The Polar Pacer Pro is a GPS running watch designed for serious runners who are looking to elevate their training. This watch is packed with advanced features to help runners improve their performance and running economy.
The FitSpark training guide is a standout feature of the Polar Pacer Pro. It provides customized workouts based on your fitness level and goals, making it easy to stay motivated and on track. The watch also tracks important metrics such as heart rate, calories burned, and distance covered, so you can monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed.
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Chris –
I purchased this watch to compare against my Apple Watch, the Garmin Fenix, and the Suunto 9 Baro. (I have a watch issue, okay?)This polar pacer pro is the most attractive and the lightest of the lot, I bought it in blue. It fits a 6” wrist perfectly. Not chunky at all.Battery life for me is 3 to 4 days if I’m lucky, but I am an athlete, so I track 1 or 2 things every day. I’m not sad about it, as I used to daily drive an Apple Watch (this has taken up its slot).I ran the Pittsburgh marathon with it and it did well on gps. I do miss having five fields or more to measure during a run at a glance, but you can navigate (mid run) to your extra fields if you can’t fit them into the front screen.It’s clearly a companion to Polar Flow – the app. It’s a sporty data nerd watch. The thing collects data 24/7 and all of the granular bits are in the app. You will not be satisfied with this watch if you don’t cozy up to Polar Flow.If you want a light, serious, and attractive runner’s watch this is it. If you are interested in Polar’s biometrics analysis, I suggest this as their best offering as of May 2022.
Emmy –
I got a Pacer Pro to replace my Grit X, because the Grit X is quite a lump and frankly not comfortable at all on my small wrists. The Pacer Pro is soooo light and comfortable in comparison, and the only real difference is the lack of a touchscreen, which is no loss at all TBH. This is my 5th Polar in my lifetime and this is easily the best. Some reviewers have complained about the screen clarity but think it just fine (certainly better than the Grit X screen). The battery life excellent. After receiving it I fully charged it, and then after 10 days, 6.5 hours GPS, nightly sleep monitoring (not 24 heart rate), it had only used 80%. Not bad 🙂 My only small gripe is that it doesn’t have an audiable ‘beep’: It only vibrates for notifications.Obviously as always with Polar, remember that is doesn’t do classic smart watch features like contactless payments and onboard music file storage, but if you want those then get a Garmin and have fun paying for multitude of features that to don’t need, won’t use, or are downright pointless. If you simply want an excellent running/multisport watch then you can’t go wrong with a Pacer Pro
A.C. –
I’m no pro runner, but I did want a running watch that had some very specific features. Pacer Pro ticked off my entire list and then some. I’ve been running with this device for about a month now. Paired w a Polar chest strap monitor (not necessary, but I already had an H10 so I just use them together), PP delivers enough feedback and after-workout metrics to really satisfy most every runner. Polar Flow, both in app form and on the web, is a worthy complement to the device.That’s the good. There’s one really big not-so-good. The device just randomly stops working. Sometimes when I’m wired recharging/syncing (and don’t get me started w Bluetooth syncing on iOS, which is a nightmare), the device screen just goes…dead. On awaking this morning, the device screen was…dead. I had to wire it to my laptop, wherein I was instructed to set it up again as if it was a brand new device (fortunately, the Flow web app retained all my previous workout data), and start my sleep tacking all over again. It is a frustrating and not entirely unnerving habit, not knowing whether it will just stop during a critical workout. So, I can’t give this 5 stars for this reason alone. Don’t know if Polar needs to do a firmware update or if I got a bad model, but whatever the reason, it isn’t something I’d HIGHLY recommend. When it works, it’s a great tool. When it doesn’t, it’s a source is genuine frustration.UPDATE: Forget what I wrote about the chest strap being unnecessary. My personal experiments w using the PPP w and w/out the strap indicate that if you want accurate HR numbers, you’ll pair it w the strap. For example, last night it failed to record my night’s sleep completely despite the fact that I wore it (tightly, as Polar advises), and then on a completely casual walk on my rest day, it recorded HR zones from the low 60s (which I would expect), to 145 and above, which is my red zone which I can only reach w a full-on sprint. So now, this device by itself is not reliable AFAIC, at least when it comes to accurate HRs. Pair it w a strap, and it makes a fine running buddy. Alone, not so much.
