My fitbit versa recently died, and I decided to get a Garmin Forerunner watch to replace it. I'm excited to try out some of the referee apps. Any recommendations? I am experimenting with refsix, which seems nice but possibly overkill for me. One feature I often find myself wishing for during the high school season is the ability to reset my clock to match the stadium clock for NFHS matches. refsix can track stoppage time and display the time remaining, but I don't see a way to change the stoppage time. What app do you use?
Referee Watch on the Garmin is, IMO, excellent (but be sure it is compatible with your watch). I believe it costs 5 pounds. It shows both up and down time, vibrates, is easily set for different half lengths and extra time, can do stoppage time (and vibrates so you can't forget to restart), tracks mileage and where you were on the field (though not as a heat map). But I don't think there is a way to change the time left while the game is going. (It does not keep a game record--it's "just" a very good referee watch.)
Thanks @socal lurker I will try that out. refsix seems a bit overkill for the games I do. "Just" a very good referee watch sounds like a better fit.
Referee watch by winder is the one I use- it emulates spintso and is dead reliable. I use it on garmin 245 and previously on garmin 230. Vibrates at full time every 30 seconds. If you stop the clock (hs or pronged stoppage) it vibrates frequently so you won’t restart play without restarting the clock. No score keeping or recording misconduct . Can use with or without gps/run recording. add: same one that socsl is referring to
i have hReferee on my Garmin. I only use it for GPS and as a backup clock (also for IFAB/FIFA rules, it counts up the minutes, so that is easy to look at for significant noting of time without having to do math) . Still use the old-time Timex Ironman as the main clock on the other arm.
Referee watch (like spintso) counts both up and down and both are displayed- you can set which you prefer to be the big one
Just bought referee watch by Winder and sent him an email asking him about maybe adding the ability to adjust the stoppage time. I'm also a programmer when I'm not refereeing, so maybe I can add it myself
I've used hReferee on a Garmin Vivoactive 3 since fall 2018 or spring 2019 (ignoring time off for the pandemic): for countdown/countup purposes, and with a 2006 vintage Casio World Cup model on the other wrist. My only real complaint (given my refusal to use hReferee for things like scores and team colors) has more to do with my watch, which is a one-button model with a touch screen. This means that hReferee has to make use of touch commands, not just button pushes. In pretty much every game I do, my (always!) long sleeve brushes against the watch face and does something weird like add a goal for one team, or switch the clock view from elapsed time to time remaining. I like that after a game I can look on my phone at the "route" I followed in each half. I've always used hReferee with GPS, but I can't trust hReferee and my watch to last for three straight games with GPS. Not too big a problem for me, because I can't trust my body to last for that, either. Not using GPS would kill the map feature (and probably worsen the distance estimates) but improve battery life.
Yeah, I have that problem with screen changes, especially when I play (Over-40 league, no refs, each team has to have one timekeeper on the field). It switches a lot, but its just a touch or two and you are back on your comfortable screen. 4 games is the max you can get out of the watch battery. did it most recently this past Sunday. Played one game and then refereed 3 (80,90,80) full games. Both of us went home and plugged in to recharge.
I think it’s meant to be a feature: while running only one button functions , which means you can’t cock up the timing by mistake (the “end game” button must be pressed three times in a row).
I thought about getting a smart watch, but it would only be for refereeing, and I can't see myself ever really wanting to have to put everything into the watch rather than using a paper card. Seems like relying on the technology something can go wrong. Man are you just using an RFT-100 as a backup watch? I've been looking for one forever. They occasionally pop up on ebay but I'm not spending $40-70 on one.
I have two: one with a WC2006 logo and the other, purchased a year or two later, without. Batteries have rarely needed replacing. Once upon a time I bought a replacement watchband on eBay for one of the watches. For over a decade, I had one on each wrist for games. Now I have my Garmin on one wrist. The RFT-100 is less capable but far more idiot-proof, an important point for me. And when the Garmin Li battery dies, the watch will likely be junk.
I bought my first Garmin Vivotech when by RFT died--it was cheaper than the Spintso I considered. To my surprise, it became my regular watch that I wear all the time. I find the garmin with the referee watch a bit better than the RFT with one exception--the rechargeable watch has much less battery capacity, so really need to charge it the night before reffing if doing more than one game. (I cracked the screen on my original vivotech and got another vivotech; I'd describe it as a semi-smart watch.)
This is my first season using a smartwatch, I'm using a Garmin Forerunner with the RefereeWatch app. I played around with the free, similarly named RefWatch, but I liked the pay one better. I just use the watch for time, and the ability to check the GPS after for distance run and where on the field I was (which honestly leads to me saying "what the heck was I doing there????"). Everything else (discipline, score, who's kicking off) I still use a pencil for. I'm still learning buttons, so I have my "dumb" watch as a backup. I usually turn that off with a few minutes left so it doesn't start beeping. I like the vibrate only ending so I have a little flexibility on when I blow the final whistle without kids looking at me because my watch is beeping.
I like SFRef a little better than RefSix. It doesn't sync as well between phone and watch, but it doesn't really have to. It also syncs with Apple Health so I can see how close I came to dying in each game.
