What's your favourite HR monitor and why?

My 5 year anniversary is coming up and I'm planning on getting my husband a hr monitor as his gift.  I don't know a whole lot about hr monitors and was looking for some input.  I'm looking in the $300-400 range and we live in an area where gps isn't always reliable.  He is mostly into running, exercise-wise. 

my favourite is the cheap one, because once i'd used it for a couple of weeks and got a sense of how hard i was working, i never used it again :)

i still use the watch, though.  i needed that anyway.

are you sure your husband wants one?  that's a lot of bucks....

Yes. I'm very sure he wants one.  He loves, loves, loves gadgets of all sorts and has been talking about getting one for a while now.

I'm happy with my Garmin Forerunner 50 with the heart rate monitor and footpod.

If you were my wife, I'd appreciate a Garmin 305 or 405 type unit.  You can get a FootPod for them as well, if GPS is so flaky in your area.  But I'd try it without first.

Clint

PS: I can give you my wife's e-mail address, if you'd care to whisper a hint in her ear...