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 SI 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 Pro 9 Metal adds a hefty chunk of weight to your wrist.) 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 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. 2 stars

I bought the Sports Instruments PRO 9 Metal Heart Rate Monitor in the summer of 2006. I was very pleased with the apparent sturdiness and styling of this monitor, and the functions were quite useful for assessing the effectiveness my workouts. However, the battery has died. Normally I would change the battery myself, but I don't have the requisite tools. The manual recommends that ONLY a qualified Sports Instruments technician change the battery. This is deplorable. First, no list of technicians is provided and second, it will probably cost many times what I would normally pay to have a watch battery changed. I've requested to know the tool I would need to do this myself, as well as a list of "qualified" technicians from Sports Instruments but I am considering just taking it to a local jeweler. UPDATE of 01/31/2007. I took the monitor to a local jeweler and he told me he didn't have the necessary tool for opening the case. In addition, I just received this reply email from Sports Instruments: "Dear Customer: It is the 1.5 mm hex key, I believe. I don't have a list of tech's in the area, but we suggest sending it back to us for repair as we can make sure it is done properly. The cost is $15. Please send to the address found on the product return form on the website and I can turn it around within 72 hours of receipt." ---Just as I feared this repair will cost me more time and money than it should. (Notice the customer rep is not sure beyond a doubt what tool I would need to open the case but will only say he "believes" it is the 1.5 mm hex key.) Positively unacceptable!

3 stars

first of all, it looks great

second, i think the case isn;t going to break like the
pro 5, 7 or 9

that;s what;s different from them

has the same features as the [non-metal] pro 9
and the pro 7 [minus 5 memories]

the fit 3 is pretty good but
a. the cases break, in about 3 months of daily use, and
b. sometimes the electronics die too [i;ve had about 8 of them now]

what i don;t like is
a. there is only one 'zone' between 30bpm and 70% of max heart rate
this would be better if the first zone were 50-60
in fact i don;t see why they aren;t 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90-100
b. it doesn;t have a calorie counter
c. the zone alarm is weird
it only beeps when you are IN the zone, not OUT
d. it;s kind of heavy with all the metal and glass

but i like
the backlight
the buttons feel nice
the lap features
the linked timers [ can do heart rate recovery very nicely with this]

wle.
4 stars