Garmin Instinct Watch

[Canoetripper]

A new toy for me, but I am impressed. At $300.00 it is beginner level, but I only do a very few things with it.

1.) Keep track of my steps/miles while walking at work, Nobody believes how much I walk everyday, except for the watch.
2.) GPS while hiking through the 853 acres of woods at my R&G club.

I am also a Topographical Map and Compass nerd so I really can't get lost, especially when I actually hear the Tobyhanna Creek or Routes 115 and 940, but the pin point accuracy of GPS is very reassuring while in the woods. I have yet to scratch the surface of what this GPS watch can do.

 

[jeffroey]

A new toy for me, but I am impressed. At $300.00 it is beginner level, but I only do a very few things with it.

1.) Keep track of my steps/miles while walking at work, Nobody believes how much I walk everyday, except for the watch.
2.) GPS while hiking through the 853 acres of woods at my R&G club.

I am also a Topographical Map and Compass nerd so I really can't get lost, especially when I actually hear the Tobyhanna Creek or Routes 115 and 940, but the pin point accuracy of GPS is very reassuring while in the woods. I have yet to scratch the surface of what this GPS watch can do.

I have one of these and love it. I have the solar variant and even without spending any time in the sun, getting 20 days between charges is amazing. This is a great smart watch for anyone who doesn't really like smart watches.

 

[Canoetripper]

I have owned the watch long enough to know that if I walk 20,000 steps in a day which is every day, I am over 10 miles according to my computer and the Garmin Connect website which has all of my data on my cell phone and computer.

I have only have/had this set up for two weeks now. So far my personal record is 14.7 miles just at work.

I have figured out the foot steps/ walking mileage part of this watch. Up next is the walking in the woods. I know that my map/compass skills are good.

I have watched enough of the GPS videos enough to feel pretty confident about where I will use this watch at my R&G Club in the Poconos, knowing that I really can't get lost since I know where the Tobyhanna Creek is and also Rt's 115 and 940 are with just my compass and map.

I bought my basic Garmin Instinct begore the Solar Instinct, which I think is better, but since I am so curious about what I do everyday, I think that my computer also charges my watch at the same time. I am always at a full charge.

 

[sarce]

I got one for my birthday recently and have really enjoyed having it. It is working very well and I think I have only scratched the surface of all of its capabilities. I like that it can share live location with others when in a remote area as an extra safety precaution - though I have not yet tested this feature.

 

[salmonoid]

I bought an Instinct Solar two Black Friday sales ago. I hadn't worn a watch since high school but thought there were some features I might like in the Garmin series. I was intending to replace my phone GPS tracking and fishing logging with the watch but was somewhat disappointed. The GPS is very jittery and the fishing logging says "Recording Catch and Location" but only records the catch and never the location (confirmed bug apparently - they wanted me to log a ticket so they could update the wording to say Recording Catch and drop the Location wording bit - nah, maybe fix it so a GPS enabled watch that can record the Location does just that??). The VO2 reading is suspect, or maybe I'm dead, because it consistently reads my oxygen level at 91%.

I went with the Solar over the vanilla Instinct because of two reasons - battery life was better and the GPS was supposed to be more accurate. This was due to a different GPS chipset being used in the Solar over the Instinct. The solar charging bit is a bit of a gimmick, although I guess in a survival situation, you might get enough charge over a few days to make a run out of what ever situation you were stuck in, as long as you didn't die waiting for the charge

I do use it for daily step count competitions with my wife and youngest daughter. That's probably the biggest use for me now.

 

[Canoetripper]

I am age 63 so I am kind of a low tech gadget kind of guy, but I do have enough uses for what I need to know with my Garmin Instinct watch that I have a Monday appointment with the local Geek Squad in Lancaster to learn everything else that I need to know with the watch in conjunction with my computer, cell phone, and tablet.

I am almost there on my own, but want to get there sooner rather than later.

The steps converting to miles on all three devices is huge since I don't have electricity at the cabins in the Poconos.

The GPS and maps is also very important to me. I want to be able to see all of this on my devices when I want to. I am very good with a compass and topographical map, but at my age, I had both of these long before I ever had a GPS watch.

Again, I am almost there but am impatient. I want to get where I want to be right now. Same thing with improving my fly fishing. I don't mind paying for fly casting lessons if I can get better right now.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I'm not a tech guy and typically never use these products up to their capability. I have the Instinct but mostly only use it to track my dogs while hunting (I have Garmin collars and they're compatible).