Customer Ratings & Reviews

I ranked it a 4 star because the first one I had just decided to not hold a battery charge after 11 months of use. I did get the extended warranty and it was very easy from best buy to swap the watch out for free. I absolutely love this watch other than that one issue. The battery life last at least 5 days on heavy use. I walk or hike 4 to 6 days a week and always track my hikes. It uses GPS and gives me a map of the area I traveled, the time i started and finished, keeps me notified on my heart rate every 15 minutes, and distance I have traveled. I went from a fitbit to the Garmin and I am completely satisfied with this watch. I just hope the battery does crap out on me in 10 months again.

The quality and accuracy of this watch is outstanding! Since tracking my fitness and activity I have felt motivated to be more active and get better sleep. The sleep tracking is pretty accurate, and the GPS functionality has been great. I get about a week out of the battery, and it charges very fast when I decide to charge it. The Garmin Connect software really works and provides a ton of info. I've lost about 10 lbs just by being more mindful of what and how much I eat, with the motivation to get out and be active.

Yo man the Box looked cool... So I had some extra covid money and i figured I've been being responsible. So I heard a little voice in my head and it said " Go treat yo self" so I did. I purchased this watch with the intention to use it while mountain biking to track my progress and then upload to Strava. Well normally I just take and mount my phone to my handlebars with my quad lock. Which by the way I think works excellent, the tigra sport mount is a good one as well. But I wanted a fancy Garmin watch. So it sat in my house for 43 days "I'm an elite+ member" and then I returned it. The YouTube video reviews I watched about the watch looked great, but I couldn't justify the price just to track my riding on Strava. This watch is meant for so much more then that. I was just being an irresponsible man child when I bought it. I'm glad coming sense kicked in. I just hope I never get stranded in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception now. That would be my luck

This watch was replacing a Casio pro track originally I replaced it with an I watch. The nightly routine of charging a watch in addition to my phone and iPad was a bit much. We started looking for other watches. I found this one and it has been great. Battery life is great. The watch can track your route on a walk, heart rate, blood pressure, overall stress level, overall Body energy level. The app complements the watch well. It tracks how while you were sleeping, hydration. Overall great product.

I’ve been going back and forth about which type of smart watch to get and this is the one I fell in love with. No frills but it does everything you would expect and has excellent battery life. Still had a charge after 15 days which is extremely satisfying. The idea of charging my watch everyday was a little annoying and this thing is more durable than most on the market. If you don’t need a fancy touch screen and want something that will endure whatever you put it though this is the watch for you.

I’ve beat this watch up pretty good over the past few years. It’s been a few dozen feet under water, buried in sand and dirt, drowned in sweat and mud, and even caught fire once. Sand gets stuck in the buttons, but after running water over it while working the buttons you should find the issue remedied. I’ve never owned the Solar edition, but a friend does. They said it wasn’t much difference in battery life, if not it’s worse. He says he has to charge that one every 4-5 days. The battery life on these can last well over a week. And that’s putting miles on it just about every day of the year.

Bottom line: If you want a fitness watch that tracks the major activities, has GPS, AND you spend a lot of time off the beaten path, this is a fantastic option. Pros: This is a great "entry-level" smart fitness watch for those who participate in the most common activities (running, cycling, hiking, etc.) It's comfortable, smaller than the Fenix and Forerunner lines (but still not small overall), has fairly easy menu navigation, great app integration and great battery life (even without the Solar variant). Cons: The display is nice, but I wish you could change more things about it (for example, the circular portion in the upper right has several options for items that can be displayed there, but the "graph" section in the upper left has very few.) Smartphone notifications are still pretty bad, as they are only grouped into a handful of categories ("messages" includes everything from Facebook chats to video app alerts to actual text messages) and you can only see a few words in the window. Although that's not the point of this watch, with more and more GPS/outdoor apps coming to the smart watches (which now also include GPS), battery life could be the biggest determining factor now. Before buying this watch, you should think long and hard about how you will use it. If you are a "weekend warrior" that hikes/swims/skis on common trails, only for a few days at a time, and usually with cell signal, this might not be your best option. If you fit that category, and you want more smartphone-like functionality, get an Apple Watch or something similar. If you fit that category and you don't want smartphone features, there's likely a cheaper option that will work just as well (unless this is on sale, then grab it!)

