Customer Ratings & Reviews

This watch is awesome. I charged it the first day and set it up with the Garmin connect app. Which is super easy to do. I’m a outdoors kinda guy and absolutely love the features this watch offers. Way better battery life then most smart watches. I got tired of charging my Apple Watch every night. The sensors for heart rate and vo2max are more accurate then Apple Watch. The navigation feature are great. You can easily create way points and navigate back to your staring point. Monitors sleep as well. The connect app gives you all the data you need to see everything more detailed. The watch face is super simplistic more like the G Shock. Sure there are better screens or watch faces from other products but if you like simple and not having to charge your watch every night then this watch is for you. It is a bigger watch but very comfortable to wear. The more stuff you do the faster the battery goes down. I get the notifications I want by turning of the ones I don’t need in my iPhone settings. The build in solar charges the Watch pretty efficiently. If you have a dog tracker then you can connect it to the Watch via garmin canine. The Garmin explore app is also useful with topo map and navigation/ tracking while hiking. I wish it had a hunting and fishing feature. But all and all, simply said I like this Garmin Instinct Solar way better then my Apple Watch 6.

This watch changed my day to day life! Being that it tracks all your steps, calories, heart rate etc., it motivates you to do better and be more active. The app gives you a break down of all your actives which helps you keep track of your personal goals without having to input data into an app and assume you're doing it correctly. The watch band has many holes to find the perfect fit for your wrist and the battery life is beyond great. the GPS tracking is extremely accurate based on my experience so far and extensive YouTube research after purchase. I have it set to only receive text messages that way I'm disconnected from my phone yet still have some access incase someone send me a text. I highly recommend this if you want to get into fitness or simply just tracking your day to day physical activities. It will change your life! I've also received many compliments on the look!! BUY IT!!

I’ve had all sorts of Fitbit products since December 2014 from the simple clip on pedometer (Zip and One) to the ionic watch (died just out of warranty) and Charge 4. I did not want to go to the Apple Watch as I preferred the in depth weekly status reports of Fitbit and did not want to answer phone and read text messages on a watch. I also liked my Cassio GShock Atomic Solar because I never had to charge or change batteries, but it did not do any fitness tracking, I did some research on fitness tracking watches in terms of long battery life. I was amazed when I found out about this watch. It may not be the best looking watch out there, but it does the job. I have it set up with a watch face looking a lot like my Cassio except that it also shows heart rate and steps. The Garmin Connect app provides excellent reports of steps, heart rate, sleeping, exercise summaries, stress SPO2, body battery, etc. The weekly and monthly reports are even better than Fitbit reports. I retired my Fitbit Charge, which was reporting unrealistic flights of stairs and went back to the old Fitbit One clip on pedometer just to keep up my basic tracking (over 14000 miles since Christmas 2014), but not he Garmin is my new go to tracker. Technically, this watch with all tracking turned off could go almost forever with solar charging, but then it would be an overpriced Cassio GShock. I don’t mind occasionally charging the watch with USB charger cord. Still beats charging a watch every couple days. One hang up I have is that I cannot customize swimming pool lap length to anything under 15 yards. The average backyard pool is not that big. I wish Garmin would allow users to customize pool length to 28, 32, or 36 feet. I tried doing a backyard pool swim and my 100 plus laps (approximately 3/4 mile ended up registering as about 7 1/2miles. It seems like that could be tweaked with a software update. When I track a walk on the Garmin, the miles are a lot more accurate than when I was tracking with Fitbit Charge 4. Of course, that would be expected since Garmin has been in the GPS navigation systems for years. The Garmin also feeds these tracked activities into my Runkeeper app.

After two years I still love this watch. It is a great "watch" that also lets me receive notifications. It does many of the other fitness tracker type things as well. I has physical buttons (not touch screen) so you can use it when you've got gloves on or doing something physical where the sweat on your hands/fingers make operating touchscreens difficult. It also has a basic LCD type display so the battery lasts A LONG TIME. I get 10-14 days with everything on except for SpO2 running -- on a single charge - which was the major benefit for me --- I don't want to have to charge by watch nightly. If you bring it down to "battery saver mode" (so kinda just a normal watch mode) - as someone who works outdoors, the watch will basically work indefinitely because of its solar panel. So in general their markets is 100% accurate after over 2 years of testing... If you turn on SpO2 I think I get maybe 4-7 days of battery life... I just don't use that feature much... The only complaint that I have with this watch -- which is known by Garmin and they keep trying to fix it with this series of watches -- is the barometric sensor... It is both in a bad location and I think has some software issues. As a result you'll get inaccurate "flights climbed" statistics (I'll get a notice saying I've gone up 10 flights of stairs today, when I know my elevation change has been maybe 3 flights. This also results in an inaccurate altitude (but always within say 100 feet plus or minus -- and for my work that is 'close enough')... Also also incorrect "storm alert" because it thinks the barometric pressure has dropped a lot when it really hasn't.... If very accurate altitude or flights climbed is important to you - be sure to look into the many reviews, articles, and even documentation on their offical website for details... But since those specific things don't matter to me, its a non-issue and likely is for many others...

