Instinct Solar

>>Update: 12/11/23 after having the watch 16 months Sooo, 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 review I’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'm extremely happy with this watch. I have had 3 watches prior to this that could be considered smartwatches. I had one of the early Pebble watches, which I really liked. It was simple, could run a few apps at a time, but importantly it was reliable, and the battery lasted for about a week. Then I had one of the Fitbit smartwatches. I had not had good luck with Fitbits, between my wife and I, we had already had 4 or 5 various Fitbits fail on us; but we enjoyed the fitness challenges with friends. The Fitbits were lasting a few days at most between charges. The Fitbit smartwatch that I had lasted maybe a year before it broke, and the battery life seemed to be declining as well. We tried Samsung Galaxy smartwatches next, and while those had the most capability in terms of features of anything so far, they only lasted about 2 days on a charge, and after a year, only about a day. My wife's Galaxy failed in less than a year, and I was worried about mine, it didn't seem like it was really intended for rugged use. I decided to go over to Garmin, and I have not regretted it. This watch is built like a tank, the battery life lasts for 3 weeks or more, even without any solar charging. It doesn't have the touchscreen functionality, but I find I don't miss that at all. If anything, I think I prefer using the hard buttons on the side, as my big fingers had a real problem with accuracy on the Samsung smartwatch. I have used Garmin products for a long time as an outdoorsman and aviator, as well as in the military; and this watch upholds the sterling reputation for quality and reliability that I expect from the company.

I’ve been eyeing down the Instinct and Fenix for a while and finally decided on the Instinct when they introduced this solar version. It’s been a month of using it every day and I love it. I came from having a Viviactive HR and love the Instinct Solar much better. The wrist heart rate monitor is slimmer and doesn’t poke so much into your wrist, like the Vivoactive HR. Why did I choose this over the Fenix? For my use I didn’t need music storage built-in, nor the on-device topo maps of the Fenix. Those were the two big features that were on my would-be-nice but not essential lists. Other than that the Instinct gives you most of the same tracking capabilities and feedback. The Instinct gives you access to an app called Garmin Explore, which allows you to download topo maps to see where you are at, when out of cell coverage. That app resolved my desire for the Fenix, since I didn’t want to spend that much money. The solar feature of the watch is really cool and really works. I’m indoors most of the time when I’m at work, so solar alone won’t keep me going indefinitely, but when I’m outdoors it does increase battery life. One hour of full sun gave the watch one more day of smartwatch use or one hour of GPS tracking. More sun time gave about the same results with sunny days. Overcast days charged too, but we don’t have many of those in the desert I’m in so I can’t give I’m depth detail on overcast charging. Battery life is exceptional, even without solar. This was another reason I went with the Instinct Solar over the Fenix. I can get up to 32 days using smart watch (not tracking pulse ox all night ), or up to 64 days with the smart watch features turned off. When turning on the pulse-oximeter tracking at night, the watch only got 7 days of battery life. Still pretty dang good if you ask me, especially compared to the more GPU centered smart watches that I don’t need from Samsung or Apple. I ended up turning off the pulse-ox tracking because it wasn’t worth it to me for the battery dip. You can still check your pulse ox manually when you turn the nightly tracking off. The first charge of the battery got me 15 days of smart watch use, combined with 9 hours GPS tracking, and an hour of Cardio/Yoga tracking. The battery life with the pulse-oximeter tracking turned off roughly equates to one day of smart watch (watch with no tracking during the day) =one hour of GPS tracking. One complaint I was worried about was that the display doesn’t show you the percentage left on the battery on the main watch display, but shows you the days left of battery life (or hours when using GPS tracking). But I quickly discovered that when you navigate to the menu, the watch battery days remaining display toggles between days left and percentage. I got used to the days remaining and actually liked it better, after a month of use. The watch seems to be very durable but nice and light weight. I still got a tempered glass screen protector because I’m rough on watches. I did have a tough crash while mountain biking and the watch held up but the screen protector cracked because I hit a rock after flipping over the handlebars and hit right on the screen, but after taking the glass protector off the watch face was still mint new. Definitely recommend the screen protector if your a cluts like me. There are some really cool features like Altimeter, Barometer, Compass, area measurement, multiple sport tracking profiles(hiking, running, cycling, mountain biking, skiing, paddle boarding etc), open water swim, course navigation, and route back to start point. There are some hunting and fishing features but I’m not a hunter so can’t speak to those. The Instinct Solar is excellent for any outdoor or fitness enthusiast.

