So my Garmin Forerunner 405CX has given up the ghost again. After a lot of umming and aaahhhing about whether I should go the refurb route or buy a different watch (I thought about the Garmin Forerunner 610), I've decided to go for the refurb.

It'll cost £78.30 vs £224 for a new Forerunner 610.

Interestingly, this watch I'm sending back is a refurb replacement for this exact issue I experienced around about this time last year. I think I'm spotting a pattern here: the watch (either new or refurb) seems to develop a battery fault with about a year of constant use:

I purchased my original Garmin Forerunner 405CX on 26 January 2010.
I contacted Garmin about the watch no longer holding charge on 12 January 2011. They replaced it under warranty with a refurb.
I contacted Garmin about the refurb developing the same problem yesterday, 22 November 2012

Maybe this is just my luck, we'll see. Hopefully I don't have to write a similar post in 12-14 months from now.

Holding thumbs the refurb will be with me before I head off to sunny South Africa for my holibobs, I'm not holding my breath though.

Update: I've just realised there is no pattern. Now I've re-read this, I realised I got just under a year off the first watch and just under 2 for the second. Hopefully I'll get closer to 3 for the 3rd 🙂