Garmin Instinct, Rugged Outdoor Smart Watch with GPS, Wireless Bluetooth – Black

After much thought you decided to buy a smartwatch instead of a normal watch. A small voice at the back of your mind said “hey at this price you could get a luxury watch. How about that ?” You said “Err , yes .. but then I won’t be able to track my workouts , right?” ..In the end the small voice conceded its defeat. You ordered a military grade rugged, water resistant (to 100m no less) watch with GPS to boot. With great excitement you wore the watch and carried out your workout with even more gusto than usual. You were so excited to see the evidence of your efforts on your phone. You opened the connect app and waited ..and waited some more.. continued to wait for half an hour ..nope ..nothing. The loader kept rotating giving the illusion that at any moment it will finish fetching data from the watch and display it in all its digital glory. Not to be. The loader was hell bent to prove it could beat its owner when it came to endurance…
Long story short ..ladies and gentlemen ..here is a watch that costs as much as a mid range smartphone but is dumber than the dumbest feature phone. The app sucks. I have had this watch for about 2 months. I have been able to sync data from the watch about 2 times. Rest of the times I simply gave up after waiting upwards of 30 minutes for loader to do its loading. As a smartwatch this thing is practically useless.
Before you ask, I did contact the customer service. Their advice was to unpair the watch and pair it again. Unfortunately it made no difference.
I strongly discourage you to part with your hard earned money on this. Keep your patriotism aside. A certain oriental company also makes rugged smartwatches at less than half the price.

I’m a long distance runner. I also do occasional cycling and swimming. I was in dilemma over what to buy, right from Huami Bip to Garmin 945 – I thought over lot of models. This watch seems to fit perfectly when it comes to balance between utility for self, budget and features.

The added ruggedness is a definite plus as I do put it through rough usage like in obstacle run, trek, football, etc. The Ultratrac should last even a 100 miler. It also has open water swim track, unlike Garmin 245, 645 etc.

On the minus, it lacks VO2 max and body battery, which, even some lower variants have. In my usage, these don’t make a difference. Overall, very satisfied with the product. And, it does turn heads with looks too!

When I saw that this watch was being released, I read up on it and purchased it an hour later from an authorized Garmin retailer on Amazon, receiving it the next day. A little backstory…
I used a GShock for years and loved it. I graduated to my first smart watch with the original Apple Watch. I had a love/hate relationship with it needing to be charged daily, the always-off screen, overall slowness, to name a few annoyances. It was just really cool all the “things” it could do.

I left it for a Pebble 2 and really loved that watch for about 18 months until the buttons crumbled. I started using a backup Pebble 2 but I knew these watches had a very short lifespan. I tried a Ticwatch and an Amazfit Bip. Both were dreadfully disappointing so I went to an Apple Watch Series 3. It was more of the original Apple Watch but faster and a more mature operating system. I just recently upgraded again to the Apple Watch Series 4, which was again more of the same thing but a faster iteration. Still the always-off screen and needing daily charging made me miss my Pebble more and more.

Then the Instinct just “checked all the boxes” for me. Back when my Pebble fell apart, this was the list I made in order of importance for my ideal smart watch:

Always-on display:
Instinct ✓ (monochrome, sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel, with backlight)

Several day battery life:
Instinct ✓ (14 days)

Physical buttons:
Instinct ✓ (5, and you can program each for long-hold shortcuts)

Waterproof:
Instinct ✓ (100m)

Notifications:
Instinct ✓

Music controls:
Instinct ✓

Text reply by voice:
Instinct x

Calendar:
Instinct ✓

Weather:
Instinct ✓

I realized that all the cool “things” I do on my Apple Watch are silly and can be replicated on my iPhone. I don’t need to scribble a text reply on my watch or use it as a glorified speakerphone. I miss the core functionality of a reliable watch that doesn’t need frequent charging, has an always-on screen, and physical button controls, especially when it comes to music or podcast controls without having to look or wake the screen. The fact that the Instinct has 24/7 heart rate tracking, GPS, and is built like a beast are nice bonuses. I don’t expect this watch to fall apart as easily as a Pebble, not to mention it actually has a warranty. (Constructed to U.S. military standard 810G for thermal, shock and water resistance).

