Garmin010-02293-10 Instinct Solar, Rugged Outdoor Smartwatch with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built-in Sports Apps and Health Monitoring, Graphite

>>Update: 12/11/23 after having the watch 16 monthsSooo, when it comes to ruggedness, the watch held up for 16 months of hard 24/7 use… ONLY with a constant screen protector (see my original review below). I found the screen protector absolutely necessary to protect the hard (brittle) crystal face. I had to replace the screen protector about 8 times during those 16 months and, even so, most of the time it was cracked. I would wait until there were 3 or 4 cracks to replace it. However, with the screen protector in place the watch DID hold up to my abusive daily life.Even the band held up better than I expected. It is a soft silicone so, while that makes it exceptionally comfortable, it did get cut up a bit. The 15 month mark was where I finally ordered a 4 pack of replacement straps because I was concerned that the cuts would open up soon and the band would fail. A pretty respectable performance for a soft, comfortable strap but a fair bit shortlived compared to the tougher Casio bands which take 2-4 years of abuse and are not uncomfortable in the least to me.And, finally, at 16 months the battery is failing. The watch will shut off 3-6 times per day no matter where the charge is from 40%-100%. To make absolutely sure it didn’t have anything to do with button presses I took it off and left it sitting on an end table. The battery is toast after 16 months. That’s considerably shorter than the lifespan of a cell phone battery, shorter than a REPLACEABLE watch button battery and far far shorter than a Casio solar watch battery. Again, that’s with very few O2 readings (<10), no ‘activity session’ tracking, less than 50 “flashlight” uses of less than 1 minute each and only a few GPS uses (literally 3 or 4). That’s far from heavy battery usage and only charging it once every week or two, typically about every week and a half.So, I found the watch to be my absolute favorite smart watch. I found it to be, really, fairly rugged ONLY so long as I keep a screen protector on it. If you are looking for a smart watch and activity tracker, have a rambunctious lifestyle and aren’t concerned about a high def, full color screen this watch/series appears to me to be the front runner on the market. Especially if battery life is of great concern.However, if you are used to your watches holding up for years while taking a heck of a beating and you think this watch could be an equivalent to those watches while entering into the smart watch/tracker market you should take a beat to consider it further. I would suggest those most active and hardest on their watches factor in screen protectors and the need to replace them CONSTANTLY or live most of your life with cracked screen protectors on your watch. Also, even then, don’t expect 3 or 4 years out of it. In my experience, don’t expect 2 years or even 1.5.For the price tag on this watch I could easily get 10-20 years of use out of multiple Casio solar or the cheapest G-shock watches. So, I have to ask myself, is this watch worth it? I would say, personally, that it was worth it once. I received some insights into overheating/heatstroke, improving my sleep patterns and managing my daily stamina through my own observations of the data (the Garmin “insights” never gave me any new and useful info). This was only possible because, unlike with other watches/trackers, it was tracking what I needed constantly 24/7/365 and I only lost the time it was charging once every couple of weeks while I was sitting in the living room watching TV.I appreciated the watch and the insights from it and I don’t regret it but I’m not willing to replace it every 16 months, deal with constant screen protector cracks and replacements and I sure did miss my analog watch hands. I’m going back to my Casio tough solar, G-Shock and Pro Trek watches.>>Original reviewI’m a “watch guy”. I probably have about (embarrassingly) 2 dozen watches and I’ve worn a watch, basically, 24/7/365 since I was about 9 years old. I have tried about 4 smart watches and a few fitness trackers over the years before the Garmin Instinct Solar and it’s my favorite that I’ve tried by a lot, BUT…I’ve had a smartphone since the original iPhone. I use it all day every day for tons of different things and, being a watch guy, I thought fitness trackers and smartwatches were a logical progression. That’s why I’ve tried so many but they were always disappointing for numerous reasons.The first is battery life. I charge my phone often. I take it out of my pocket and plug it up or put it on a MagSafe charger. It’s charging while I’m using the GPS to drive to my next service call. But I can’t abide taking my watch off to charge it up every night. Even once a week is a stretch. I’ve been wearing a watch 24/7/365 for almost my entire life and going out of my way to take the watch off and charge it is… irritating to say the least. The Solar Instinct lasts about 20-30 days between charges. That’s with constant activity and heart rate tracking, no O2 tracking at night and not using GPS. That is fantastic!The second issue is annoying alerts. As a rabid smartphone user, I thought I would prefer the convenience of seeing calls, texts and notifications at a glance on my wrist. I was so wrong. I’m perfectly