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.

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 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.

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.

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.

This watch is great! It keeps a charge for sooooo long! The solar charging feature is fantastic! It tracks so many metrics and activities, that I have been trying new things other than my normal running, biking and swimming just to try out new features on the watch. I love it! The only knocks I have are that the display isn't great and it could be more fashionable, but I guess you can't have everything.

I love it so much !! The solar is amazing ! And it’s very durable the battery life is very good as well but it can be drain a lot faster if you use the features that it comes with but everything else is awesome

I’ve been using a Garmin vivoctive for about 5 years. I upgraded to this watch. As an active person, I’ve found the profile to be a bit bulky. I’ve snagged it multiple times and it’s not as comfortable on my wrist. I’m always ready to take it off as soon as possible whereas that was not the case with my vivoactive. I frequently accidentally stop the clock on my long workouts by somehow bumping the button. I have been challenged to learn how to use it after having the vivoavtive. The vibrate notification is so loud and strong, it frequently vibrates off the counter when I’m not wearing it. I’m not sure that’s necessary, I have a landscaping business, I enjoy rock climbing, and I hike and camp. I like having the solar function, gps, phone notification so I don’t have to have my phone. I love all the functions that I enjoyed with my previous watch. The battery lasts forever and does charge as long as my long sleeved shirts aren’t covering it. So if the Garmin manufacturers read these reviews, I would like a flatter more comfortable watch with all the same functions.

The battery life is much improved with the more efficient heart rate sensor and GPS. The solar charging capabilities is great if you spend a good amount of time outdoors. Very comfortable and just my style.

A solid, rugged, reliable time piece. Notifications hit every time. The solar charging is spot on. Very comfortable to wear. Sleep tracking is decent. Only con is the screen has a tendency to appear washed out at times.

I had a Garmin for 4-5 years, used it for swim, run, bike, kayak - it was awesome. When it finally died, I tried using an Apple Watch but I ruined my first one within 2 weeks, got it replaced, and struggled with the screen on that one - it just froze after 20 min in water, even with the water lock on. I got this Garmin and love it. I can’t believe the battery life, and the solar charging is amazing.

It was a Christmas gift for my husband and he has not stop wearing it once. he eats, sleeps, and showers with this thing on and it is incredible! it has around 24 days of battery life and it even charges with the sun! Consider me easily impressed, but this watch is insanely cool.

I do not go anywhere without this device. Functionality above is above what is marketed. The battery life is without a shadow of a doubt exactly as marketed. The solar charging is extremely useful especially when hiking for weeks at a time. If you are active this is the watch for you.

Garmin watch has very accurate gps and although calls cannot be made from it, it lets you see incoming calls and messages as well as notifications. And being solar chargable is convenient.

Got this as a gift and it works super well. As long as you don't mind the simple display I think its the perfect smart watch, especially for this price. The solar charging works really well and there are so many useful features, including being able to find your phone through the watch and vice versa.

Coming from a Vivoactive 3, I wanted to upgrade and wanted the Solar option but didn't need all the bells and whistles of some of the other models. This one does everything I need and then some. For some reason Garmin watch bands give me some sort of rash and I've read it does that to others also so I'll have to get a replacement but that was expected as I had to with the Vivoactive watches also.

Great rugged watch that does everything I need it to. I have all the sensors on and notifications off- battery lasts about 11-12 days. On days I’m outside a bunch, I could net an extra day from the solar charging.

Amazing devices, if you use it just right, you will never have to charge ever, the solar and low power use make the battery to stay charge forever

So far this watch has been accurate and working as advertised. Taking it on a few out and back hikes the GPS is spot on as well as the altitude. One thing that I'm not a huge fan of is the band if you sleep with it on it has a tendency to press into the skin some. But with the holes in it I have had less issues then I did with a Fitbit tracker on my skin getting rubbed raw. As for the battery life I have only charged it 2 times in about a month and a half. The solar helps a ton but if you don't have a large amount of time in the sun it doesn't go indefinitely.

I’m not a big watch wearer and don’t care much for apple watches, got this to help me with time during long hikes/rucks. Love that I can go weeks without charging it, solar helps too!