After a weekend with the Garmin Instinct:

I use the watch primarily as a rugged smart watch. I have two kids that are always climbing over me or having me chase afer them. I rely on notifications and music controls in a device that I can just put on my wrist and forget about it for days without charging. When I look at the device, I need it to always show me the time. I can’t deal with having to wake the device, so this type of display is more my style. I walk 2 miles about 2-3 times per week, and like to keep an eye on my lap time and heart rate, and control a podcast during that walk. I’ll focus mostly on the differences between this watch and the Pebble 2, with some comparisions to the Apple Watch sprinkled in, as that’s the watch I switched to after the buttons on my Pebble 2 crumbled.

The display:
It sure was nice going back to an always-on screen, being able to glance at it whenever I needed to see the time or an alert, especially from being used to an Apple Watch for months. I felt like I was getting carpel tunnel syndrome from forcibly having to turn the Apple Watch towards me to wake it. It was easy to read from basically any angle or lighting. I had no trouble whatsoever reading it while outdoors, in direct sunlight. Indoors, I didn’t the Instinct’s backlight unless the room was completely without lighting, such as in bed. However, the Pebble 2 is still more crisp, with a better contrast. Silly of me, but I did install a rounded 31mm screen protector just in case, which fit the 32mm screen perfectly. I found a 5-pack on Amazon for roughly $6. I like to protect the screens of all of my devices, and since this isn’t a sapphire display, I’d like to keep the screen looking new. If you see an “edge” on the display in my photos, that’s the edge of the screen protector and not the watch’s actual display.

The battery:
Granted, I only used it for 2 days and the battery is rated for 14 days, it was already nice not having to charge the device yet, whereas the Apple Watch would have gone through two charge cycles by now. I would charge the Apple Watch while I slept, whereas I now wear the Instinct to bed where it tracks my sleep automatically. I went through all the settings, tested different options, etc. on the watch for a good two days, so after messing with it a lot more than I normally would, after 2 days the battery now reads 4 of 5 bars. Extrapolate that, and it’s roughly 10 days of a lot of fiddling with the device. With average use, I could see 12-14 days easily. My Pebble 2 lasted a good 7 days before having to charge, so hopefully getting close to double that would be great.

Physical buttons:
Again, something nice to come back to was the ability to control the watch 100% with physical buttons. The 5 buttons are easy to press, and have a satisfying click. You know when you’ve pressed a button, even without looking. They’re not mushy at all compared to my Pebble 2, which had some of the worst buttons on any device I’ve used this century. The Pebble 2’s buttons were mushy, lopsided, and change the resistance over time, until which they just crumble and fall apart. The Apple Watch is a completely different device, controlled primarily with the touch screen, or the crown and side button (or voice). I don’t miss these aspects of the Apple Watch at all.

The menus in this watch go quite deep. There are so many features, especially with workouts. It took me some time to get used to the buttons and their function, but it’s not something that should prevent you from trying the device. I just wish the app would mirror all of the menus in the watch, so I could manage the buttons more from my phone.

Waterproof:
I’ve not yet tested this feature of the device, although it is rated to 100 meters.

Notifications:
I was pleasantly surprised with how well this worked when paired to my iPhone 7 Plus. Notifications mirrored from my phone without any issues. The notifications timeout can be set to 30 seconds, 1 minute, or 3 minutes. During the initial notification timeout period, you can 1-click the “down” button to clear that notification (more on clearing notifications below). I was able to see a large portion of text messages and other notifications, although it is truncated when it initially appears on the display. I can go into the notification and scroll through more of the text, but there does seem to be a character limit, before I need to pick up my iPhone and see more information. For being notified of something that needs my attention, it does a great job, just as well as my Pebble 2 did. When a phone call came in, I was able to see the caller’s name, and had the ability to answer or decline. An answered phone call would simply answer from my iphone as there is no speaker/microphone on the Instinct. An Apple Watch had better notification support, simply because I could act on them, but again that is not something I miss.

What surprised me was that clearing a notification on my watch also cleared that notification on my iPhone, and vice versa – clearing a notification from my iPhone also cleared it from the Instinct’s notification list. This is something that did not exist on my Pebble 2. In comparison, the Pebble 2 was a list of dumb notifications. If I cleared a notification on my Pebble 2, it remained in the notification center on my iPhone. Or if I cleared a notification on my iPhone, it remained in the list of notifications on my Pebble 2. The Instinct’s manual describes this as “smart notifications” and I believe that to be true.