satisfied with notifications on my phone. I use my discernment to decide when to check notifications on my phone and they don't get unnecessarily intrusive. Smartwatch notifications on the other hand are extremely invasive. Having my wrist blow up on me is extremely irritating. It's distracting and costs me time by breaking my concentration on whatever task or thought I'm engaged in and the fact that it can't be easily ignored is no small matter. I have my Solar Instinct set up for no notifications which I greatly prefer.The third consideration would be the features. The ability to control your music or engage your phone’s camera with your watch is fine but those types of things (or, obviously, phone notifications) don't concern me. What I love about the Solar Instinct is the customization to display many pieces of information that I value, by default, on the face and the ability to track my heart rate 24/7, my sleep, my general activity and GPS without a huge battery life cost or a phone connection. What I really like is that it also has good watch functionality, i.e. stopwatch, timer, alarm, etc. What I find useful on occasion is the O2 monitor and the ability to use it as a little flashlight in a pinch.The final consideration which may be the one most pertinent for me is ruggedness. You see, in the HVAC trade, I work with my hands for a living. I'm also a red-blooded American. In addition to the physical nature of my job I frequently do yard work and find occasion to cut down/up trees, split wood, build things, work on things and engage in maintenance on vehicles and my home and, as established, I wear a watch at all times which includes when engaging in these activities as well as showering and swimming. I have destroyed many watches, particularly the ones I’ve worn while working.When I first got my Instinct Solar I was babying it because, well, my experience has been that smartwatches and activity trackers are FAR from rugged and robust. I didn't wear it at work. I would swap it out with my work watch when I got home & swap them back before I left in the morning. I wanted it to last and, to start, I sacrificed tracking during the majority of my activity (while at work) for the sake of protecting the watch and longevity.Finally, after a few weeks, I wore the watch while doing yard work on the weekend. THE FIRST TIME I wore it while weed-eating the screen got busted. Now, I'm sure the reason this happened is that they used a nice, hard, highly scratch-resistant crystal for the watch BUT this is a real problem. I didn't expect that it would be too much to ask of a “robust” watch that’s “mil-spec” rated to be able to wear it while doing basic yard work. You know, a period where you might want to track your heart rate and activity. What's more, of the hundreds of times I've done yard work and used a weed-eater, always while wearing a watch, NOT ONCE has it ever significantly damaged a watch. Until that is, the first time I did it wearing my Instinct Solar.I replaced that watch and disappointedly decided I'll just have to use screen protectors from now on. The new Instinct Solar took a dive after just a few weeks. It began an endless bootup loop. It would boot up and crash and boot up again endlessly. I tried charging it, letting it die and doing a hard boot. Nothing worked.Tech support had me, of course, do another hard boot because that's what they do to people who take the time to troubleshoot their own issues. They have you repeat the steps you've already taken. After that they had me send them a video of what the watch was doing and they promptly sent me a replacement. They did make it right.By this point, I decided I'm done babying it. I keep a screen protector on it and I may remove the watch to shove my hand/arm in a tight spot at work but I wear it 24/7 now. It is what it is. If this watch can't handle normal life so it can track my heart rate and activity then so be it. I have plenty of “normal” watches I can revert to in that event (which are a fraction of the cost by the way). If that occurs I suppose I'll just forget about smartwatches until someone finally comes out with one that at least has the capabilities of the Instinct Solar and is truly rugged.As a side note, we are now back to warm weather and I have worn it while weed-eating twice. That resulted in cracking and replacing the screen protectors for the first two times. So, the tally is weed-eating three times resulting in one broken watch and two broken screen protectors. I'm also not fond of the proprietary watch band attachment that prevents the use of a regular band like 99% of other watches use. At this point, however, I'm not sure this will even become an issue. I don't see the watch lasting long enough to require a band replacement but we’ll see.As much as I like the Instict Solar it just doesn't seem to be resilient enough to hold up to my normal life. It may be absolutely great for someone who lives in an apartment, works at a desk or a counter and whose physical activity consists of working out at the gym or running or swimming or biking. If, on the other hand, you have a rough-and-tumble kind of life you should think twice about spending the scratch on this watch if your plan is to wear it 24/7. It certainly seems tougher than 99% of smart watches but it can't hold a candle to the beating a $30-$40 Casio “tough solar” can take, much less a G-Shock.

