it also fails because of the case breaking off the little 'ears' that hold the band on

i;ve broken about 8 of them now

ridiculous

at least [...] takes them back every time

i finally got a pro 9 metal from them

wle.

Sports Instruments (SI) was a Utah based company with 3-4 employees that was sold to Bell Sports in 2004 (and Bell Sports was later sold to Easton Sports in 2006). SI's activities had slowed, and it is reasonable to believe that Sports Instruments Pro, Fit and ECG Heart Rate Wristwatches were last produced in 2003 or earlier. Products were made in Asia by a reputable factory.

Designer and competitive masters athlete Bill Corliss created products with an intelligently designed user interface that was easy to use. The Pro 7 and Pro 9 Hear Rate Wristwatches provided detailed and valuable data for the serious athlete. The Fit and the earlier ECG Fitness Heart Rate Wristwatches had fewer advanced features. The chest transmitter should work with most fitness equipment designed to work with the Polar standard.

If you buy SI branded Pro, Fit or ECG products, you should know that the original watch batteries are at the end of their shelf life. Unless the seller has recently replaced batteries, you will quickly or immediately face the burden and cost of dealing with battery issues.

Replacing the watch batteries is too difficult for most consumers. Even a professional repair person must use care to maker certain that the parts are precisely returned to the original positions to maintain water resistance. Expect to pay $9-20 to have the watch battery replaced, and tell your repair person you want the product to keep its water resistance. The battery on the wireless chest transmitter may be less drained than the watch's and is user replaceable, a nice feature. The chest transmitter's CR2032 3-volt lithium battery should be available for under $4. Total outlay for 2 batteries: $13-24.

The Sports Instruments Pro, Fit and ECG products are closeouts with manufacturing dates of 2003 or earlier. If you are willing to deal with battery replacement issues, make certain that you get a good enough price to justify the added repair burdens ... and that you get good information about how to obtain warranty service from a brand that is no longer produced.

Good product, comfortable to wear, however the enclosed instructions are very poorly written and difficult to follow.

I'll make this short. This is a decent product that fails because of the battery life.

Two weeks of use and the watch battery dies. The user manual directs owners to send the watch in to have a "technician" replace the watch battery? WTH?

Make a product that can be user serviced.

My first order arrived DOA (dead battery I think).

Amazon sent out a replacement, which died (again, battery, I think) during my first workout. Amazon then refused to send out a replacement for the replacement---issuing me a refund. I'm not happy about this, because, in the meantime, Amazon's price has tripled.

Based on my reading of the manual, and very limited use, this is a great HRT for us beancounters of our workouts; it keeps track of a lot of information (no PC download, though).

Amazon needs to get a batch with good batteries (which are not user-replaceable, BTW).