However, while I can clear notifications from the Instinct, I can only clear them one at a time. I can’t find a way to clear all notifications at once from the Instinct. To do that, it’s quicker to just do it on the iPhone. I’ve reached out to Garmin to see if this is a possibility.

Another aspect of the smart notifications, is the ability to notify you with tone or vibration, or both tone and vibration. You can go a bit more granular and decide how you’re notified during a workout/activity compared to not during a workout activity. For example, I have “tone” notifications for when I’m not in a workout, and “tone & vibration” for when I’m in a workout. The vibration is rather strong and I would prefer if I could make it less intense, otherwise I would leave both tone & vibration on all the time.

Music controls:
The music/podcast controls work as well as my Pebble 2. You can pause/play, change volume, go to previous/next track, enable/disable repeat, or enable/disable shuffle. However, one downside of the music/podcast controls is that the current time does not display on the screen while at the music/podcast controls. This means I have to press two buttons to get back to the watch face to see the the time. This is something that Garmin can likely update through software updates, and something I would really appeciate.

I noticed that the time of the song/podcast would sometimes display as —:— instead of the actual time progressed, but I haven’t used it enough to see why or how frequently it will really happen.

Text reply:
On iOS, you can’t interact with notifications, with the exception of answering/declining a phone call. This is a limitiation with iOS. I believe there is more functionality if you were to use an Android phone. My Pebble 2 used to have replies, but with the shutdown of the servers, that’s a thing of the past. There is some functionality with Rebble (the service that tried to resurrect Pebble’s services), but again I believe that’s more developed from an Android phone. For notifications that actually need a response or interaction, I just pick up my phone. I don’t really miss the ability to do this from my wrist as it’s still faster to just do it from my iPhone.

Calendar:
Surprisingly, the calendar is quite similar to Pebble’s “timeline”, with the exception that the Instinct’s calendar only goes 1 day into the future and 0 days in the past, whereas the Pebble 2 let me go 3 days in the future and 1 day into the past. The Instinct allowed me to view the time, location, and description of the events, although they got truncated just like notifications.

Weather:
I’m not sure of the data source, but I have read online that they use Accuweather. It appears accurate when compared to other weather sources, and quickly shows me the current weather, high/low for the day, weather condition symbol, percentage change of precipitation today, and wind speed and direction – all on one screen. I have the weather in my widgets carousel (more on that below), which means it’s always 1 button click away from my watch face.

Other thoughts – heart monitor:
I very briefly had a Pebble 2 HR and while it did have a heart monitor, I felt it was wildly inaccurate. The Pebble 2 HR also had a large bump on the rear of the device, which made the entire watch sit higher on my wrist. The Apple Watch did have what seemed like an accurate heart monitor, but it wasn’t continuous. It would only take a reading every few minutes, sometimes not for 15 minutes or so. The heart rate monitor on the Instinct is rated as “24/7 continuous”, and it definitely is. I have the heart rate monitor on my watch face and it updates every single second. It also has a small chart of the previous 4 hours.

I haven’t yet gone for my 2 mile walk, and I plan to update my comments when I’ve done so, but this is where Garmin devices typically excel and I don’t expect to have any issues. You can customize the metrics that display for each workout, and it gets extremely granular for people who want to zero-in on exactly what they’re looking for in a workout. This is a serious fitness device, but I really just want to keep an eye on my current pace, total distance, time elapsed, and the current time. I also want to be able to quickly pause/unpause my podcast and raise/lower the volume occasionally.

Other thoughts – watch faces:
There are 12 watch faces, but really only 6 since half of them are inversed colors of the other 6. Each watch face allows you to customize the complications. I use the default watch face, which allows for the time with seconds (although there’s no PM/AM indicator), and 4 complications. I have: heart rate, day of week with date number, number of uncleared notifications, and battery level. Holding the MENU button brings up the watch menu, and the battery mater is displayed there, so I may wind up using that complication area for something else, especially considering how long teh battery should last.