If you're looking for a sport smart-watch to listen to music while you run, navigate throughout the city or install apps, then THIS IS NOT YOUR WATCH. To put it simply and give you a better feel for the watch, I'm a rock climber, amateur alpinist and during COVID took up running as part of my training routine. Me choosing this watch came down to the following points (in order of relevance): battery life, cost, and long-term usability. As an alpinist, the need for charging a device can be crippling, particularly GPS-enabled ones. The watchs' battery lasts for 13 days on the basic setting, meaning it registers your heartbeat, daily activities (steps, floors, etc) and utilizes GPS without connecting for a charge for a long time (with Sleep PulseOx disabled it can last close to double that and in battery saver mode even longer). Of course, activities such as running, skiing, and others (it comes with preloaded activities but you can create your own custom ones) use up more battery, but you can set up different power modes so that the charge lasts longer. Moreover, I've had a simple Casio solar for the last 10 years and never changed the battery, so no way was I buying a 1-day-charge watch after that. Regarding cost, I got it during Presidents Day sales for 320-ish, which to me is a steal for this watch. If you are the kind of person who wants all the Instinct Solar has but wants street maps and more customization, then you may need to spend more cash on things like the Enduro or the Phoenix lineup, both of which come at twice the cost or more (do your research on those). The Instinct Solar is a basic watch in terms of looks and visuals (black & white screen, breadcrumb navigation, only a few preloaded watch faces), aimed mostly at giving you many features for outdoor adventures and sports while not wasting resources on useless gimmicks. In my case, running is only part of and not the focus of my training so, while valuable, things like VO2max are not a must-have, whereas wrist-based blood O2 readings can give me an approximate idea on the field (this is NOT a medical device). Regarding long-term usability, it comes down to one simple fact: these things are expensive. The reality is, unless you are made out of money, you cannot buy one of these every year, be it the Instinct or any other smart-watch. In my case, I wanted a device that can function on the mountains without worrying about whether it will make it on a single charge or die midway. I wanted something that has GPS capabilities but doesn't break the bank or needs a replacement for a while. Solar charging makes it a tough contender for this price range. Overall, if you want a basic do-it-all adventure watch that won't set you back too much but can be used for more than just extreme terrain, this is an excellent product. If you are looking for a more running-oriented or activity-tracking device, Garmin has other line-ups, more affordable than the Instinct Solar and with specific features for those activities. The only problem with this watch is the learning curve, but there are youtube guides to simplify it.

It is a great watch promising excellent battery life. If it has what you need for activity apps and usage, it may be for you. Here are two reasons I returned it and exchanged it via Amazon for the Fenix Pro 6x. One, the breadcrumb tracking on the Instinct is OK, but just OK. It shows a track, and that is about it. You can set the Pan/Zoom from .2 miles at a minimum to infinity(?) as a max, but at say, 2 miles the display is small enough as to render the perspective very small, and a .2 miles I question its usefulness, after all, I can see that far most of the time. So I went with the Fenix because it has actual mapping and the display is much larger. On the much touted battery life because of the solar charging (see any online review, written or on YouTube) and this is the strong point, and it was for me too in making the purchase. But here is the caveat. Solar charging only works outside, and in bright sunlight (True, you can set the battery saver in different modes (as you can in the Fenix non-solar) to extend the battery life beyond belief. But that does limit your app use. And, if you live in PA like I do, and 5 months out of the year at least you are wearing sleeves, then what usefulness is the solar charging? Watch the video reviews. These are all done outdoors in places where there is abundant outdoor sunshine. Add to that the fact that where I do most of my hiking, under tree cover, and again the solar charging becomes much less of a sales point for me in my location, or any other location where I might travel to hike (think Glacier National, the Black Hills, Appalachian National Forest, New Hampshire, etc.). Also, when just doing my normal walks in bright sun the solar is only a benefit about half the time because the watch needs to be facing the sun - so when walking in a direction when the watch is on the shaded arm - well, you get my point. In sum, the solar charging would really only benefit me mainly in the summer, when doing fairly long bicycle rides. And that has become a lesser activity for me at this time in my life anyway. Other than that, it is a fine device for what it is designed to do, if it suits your needs. But I felt that I could get a much better device with real mapping, the Fenix 6, without a very usable function for me, the solar charging, at not too much more (if you call a couple hundred dollars not too much!) money, and just stick with connected charging. Thanks for reading.

