I currently have an Apple Watch Series 8 and I’m entirely fed up with charging it every day. I was asking ChatGPT the other day to give me a recommendation for a fitness watch that has good battery life. This was the first on the list and I ordered it yesterday, I’m so excited for my Instinct 2s Solar to come in!
This was so helpful thank you for commenting! I got my instinct 2s solar Sunday evening and I am completely obsessed with it. Even on my Apple Watch I turned all notifications off so I did the same thing here. I’m so excited to go on my first run with it! I have a 5K this Saturday for my birthday :D
none of those will work due to the surfing which is considered a high speed/pressure sport (guess when come off an hit waves or end up doing a washing machine the pressures may get too much for a 5 atm warrenty.
Your best option would be to try and pick up an instinct 2 (try for the surf version as it has a couple of niche additions like the tide table watch face) or a garmin fenix 6, or fenix 7 / epix 2 - as these all cover exactly what you need, plus have built in surf tracking app (includes wave counts and will show rides post activity in the app - would add the surf tracker data field as it can help fineese the wave count).
either should be fine - personally prefer the amazfit eco system (but possibly as its sort of a direct rip off of garmin's eco system). --- sync for both with strava is a bit hit and miss compared with garmin. The main stuff should be fine but other stuff may not sync as well. With garmin its super rock solid including stuff like surfing etc - but really with garmin connect there is no need for strava (except for potentially community related stuff if mates are on different platform) - as it just gives so much more detail than free strava and to a degree even subscription stava - especially when it comes to things like surfing etc.
With garmin can see my wave count, longest wave, max speed, surf time, session time, - i get a map showing each wave ridden and the details (length, speed, time); and usual hr, benefit, the total distance paddled compared to actual surf distance, calories , sweat loss, intensity minutes, training beneft etc etc,
Compared to Stava basic - where get the basic data but don't get the wave data, and your tracked activity looks like a big massive blob. So not overly useful from that perspective etc - plus if you have surfline the garmin system can hook in with them too.
Checking ebay - there are options for second hand garmin instinct 2 surf within that price range and fenix 7 / epix 2 for a bit more (could also check fenix 6 options).
garmin instinct 2 - built like a tank - battery life is really strong - if you get the solar version in the standard case (i.e. 45mm) it can last months. Really solid gps and HR. The cons - no touch, no mic & speaker. Its also 10atm - and in mind you cannot call a watch durable unless it has at least 10atm as that is the min rating to deal with high speed/pressure water sports - and a watch isn't durable if it can't handle them. Bezel is high from screen giving loads of protection to screen but also possible to add screen protectors for added durability.
Active 2 is a decent watch but not sure it has the durability you are looking for though it might be possible to add a bumper case.
GW7 good watch - but daily recharge and lacking ruggedness.
garmin instinct 3 (or if you want to save money garmin instinct 2).
Why - its super durable, has good built in gps (especially I3, of the I2 only the I2X is running same chip as I3 series - which offers significantly improved gps - though the I2 is still very good - its just I3 chip is a class leader). Long battery life - especially the solar versions. Does sleep tracking and HR and is very good for hiking and it includes a hunting function: [https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-31D23DBB-57C2-4DF7-A0C9-8D1A00AB4BE7/EN-US/GUID-135067A5-7E0B-4467-A79C-D084B20D1DE1.html](https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-31D23DBB-57C2-4DF7-A0C9-8D1A00AB4BE7/EN-US/GUID-135067A5-7E0B-4467-A79C-D084B20D1DE1.html)
(note the navigation forms a bearing line to the waypoint/saved point / unless you are using a pre-created route that has been syncd to the watch - - only the fenix and top end forerunners include full satnav (i.e. like in your car))).
£100-£200 is sort of considered budget, based on your requirements, as most ones under £100 really don't have your durability reuqirement and there are only a few models worth owning in that range, unless all you want is very basic functionality i.e. time/notifications - and especially as you want durability and something that will handle abuse... and based on the types of activities you want to do this will give you the most functionality.
