Garmin Instinct Tactical: I'm not Wearing Anything!!!

A GPS watch may become an essential running accessories. It's all part of your preferences. It'll be better by having the info. I can have the window to managed my pace and expectation during the runs.

My short history with GPS watches. My 1st GPS running watch was Columbia GPS watch, which was a gift from my brother in law when he stationed in the USA. My 2nd watch was a cheap China watch. Both offered the very basic GPS distance function. Unfortunately, both failed me because of their battery charging functions issues.

The Garmin Instinct Tactical will be my 3rd watch. I almost given up on having a GPS running watch due to the fact the running events are cancelled in the foreseeable future. 

Short introduction about the Garmin. Being the main GPS car navigation in the early 2000s, they have been pushed to the peripheral due to the introduction of the smart phone. Consumers are more familiar with Waze and Maps these days.  

They managed to transformed themselves. While their main market are the industrial and fishing industry, they focused in the fitness industry for the mass consumers. Garmin is in the right track, managed to bounce back in the market with their GPS watches. More than anything, their product is in the premium segment.

Minimalistic Display

Out of the box, the 1st thing that caught my eyes is the display. The watch have the traditional digital watch display. I prefer this feature actually. The latest touchscreen display usually would be power hungry thus the evitable shorter charging frequency.   

Adequate Battery Life

A good battery life should be essential so that the watch wouldn't finish its juice during any run, especially the long distance half marathon. I usually run a slow 4 hours for the 21km. The watch's battery need to withstand that.

The charging port does look better in design

I found that Garmin's digital watch display helped a lot in preserving its juice. I managed to eked out 10 days of casual wearing with approximately 8 times 2km run. Not bad, because I can also use it as my everyday watch for the short 3 days trip. 

The watch have 5 battery bars. Unfortunately, if the bar dips to 2 bars, it can't connect to the GPS. I've found out when the watch automatically disconnected with the GPS tracking when I'm running. But I also that the charging took a short time. A 2 hours charging will charged back the watch to full.  

Great Satellite Tracking

The GPS tracking is amazing. The watch will detect the satellite's signal in seconds after being activated. The watch main advantage is its feature of having both GPS and GLONASS. A note; GPS and GLONASS are two separate satellite system. GPS are the the USA's satellite system while GLONASS re the Russia's satellites system.

Having both system improved the accuracy and detection immensely. By comparison, my handphone GPS tracking is pathetic compared to Garmin's.

My handphone's GPS. Totally inaccurate for running.

Garmin's. That's more like it.

Great Connectivity

Garmin already placed themselves in the premium segment. As such, they placed connectivity as the pillar of their product line. Its Connect app will connect via Bluetooth with the watch. 

So I'm OK?

While sharing the running files with other apps is also easy. I've found that while using the Nike Run Club using Garmin's history. 

Overkill Functionality

This watch is an overkill if just used for running. The selling point for this watch is its usability for parachuting (I'm never going to do that). Other than that, there are biking, swimming, skiing (no snow here), snowboarding (yes, I've checked - no snow in Malaysia) and strength training.

I chose this watch due to its durability compared to others in Fore Runners range. It have the thick protective rubber, 100m water resistant, all the while being weightless for everyday use.  

Masterclass Camouflage

The unexpected feature that I found is the camouflage. Truthfully, I got this color because it offered the lowest price. The main attraction for my purchase during the 11.11, was the price cut. Garmin watches seldom dip below RM1000, except for the basic Fore Runners series. Having more than 40% discounts, made the price manageably affordable. 

None in my family actually noticed I'm wearing a different watch. Dahlia only found out 2 weeks after noticing someone commented in my Facebook, while Haziq (he can easily get jealous of my things, but not this time though) only noticed when Dahlia pointed it out 1 months later.

With its weightless feature plus its camouflage, it's like I'm not wearing anything!!!