Garmin 2

They are well built, work very well, and provide metrics that motivate me to exercise more and monitor my progress. There is a touch screen but the buttons are simply a better and easier way to interact with it. It looks cool, and there definitely is a "garmin watch" tribe. Over time, you build an emotional relationship with it. I got a Garmin Epix 2 watch 3 years ago as a replacement for the Apple Watch ULtra, which turned out to be a terrible sports watch. The Garmin still has two weeks battery life and gets all the functionality upgrades the newer watches are getting. More importantly, it looks great and does exactly what I want it to do simply, and reliably. At the time I also had a whoop. Now I only have the Garmin and it does all I need. It's one of those things you need to try to truly get.

I had a Fenix 3 for over 5 years and I've had an Epix 2 for close to 3 years now and I don't have any of those problems. GPS normally takes about 30 seconds, and certainly under a minute. It has 5 buttons and for the first year I kept the touchscreen off completely until my bank started supporting Garmin Pay. Yeah, it does use a custom charging cable, but the one for the Fenix 3 was solid and since I only charged it once a week (more than I really needed to) it wasn't a problem. The Epix 2 gets charged twice a week since it has the AMOLED screen and I keep it always on and I record workouts at least 6 times a week unless I'm on vacation. But still, the charge points are inset so they're not noticeable.

Since the ANT+ protocol implementation seems to already be there, it seems a likely/sensible future path is to implement wheel sensor support. It provides much higher accuracy of speed/distance than GPS and lower power draw. On that note, this is a world I've recently taken a dive in to. I was about to roll a Pi Zero / ESP data logger to track distance travelled on my commuter bike for planning service intervals. Was keen on a solution that didn't involve draining a phone battery and remembering to start trips, a full bike computer, or smartwatch. After a bit of research I picked up a Garmin Speed Sensor 2 - highly recommend as a bit of stupidly effective tech. The device straps around your hub and is essentially a coin battery and mems rotation sensor. In addition to running as an ANT+ peripheral it will operate standalone and log the last 300 hours of ride time then sync next time you open the app. Speed and distance is then inferred based on wheel circumference.

My Garmin Instinct 2 does all of the above. I charge it every 2 or 3 weeks. Sounds like that would meet your needs.

Totally with you on everything you’ve said. I’ve had a few Instincts and Fenixes, and yeah - I think the Instinct 2 was my favourite watch of all time (currently using an Apple Watch Mega Super Ultra), but I loved the concept of the 7X… just a shame I couldn’t get used to that red tone on the solar. I found the same thing too - the instinct face gets protected while the Fenix is almost a brick and rock magnet :( So far, I think it’s only the black Tacticals that look like they would hide more surface scratches… but I’ve never had one yet. But, yeah - think if the Instinct 3 Solar came with Sapphire, I’d sleep better at night, so much so that it would probably be my forever watch!

Are we talking about the same Garmin? I have an Instinct 2 that cost me under $200 new, goes 2+ weeks between charges, and handles all activities I throw at it quite well. I agree: their launching of a subscription service is disappointing, because (1) it was wonderful having a no-recurring-cost ecosystem before, and (2) presumably that's where they'll be investing their product dollars. But, it's not required, and to date, it's not particularly high value.

My Garmin Venu 2 with an OLED display gets at least a week with a couple days of GPS usage for walks too. I don't understand how anyone is willing to buy a watch that barely lasts a day.

the option to pair with an external gps would be better all round, apart from having a separate thing to carry. i have a garmin glo 2 that i pair to my android when doing openstreetmap stuff, and its something that you would barely notice in your pocket or clipped onto a backpack

I don't know what model you have, but this isn't my experience at all. I own both the Instinct and Instinct 2, which have no touchscreen but an always-on monocolor LCD. I also have absolutely none of your GPS issues. My dad was so impressed with my Instinct he bought a second-hand Fenix which also has none of your issues. And all the Garmins I know have a charging port which is flush with the back of the watch.