Others to look at with the similar durability is the Amazfit T-Rex 3 series, Coros Nomad / Vertix series, Polar Grit series; Suunto Vertical / Race series, Huawei Ultimate series and the garmin's Fenix series (and its variants like the Epix, Tactix, Descent, Marq etc).
You could also look at the Casio G-Shocks which are running polar's algorithms - but as soon as you start running hr and gps etc on them the battery life isn't great, the software on the phone for them is pretty bad - and they are again similar price to what you are going to pay for an instinct if not more.
Unfortunately good durability costs - and most garmin users usually end up upgrading their instinct to another model before it goes and when they do its usually due to battery capacity dropping rather than watch breaking - and that tends to only occur post 4 years (these watch batteries have a natural life span of 4-10 years shelf life - you aren't going to hit their charging life cycle like you might will with an apple watch or a wear os watch cause they need weekly to once every two weeks (or longer depending on model, how much light for solar recharge they get and how much gps you use).
They will also connect with a host of different equipment - especially depending on the model i.e. the instinct 2x tactical edition can have a ballistics app installed on it ( [https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=v7W0YGLaMi9XTfwbEhsR98](https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=v7W0YGLaMi9XTfwbEhsR98) ), and other garmin equipment like sattelite communicatores (inreach etc), dog collars etc.
Something to consider is that most watches get the time from your mobile - if not connected they can often lose/gain time - I have seen some only lose a couple of minutes across a day - I have seen others lose/gain hours in a couple of hours ---- with most garmin (this includes the instinct) the watch can sync the time via gps - most brands don't offer this and the watches only get a time sync from the connected data. So might be another consideration depending on whether you keep your watch connected to your phone or if that stays off while hunting / hiking..
pretty much everything outside of wear os will give you that - but if you want to stay within wear os then your best option is a oneplus (up to 4-5 days or you can switch over to their own operating system and get up to 16 - though no access to google services including any installed apps/watch faces).
There is also amazfit, fitbit, xiaomi, garmin, coros, polar, suunto, and huawei where you will get +7 days and in most cases somewhere between 10-16 days.
Of course there is also the garmin instinct 2 or 3 solar - assuming you don't mind a b&w mip screen, and get up to 3hrs of 50k lux light per day - based on your usage you may not have to charge the battery for years....
would look at the following brands as in most countries they generally provide an ok to decent level of support, and they all offer good battery life: Garmin, Coros, Polar, Suunto, Amazfit, Huawei. Most models offered are at least 7 days between charges with a lot offering +14 days and some like the garmin instinct 2 or 3 solar series can potentially offer unlimited battery life.
If it needs to be a wear os watch then you are limited by OnePlus watch 3 (but don't like what I have recently seen from their support services); ticwatch (durability issues in the past not sure what the current models are like) - but they will all gvie up to 5 days / and then Samsung GW Ultra ( up to 3 days - and I personaly refuse to buy their products anymore as their service support is woeful and they do not stand behind their products despite their bold advertising claims).
for wear os you need to look at the OnePlus Watch 3 -- its up to 5 days running wear os, but you can boot up its own os which gives you up to 12 days (using this does mean no access to any wear os features and that includes nay installed wear os watch faces, but as health and fitness tracking works fine with either os) - its pretty easy and quick to swap between the two - so can usually get around 5 to 8 days depending on how/when you switch between the two os (note not a good idea if you plan to swim / wear while doing water sports - while it has a 5atm rating OnePlus is currently not honoring it). Ticwatch has a couple of models that can offer up to 5 days and extend way past that buy using their essential power system which turns features on/off and extending battery life - not that this and the 5 days is reliant on use of dual screen which is a plain lcd screen. They are also large watches and previously durability and updates have been issues (not sure if they still are).