There is no Garmin Connect IQ on this watch, and I consider that to be a good thing. While it would allow you to install apps and additional watch faces, along with that comes the possibility of bugs draining your battery or introducing instability. I found that I never used many apps on my Pebble 2 or even the Apple Watch. Having my watch primarily be an actual watch is of great importance to me.

Other thoughts – widgets carousel:
From the watch face, you can press up/down to cycle through your widgets. Available widgets include: notifications, calendar, heart rate, music controls, weather, last sport, last run, last ride, last swim, steps, floors climbed, my day, calories, intensity minutes, stress, abc, altimeter, barometer, compass, temperature, dogtrack, virb, inreach, alternate time zones, xero, and sunrise/sunset. You can set as many or as few as you want, and can order them however you want as well. I have these enabled: notifications, calendar, heart rate, music controls, weather – so one press UP from my watch face brings me to the weather, or one press DOWN from my watch face brings me to my notifications, and they cycle through if you were to continually press UP or DOWN.

Other thoughts – hotkeys/shortcuts:
In addition to the widgets carousel, you can also customize hotkeys. A hotkey allows you to hold a button for 2 seconds to quickly jump to a destination. These are all the possible shortcuts which can be customized to a limited amount of destinations:

Hold GPS button
Hold Back button
Hold Down button
Hold GPS + Down buttons
Hold GPS + Up buttons
Hold Back + Light buttons
Hold Back + Up buttons

The available Hotkey destinations are: GPS, timers, stopwatch, phone, dual grid, mob, lock/unlock keys, widgets, lap, navigation, backlight, metronome, sight ‘n go, screenshot, controls, baro. watch mode, sync time, flashlight, alarm clock, abc, set, broadcast HR, or disable the hotkey entirely.

Holding the “Light” button can’t be customized as it takes you to the controls carousel.
Holding the “Up” button can’t be customized as it takes you to the Menu.

Right now I have the Down button as a hotkey to jump to my alarms, the back key to jump to timers, and the Back + Light combination to trigger the “flashlight”, which is just the screen brightness set to 100%, but is enough to get you through a dark room.

Other thoughts – alarms:
The alarms have the option to make tone, vibrate, or both tone & vibrate, as well as custom repeat days of the week. They can be set from the watch directly or through the Garmin app. It woke me without any problem as I had both the tone & vibrate enabled, but just the vibrate would likely wake me up – and possibily even a deep sleeper. Considering I should only have to charge every couple of weeks, this means I can sleep with it on every night and its going to become my daily alarm.

Other thoughts – stopwatch:
The stopwatch is almost unusable for me, since it (1) doesn’t display the current time and (2) doesn’t allow you to leave the screen while the stopwatch is being run. The time screen shows me the current time and allows me to leave the screen while the timer is in process, so I don’t understand why the stopwatch has this limitation.

Other thoughts – bluetooth connectivity:
My Apple Watch would fall back to Wifi if out of range of bluetooth, so it was nice to walk around my entire house without having to keep the phone in range, but the Garmin Instinct only has bluetooth connectivity to your phone. That connectivity was often hit or miss on my Apple Watch, as it would sometimes think it was connected by bluetooth, but if I attempted to send a message when I wasn’t actually within range, it would forever get stuck and I’d have to disable/enable iMessage.

I found the bluetooth range on the Garmin Instinct to be similar to that of my Pebble 2. It was interesting that if you enable “phone – alerts” on the Instinct, among other things it will notify you when your iPhone’s battery is low, but also if you go out of bluetooth range – then again notify you when you return to bluetooth range and the device reconnects. If you have the “notification” complication on your watch, you will also know if you’re in/out of range by seeing the number of notifications change to “–” when out of bluetooth coverage. This connect/disconnect feature was available on my Pebble 2 through certain watch faces or 3rd party apps, but it comes right out of the box with the Instinct.

Final thoughts:
It’s only been a couple days now, but I’ve already put my Apple Watch Series 4 up for sale, and haven’t looked back at my Pebble 2. I believe this is as close as I’ll get to the core functionality of a smart watch that I miss with the Pebble 2. That being said, this watch can stand on its own and not just be a fill-in or replacement of the Pebble 2. The Garmin Instinct has a great operating system, seems very reliable in terms of notifications and alarms, not to mention it feels like I could drive over this watch with a tank and it’ll keep on working. The app offers some nice insight into all of my health statistics, but I get enough interaction directly from the watch and am not sure how useful the app will be to me – although I definitely appreciate being able to customize some options directly from within the app.

