Two things make this Forerunner so special. First of all, it looks like a watch, and not like a portable computing device strapped to your wrist. Secondly, it doesn’t require a cradle, and uploads all of its data wirelessly with no fuss at all. In addition to that it does all the other neat things that a Forerunner does: Heart monitor connection, optional foot pod and cycling cadence meters, in essence anything that an endorphin junkie type-A obsessive personality (like myself) needs to satisfy both their compulsion and their high. Add to that the former two options and this geek was sold before it even came out.

I am now the proud owner of a Forerunner 405, and I have to say that for a first release attempt at massive feature expansion and miniaturization it’s an impressive piece of technology. The majority of the interface is no longer handled via a set of buttons, but is instead done via an iPod-like scroll wheel and tap interface. Furthermore it syncs seamlessly and painlessly with my computer- so seamlessly that it stealth-synced on me one night and confused me mightily when the notification popped up.

Yet even with this technological awesomeness, it’s somewhat obvious that this is a first generation piece of technology. The Bleeding Edge (TM) is not without its pitfalls, and there are a couple of things that annoy the living daylights of of me. The first one is that the 405 isn’t supported on the Mac version of Training Center yet. I tried, I failed. Thankfully my computer dual boots so that wasn’t a huge hurdle, and the on-board memory of the watch is large enough that I don’t have to approach the dreaded Windows more than once a week. I just hope the data files will transfer easily once support becomes available.

The real kahuna though is that the Forerunner 405 has a tendency to crash. I don’t know why- it happens randomly, and without any user input. I’ll just be happily running along in that comforting stupor achieved when you’ve firmly told the rest of your body to kindly stop its bitching, and when I glance down at the watch in the vain hope of a psychological pick-me-up I am greeted with a blank screen that no amount of fiddling (short of a hard reset of the watch with full data loss) will fix. I’ve read through the manual (hoping that this behavior was user error) and received no help there, and the product’s young enough that the community hasn’t figured out the cause yet.

Thus I say buyer beware on the Forerunner 405. Wait a generation for them to iron out the bugs, wait for a firmware update or three, and then buy one. They’re sexy, very sexy. But until this crash bug is figured out you really don’t want to get intimate with it.