Great safety device. Small and always at hand. Have you ever tried to call for help with your safetrx app, when your phone is in a dry bag. Or have you ever tried to use your phone or remove your smartphone from your bag with your gloves on? Tried it all and in my experience dry bags render your phone useless once there is water on the surface of the bag. Usually you have to remove your phone from the bag.
With the Safetrx watch calling for help is much simpler. You only have to push two buttons simultaneously.
And the LTE-M technology is much faster than using satellite (e.g. used in personal locator beacons, PLBs or in various watches/phones). The range of LTE-M is really improved compared to normal LTE signal coverage! If you surf in an area with LTE-M coverage this is the solution for you. I never go without. I still bring my phone and my PLB, but the watch is my main emergency device.
If you live in an area without LTE-M coverage or you need the homing signal (Dutch: peilsignaal) at 121.5 MHz for guiding the rescue team to you, then you will need a PLB. I do not now how the LTE-M accuracy compares to the homing signal at 121.5 Mhz.
I use the watch exclusively as an emergency device and do not use the tracking function. Then the battery lasts for days.
Summary: best buy in years.
Have been using this for couple of months now, it really feels good to have a digital safety available, especially when going out on the water alone. With tracking 'on' they can trace you on the go.
Also useful for running and other sports, although it will not replace my watch, mainly because it requires charging every 2 days, which is fine with me. This is not a smartwatch, it's a safety watch. When going out on the water with Jetboards we charge the board, the remote and the SafeTrx before going.
I would recommend this for sure, because you never know when your gear might break down and you're in need of help out there.
Thanks for the positive review JW. You're absolutely right with the Safety Watch comment. We are a Safety Watch with some everyday features, while watches like Apple watch and Garmin are everyday watches with some safety features.
Great photo share, we've given you an extra month subscription to say thanks
SafeTrx Active is a must-have safety feature any that water enthusiast should consider. Not only for yourself, but also for those at home knowing that you are safe.
Thanks Arjan. We agree that while we may sometimes be fearless, those waiting for us at home are not! Stay Safe.
The SafeTrx watch gives me a safer feeling on the water, nice to know that when things realy go wrong,i can alarm the rescue sevice ( K.N.R.M. )in Holland) to save me.
A safer feeling,so i can focus and have fun playing with the elements,without playing with my life!!
Thanks Jenna - we're delighted that you're happy with your SafeTrx Watch and the feeling of safety it gives you. Great video by the way - we'll add on your free month subscription for submitting.
Stay Safe!
The SafeTrx Team
I really enjoyed using SafeTrx watch. Felt safe and connected while I was running. You can get some stats also, which is very usefull. The bracelet is comfortable and the size of the screen is very good because it's big enough to read, while not too big. It's easy to deal with the shortcut buttons
Great tool to take on the water. Best tool to get in contact with the local rescue services. Always use it and won’t do without.
“Side features” can be improved. Such as hartbeat measuring, messaging to buddies, etc. I believe that is part of the plan, so looking forward to next updates
Hi Robin,
Thanks for the review. Heartbeat measuring is now integrated and can be switched on or off in your activity settings on the watch. Pls notice that a heart sensor can have inaccuracies in wet conditions and also that it does effect the battery life. We are looking into the buddy messaging.
Stay safe!
The SafeTrx Team
Using the watch for 5 months now. Great feeing for lonely sessions and long downwinders. Especially with winter coming. I also like the fuction to share with home so they know I an still on the water having fun. Last but not least great to be alle to look back all my sessions: distance, speed, maps. Tracker almost 100 sessions last 6 months!
Hi Hessel, Thanks for the feedback. Up to the 200 tracks! Stay safe!
Ondanks dat ik (gelukkig) safetrex nog niet heb hoeven te gebruiken zorgt het voor mij voor een veilig gevoel op het water. Simpel te gebruiken. Ik ben blij!
Hi Mara, Bedankt voor je review. Veiligheid staat voorop bij SafeTrx, dan kan jij meer genieten. Stay safe!
I bought the watch for a trip to Mauritius, first day watch completely frozen, not able to use. Helpdesk did not responded yet. I also noticed that the battery is empty to soon. After a 4 hour surfsession the battery is empty. Not good for safety when I’m in the water more then 5 hours?