Then you could go for watches that offer similar functionality but are running their own os - depending on the watch and the size you can get anywhere from up to 5 days to potentially unlimited battery life (garmin instinct 2 or 3 solar models 45mm or 50mm - same with the instinct tactix models - of course based on getting enough sunlight to recharge and based on usage habits - but at very least will give month to months between charges).
Look at brands from garmin, ccros, polar, suunto, amazfit, huawei and potentially fitbit. The best will fit your other requirements as they all meet your battery life requirement. If you want +5 days AOD, even then a lot of the models from these brands will cover it - especially the larger case sizes i.e. +45mm.
i..e I have a Garmin Epix 2 which is now +4 years old (haven't yet found anything that is way better and worth the upgrade despite checking regularly) - I generally charge it once a week (usually between 40-55% when I charge) and that includes 30 to 60 mins of gps activity every day (minimum) and usually a couple of extra hours of gps every weekend. Also includes a variety of indoor activities (no gps, but during these activities the watch screen is set to AOD on).
Garmin offers most of these:
accurate hr depends on you - but yes the current sensors are good and work well for most people, but also may depend on the activities you want to track.
all garmins are at least 5atm - which is good for swimming and other low pressure/speed water sports. They do also offer 10atm (high speed/pressure water sports) and full dive watches (closest you will get to water proof as include inductive buttons).
sleep yes - make sure spec says sleep score and ideally sleep coach - though is like this for all current models - not only see quality but can get detailed breakdown of the sleep score components.
Body Battery (BB) - yes all do but this is an assessment of your energy levels not necessarily your health. The new health status metric which monitors your HR, HRV, respiration, skin temp and pulse ox (spo2)) across time is a more accurate measure of health status.
Recovery - garmin does this in a couple of way - most current garmin's provide an estimate recovery time - which is an estimate of how long until your body has recovered so that can gain max benefit from next hard workout - will adjust based on any activity done, your stress levels and sleep quality. can see this value on the watch at any time, including the ability to add as a watch face data point.
Post activity you can do a recovery mode - before saving your activity press the recovery HR option - will now track your HR for two minutes while you rest - then press save when done. If you go into your activity and go to the stats section under HR it will show the recovery HR value i.e. 10bpm (what you HR went down during those 2 minutes). Of course for the activity you can see the HR chart fo the the tracked activity. If you wanted to track your HR for the 2 minute recovery period you can save the activity and then launch a health snapshot - this tracks your HR, pulse ox (spo2), respiration and stress for a 2 mins and provides average hrv metrics for that period - putting this into a pdf file you can download, see on phone/web etc.
Workout HR zone - yes get visible and audable notification - can also get an audio note. Can have it set as an alert or can set it as a workout screen in which case adds a screen showing zone in green with other zones in red - so very easy to see when in or out of zone. (note can do this with other metrics too like pace, cadence etc).
yes can set max/min alerts too. But think its pretty similar in terms of alerts.
Pace indicator - yes - can set from 1 to 8 data fields per tracking screen (how many may depend on model and screen size but most now do 1-6 fields - though guage fields can reduce it by 1-2 fields depending on whether using 1 or 2 guages and screen size), and can do from 3 to unlimited (as such) tracking screens (depends on model). Can set up pace workout screen, or pace guage on tracking screen or just pace data fields (i..e. current pace, last lap pace, avg lap pace etc etc etc). See the data fields section of watch manual to see data field options.
Watch face horizontal - stock garmins offer ones where hour is above minutes - but if you don't like the options there is always the garmin connect iq store (app on watch for some models, app on phone or web browser: [https://apps.garmin.com/](https://apps.garmin.com/) so you can have a look to get idea of options - there are also some other 3rd party sites where you can also get other 3rd party watch faces from).
All garmins offer abnormal HR alerts and offer the ability to set HR alerts for an activity (can set these for each individual activity type and for models that offer activity copy action can set up multiple copies of same activity with different HR alerts making it quick and easy to select which one you want without having to go in and change the alert values)..
all current garmins have very accurate gps.