I got the Instinct in graphite color, which isn’t entirely black but is more of a shadow/grey and is really nice looking. The bands are easy to swap, but I’m going to stick with the one that came with the watch.

One other nice thing about this watch is that it can act completely independent from a phone/app. You just obviously wouldn’t get any of the smart features such as notifications, calendar, weather, etc. The heart rate sensor will still work and activities will still be tracked. The time can even be set and updated directly from built-in GPS, without having to rely on a phone. This is not something that can be said of a Pebble 2 or even an Apple Watch. If you want to buy this watch as a super rugged G-shock type of watch but with great heart rate and activity monitoring, with the option of one day going completely independent of a phone or app, this is also a great choice.

DAY 4 updates:

Music controls update: Note that the Pebble 2 had “dedicated” button controls while at the music control screen. Push down for next track, up for previous, or middle to bring up options to change the volume up/down. Or holding up increased volume or holding down decreased volume, or holding middle paused/unpaused. However, with the Instinct, only one “action” is currently enabled. For example, the pause/play button is highlighted so that is the active function. If you want to change the volume, you have to turn the carousel to get to the specific control, then that action would be the one in control of the button. It’s difficult to explain, but results in more button presses to do what you want with your music.

Weather update: I realized that while at the weather widget, you can press the GPS button (or “enter” button as you’ll come to realize), that this brings you into a forecast for the next 4 hours. Then press “down” and you’ll see the daily forecast for the next 4 hours. During both of these forecast screens, the “now” temperature remains in the upper-right screen.

Watch Face update: I realized that I was wasting a spot in the upper-right complication by showing the date there, because I could move that to the bottom of the screen where I had the battery. Then in the upper right, I can add a 4-in-1 complication that shows: battery, phone connection, alarm status, and do not disturb status.

Stopwatch update: Somebody pointed out that you can hold the “CTRL” button to jump out of the stopwatch, then back out to the watch face. All the while, the stopwatch is still running. You can then go back to the stopwatch as normal, or go to your controls carousel to see the elapsed time on the stopwatch. Still, I would prefer to remain at the stopwatch screen and see the time so I don’t have to jump out like this.

Final thoughts update: I realized that I didn’t even bother to comment on the band comfort, and I think that’s because it’s so comfortable that I hardly noticed it. There are many adjustment points on the band and it’s an incredibly soft & matte silicone material. I find that I like keeping the watch on the 13th hole from (counting from the watch body), but I loosen it to the 14th hole before bedtime. I haven’t noticed any difference in the accuracy of the heart rate monitor between wearing it on the 13th or 14th hole.

I used to have apple watches series 1 and 4. I am using this Garmin for one month now and I am very amazed by the quality products.

It has all the cool stuff I used to like with Apple Watch and which are really useful:
– watsapp messages, all notifications mirrored from an iPhone
– call and ID notification, though you cannot speak through the watch (which honestly I hardly never used)
– music control from the watch (any app, Spotify, Deezer, music app) so you can change a song and control the volume in a shower or from your sofa

In addition it is better:
– battery life, this is really great not to charge it for 8 to 10 days in my experience and usage, especially if you travel for 2 / 3 days, no need to bother for a charger,
– stronger, no worries if any shock while doing outside activities,
– time is always on display (no need to lift the harm),
– water and shockproof, can go deep and in the sea,
– strong / rugged design
– internal sensors (temperature, altimeter).

Of course it has no coloured / touch screen, so you have to do everything with the buttons but honestly it is less fragile / sensitive and i prefer it like this. It sometimes loses Bluetooth connection, but I restart it and it is fine. It restart very fast anyways (20s).

LATEST UPDATE AT BOTTOM (5/11/2020)

What a frustrating activity tracker/smart watch journey I have been on. Nothing seemed quite right for what I was looking for. I am an avid outdoorsman who likes to hunt, backpack, hike, bike, and occasionally run. Things that are extremely important to me are an accurate altimeter, barometer, and GPS.