A.C. –
I’m no pro runner, but I did want a running watch that had some very specific features. Pacer Pro ticked off my entire list and then some. I’ve been running with this device for about a month now. Paired w a Polar chest strap monitor (not necessary, but I already had an H10 so I just use them together), PP delivers enough feedback and after-workout metrics to really satisfy most every runner. Polar Flow, both in app form and on the web, is a worthy complement to the device.That’s the good. There’s one really big not-so-good. The device just randomly stops working. Sometimes when I’m wired recharging/syncing (and don’t get me started w Bluetooth syncing on iOS, which is a nightmare), the device screen just goes…dead. On awaking this morning, the device screen was…dead. I had to wire it to my laptop, wherein I was instructed to set it up again as if it was a brand new device (fortunately, the Flow web app retained all my previous workout data), and start my sleep tacking all over again. It is a frustrating and not entirely unnerving habit, not knowing whether it will just stop during a critical workout. So, I can’t give this 5 stars for this reason alone. Don’t know if Polar needs to do a firmware update or if I got a bad model, but whatever the reason, it isn’t something I’d HIGHLY recommend. When it works, it’s a great tool. When it doesn’t, it’s a source is genuine frustration.UPDATE: Forget what I wrote about the chest strap being unnecessary. My personal experiments w using the PPP w and w/out the strap indicate that if you want accurate HR numbers, you’ll pair it w the strap. For example, last night it failed to record my night’s sleep completely despite the fact that I wore it (tightly, as Polar advises), and then on a completely casual walk on my rest day, it recorded HR zones from the low 60s (which I would expect), to 145 and above, which is my red zone which I can only reach w a full-on sprint. So now, this device by itself is not reliable AFAIC, at least when it comes to accurate HRs. Pair it w a strap, and it makes a fine running buddy. Alone, not so much.
Chris –
I purchased this watch to compare against my Apple Watch, the Garmin Fenix, and the Suunto 9 Baro. (I have a watch issue, okay?)This polar pacer pro is the most attractive and the lightest of the lot, I bought it in blue. It fits a 6” wrist perfectly. Not chunky at all.Battery life for me is 3 to 4 days if I’m lucky, but I am an athlete, so I track 1 or 2 things every day. I’m not sad about it, as I used to daily drive an Apple Watch (this has taken up its slot).I ran the Pittsburgh marathon with it and it did well on gps. I do miss having five fields or more to measure during a run at a glance, but you can navigate (mid run) to your extra fields if you can’t fit them into the front screen.It’s clearly a companion to Polar Flow – the app. It’s a sporty data nerd watch. The thing collects data 24/7 and all of the granular bits are in the app. You will not be satisfied with this watch if you don’t cozy up to Polar Flow.If you want a light, serious, and attractive runner’s watch this is it. If you are interested in Polar’s biometrics analysis, I suggest this as their best offering as of May 2022.
Purchaser from NH –
I switched to this from an Apple Watch 6 because the Apple device was having problems reading through the tattoos on my forearms and constantly locked when it thought it lost contact. Happily, the Polar does a much better job. It still loses my heart rate from time to time, but nothing like the Apple Watch, and I’m greatly enjoying the Polar Flow app and a watch that’s more fitness focused than a traditional smart watch. Would definitely recommend.
Emmy –
Have tried numerous Polar watches in the past and none impressed at all, but the Pacer Pro is very different. Light and easily comfortable for 24hr wear, glitch free bluetooth sync with the app which now (finally!) works with Google Fit. This one is for keeps.