I went on a long journey trying to find a pebble replacement. If you are looking for the closet smart watch to the pebble experience then https://a.co/d/6hEwdmc check out the Garmin instinct 2. 28 day battery life. Gets notifications from phone. Eink like screen. Its my daily wear

can you elaborate on " aren't designed for wearing all the time"? I wear my Epix 2 every day and it does all I want from a smartwatch - see incoming texts and calls while it tracks my health stats day and night. Yes, apple watch or Samsung ones may have more features, but I am not missing anything.

I remember using a Garmin Edge 1000 to navigate through a city I don't know. I could see the street I should be on running parallel to where I was but couldn't find the correct turn to take me there. Then the Garmin popped a big modal dialogue over the top of the map to tell me I was on the wrong street. Worse still a few spots of rain meant the screen locked and I couldn't dismiss the modal. I came to the same conclusion, that the UI wasn't designed by some one that rode a bike. I have to say they've got better over time though. I've had a Garmin 530 for a few years and an Epix 2 watch that I like much better. I love that the Epix can be operated with just the buttons.

indeed, I try to do that when I remember with my Garmin Venu 2 (~11 day battery life). Otherwise, I charge it on weekends while I'm home doing nothing. It's also nice because most trips I take are under 11 days so I don't need to remember to pack the charger.

Not OP but I’ve used Garmin’s for about 15 years and over 10k running miles. I don’t like or use non-fitness related smart watch features, so I can’t speak to those or recommend a good "smart watch that also does fitness". If you want top of the line with more data than you’ll know what to do with and a ton of fitness activity tracking beyond running, the Epix2, Fenix 7, or Forerunner 965 (I have the Epix2). A step down but still great is the Forerunner 265. The feature they all have and I think has been the most useful is the Training Readiness. It looks at a bunch of different metrics, both current (your HRV, last workout performance, sleep, stress) and chronic (your weekly and monthly total exercise amount, types of running, etc) and advises you on how hard you should train and suggests a running activity for the day. It is basically a digital running coach/personal trainer that makes sure you are getting a good mix between tempo runs, long runs, easy runs, etc. and makes sure you aren’t overtraining or if a bad day means to switch to a light workout. I normally use it loosely to inform my choices but I’ve tried using its daily training plans exclusively and it was very good at keeping me progressing. Hopefully this helps.

I have a garmin enduro 2 that I got for under $500 with some discounts. When tracking activities with GPS it lasts for over 100 hours, closer to 150 if you’re benefiting from some solar charging. In normal smartwatch mode it gets up to 40 days. I’ll randomly once a month remember to charge it and that’s enough. I’ve never had the battery dip below 27 days remaining. My old garmin was a forerunner 945 and I could about two days of hiking in on a charge, maybe more with battery-saving stuff on, but this is a whole different ballpark now.

Garmin is a little bit closed off, that's the main downside. And as far as I can tell their app needs internet to sync data from the watch even though it's connected via bluetooth, I assume it's uploading to their servers for processing before viewing in app. Other than that it works great, I have no complaints about my Venu 2.

I still have a 2018 MBP. As much as I like new things, I can't yet justify upgrading. iPad has aged into obscurity and likely won't be replaced. Moved from an Apple Watch to a Garmin Instinct 2 (wanted muuuch longer battery + GPS for backcountry camping/canoeing). I can read notifications but not respond from the watch, and this seems optimal distraction-wise.

Apple Watch Ultra has juice for about 10-13 hours of active GPS activity tracking time. Non-Ultra Apple Watch does less. My Garmin Epix2 can do about 24 hours with full battery, Fenix series does a bit more.

My wife bought a Garmin Vivofit because it was water-proof and runs for months on a battery. I ended up buying the Vivofit 2 which has a better clasp, a backlight, and is supposed to sync automatically with my phone. When I wore a watch, I would take it off as soon as I could because it got in the way. I'm really happy with the Vivofit 2 - I haven't taken it off in (literally) months because it doesn't need to be charged and does just fine in the shower or swimming. I've been disappointed with the automatic syncing not working. Other than that, it's a great product. PS: my parents-in-law were given Fitbit devices with HR monitors which they had me set up for them. I'd like the HR monitoring but not at the cost of having a thicker device and having to deal with a proprietary charge connection (one end is standard USB).

The Garmin Instinct 2 is around $200 and will last several weeks on a charge even using the GPS regularly. Without GPS use I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted a month.