I have a Garmin Fenix 5, and I use the same Referee Watch app @socal lurker uses. I tried RefSix, but I just never got used to recording game info on my watch. I’d rather still use a game card. I like how I can change settings for club vs high school/college. Regardless of game, I always have a basic digital watch that I start and let run.
Newly interested in this topic, having just received a Galaxy Watch4. RefSix definitely supports Android, but I confess I'm more interested in (im)mobility data than in admin stuff. Setting aside that I might get rosters 5min before kickoff, I'm not that bothered by using a mark-one, mod-one scorecard. Plus that 18-player limit on teams (I think?) would be useless in HS...where again, rosters are not exactly emailed to me a week prior. Anybody use RefSix (or other non-Garmin, Android-friendly app) in conjunction with paper and pen? The watch itself will give me distance, but intensity and heat-mapping seem kinda cool.
I used refsix on my Garmin watch this past PIAA season. I actually haven't even looked at the fitness stats until now. I found it hard to use in the heat of the moment. Having to enter a player's number and discipline code to issue a card is annoying, especially with the list being pretty long. Also, if you make a mistake mid game, it's not possible to fix until the game is over. I really wanted to use it to track 5 minute sin bins, but the Garmin app doesn't support that yet.
Since mid-2018, I've used an app called "hreferee" for my Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music (which I've never used for music): https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/c39a6a2c-f8d7-4d66-934d-64646a65d15d Detail on the app: https://www.navigatefor.me/garminiq/Product.aspx?PRODUCTID=49&RETURN=Default.aspx My watch has only one button, which means that this app (and most other apps on my watch) must be controlled primarily through the touch screen. I don't know how this app is controlled on watches with multiple buttons. I use the app simply for starting and stopping periods. My touch screen is sensitive to being brushed by the cuff of my long-sleeve jersey, so I don't try to keep track of the score or "sanctions" on the watch. I've never had a need to track a sin-bin (which the app also claims to handle). The app can display a count-up timer, a count-down timer, or both. I wear one of my Casio RFT-100 watches on my other wrist. An aside on Garmin (and probably all other) smart watches: as with iPads, mobile phones, and other portable smart devices, the battery life between charges gets shorter as the device gets older (with repeated discharges and charges). With the Garmin watches and probably many others, replacing the battery is somewhere between difficult and impossible. With my two Casios, I've about 16 years of use, with occasional (inexpensive) battery replacements. I'll never come close to that with my Garmin. I also use apps on my Garmin for hiking, cycling, and using my elliptical. I'd guess that any typical smart watch for which someone has developed a referee app will have apps for these and many more activities.
For the Garmin, I found the Referee Watch app much better than hreferee. But it does have a modest cost—around 5 bucks, I think. (It is only a timing and tracking app, not for recording game stuff—but I’ve never seen any advantage to doing that on a watch.)
Price for the "Referee Watch" app by Winder is indeed only 5.6 euros. No doubt deductible for U.S referees who file a Schedule C. I share your distaste "for recording game stuff" on my watch. Roughly ten or so soccer referee apps (providing at least timer functions) are available through the U.S. Garmin site: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/search?q=referee&device=&deviceLimit=&appType=&sort=&start=0&count=30 Many of these, certainly including "hreferee", appear to be free. REFSIX comes in a free version and a Pro version that requires a subscription.
I am in process of retiring my Vivoactive 3. After about 5 years, it was good for about 3.5-4 hours of reffing while using hreferee. I've used all of the mentioned apps, well, Ref Six Lite because the standard app didn't work with the Vivoactive. I don't remember why I ended up going with hReferee app instead of Referee Watch but I think it had to do with the variety of timing display options on hreferee, specifically count up and count down on the same screen. Ref Six Lite was extremely glitchy, but that is only a Garmin problem. For Ref Six I like to be able to record numbers for misconduct/goals. It is faster than writing down and the information then appears in chronological order to review at the end of a match. My biggest pet peeve is that every 'interval' comes across as a separate activity so a single game will have, 1st half, 1st half extra time, half time, 2ndhalf, and 2nd half extra time although I'm looking at the app now and maybe I just made a mistake on a setting.
Hreferee may have improved since I tried it. Makes me tempted to try it again, but Referee Watch does everything that I can think of possibles wanting from my watch. Referee Watch does show both count up and count down on the display, and you can choose which is more prominent. My recollection from years ago was that it was easier to manage different time lengths perhaps had a better vibration functionality—but it’s been quite a number of years since I settled on Referee Watch after trying all the free ones.
I've been lusting after the Garmin fenix 7 Sapphire Solar, currently a mere $900 from Amazon: "scratch-resistant Power Sapphire lens" "in GPS mode, up to 57 hours indoors or up to 73 hours with solar charging continuously in direct sunlight" But I'm sure sanity will prevail. When my Vivoactive dies, I'll no doubt replace it with with something similar to it.
The fenix 6s are on sale. I'm wearing a fenix6 Pro Solar that was 50% off. I think they are all $400 off. I can't wait to ref with it. https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/702902/pn/010-02410-10#specs