I first purchased the Fenix 3 HR. The watch was impressive in the beginning and I thought I had found the one. The issue turned out to be the altimeter. It was not accurate at all. I then waited for the Fenix 5. Same damn issue. Altimeter was worse than the 3. When I contacted Garmin, they told me to put the watch in warm soapy water. While this did seem to temporarily reset it back to normal, I continued to experience the same issue. As much as I would like to put my watch in a warm glass of soapy water every night, I decided to pass. The 5 plus eventually came out and appeared to solve these issues. But then…..Garmin realeased the Instinct.

This watch (so far) has really impressed me. It is so light weight and comfortable. The Fenix watches, while premium, are a bit large and heavy to wear. You truly forget you are wearing this watch. The features are great. It has absolutely everything I need. I’m not a triathlete and could care less about some of the measurements the Fenix gives you. Some have commented on the grainy display. I completely disagree. I would liken it to E Ink from a kindle. It truly is a pleasure to look at and is extremely clear and readable. I love that it is black and white.

The keys and apps are very responsive. The menus are so much faster than the Fenix. You can really whip through the widgets and settings to get where you want. The buttons are excellent and I have yet to accidentally press one while bending my wrist.

I am still testing the accuracy of the GPS tracking and ABC sensors but so far it is looking great. I really can’t say enough about this watch. Knock on wood, it seems like a great model from Garmin that will feel a niche hunting/outdoors market. I will provide an update in a month after more usage.

-UPDATE-

I’ve now had this watch for a few weeks and have taken it on several hunting trips. I am truly impressed with this watch. I cannot emphasize enough how comfortable and light this watch is. Owning and wearing heavier watches over the years, I think I forgot how nice it is to wear a watch that you forget is attached to your wrist. I hated wearing my Fenix watches to bed. Too bulky and would dig into my wrist. Tracking appears to be very accurate. Attitude has been accurate for daily use and when you are tracking an activity.

What I Love About This Watch:

-Comfortable & Lightweight
-Responsive Menus
-Screen Visibility is Exceptional
-Accurate ABC Sensors and Tracking
-Recessed Buttons Avoid Accidental Presses
-Battery Life Has Been Great

I really only have a couple complaints or rather suggestions to improve the watch. When you lock the keys (which you don’t have to too often because of recessed buttons), in order to unlock the watch, you hold any button for a short period. I wish Garmin would lengthen the amount of time it takes to hold the button. It takes about .5 seconds to unlock currently and that can be accidentally done pretty easily. This is really a minor complaint though. The screen is an unknown material or proprietary to Garmin. I do wish it was a Sapphire display but I put a screen protector on it and you truly cant tell there is one on the face. My last suggestion is I wish the battery indicator showed a percentage as opposed to the 5 bars in a battery indicator. Again, its a minor gripe but it would be nice if they changed that.

Please ask me questions. Id be happy to answer. I’ve done a disturbing amount of research on these watches over the years and believe I have finally found the perfect watch for my needs. I’ve used all Fenix watches and a Suunto Traverse Alpha. This watch is my favorite.

UPDATE 5/11/2020

Still an absolutely great watch. This watch is on my wrist every single day. It is still extremely comfortable. I have had a couple issues that I will address:

-My “Back” button started to give out on me around July 2019. It is a very commonly pressed button on the watch. Luckily the watch was still under warranty. Garmin replaced the watch no questions asked and quickly. A+ to them on their customer service. If it had gone out after the warranty period though, I would most likely be SOL. I believe it is a one year warranty.

With that being said, I do use this watch heavily. It is worn 24/7-365. All things considered it has held up extremely well. At the new price point, I still think it is an amazing watch for the price.

-My other issue, and I stated it earlier in the review is the lock feature on the watch. Its great that you can lock the screen but it is extremely easy to unlock simply by bending your wrist and hitting a button. This could be a simple software fix. They just need to extend the amount of time required to press a button to unlock. It doesn’t happen that often but if it does during an activity, it can be extremely frustrating.

This will be my last update for the watch. It has been an amazing watch well worth the price for me and I will buy another whenever this one dies. I hope Garmin continues to offer and improve this watch. It checks all the boxes for my needs.