Purchaser from NH –
I have used Garmin watches and they do a lot very well. Most recently the fenix 7 solar. That is a great watch but bulky and heavy. I thought I would try the Pacer Pro at 41 grams. It is very comfortable, you barely notice that you have it on even when sleeping. The GPS is accurate and connects quickly. It measures sleep extremely well. I run but also do many other cardio exercises and they have everything I do as a workout. Also has strength training. The Polar app is comparable to Garmin for what I look at.I gave up music (although I always had trouble with that with Garmin), maps, and the touchscreen. Also Polar does not give you the abundance of watch face options as Garmin and it seems like replacement watch bands are not as plentiful or really as seamless as with Garmin. All that said, for me, the Polar Pacer Pro brings what I need in a fitness watch at a very good price! And it is incredibly light and comfortable!
cautious scheptic –
This is an excellent watch, awesome quality as expected and works brilliantly, has a lot of features and works flawlessly
anakronistical –
The watch is very nice looking, it’s very light that I dont feel it on my wrist. I love the App to review the daily activities and my sleep patterns, heart rate monitoring. I’m still new to it so I know that after a while I will be getting fitness tips based on my regular activity and workouts. Overall a great purchase. I also bought one for my husband.The only thing it misses is not having a touch screen like my old Samsung Frontier S3.In this model the buttons are hard to press.
anakronistical –
The watch is very nice looking, it’s very light that I dont feel it on my wrist. I love the App to review the daily activities and my sleep patterns, heart rate monitoring. I’m still new to it so I know that after a while I will be getting fitness tips based on my regular activity and workouts. Overall a great purchase. I also bought one for my husband.The only thing it misses is not having a touch screen like my old Samsung Frontier S3.In this model the buttons are hard to press.
Chris –
I wanted a fitness watch that does everything I need it to and as well as compliment my uniform. This watch is great. I previously used an Apple Watch but am tired of getting notifications on my wrist for just about everything. This watch is great because I can easily turn on/off the ability to have notifications on my wrist and it does all the fitness stuff you would expect out of a watch like this. The polar flow app is great and I’m really liking it. This isn’t so much a smart watch so if you want a smart watch you can go with some over engineered Garmin watch and pay for the additional features. I personally don’t value 80% if the tools Garmin watches have nor the price. This watch was a great buy.
D McGuckin –
I was really looking forward to trying this Polar Pacer Pro smart watch. It looks very smart and comes with a magnetic charging cable and setup instructions. These are quite clear and I followed them to set the watch up using my phone. Everything went well up to the point where a message appeared on the watch asking me if I wanted to update it. I said yes but got a message saying that the update failed. Now all the watch does is display the Polar logo. I installed the Polarflow software on my laptop too but as it fails to recognise that the watch is connected I can’t reset it. The manual method for resetting it doesn’t work either. There’s nothing I can do to get the watch working, all I can do is turn the logo off and turn it on again, which I’ve been doing in the hope that it will eventually reset. But it just won’t do anything except display the logo, so that’s why I have to rate this watch with one star. I’d give it zero stars if I could.I find it ridiculous that there’s no way I can reset this watch after it has crashed. All I was doing was trying to set it up, I didn’t even get as far as exploring any of the features. For such an expensive watch to fail so quickly and so comprehensively has to be more than just bad luck, so after such an awful and frustrating experience with it there’s no way that I can recommend this watch.
Purchaser from NH –
I have used Garmin watches and they do a lot very well. Most recently the fenix 7 solar. That is a great watch but bulky and heavy. I thought I would try the Pacer Pro at 41 grams. It is very comfortable, you barely notice that you have it on even when sleeping. The GPS is accurate and connects quickly. It measures sleep extremely well. I run but also do many other cardio exercises and they have everything I do as a workout. Also has strength training. The Polar app is comparable to Garmin for what I look at.I gave up music (although I always had trouble with that with Garmin), maps, and the touchscreen. Also Polar does not give you the abundance of watch face options as Garmin and it seems like replacement watch bands are not as plentiful or really as seamless as with Garmin. All that said, for me, the Polar Pacer Pro brings what I need in a fitness watch at a very good price! And it is incredibly light and comfortable!
Odin M. –
Excellent running watch, so much easier to charge than the M430 and the performance feedback is really informative
SoCal Thom –
A great sports watch, but not a good everyday watch. Here’s my take after 3 months:Pros:- Looks Great- Excellent HR monitor- Lots of sports profiles- Great performance insights- Good battery lifeCons:- Phone notifications are pretty terrible- No find my phone feature- No alarm clock- Minimal customization- No treadmill calibration or distance adjustment- Reset during 2 workouts and lost them- Screen got a minor scratch after a couple of weeks, so it needed a protector