Do not trust the alarm feature to wake you up for critical events. I overslept by about an hour when the watch updated overnight. After software installation the watch powers itself off AND MUST BE RESTARTED MANUALLY BY PRESSING THE POWER BUTTON. I got lucky it happened on a weekend. Update 1/26/2024: I believe the watch reads 100% full BEFORE a charge cycle is actually complete. Instead of taking it off charger as soon as it reads full(usually an hour to charge from 50 to 100), I let it stay plugged in for 4-5 hours. Now battery life is just like new, dropping approx. 6-7% per day when not getting any sun. I recharge it every Sunday evening and the battery is consistently between 48 and 52 after seven days use. Maybe Garmin released an update? I don't know. Update 12/2023: About two months ago the watch suddenly went from going 2 weeks on a charge to just 4-5 days. I researched a bit, ended up doing a factory reset and it was back to normal for 2 weeks. Now it's acting up again, consuming about 1% of the battery per hour. I know it's software related because the reset worked for a while. I Contacted garmin support. Since it's out of the 2 year warranty they offered to exchange it -- for $140 plus tax!! No thanks. They basically said "well tough luck, call us if you change your mind." Original review: I spent probably 10 hours watching tutorials and reading reviews before making the purchase. Color touchscreens look nice and eliminate the need for instruction manuals with all of their detail, but I was looking for something simple, rugged, and affordable with great battery life. Solar charging was just a bonus. I was not going to be tied to plugging a watch in every night. The user manual is huge and the five button controls mean a lot of functionality must be memorized. I didn't want to wait months for a big sale and purchased at about $55 off msrp. Still seems like a good value.

So far this has been a great watch. I rarely use all the features, but it's nice to know it's there if I need it. Primarily I use this as my every day watch. I wanted something with sleep tracking, activity tracking, and a long battery life. I used to have a Fitbit Ionic, but after running into problem after problem and Fitbit's pretty awful warranty program, I threw it out and started looking for something else. The sleep tracking doesn't seem to be quite as good as the FitBit was, although I'm not sure how much that was FitBit fudging the data to make it look better. The Garmin does seem to think I've gone to bed sometimes before I actually have, and doesn't track deep vs light vs rem quite as well. That said, I'm not trying to run my own sleep study, and this is enough for me. I am pretty rough on my devices, so I wanted something rugged. I don't want to have to take it off when I play hard or when I shower at the end of the day. I'm very much into the set it and forget it mode and this watch lets me do that. By the time I threw away the FitBit, I had a cracked and chipped screen and had gone through two bands. It had a rough time dealing with my trip to the ocean. So far my Garmin has been holding up great and shows zero signs of wear so far (3 months in). The best part so far is the battery life! I can go almost 2 weeks on one charge. It will even go into extreme battery mode when it's low so that I'm never without the bare necessities (the time). If I use more tracking features, it goes down, but the default tracking is good enough for most of my fitness desires. I am looking forward to trying it out on some more difficult bike rides and hikes, even then, having to charge it once a week is still twice better what I had with the Ionic. It has taken me some time to get used to the buttons and controls, but coming off of a touch screen interface it is understandable. There is a lot here, and I should investigate more, but it is pretty easy once you get used to the different buttons. The heart rate and O2 tracking has been great and I think the heart rate is more accurate than my previous watch. All in all, I'm very excited to have this watch and hope to have it for years to come. If I think about it, I'll try to come back in a years time and update my review.

