Best smart watch

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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What's your preferred smart watch? My application is mostly for work and everyday to keep up with messages from the wife, but if it fit into hiking and hunting trips that would be great too.

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Mdanks

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What's your preferred smart watch? My application is mostly for work and everyday to keep up with messages from the wife, but if it fit into hiking and hunting trips that would be great too.

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I have the Garmin Connect. Has GPS way point capabilities along with a follow me function for getting back to camp. Has an app for everyday fitness stuff (sleep monitor, heart beat steps etc). Full charge the batter will last 14 days (not using GPS) will last multiple days with GPS running 24/7
 

WRM

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Is it just me, or didn't the cell folks get us away from watches and then right back to them again? Damn, they are smart.
 
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William Hanson (live2hunt)

William Hanson (live2hunt)

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I have the Garmin Connect. Has GPS way point capabilities along with a follow me function for getting back to camp. Has an app for everyday fitness stuff (sleep monitor, heart beat steps etc). Full charge the batter will last 14 days (not using GPS) will last multiple days with GPS running 24/7
Does it have messaging capabilities?

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Joined
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For hunting use I would cross Apple Watch off the list. I am a late adopter and was surprised to learn my watch has an 18 hour battery life. No go for the multiday outdoors IMO.
 

Hussar

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I have the Garmin Instinct. I like it.
Another vote for a Garmin Instinct. I have one as well. The battery life is 5-7 days including an hour of GPS/day for running or mountain biking. Notifications of texts and phone calls come through to see who is calling/read the text message. Some simple text replies are loaded so you can send an "ok", "yes", "no" type response.

It also tracks heart rate, sleep, steps, and a few others if you're also into that.

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Wapiti151

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Garmin Fenix here and love it. 21-23 days of battery if not using GPS. I use GPS for about 2-3 hours 4-5 times a week for my hikes and it’ll run 14 days without issue (educated guess, I just know I haven’t charged it in a long time.). Texting and phone call notifications, but can’t reply…all the GPS/weather/ABC functions including a full color map/zoom function, in addition, has tons of built in workouts. I don’t golf, but if you do it’s pretty amazing what it can do there too with most golf courses in the country pre loaded. I had the instinct and the Suunto Traverse before…both are great but not what this is. Battery life is what I love the most. It’s pricey, but I don’t see myself getting another watch for a long time now. I’ve had a year, never take it off.
 

Marbles

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Garmin Fenix 7X Solar, 30+ days of battery life (depending on settings and use). Has messaging, works great for activity tracking and hiking. Expensive.

The cheaper Garmins will likely do what you need as well. Look at the Instinct.

Apple watches have a short battery life, if you can charge it every day, it is probably the most functionality per dollar. Fitbit has a good reputation. I know nothing about other brands.
 

2ski

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I have a Garmin and a Samsung. Depends on what you're looking for. I can talk amd message from the Samsung, and find I use it more for work. The battery life is a day and a half depending on use. And I was somewhere with spotty cell service last weekend and it didn't last from 7am to 3pm. The Garmin lasts 5 days without using GPS and it's a few years old. It does show texts on it and what not. Can't talk or respond. I use it for the weekends. And I feel it's a 'tougher" watch.

If you want to message and talk your battery life with suffer. If you want to just see messages and have good gps and longer battery life, go with Garmin.
 

Xerute

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I have a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar. Great watch if you can get a deal on it, if not I would say try to snag an original Instinct while they are putting them on sale in a lot of retail places.
 

svivian

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Another vote for Garmin, I was never a GPS guy or even a watch person in general. Got the Garmin Decent MK1 for spearfishing and now use it everyday and its awesome. Love being able to track where i have been and the apps garmin gives you for free are amazing. I can see my track over a satellite image of the area right in the app.
 
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i got a coros apex a few months ago and its been great. Doesnt have tons of bells and whistles like the apple watch. I get alerts when i get texts/calls can read the texts. tracks lots of different work outs but i mostly use the biking/hiking work outs. Uses GPS tracking when you in a work out. battery last 14 days which is awesome. If you dont want get up into garmin prices the coros watch has been pretty sweet so far. I wanted to get into the fenix line of garmins but didnt want to spend that much for all the extra stuff that comes with it that i would never use.
 
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I use a Garmin Instinct for work and daily training and the Fenix 5X for hunting or hiking. Both work great and I’d replace both if they ever crapped out on me. Only change I’d make would be buying the solar versions for the slight increase in battery life. Not a deal breaker for me though.


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I've got a Fenix 6, had a Fenix 5 before.

I'm very happy with it. It's kinda a dumb smart watch, but it's great for outdoors stuff.

You can set a few simple replies for texts, that's good enough for what I want out of it.
 
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I have an instinct I got as a gift and absolutely loved it. It has now been relegated to sock drawer duty since I got my Fenix 6 Pro Solar. I wear it continuously, plus it's sharp enough looking that I wear it at work and it blends in. Also, the do not disturb functions are great for keeping messages out of your line of sight during meetings and playing with the kiddo.

It's smart enough to be useful without being something I feel compelled to tinker with all the time.
 
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I have an instinct I got as a gift and absolutely loved it. It has now been relegated to sock drawer duty since I got my Fenix 6 Pro Solar. I wear it continuously, plus it's sharp enough looking that I wear it at work and it blends in. Also, the do not disturb functions are great for keeping messages out of your line of sight during meetings and playing with the kiddo.

It's smart enough to be useful without being something I feel compelled to tinker with all the time.
The last sentence nails what I love about it!
 

Highhuntin

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I have a Garmin Fenix 6 and really like it for all the above mentioned! Had the instinct and was great also but didn’t have topo maps and a few other features I got with Fenix
 
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