Sub £600 -- covers most garmins on offer. Depending on what types of activity you do and what sort of features you want, and whether want mic & speaker. But would suggest looking at the vivoactive, forerunner, instinct and fenix ranges as that probably is more in line with what you want.
Basically gamrin health features (except ecg and baseline temp) and smart features (except offline music) are the same - its really the fitness features and training metrics where they really differentiate and even then its getting way closer (i.e ..not much difference between a venu 4 and forerunner 570).
you would need to check re saving points of interest, but in regards to offline maps, ability to save routes and then have them overlaid on the offine maps etc pretty much most brands now offer this functionality - would stick with amazfit, huawei, garmin, coros, polar and suunto models for best features around this.
I know that with garmin instinct and fenix (and its variants) and the FR variants with offline maps you can save points at any time. In fact the fenix/FR with offline maps can even create a route on the watch from a saved point on the watch - very useful if you save hunting points and want to get from one point to the next and don't have a pre-planned route, or even decide you want to break off a route short and want to get back to the start - no need to retrace your route, or have to follow a bearing line to it - the wach can create a route back to the start.
For the garmin's that don't have offline maps, note there are 3rd party apps like komoot that can provide the similar functionality as suunto, coros, polar, amazfit and huawei i.e. create an offline route on app/web and sync to watch with offline map section.
Note that the fenix/instinct garmins come with built in hunt functionality - [https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-EECCAC99-90D6-4AB1-9A3A-EC433D3365E2/EN-US/GUID-135067A5-7E0B-4467-A79C-D084B20D1DE1.html](https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-EECCAC99-90D6-4AB1-9A3A-EC433D3365E2/EN-US/GUID-135067A5-7E0B-4467-A79C-D084B20D1DE1.html)
as you main focus is swimming I would stick with a garmin (the 5 buttons ones so a forerunner, instinct, fenix (and its variants like epix); suunto, polar or coros.
Having the buttons enables you to swap data tracking screens while resting to check stats.
as to which is best will depend on the swimming stats and features you require.
rock climbing - would suggest sticking to garmin or coros as those are the only 2 that provide that functionality. Note its limited to only a couple of models on coros, whereas on garmin its on most models.
Haven't had a coros so can't comment much on it. Re Garmin - you would have to manually adjust your sleep schedule but its pretty easy to do via the app - so a bit of a PITA but not a deal breaker.
You want something fairly durable if wearing while on duty - so would suggest either the coros vertix series (maybe nomad - don't know much about it) or the garmin fenix / instince series. Advantage of coros and fenix is the built in offline mapping for hiking.. Would give the edge to garmin in terms of the hiking and fishing as their built in aps for this are just better. (note that if using the instinct 3 amoled you can install a 3rd party offline map option, however no offline music option). Garmin Fenix does include offline spotify (assuming you have a sub), whereas as Coros offers your own mp3s only.
I have an Instinct 2s Solar, which has served me very well for the 2 years I have been using it.
Ive considered switching up to a forerunner 500 series to better work with non-hiking training activities, but haven't made up my mind yet on if its worth the spend.
I used to wear my instinct 2S solar religiously. But eventually the battery started to diminish enough to notice and I found myself charging a lot more often. The solar feature, at least on the 2S, is practically useless. The only use case is really if you’re in the middle of nowhere and just need to tell the time in dumb watch mode. I wish I had the non solar version - my wife has that one and charges less often. Unfortunately I don’t think it gets much better than the instinct line. Maybe the newer solar models are actually useful.
Now, unless I want to record a workout or bike ride, I pretty much exclusively wear my regular watches which are more fun anyway. Recently added a G-Shock GW-5000 to the collection, so now I have a watch that actually does charge with solar and can also adjust the time via radio signal!
As someone who does not enjoy having a dinner plate on their wrist I very much enjoy the Garmin Instinct Solar 2S - simple, long battery life, robust.
Edit: meant to specify the solar version
hectors_pov
