Garmin Instinct 2S Solar, Smaller-Sized Rugged Outdoor Watch with GPS, with Solar Charging Capabilities, Built for All Elements, Multi-GNSS Support, Tracback Routing and More, Graphite

I've bought the same Timex Expedition model watch for at least 20 years. Simple, rugged, with just the features I wanted and little more. I did try a wearable monitor (very early Fitbit) years ago and found it a curiosity but not worth the charging hassle or having to wear something along with my watch. Recently though, now that I'm over 65, I've thought more about tracking health elements, especially as I would like to stay active as long as possible. I did lots of research on the new technology options. Soooo many out there. I narrowed it by some criteria: needs to be as much like my old Expedition as possible, meaning - can be worn all the time (in shower, hot tub, swimming, sleeping, exercising, doing yard work); has long battery life; is easily readable; rugged; easy to use push buttons to see various screens (not swiping on screen). I am more than happy with the Instinct 2S! I got the 40mm as I don't like a big watch face on my wrist. The band fit my 180mm wrist (but near the last hole). Everything about using it has been easier than I feared. Garmin's software connects easily to my watch and I can track all the things I care about. Battery life is sensational! It says 21 days possible, and maybe so with sun and less use for special purposes, but I've still gotten 17-18 days out of a single charge. I don't use GPS except rarely (for outdoor tennis tracking). I don't want a watch to be a phone (this isn't), and appreciate I can tailor and limit what kinds of messaging it notifies me of. I customized my screen to be simple, showing just a few things I care to see. Easy to read. I've learned a great deal about my sleep patterns and heart rates I didn't know. Can't say how accurate it is but feels reflective of what I thought anyway. So for me, two months in, this appears a great compromise between a regular sports watch and a very smart one. Hope it keeps me this happy for years to come! (Thanks to other reviewers who helped guide my decision.) 5-MONTH UPDATE: Now after using the watch in so many different scenarios, I am equally as enthusiastic about it, if not more. Given some of the edits to the main face (through Connect IQ), such as adding a constant heart rate display, I think I've reduced the battery life a bit, but still getting two weeks easy between charges. (I don't think the solar part charges much at all). The watch and the easy-to-use Garmin app helped me medically when I was playing tennis and couldn't get my heart rate down. I was able to send a graph from the app of the 45-minute period to my doctor. She ordered a more sensitive medical-grade monitor system to wear for 2 weeks. Turned out to be nothing systemic, thankfully, and probably due to a tooth infection I hadn't known about, but the watch now gives me a way to monitor in real time, just in case. Hassle free for all my normal activities, and the sleep monitor has been very revealing of my habits.

Very happy with garmin watch, does everything I want and more. Purchased a refurbished instinct 2x, looks brand new.

There are a few features I need to work out . For eg how to pay. How to use the light.Watch is too small for the person I bought it for. I returned it on the 19 May 2024 and are still waiting for a refund.Leone

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.

Exactly want I wanted. This is more of an exercise watch than a smart watch. I have turned off most notifications but still get calls/texts. Heart rate monitor seems to work fine. Love the gps and hiking functions. While the display is black and white, it is easy to see. Back light for night use. I get about 18 days battery with the sensory turned on, around 40 days with them off. Solar charging helps extend some, but not a ton. I did get the smaller version, instinct 2S. I have about a 15 inch wrist. Little small, but the normal would’ve been too big. The band for the Instinct S is smaller than my old vivoactove 3 band. If you have larger wrist (I would say larger than 16.5-17) it may be a tight fit. Lots of different exercise options to choose from and ways to track activities.Update: 7/19Still love this watch. Have tried out several features/different workouts such as run, walk, hike, kayak,etc and it seems to track everything well. Heart rate monitor seems to be accurate. I have been exploring the suggested running workouts and have been enjoying those. Only complaint is that the smaller watch size cannot accurately use the track back feature when hiking. The screen seems too small to load the whole map when retracing steps. Because of the small screen size, it is hard to see everything on the track back feature. Every other screen is easy to use/read. Save money and don’t get the solar option. I have not noticed a very big difference even when leaving the watch in the sun all day as an experiment.