Hi Bas,
we have tried to contact you back a couple of times in response to your support email, but have not heard back from you. You mentioned that the device was stuck on connecting but did not tell us where you were trying to access the network from. We identified that there was an issue with the Network you were trying to connect to and were looking for you to provide information on where you were located.
It now appears that you were trying to connect from Mauritius, which is not one of our supported countries. As we state on the device details, it will only work in countries that have a functioning LTE-M network, which Mauritius does not.
We provide all the details about where the device will work in our FAQ section
https://support.safetrxapp.com/kb/guide/en/where-can-i-use-safetrx-active-ZDYXuaX9Iz/Steps/870148
With regards to the Battery Life we typically see between 7 and 12 hours for per second tracking and is dependent on the signal strength. If you are trying to use the device in an area where there is no valid network or on the very edge of a network, then it is possible that the battery life can be shorter because the modem is using all its power to try and get a signal. Also settings such as high screen brightness, heart rate monitor and always on screen can significantly reduce the battery, just like with your phone.
We can see that you have Heart Rate turned on for you activity setting and we do explain when you turn that on that it will impact your battery life.
More details on battery life are available here
Thanks
The SafeTrx Team
Hey safe TRX is a great tool and makes you feel safe and access to safety features: Kayaking has many disciplines and one of them is sea kajakking that can take the full day : using the tool to track your workout, but battery life is not sufficient to ensure a full day exercise. While you still want to have access to the alert function at the end of day.
Hi Marcel, thanks for your feedback. We're delighted that you've been getting good use from the watch and that we've been able to help you stay safe and secure.
Battery life is one of our core areas of focus and we are constantly looking for ways to improve it. The challenge that we have is that because the watch remains connected at the far reaches of the network, the power drain can be high as the receiver works harder. We are looking at options of putting the device to sleep for periods between connection, but need to do so in a way that doesn't impact the speed of response in an emergency. We'll keep you updated as we improve things though.
In the meantime there are a few ways that you can extend the battery if you know you are going on a long trip:
1. Make sure that you don't have the screen set to 'always on' in activity mode
2. Make sure that heart rate is not being captured in activity mode
3. If possible, turn the brightness down low. It may make it difficult to view on a bright day, but you don't need to be able to see the screen to raise an emergency
4. If your main concern is safety then you don't have to start an activity. You can simply leave your device in every day mode and start an alert directly from that mode. This will save the battery from having to get location every second, which makes a big difference.
5. You can also take a power bank with you to charge your device during a break.
We had one user, Daniel Salbu, who used SafeTrx to kayak the entire Norwegian coastline over a couple of months and had only a few breaks in tracking.
Ik purchased my Sony Safetrx in januari 2022. I’ve used it over 20 times since then and am quite satisfied about how the watch works and gives me an extra sense of security. However, apart from the fact that I find the display hard to read without glasses, since a couple of weeks a crack has appeared in the display. I don’t recall any impact on the display and the watch still works perfectly. I’m hoping however that this will stay this way. Also I will contact support to see if anything can be done about it.
Regards,
Dick Rubbens
Hi Dick, thanks very much for your feedback. We're delighted to have been helping you stay safe this year. We did release new software about 2 months ago that increased the text size, so hopefully it has become a bit easier to read - we're also testing screen protectors that reduce the glare and might make it easier to read. The screen protectors would also provide additional protection from the type of screen damage you mention.
We can see that you have contacted support, so we'll take a look at the cracked screen and see what options we have. Thanks for your continued support.
I can confirm that it works well in Italy.
Btw I have some problem with teading the disply in a sunny day.
Battery needs a boost
perhaps you should design a device, not a watch, with easier way to trig a distress message.
Thanks for the feedback Michele!
You are right that the network in Italy will now support SafeTrx Active, so for anyone holidaying there, it is a great addition to our offering.
We are currently trialing a series of screen protector coverings to see if they can help with visibility while out on the water, as the glare can be particularly bad. We'll send out an update if we find one that helps in this regard.
With regards to the battery, the connected nature of the watch does certainly drain the battery, especially at the edge of networks where signal can be low - just think of how fast your phone battery depletes when constantly tracking location. We do have a number of recommendations that can help with extending the battery life and with those, you should be getting 6-10 hours of per second traffic on most networks. You can check them out here - https://support.safetrxapp.com/kb/guide/en/safetrx-active-faqs-oBnViMsH5h/Steps/776544,776573,776263,777527