Garmin Instinct watch

[muddydogs]

Picked up a Instinct watch about a week ago and have to say this watch is kind of cool. Watch pairs with your phone to get notifications of calls, texts and calendar info. Theres a bunch of training and exercise functions on the watch that pair with a phone app called connect.

The coolest thing is the watch is a stand alone GPS unit that tracks and navigates. Watch pairs with a phone app called explore which is a cut down version of the Earthmate app but still capable of handling maps, photos and private land info. All my Earthmate app way points transferred right into the Explore app then I can tell the Explore app which way points and routes I want sent to the watch. If a point or track is created on the watch it shows up in both the explore app and Earthmate. Right now I'm keeping all my mapping data on the Earthmate app for phone GPS work and have just loaded the basic maps into the Explore app to have something in there beside a blank screen, its to bad that the Explore app won't pull from the 10 GB of Earthmate map data I have on my phone SD card but it doesn't seem to.

Another nice feature of the Instinct watch is it will run the InReach Mini unit. Send and receive InReach messages right from the watch. I don't have a Mini yet so I haven't played with this feature yet. Just an FYI the watch doesn't pair with older InReach units, the watch and InReach communicate via ANT+ what ever that is and the SE+, Explorer+ and older Delorme units don't have this. I would hope the watch would pair with the new Garmin GPS/InReach unit that just came out.

Anyway I think the Instinct watch will be a handy addition to my hunting gear with it's sunrise / set tables, moon phase, barometer, altimeter, weather, compass and navigation features. Heck it even has a heart rate monitor so it will probably tell me when I'm dead before I figure it out.

 

[Tcsmith09]

Garmin are great watches, I have the fenix 5x

 

[tdhanses]

Works very good with the mini, I’ve had the Instinct since it was released.

 

[Trr15]

Just picked up an instinct on here last week. Really like it so far. I ordered an inreach mini from S&S Archery when they were on sale. Looking forward to pairing the two and using them this fall. Seems like a solid set up.


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[wheelman46]

I've had mine about 3 months now and love it. Was a Casio Gshock guy for years and wanted a smartwatch/gps watch for hikes/runnings logs. Tried the Apple watch but didn't like the amount of information it gave me, tried a Casio Protrek but didn't like the fit/size. Instinct is super comfortable, great data logging of trail runs, provides just enough data to make it a smart-ish watch. Only wish is it was solar powered. I'm recharging about every 2 weeks.

 

[A-bros archery]

While this thread is back up top I'll add my praise of this watch too. The arial imagery on the explore app is really good and having all your waypoints from the app saved to a tiny device on your wrist is very convenient for navigating in the backcountry. You can just glance down and see which direction and how far you need to go. You can also program a route to follow for instances when a straight route might not be ideal. And the fact that it can track everywhere you go all day with less battery usage than your phone would use is also cool.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

Sounds like a lot of features I would like, thanks for the reviews.

It's on my list to buy, waiting for a sale, which are few and far between with Garmin (seems like they control the sale price and time with most major distributors).

 

[Lochtsa71]

Sounds like a lot of features I would like, thanks for the reviews.

It's on my list to buy, waiting for a sale, which are few and far between with Garmin (seems like they control the sale price and time with most major distributors).

Keep your eye on Amazon, I picked mine up for 245 two weeks ago. This is a great watch, it's worth every penny.