First look at the Polar Grit X
Polar steps in the world of trails!
Polar announced the Grit X today, a watch that shows the next generation for Polar and finally a step into trailrunning. With integrated HR, navigation, Hill Splitter, Fuelwise and recharger. The new Grit X will be available from May 5th. Polar has added a great addition to their lineup and you can obviously expect the same precision as with all their devices. Some of these terms will be familiar, I’ll explain Hill Splitter, FuelWise and Recharger below.
A quick intro is available with the official ‘key features’ video:
The looks
First on to the looks, a trend you see is that sport watches are becoming more and more like smartwatches and also in looks. No longer are you ‘the athlete’ with that big clunky bright red watch on your wrist these sleek watches can go anywhere if you ask me. The watch comes in three colours: Black, White and Green, all with the same specs.
The side buttons have ‘SuperGrip’, little dots that allow for better grip when you have wet hands.
The Specs
The specs don’t lie. With training mode battery life of 40 hours (and up to 100 in energy saver), you won’t have to worry if you lose data or if you have to rush home. Or worse, get lost. Designed on strict military standards (MIL-STD-810) Polar was able to keep de weight down too, at 64 grams, Polar Grit X is one of the lightest outdoor multisport watches out there. Different from recent Polar watches the Grit X has ten leds for its wrist HR measurement, making it even more accurate.
The screen is 240×240 pixels, the same as in the Vantage models. But new is improved water resistance, up to a 100meters.
It supports 130 different sport profiles. Too many to list here!
But, unlike some rumours, it has no built in storage for music, so if you’re into listening to a podcast, play list or audio book, you’ll need to bring a second device for that.
HillSplitter
Is a feature for running on trails and mountainbiking, comparable to Climb Pro by Garmin. It allows you to look specifically at your uphill and downhill sections.
Fuelwise
Fuelwise is a tool to help you in taking enough energy to have the best performance. You can enter amount of drink/carbs you’re bringing and how long your session will be. The watch will calculate and remind you when it’s best to take in more fuel. If you’re more experienced you can also set this to certain intervals.
Nightly Recharge
Where Garmin has ‘Body Battery’ Polar introduced Nightly Recharge. This tool allows you to see how much your body recovered by just wearing the watch during your sleep. With this information you might adjust your session and not wonder why you feel like you hit a wall after 25% of your workout. With tips on how to train sleep better and regulate your energy levels during the day the watch will help you maintain your energy levels better and get the most out of every workout.
Navigate with Komoot
Polar teamed up with Komoot to allow you to plant routes of the beaten path. This is a very useful addition because you’re leaving suburbia and asking a random Reindeer for the way is probably not going to work. Polar Grit X helps you stay on the right path and explore new areas safely with real-time route guidance. Plan your route with Komoot and import it to your Polar Grit X for detailed turn-by-turn guidance.
…and More
Weather, Compass, Serene (breathing exercises) and
personalisation. With the five different wrist bands available made from leather, paracord or silicon. Even a bright orange one, so you can still look like that endurance geek at parties :)
Weather
Combined with your phone, the Grit X will pull the local weather so you can plan your exercise and not get caught out in the rain, a super helpful feature when you’re not familiar with the local predictability of the weather.
A quick view of forecasted the precipitation on the Grit X. 
More detailed forecast on the Grit X showing precipitation, temperature, wind speed and direction.
Vantage V comparison
With the introduction of the Grit X the real question is where this sits in the Polar line of watches. Price wise it’s cheaper than the Vantage V so I wrote out all the differences in my compare post here.
Price and buying
The price of the Grit X at announcement was $429 or €429, but with any watch this will change over time. You can buy it directly from Polar but
for the lowest price more photos and videos, and reviews check out the Polar Grit X on Productwatch!
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