I've had this watch for a few weeks and I wanted to give a review because I feel this watch deserves one. First off, this is not going to be a technical review, more of an overview and my experience so far. If you are looking for a review that gives detailed specs. GPS accuracies, and types of activities that can be tracked, you might want to read another review. For most people just looking for an activity tracker, this watch might be a little overwhelming. While I don't go on long jogs or marathons, and I'm not into rugged mountaineering, I feel like this watch could definitely handle that. I was just looking for a watch to track my daily activity, walks or runs in my neighborhood, occasional tail hikes, sleep, pulse ox, phone notifications, and include things like weather, stopwatch, countdown timer, compass, and most of all have a great battery life. This watch easily delivers all of that. In fact, there are so many features in this watch, I'd say that most people might never try them all. I would suggest that anyone interested in this watch download the manual from Garmin's website and just look at what it offers.This watch is very light and comfortable. In fact, I'm amazed they were able to pack so much into this watch and I can barely feel it on my wrist. The band has a large number of adjustment holes in the strap. So, nearly everyone should be able to adjust it to fit comfortably. Many of my watches only have 8-10 holes in the strap and it can be hard to find an adjustment that is not too tight or too loose. The adjustment holes in this watch strap go all the way up to the watch itself. They also allow good ventilation, in case you sweat during a workout.The battery life in this watch has been amazing for me. I'm the kind of person who drains a watch battery in 1/2 of the amount of time it's supposed to take, and that is without including GPS activities. The first time I fully charged this watch, it showed a 27 day battery life. Without doing GPS activities, it will easily make it a full day and show 26 days by the next day. In my experience, the watch seems to calculate the remaining battery life based on recent usage. So, after a GPS activity, you might see the number of days decrease accordingly, like using an extra day or two of battery life depending on how long your activity is. But, sunlight will help with that. Garmin recommends that you give the watch 3 hours of full sunlight a day. While that would be nice, it's not really practical on a daily basis for me. But, in my experience, it's not really required either if you are just looking for a watch that will make it through the better part of a month without charging. What 3 hours of sunlight will give you is about 2% , or +1 day battery life.I like the fact that I can wear this watch and never worry about getting it scratched or damaged. Working outdoors, mowing, trimming, occasional chain saw use, this watch won't even flinch. It's very rugged and well built. I actually appreciate the fact that it does not have a touch screen. You can navigate through all of the menus and options, even with gloves on. Phone notifications are very prominent (they use a double-buzz for each one), so even while working outside, I can still feel it.I also have a Garmin Venu and I enjoy the full color touchscreen. But after using this watch, I realized that you don't actually need a full color screen. In fact, I realized how much I missed not having a watch with a display that was easily visible in any light and be always on. Yes, the Venu has an always-on screen option, but it is not very visible in sunlight and the battery life with that display on was extremely short. I like being able to look at the Instinct's display any time and see the time down to the seconds, and everything else I need without trying to tilt my arm just right or tap on the screen. One thing that I thought that I'd miss is the Garmin ConnectIQ store, which is on the Venu but not on the Instinct. But to tell you the truth, I don't miss it. I know you can get all kinds of unique widgets for your watch there, but a lot of them are just fluff. Everything you would typically need is already "baked into" this watch. The nice part about that is all of the widgets on the Instinct are Garmin widgets so you know they were designed specifically for your watch, and they will work. One item I have been missing that I think should be included with the weather is the current UV index.One thing that I did miss was the ability to make customizations to the Instinct watch from the Garmin Connect app. Nearly everything from the watch faces to the widget settings were configurable on the Venu from the Garmin Connect app. Most of the changes you need to make to the Instinct, you'll need to make on the watch itself through the settings menu. As it turns out, I like to tinker with the settings on watch, so it ended up not being a big deal after all. One trick I found in the settings to save a little battery life was to turn off the display light when I press a key. This watch is so customizable. You can even set the display light to come on when you press a key only after sunset, for example. But I just turned mine off because if you do need the display backlight, you can simply press the upper left button and it will come on. You can set the timeout for the backlight, but it will automatically stay on as long as you are interacting with the watch and pressing buttons.With 5 physical buttons, there is a learning curve with this watch. However daunting it might seem, within a day or two, I was intuitively using the watch and knew which buttons did what. The buttons are very solid and have a nice tactile click when you press them.The Control Menu, which is available in many Garmin watches, is a quick launch list of shortcuts to commonly used activities. This is fully customizable and can include things like alarm list, timers, do not disturb settings, find my phone, sync, and many, many more. It does have a flashlight shortcut, but it's too dim to be much use in anything except for close up in total darkness. Navigating through the Control Menu on the Instinct is slightly slower than my other Garmin watches because it is not a touchscreen and you have to scroll through the list of shortcuts to find what you want. But it remembers the last thing you used, and it will open with that item selected the next time you launch the Control Menu. The Control Menu on this watch can include more items than you can see on the screen at one time. That is not possible with the Venu because it has a fixed number of slots.The watch faces are very customizable. The default one has a graph on the top left-hand corner. You can use this for things like heart rate, solar charging levels, and so on. I use it to display a barometric pressure graph. And even that is fully customizable, to graph either the last 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours. There is a prominent circle on the upper right of the screen that can customized to contain things like the date, or current temperature, or heart rate, or altitude, or barometric pressure/trend, or moon phase, or many others. I use it to display the number of notifications currently on my watch. Notifications can be easily dismissed on the watch and they immediately disappear from your phone. Just be aware that it is the down button that dismisses the notification. It is also the same button used to scroll down though the notification content when you select the notification. More than once, I've accidentally dismissed the notification thinking that I was going to scroll down to see the additional content.I like the Sunrise and Sunset times, as well as the Moon phase with the moon rise and moon set times widgets. You can even include some of these details onto a watch face. I use part of the lower section of the default watch face to display either the sunrise or sunset time, depending on which comes next. I also include the day/date in the other section of the lower watch face. As you probably figured out, the lower second of the default watch face can contain 2 separate data elements.Overall, this is probably one of the best watches I have. I enjoy the extended battery life and the fact that the watch is highly customizable, and very durable. And I didn't even cover what this watch can do with respect to activity tracking, ABC functions, and GPS capability. That would be a another review altogether.