I bought this for my husband and he works in refineries. They aren’t allowed to have phones out but this watch right here has been through the wringer. He has dropped it, banged it on metal piles and it is holding up !!! The charge on it last him for ever so he doesn’t have to worry about charging it so much. He also gets a chance to check my messages real quick (although he can’t reply ) but if any emergency he can quickly glance at it. He likes the weather alerts on it since where he woke they have a lot of storms. Overall I would say this is the type of watch you’ll want if you work with your hands. 10/10 recommend

This is a great watch. I have had it going on 2 full years and the battery life is still the same as it was when I first got it. This watch has a lot of features, and is very durable.

My first smartwatch. Goal was to find a comfortable wearable to supplement cycling head unit and use phone as emergency back up only. Primary activities are cycling and running with Strava as primary storage/social interface. This one hits the mark in all areas. Strengths: Comfortable and rugged. Not obscenely large or cute and fragile. Activities are readily available and easy to use. Button interface is intuitive. Pairs with phone to provide text and call notifications. Easy interface with on line apps (Strava) Heart rate is accurate when comparing to external strap. Rudimentary navigation & compass. Excellent battery life. Weakness: Altitude is often off. easy correction in the garmin connect and strava apps. This one meets all expectations at a great price point.

I had planned to use this mainly for my kayak and hiking Adventures where it works exceptionally but the ability to set alarms for my heart rate and see how my sleep habits etc are all bonuses. Having a large amount of acreage to maintain i was shocked how many steps and flights of stairs we traversed during our maintenance of our Shangri-la. If you're on the fence you should pull the trigger and get yourself one.

I have loved this watch so far. It is well made and think it will work really good for my Obstacle Course races in the mud. The location for the barometer is not at the best place but I haven't had any issues so far with reading my elevation gains. It is very military looking and I think it has everything if you don't need a color display. It also lasts for a long time before I need to charge it. Even working out 5 days.

I got this to use at work more than working out or activities. As a police officer I need something durable that doesn’t end up on the charger every other day. If I turn it off over night I’m getting 2-3 weeks out of the battery. The text notifications are great. The heart rate monitor and trackers seem to be accurate as well. I got this as a hopeful comparison to my g shock and haven’t been disappointed yet

I traded out all of my ios devices for android based products, and I was worried I would be disappointed with non apple watch products. This watch vastly exceeds my expectations. Battery life is amazing, I never take it off and charge it about once every 2 weeks. The watch will send you phone notifications as you please, collects accurate health data and the garmin connect phone app is a nice combo. Very durable, I've used this daily now for about 8 months and the original band is holding up nicely and there are no visible scratches or defects to the screen or watch face. I even wear it while doing light construction and land maintenance, cleans up without any lasting negative impact.

This is my 4th smartwatch. My first was a long time ago so they have been spread across several years but this is by far my favorite. Not the prettiest or most jewelry like but just simple and good looking with more functions than most. My first Garmin smartwatch, I decided to try Garmin for their GPS rep/support and I was not disappointed as it has great GPS functions even without connecting to your phone. Also many activity functions if you want to track fitness. Again connection to your phone not required. Of course to receive texts, phone calls, email notifications, etc you need to connect with your phone via their app which is quite easy. Not many choices for watch faces, I find the default most pleasing with customizations available. I tend to suffer from arthritis so I use the graph to track barometric pressure. If you want pretty backgrounds look elsewhere. No touchscreen which I prefer. The buttons provide better selection choices IMO as touchscreens seem difficult to navigate for me at smartwatch size. Speaking of size it seems perfect for my wrist (I'm male with slightly slender wrists). Big but not too big. Also very comfortable and lightweight. The band has many holes for ventilation which is great for me as many watches make my wrist sweat. Seems quite durable. Great battery life, I've been using it a week now (without activity tracking and limited phone connection) and only lost one bar on the battery indicator.

