GarminInstinct 2 Solar, GPS Outdoor Watch, Solar Charging Capabilities, Multi-GNSS Support, Tracbak Routing, Graphite

Let me preface this review by telling you what I primarily wanted in a watch against what I didn't need. Number one on my list was duarability. I work in construction, primarily old home restoration where we routinely are moving heavy materials, particularly large wood beams in and out of tight spaces where grinding your watch face and band against other hard surfaces are inevitable at times. Add dust, sweat and shock from using demolition tools and other implements of destruction and you'll understand why many common (and expensive) smart watches would not make the cut.The second most important feature to me was ease of use. Toggling through features should not be the equivalent of solving a Rubik's cube. The Instinct 2 is fairly intuitive and simple once you understand the function of it's four primary buttons. Repetitive use of features for the first couple weeks makes this process much easier.My aging eyes and working in low light conditions requires me to have an easy to read time display. Large contrasting block letters. White on black in this case. Perfect. Of course there is a display light, but as with most watches this requires you to have a free hand to depress the function button, which I often don't have.I originally did not care for the incoming message function - text and email, but soon realized this is something I glance at often. Instead of feeling my phone vibrating in my pocket, pulling it out and checking to see who messaged me, a quick glance at my watch tells me who it's from, where I can then decide if I need to pull my phone out to respond. There are customizable quick reply options, but I don't use them.I currently have the heart rate monitor set up to be permanently on my primary display. I simply find it interesting to see how my heart rate fluctuates throughout my day. Once the app is downloaded to your phone, you can easily track this information week to week for comparison. Same goes for sleep quality if you wear your watch to bed.The GPS function is a whole other package that I have yet to dive into as I do not cycle or hike as much as I used to. I do however like the emergency contact function (via GPS) should I ever need my location to be found by a friend or loved one in case of emergency.Size: This was a big one for me, I have smaller wrists and did not want one of those giant galactic mother ship looking devices teetering off the edge of my wrist. I'm a simple guy, and like to keep a low key balance in my life. I don't need to draw attention which is also why I appreciate the dark gray/black color of this watch. This watch is not small, but to me is preferable to some of the bigger ones available.6 months later and the watch still looks and functions great. Very impressed. For the price point, the Garmin Instinct 2 ticks all the boxes I wanted and some I didn't know I wanted.

I’ve had smart watches I was issued through the military before so that’s nothing new to me. This is therefore a more I formed review. When I got this watch I was pleasantly surprised by ease of use with respect to swapping through the menus and selecting what you need. Does take some time perhaps to memorize where to go for each item but that is to be expected. I mostly wanted this for the GPS with outdoor activity and the heart rate and fitness features. (Fitbit only ever broke after 3 months, that is to say stopped working out of the blue). The compass is on point and the heart rate monitor is spot on as well. One of the coolest things about this is that it connects to an app and you can look for even better watch faces that have exactly what you want to see on them instead of just the default, that’s the kind of support GARMIN gives with this. I got the watch face that displays heart rate, so I don’t have to swap through menus or use the app to see it in real time. The fit is great and the battery life is as well. You should be aware that some features use up more battery than others, such as active GPS etc, so if you use that you can expect the battery to drain a little bit more quickly. The only adjustment I needed to make was the charging cable, I needed to pinch the lip of the plug with needle nose pliers ever so GENTLY just to adjust them the tiniest amount so it seated properly in the watch which is one of the pictures. I am very happy with this purchase!

