tracks strokes). Swimmers will prefer the Editors' Choice Basis Peak or the budget-price Misfit Flash Link ($14.89 at Amazon) , both of which track your swim stats. Also, Runtastic's own Orbit tracker detects when you're active in water.
With its bright white-on-pink color scheme and classic aesthetic, the Runtastic Moment Fun really pops, to the point that I received compliments, which rarely happens when I test activity trackers. The stainless steel case has a pleasing matte finish and feels surprisingly lightweight, despite a thickness of about half an inch—that's bigger than both the Timex Metropolitan+ and the Martian Alpha T10 , similar traditional-looking watches with activity tracker and smartwatch features. However, I was never aware of the Runtastic on my wrist. The comfortable silicone band helps in that regard; it uses a basic buckle design that never chafed my skin or tugged on my arm hair.
The watch face has two separate dials. The main dial tells the time with elegant, slim minute and hour hands. Only the 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-o'clock hours are marked, with dots between them. This minimalist look adds a touch of class to what's supposed to be the "Fun" design. The other, smaller dial is located below the larger dial's hands and above the 6 mark. It tracks fitness goals and sleep progress, and looks similarly classy, with a crescent moon in the 10-o'clock position.
There's also a small Runtastic logo underneath the 12-o'clock mark, and an imperceptible LED hidden beneath the 9-o'clock position. The light activates, accompanied by a slight vibration, when you've reached your goals. A lone physical button sits on the case at 4-o'clock, which is used during setup and to activate sleep mode.
To go with its traditional appearance, the Moment Fun is powered by a traditional watch battery, that you don't have to worry about charging periodically like most other activity trackers. The Moment Fun's battery should last about six months. You can swap it out by prying the back cover open with the included screwdriver.
App
To access the Moment Fun's features, you need to download the Runtastic Me app, available on phones that run Android 4.3 or later, the Apple iPhone 4 or higher, and devices running Windows Phone 8.1 or later. Following the app's simple instructions, it took about a minute to pair the watch with my Samsung Galaxy S6 ($275.03 at Amazon) . Syncing the watch's data with the app occurs any time the app is open, and the watch itself can hold up to seven days of stats. To keep track of your progress without the app, you can peek at the tiny secondary dial on the watch face. That's the only feedback the watch offers without the app.
With the app, you can set your daily goal and view your weekly numbers by tapping one of a handful of stats displayed on the front page: active minutes, calories burned, mileage, sleep, and steps. Above your stats you'll find your profile photo in a circular frame, with a ring around it that displays your daily activity goal progress. You can view data from the previous week by swiping to the right.
It's a simple, effective layout, but in order to get all the available features you have to subscribe to the full Runtastic Me app ($4.99 per month or $29.99 per year). Non-subscribers miss out on access to data older than a week, daily workout tips, more substantial goal settings, and additional features found in other Runtastic apps. I understand paying for running routes and in-depth workout plans like you would with an app like Runkeeper, but Runtastic is holding back basic features you can find on other activity trackers like the similarly priced Fitbit Charge HR ($79.95 at Amazon) and the Garmin Vivosmart HR .
As for the rest of the app, you can view some of the daily tips for free, by tapping an icon in the upper right corner of the main page. During testing, I typically received two of these a day, with the rest of hidden behind the subscription wall. They were mainly fluffy messages like "When your stomach muscles ache, you've done everything right. Even when it's just from laughing!" and "Don't forget to stretch."
The Share icon lets you use Facebook, Google Hangouts, Twitter, or a simple email or text message to share your activity progress to the world. All of your basic data, like calories, mileage, and steps, will be sent, along with a personal message if you so choose. Runtastic also allows users to share fitness data with one another in order to work towards common goals.
Alarms and Performance
If you want, you can use the Moment Fun as a silent alarm for both waking up and reminders throughout the of day. The vibrations are gentle, but strong enough to stir you awake. You can set up to three alarms with the app. The Moment Fun will encourage you to get up and move when you've been idle for a while, too, using a slight vibration and flash of the LED.
To enter Sleep mode, press and hold the side button for three seconds until the watch vibrates and the tiny dial's hand moves to the moon. Like most trackers that record sleep data, the Moment Fun requires you to manually activate sleep monitoring, and is inaccurate because of it. You can use it to track general sleep time, but the activate/deactivate/resync process is an unnecessary hassle.
As for stat tracking, the Moment Fun's lack of support for runners is its biggest drawback. You can use the watch's hands to measure your progress while running, but it's hardly a substantial aid. You can't view mileage or calories during your workout unless you run with your phone, and there's no heart rate sensor or GPS to track distance accurately.
om left to right: TomTom Spark Cardio + Music, Runtastic Moment Fun, Garmin Vivosmart HR
Nevertheless, it did a decent job of tracking my active minutes, calories, steps, and miles. I wore the Garmin Vivosmart HR the same time I tested the Moment Fun and found the numbers to be pretty close, with the exception of mileage. As I noted in my review, the Vivosmart HR exaggerated distance in testing. It reported that I ran more than three miles each run, while the Runtastic delivered a more modest, more accurate two miles.
Conclusions
The Runtastic Moment Fun could be a good choice if you're in the market for a traditional, stylish, waterproof watch that tracks basic fitness stats. However, to unlock its full potential you need a paid subscription to the Runtastic Me app. For a similar price, the Fitbit Charge, the Fitbit Charge HR, and the Garmin Vivosmart HR offer free apps and more features overall.