This watch is your best option if your a techy mechanic. I'm a diesel technician and I had a very hard time finding a watch that I could wear on the job. This thing just keeps on ticking. Dip it in oil? No problem, spray it with starting fluid. Spill diesel all over it? Cool, just spray it with starting fluid. Running it under water works as well. The battery life is insane. Usually around one week per charge. It does come with a proprietary port. This thing can take bumps and scrapes. The buttons are recessed to prevent accidental presses. The only issue I've had with this watch is the band. They manufacture them with something that breaks out my skin. It stopped after the first week or so. Other than that the strap is very comfortable. I've owned the watch for 6 months. I'm extremely happy with it and do not plan to replace it.

If you’re a swim geek, this isn’t your watch. If you like colors, touch screens and customization this isn’t your watch. If you want a basic tracker w GPS and a very long battery - this is your watch. This doesn’t keep heart rate while swimming and only counts freestyle properly. It will not count kick laps at all and freauentky misses breaststroke laps. I wouldn’t use as primary cycle tracker as it’s too tedious to fiddle w on a bike. I use a dedicated edge25 for cycling and it’s far easier. Solid otherwise.

The watch is really nice. I used to have a fitbit Ionic and the Garmin Instinct is very responsive and the battery life is awesome. The band is comfortable, and I definitely feel this is more durable than the Ionic. The one thing that's holding this watch back compared to the Ionic is the Garmin Connect app. I guess it is more customizable than Fitbit app, but it's kind of hard to navigate, and it doesn't auto track workouts like Fitbit does.

Not as sexy as an Apple Phone or a Samsung Galaxy Watch. The battery life on a single charge lasts about 10 times longer. I can easily get 10 days to 2 weeks from charge. This watch does not have a high-resolution, touch screen. 5 physical buttons allow you to navigate the watch screens and menus. There is also an IOS app or Android app that in my opinion more than makes up the watch's low sex appeal. These apps are extremely comprehensive and provide all the data a user could desire. The app has an easy-to-use interface with lots of data and graphs. Long battery life and an awesome phone app to access information from the watch. BTW, the app is called "Connect" in iOS and Android.

When I was looking for a smartwatch last year, I was looking for something that would track my steps, running pace/hiking data, etc. When I came across the instinct (which was on sale at the time) it looked to be a perfect fit for me. It even looked like the G shock I used to wear 'back in the day.' Because I wanted something to give me more information on exercising, I thought this was a no-brainer. There are a bunch of functions you can track; runs, walks, hiking, other activities too. Very easy to use and quite convenient. Battery: After a full charge, the battery life seemed to get me around 4 - 8 days of power depending on how much I would use the GPS tracking modes on the watch. Recently, I started a job that has me walking outside for hours at a time... I'll keep the walk function running to see my distance covered at the end of my shift. - as a result, the battery only seemed to have lasted me 3 - 4 days on a full charge after heavy gps use (about 6 GPS use hours/day). Which I thought was pretty decent. Durabilty: Yes. Its a tough watch. I took it to Nicaragua's hot and humid environment and it functioned fine. Even when covered in dirt sweat, and water. Saltwater wasn't an issue either. I've scraped it on hard surfaces as I was walking next to them and thought the display would be damaged, but no. It was perfectly fine both times. It's been off-roading and at excavations where the air around me was completely filled with dirt and dust. The charging port would get caked with dirt/mud, but a small toothbrush did the trick to clean it out. Still, never any issues with the watch. Compass: I thought it was very well designed. No surprise here, considering the brand. Compared to other watches like Apple or Samsung's own, I'm glad I went with Garmin since I was looking for something affordable but also useful. After 13 months of use, I am retiring this watch (probably giving it to someone) and upgrading to the instinct 2 solar. I need that longer battery life. This was the first smartwatch I bought and I'm glad I went with Garmin. I love how their connect app works so well on the phone.