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I thought I'd chime in about this. (Just a regular old customer here--no connection to Garmin or Amazon.) My point of view might be uncommon for Garmin owners: I actually don't think of myself as a Smartwatch guy and have actually turned down free Apple Watches (as holiday gifts) on two occasions. No interest in texting on my wrist. I'm a "watch guy" in the more traditional sense--a big fan of mid-tier to high-end mechanical watches. But I wanted one techy watch for when I bike and work out and for a long backcountry hike where GPS was going to be necessary. I've owned this watch for a couple months now and have put it through its paces: swimming (it's highly water-resistant), biking, lifting, and (as mentioned) in the wilderness. It hasn't disappointed.Set up is easy and intuitive: if you can handle using an iPhone, you should have no problem making your way through the process. Downloading the smartphone app on your device and syncing it is worth the trouble, in my opinion. Among other things, it will allow you to keep on top of software updates, control your music while working out (without having to touch your phone), and get whatever alerts (like texts or Ring notifications) you might want to opt into. I have it set up so that the Garmin app only seeks out my watch when I open the app---don't want this thing constantly searching and draining my phone battery when I'm not even wearing the watch.I do still fumble through the different buttons trying to remember what does what, but it is getting better. I usually only wear this for a few hours at a time a few days a week; if I wore it more regularly, I'm sure I would be far more fluent by now. And the good news is, you really can't mess anything up by pressing the wrong button.There's tons of customization that you can do (during setup or just whenever) to rearrange the main screen, add or remove activities and options, etc. For an entry-level smartwatch, it's impressively featured!Battery life is utterly insane. I charged it before a 10-hour hike where the GPS was going the entire time--that was in early May. Since then I've worn it several times for many collective hours, sometimes in GPS mode, sometimes not, and I only had to charge it again today--in mid June. Granted, I power it down whenever I'm not using it, but still, you get a lot of time out of a single charge. I have the solar version, and I suppose that extends the battery life in a limited way---can't say I've tested that or noticed strong evidence of it, but I'll take Garmin's word for it.The GPS tracking feature works very well once you get it dialed in to your preferences, which isn't tricky to do. If you get lost, you can flip to the screen where your track is: it's just a squiggly line on the screen---there's no map background on this plain-Jane, smaller, black and white display---but with pretty minimal brainpower, you can use it to retrace your steps, no problem. No chance of getting lost with this thing on, as long as you've got a signal---and I've never had any trouble acquiring one. Beyond that, just having it on your wrist as a trip computer, tracking how long you've been at it, how many miles you've covered, your elevation, etc, is really nice. It allowed me to provide very specific answers every time my kid asked "how many more miles do we have to go?" Note, though, that you'll need to activate the GPS mode when you start your hike (or ride or whatever). And you'll want to shut if off when you're done in order to extend the battery life.Nice to have the heart-rate and pulse oximeter features. Also reassuring to have the "incident reporting" feature, or whatever it's called. Thankfully haven't had to use it, but I've read positive customer reviews from folks who have. It's a comfort to know that my wife will get an instant alert on her phone if I crash my bike, for example. And I believe the alert will include my exact location.As for the watchy-watch stuff: this thing is very well built. It feels robust, but is as light as a feather. I mean, you can really forget you have it on, especially if you're accustomed to wearing a luxury sports watch that weighs more than 100g. I haven't tried swapping out the rubber strap, but I see no reason why you couldn't put it on a NATO or something if you wanted to. The integrated strap itself feels like it's good quality, though I imagine it will eventually need to be replaced after a few years of putting it on and taking it off.The overall look is very rugged and "tactical." At least with the black model, there's nothing refined or luxurious about it at all.The main thing I want to say about it as a watch per se is that the size is perfect, at least for me. A lot of these smartwatches nowadays are enormous: 45mm and super-thick. To me they look absurd. This one is about 40mm, which is by no means small, but it's sensible and while definitely "sized" for a man, could work well as an oversized unisex option. Point is, when I'm wearing it, it just feels like a normal watch, proportioned like several of my other, mechanical watches---not like a giant wrist computer. It calls no attention to itself. The screen isn't tiny or anything: the display is plenty readable. It's not touchscreen, it's not full color, you can't watch videos on it---if you want all of that, look at a different model. This is one of those "everything you need, nothing you don't" items. (Though, again, it has a pretty surprising array and number of features---most of which I've never used.)Big fan.

Great watch! When you get tired of charging your Apple Watch every night, get one of these and recharge about every 28 days! No Brainer! Also has more functions than you will ever use if you are into that (like my wife with hers).