Garmin - tactix Charlie

If you want to accurately track HR, get a watch that can sync with a chest strap HR monitor. I have the Garmin Tactics Charlie and the chest strapnHR Pro which is waterproof so you can swim with it. It's probably too bulky for you, but check battery life. I charge my watch once every 3-3 weeks.

I wear a tactix Charlie, about 2019 vintage, daily. It gets loads of abuse, gets strapped on the outside of my drysuit and used in water rescue, it does about 1-2 hours of GPS activity a day and battery lasts about 4-5 days doing that. Without GPS use I get about 8 days battery life.

100% worth it. I've had my Tactix Charlie for 5 years now, and the display still looks brand new. The bezel is pretty beat up, but the sapphire looks flawless

I3 tactical for field work/deployment, Tactix for leave.

I spent good money on the tactix. It's great. I've beaten and abused it. It's a tank. Does all the smartphone nonsense and way way more. Lasts about 20~ days on a charge so I can actually get all the telemetry back when I sleep and it's useful.

Good lord, what are you planning on doing, ODA level stuff? An Instinct (Solar) tactical is probably all you really need, Tactix is has some serious features - like windage and range finder. Good luck!

I have both, ultra 4 and tactix. Love them like children so hard to pick one but when it comes to HR accuracy and health tracking nothing comes close to Apple Watch. Get Bevel app if you haven’t yet that way you will get everything you missed about Garmin with much better accuracy

Ok, just hear me out for one second before you think I'm crazy. The red light on the Fenix line is AMAZING. I use it every single night multiple times as it makes walking around at night super easy and not at all straining on the eyes. Honestly, it might be my "I'm not giving up this watch for e.g. an Apple watch, ever" feature. The Tactix light is green. I have no idea how well that'll work at night. But I absolutely LOVE the red light.

I went from years of wearing a Garmin Tactix to an Apple Watch Ultra this year. The battery life was a pain to get used to, but the Ultra lasts about two days and I will charge it when I am at my computer and it isn't terrible. I am kind of used to it now. I miss some of the map features and battery life when hiking/camping in the mountains, but overall I am very happy with everything else. The cellular service is a great addition. I actually get quicker gps lock for runs and like it better than the Garmin on my runs. I use the Hevy app for lifting and have no complaints. I love the ability to add so many more apps on the Apple. Even apps like mobile pocket that lets me add bar codes for my gym, Costco, etc. are an added convenience that I enjoy. Apple Pay seems to work better than the Garmin Pay which had issues for me.

You’ve said that cost isn’t a problem, and you like the look of the Tactix, I would suggest getting it. To address your questions: Round form factor, yes. Watch faces, yes. Battery life, yes. (Especially on the bigger diameter watches) You can customise the information you want to see on the watch faces, it just has to be a face that has enough slots to accommodate the quantity of items you want. Timer, there is one built in. It looks like there are others in the ConnectIQ app that you can load onto your watch also. Text notifications, yes. There is a sleep mode that includes DND so notifications are silenced.

OP has said he likes the look of the Tactix and is happy to throw money at it. If he said he wanted to be frugal about it, I would have suggested a different watch.