Coros Nomad Review: First Impressions of the New GPS Adventure Watch

What the Nomad Does

If you're new to the whole GPS watch thing, here's your need-to-know. "GPS watch" doesn't really explain the whole scope; yes, these watches connect to satellite networks to track activities like running, hiking, biking, and swimming, but they also measure altitude and heart rate and blood oxygen levels, crunching the data in real time to tell you how fast you're moving and how hard you're working. Many have built-in mapping and route-finding. Some can act as personal coaches.

Much of the appeal is for endurance athletes who want to know what heart rate zone they're operating in, but the Nomad is aimed at more casual adventurers. Coros's Apex line—worn by the likes of ultra athlete Kílian Jornet—is similar, but made for activities that call for aerobic endurance training. According to the company, Nomad is for outdoor activities that are more skill and experience-driven like hiking, camping, mountain biking, skiing, and fishing (though you can use it to track at least 50).

"Adventure Journal" Provides a Better Way to Save Pins

Pins are a part of the way we explore the world these days. You pin that perfect Upstate campsite the same way you pin the pizza place you saw on Reels. So much of how we navigate the real, physical world relies on the organization and sorting we've done in the digital one, and pins connect the two together. A new feature Coros calls Adventure Journaling makes it easy to do that—without pulling out your phone.

The Nomad's Adventure Journal features rely heavily on the watch's new Action Button. Press the button during an activity, and you can mark a point of interest, be it a water source, supply cache, trail intersection, or something more general, like a good camping spot or sci-fi-looking tree. Or, you can record a voice pin with the Nomad's built-in mic, should the location require more of an explanation. Or, hey, maybe a rock you ran by inspired a line of poetry. I like this; my brain is always cooking up ideas for things I'm working on when I'm miles away from a pen and unlikely to type out a note on my phone. Later, in the app, you can find your voice note automatically transcribed as text.

What I like even more is how the Adventure Journal features bring photos into the program. During an activity, open the app on your phone and take a photo and, like magic, they'll automatically pin to the route you're tracing; time, location, and all. Or, skip the app and go straight to your camera and upload them to your activity afterwards and they'll snap into the correct locations they were taken in. I'm always taking photos during hikes and runs to record features or moments. Tying them to specific locations gives looking back on them more context, and makes it easier to share findings.

I can already see how much this will benefit backcountry skiing around my home in Vermont, where the forest fills the sightline. Ridges are typically a tangle of pine trees, and often it's a tiny gap between them that brings you to that wide descent you're aiming for. Miss it and you might wind up on another aspect entirely and, a lot of the time, down in a creek.

You can go back and review all your pins, voice notes, and photos in an activity summary on the Coros app, which is getting a big update alongside the Nomad release. It's worth mentioning that a lot of these features will be available to anyone with a Coros watch, though the handy Action Button is Nomad-only.

A Watch Angling for Anglers

When Coros says the Nomad is for skill-driven sports, a big part of what it means is fishing. Not passive fishing like casting off a dock, but shore casting, boat fishing, surf casting, offshore/inshore fishing, kayak fishing, and fly fishing.

Anglers can use the Nomad's Action Button to mark points of interest like cover, structures, and catches. You can use a catch log to record where and when you land one, as well as size, weight, and species. The Nomad can also give insight into when the best time to fish in a particular area is based on time of day, tides, moon phases, and other indicators. And it can record elements of a fishing trip, like your cast count, and differentiate between when you're fishing and when you're moving from one place to another.

I'm not a fisherman, so I tapped a couple of friends who are to get their take on these features. Field Mag's resident fly fisher, Bob Myaing, is of the opinion that a lot of anglers are low-tech, though they often use map apps like Google Maps or OnX or TroutRoutes (recently acquired by OnX) to pin spots. "Part of what's fulfilling with fishing is logging river features (stuff the watch lets you pin) in your brain and revisit on later trips," he told me.

Another friend was a little more optimistic about the Nomad's potential. "The age-old question with fishing is why did I have a banner day fishing a spot, then caught nothing the next day when I fished the same spot at the same time with the same tackle," he said. The Nomad's ability to integrate weather, moon phase, barometric pressure, and other variables might help. Having a personal record of successes and failures could also help.

If you're fishing from a boat, one feature that's bound to be handy is location lock, which acts like a virtual anchor, alerting you if you drift away from your fishing spot.

Smarter Connecting, Better Disconnecting

I've only been testing the Coros Nomad for a few weeks, mostly while running and gravel biking, but I can already imagine a lot of handy uses for the new features in the watch and the updated Coros app. As a writer, the voice pin feature is handy to have, and I'm anticipating using that Action Button a lot more once ski touring begins this winter.

There are uses beyond the outdoors, too. An early run is my preferred way of getting to know a new city, and if I jog past a place that looks like a good spot for dinner or a coffee, it's nice to know I can press a button or snap a quick photo and know where to come back to later.

Other apps have similar ways of helping us create the digital map we overlay onto the real world. OnX and Gaia are popular ones, but they come with a monthly subscription fee. The Nomad isn't cheap at $349, roughly one year of using either of those apps when you do the math. But Coros has the hardware, and the advantage is that all these features live on a watch, not a phone. That minimizes the risk of seeing an inauspicious email or text when all you wanted to do was mark the location of a great swimming hole (and if this does happen, the Nomad can record any heart rate spike associated with it). That leaves you free to enjoy what the outdoors is so great at providing: disconnection.

$349 AT COROS