CycleBridgeGarmin watch · iPhone
Garmin watch and iPhone
The watch does the measuring and the recording. The iPhone on the bars shows the watch’s speed, distance, heart rate and clock once a second, and never switches on its own GPS.
What you need
- A Garmin watch on the supported list, paired to Garmin Connect on this iPhone
- The Garmin Connect app installed and signed in — the link between the two apps runs through it
- CycleBridge on the iPhone, and the CycleBridge watch app on the watch
Setting it up
Choose the Garmin as the data source
In CycleBridge, open Settings and set Data source to Garmin. It is the default, so on a fresh install there is nothing to change.
Press Start, and pick the watch in Garmin Connect
The first time a ride starts, CycleBridge hands you to Garmin Connect’s own device-selection sheet — the Connect IQ SDK on iOS has no other way to pair. Choose the watch, and Garmin Connect returns you to CycleBridge with it selected.
Open the watch app
Start CycleBridge on the watch from its activity list. Once it has a GPS fix the phone’s Speed field shows a green dot, and Heart rate shows one as soon as the watch reads your wrist.
On the ride
- Start and stop on the watch
- START begins the ride, and pauses and resumes it. BACK opens Save or Discard, then the effort and feel pickers. The phone’s Start button begins the phone’s own log of the ride; the watch does not need it.
- The clock is the watch’s
- Ride time on the phone is the watch’s own pause-aware timer, sent with every packet, so a pause on the watch stops the phone’s clock too.
- Pause lives on the watch
- Connect IQ gives the phone no way to pause the watch, so the phone has no pause of its own in this mode: press START on the watch.
Where the ride ends up
- A FIT activity on the watch, synced to Garmin Connect like any native ride, with your effort and feel ratings as two fields on it
- A line in CycleBridge’s own ride log on the phone: date, duration, distance, climb, average and maximum speed
- Nothing in Apple Health from the phone — the watch’s record is the record, and a second copy would be a duplicate
Battery, in this setup
The rank of each way of riding this setup among the 7 the app’s battery model compares, longest-lasting first. It is an order, not hours: the model adds up component draws, and nothing has been measured yet, so no figure is printed.
- 1Watch mode, phone in a pocketLightest drain
Nothing to draw and nothing to locate. The watch is doing the work; the phone is only listening.
- 3Watch mode, phone screen onModerate drain
The phone’s GPS radio is never switched on — every number arrives over Bluetooth from the watch.
Questions
Does the iPhone need Garmin Connect installed?
Yes. On iOS the Connect IQ SDK pairs through Garmin Connect’s own device picker and delivers the watch’s messages through it, so CycleBridge cannot see the watch without it.
Can I pause the ride from the phone?
No. The Connect IQ link is one-way, watch to phone, so the phone has nothing to send. Pause and resume with START on the watch, and the phone’s clock follows.
Does the phone use its own GPS in this setup?
Never. Every number on the screen arrives from the watch over Bluetooth, which is why this is one of the two longest-lasting setups for the phone in the battery ranking.