My husband just loved it!! This type of watch is functional for people who work in rural areas where they can orient themselves using their GPS and compass system, as well as people who are interested in keeping track of their daily physical exercises. The battery life on this watch is phenomenal.

Good watch does everything I need and more. Love the battery life and solar charging. The only thing I’ve found to be lacking is connectivity to iPhone regarding music controls. It will work but not always this could be user error but everything else works great.

Bought this watch mainly for how long the battery lasts and to track my sleep. A little over 2 weeks now and love it. Very comfortable to wear and love how it connects to my phone for notifications.

Battery life is very long. Simple stock display works well. I use the watch to track my runs outside. I don't use many of the features. There are probably much better smartwatches out there. This was my first expensive one.

It's very tough watch, comfortable and charge last fir a long time. For people who works hard jobs is super recommended

Battery life last for weeks ! If you are active and always moving especially hiking, or tracking your heart rate. This is your go to watch !

Solid watch! Love the battery life. After 5 years with Fitbit, I made the switch. Not regretting it. Love the integration with the app and Strava.

Great smart watch, worth every penny i spent, With all of the features packed in this rugged smartwatch, best battery life

It's perfect super simple. And lasts so long. I love it

Bought this because i got tired of my Apple watch barely making it through the day and failing to deliver notifications. The Instinct Solar wins on both these: I only charge my Instict one a week now and I could wait up to two weeks if I wanted to. Solar charging really does work, a week outside meant my battery meter barely moved. GPS tracking is surprisingly accurate when enabled (but GPS is a battery drainer). And I like the more traditionaly "retro" watch look this has. My favorite feature is the customizability of the watch faces: the graph can be anything I want it to be: solar intake, steps, heart rate, altititude,etc. Along with ability to tweak the info in the small circle and two changeable data fields under the time. Very powerful. Downsides? Many Many settings under the hood to potentially tweak to get the best out of this and the button interface vs. touchscreen definitely takes some getting used to. Price definitely feels somewhat steep retail as well for the platics and rubber this is made out of. Otherwise a month into ownership I don't regret the purchase and bought a lavender one for my wife as well.

Rugged watch that is practical and to the point. I have only charged it once since it's solar and it has been almost 30 days since I got it. I was going to buy a Casio shock but this one has more accurate sensors for what I need. Hiking, swimming,biking, gps,steps etc it's great. I like the Garmin app a lot along with the watch! Even if it's first generation its great!

This was a gift for a relative who found touchscreen smartwatches too complicated. It solved many of thoser issues, but has its own challenges. PROS: +Rugged design seems durable +Amazing battery life and solar charging +Lightweight and comfortable to wear +Easy to read monochrome display +Fitness tracking appears to work well +Vibrates for an incoming phone call or notification +The bubble in the upper right corner tells you what you're selecting. CONS: -Navigation is overly complicated. It's not always clear which button is needed to access a menu -Buttons are on the lower portion of the watch and can be hard to press when on your wrist. Gripping the face often triggers actions on the other side. -The charger is somewhat awkward to plug in Overall, it's a very good watch that could be near perfect with some usability tweaks,

Disclaimer; this was a purchase for my father. I returned it because it was too complicated for him, but I still recommend it if you’re willing to incur the learning curve. Absolutely fantastic battery life and efficient GPS/altimeter/compass etc. it’s not smart in the sense that you’re going to be able to use it as a phone, but it does sync data to your mobile device. The specs and reviews speak for themselves. It’s such a great piece of tech. If you’re on the fence about getting the normal Instinct because it’s cheaper, check out the differences. The updated GPS module is much more effective, and solar makes it last practically forever if you turn off GPS.

I love this watch. This is my 3rd Garmin watch. I bought this one to replace the Garmin Venu, which I liked. The Venu is more attractive (according to my wife), but I prefer using the buttons on the Instinct over the touch screen on the Venue. The black and white screen provides all of the functionality that I need and extends the battery life. There are many activities available for the watch which will definitely cover my needs. The watch works well with Garmin Connect for tracking activities. I was a little worried that it would be hard to use with Garmin Coach activities as I am currently in a 10K training program with Garmin Coach. However, the transition was seamless. I just selected a run activity and the very next question was if I wanted to start my Coach activity or view the steps. The solar charging feature is also amazing. When I first charged the watch it said there were 23 days left on the battery. However, I have been wearing it for 5 days and it now says 20 days remain. Skip the math...that means that the charger has gained back 2 days since I started wearing the watch. Granted it is full summer I drive my Jeep around topless and have been spending a lot of time outside, but that is still awesome.

If you are looking for something that will last for days before needing charged like I was. If you are only interested in fitness tracking like I am. If you prefer the look of a normal watch rather than the "Apple Watch" look like me... then this is a good watch for you. The only thing I found a little odd was how to access all of the capabilities. It is not as intuitive. It is not junk... it just has a learning curve that you must overcome. Took me about 2-4 days to get used to it.

This watch has been my daily driver as a rock climber and trail runner! I love it's long lasting battery, and solar charging, which has saved me in a pinch. It's durable enough that I've banged it around climbing in a gym often, and on rocks at least until I remember to take it off, and it's screen barely has any scratches despite some obvious extra roughness on my part.