I haven't had this watch for long but already I have no complaints. I do outdoor general construction including concrete form work and this is the only watch I can trust to not break on me. The all rubber wrist band is nice as it'll break when it needs to and I don't have to worry about de-gloving. It is in fact waterproof so far, I spent half an hour cleaning out a storm drain and got mud and water all over but as soon as I got home I threw it in the sink and scrubbed it off. The battery life is wonderful and the interface is easy to use and understand. There are so many great features and the GPS is incredibly accurate to my surprise. If I come across any issues later I'll update this review but with first impressions I have no qualms or issues. 10/10 Update: 2 months later and as you can see in the second picture it's still going strong. There's slight wear and probably dirt as well on the keepers (which hold the strap flawlessly) and a small knick out of the plastic between the Menu and ABC button. I roughly dragged my hand across hardened concrete that was still stuck to one of the steel forms at work and it just took the slightest chunk out of the outer bezel if you'd call it that. No scratches to the glass no water damage, the battery life isn't affected by the cold even when it got down to the single digits, I never have to worry about this watch. It's also amazing how it can pick up sunlight on a cloudy winter day. The only thing I've noticed is the heart rate tracker seems to have issues accurately tracking my pulse as of lately but I'm not sure if thats mechanical or human error. I do know my heart rate didn't drop down to 48 BPM while stacking lumber though. Still havent used the GPS yet but i have used the compass to find north on New job sites. Overall still an amazing watch and well worth the price especially if you're out in the field every day.

Peu importe l'usage que vous souhaitez faire avec une montre intelligente, cette montre peut tout faire. La montre est pas fait cheap, le design est superbe et elle est confortable à porter. Pas encombrante ou lourde sur votre poignet. Il y a tellement de réglages et de possibilités avec cette montre que c'en est impressionnant. Et pour ceux et celles qui ont commenté comme quoi elle est compliquée pour rien, je leur répond ceci; Prenez le temps de lire votre guide et vous allez vite comprendre comment ''jouer'' avec et comment la mettre à votre goût avec les réglages que vous aimez et en moins de 2 semaines, vous allez vous en servir les 2 yeux fermés! Les gens veulent toute tout cuit et tout de suite et sans efforts de nos jours. À ce prix-là, cette montre vous offre une panoplie de réglages et gadgets, il est donc normal que prenne plus que 30 minutes pour voir et comprendre tout ce qu'elle peut accomplir. Personnellement, cette montre est le meilleur investissement pour ma santé et un excellent outil motivateur ! Ça ne fait pas 5 jours que je l'utilise pour écrire tout ceci. Je l'utilise chaque depuis Juillet 2022 et j'ai zéro regret de mon achat, au contraire, plus je l'utilise et plus je l'adore. Le GPS est sur la coche ! Y a pas de comparaison à faire avec les autres montres plus bas de gamme et plus ''à la mode'' à 200-300$ genre Fitbit Versa ou autres. Overall 6 étoiles sur 5 !

Pros: 1)Ligereza. 2) Fácil configuración. 3) Buen diseño 4) Interfase muy intuitiva 5) Carga Solar buena, lo expuse al sol directo por un par de horas y logro cargar un porcentaje interesante de batería por lo que es una buena característica para salir de algún apuro en caso de no contar con el cargador. Contras: 1) Me decepcionó un poco la duración de la batería incluso si le desactivo el Bluetooth para que no se enlace todo el tiempo con el teléfono. 2) Por el color de la caja y la correa (Blanco) tiende a ensuciarse de inmediato y muy fácil. Tuve que comprar otro extensible que resista más al suciedad por uso.

Me encantó, no es un reloj touch, es un reloj a prueba de todo. y lo mejor es su durabilidad y calidad.

Not an activity without it!! best gift from me to me!

You have what you want for all kind of sport functions Perfect for rugged environment like Himalaya hiking Design is smart for lady too . Very good Size for my small wrist Long Battery life and solar is really an advantage for mountain areas -hiking