Bridger Watch - "The Problem No One Fixed" (smartwatch)

[stayzeroed]

This post title comes from their website.

I just happened to see an advertisement for a new and upcoming performance watch designed for the backcountry. It's called the Bridger Watch. I could not find all of the details yet, but I found a few. I think the idea of it is great, but I am also a gear guy, so my opinion is biased. From what limited information I could find, it appears the battery life is around 14 days. Granted, I do not know if that is 14 days with GPS running the whole time (if it is, that is fantastic), but if that is regular use, then I think that is a bit lacking compared to some other manufactures' battery durations. Does anyone have any other intel on it? What are your thoughts?

Bridger Watch

www.bridgerwatch.com

Their website said they won an award, I found it here: https://ajprotech.com/selected-work/wearables/bridger-watch

 

[taskswap]

I'm a total gear nerd as well and somehow this just doesn't "do it" for me. The thing is, I'm always still going to bring my cell and when I do it's going to be my primary GPS. But let's face it, none of us are looking at our watches OR maps every 2 minutes. If you know you're going "over there" it might take a half hour to an hour to get there. I'll sometimes grab my GPS to make sure I'm relatively on the bearing I wanted to be if I'm bushwhacking through heavy brush and having to zig-zag a lot but otherwise I bet I only look at it a half dozen times a day. Honestly 90% of the time I'm looking at it "a lot" it's because it's dark, I'm headed back to camp, and I'm making sure I haven't wandered off track.

I guess what I'm saying is my use cases aren't really "I need a crisp, clear topo that I can look at that place a mile over" category. But maybe I'm an odd duck because lately I've stopped wearing a watch at all while hunting. It's just one more place for sweat and bits of brush to get caught in.

14 days of battery life ought to be pretty appealing for anyone who DOES want a GPS watch, though. I think the longest commonly available ones right now are in the 2-3 day range. GPS is a huge battery suck. I wonder how they do it though? A GPS receiver is very power hungry. Maybe it requires pairing to a phone to offload the receiver side of that? That might be a pro or con depending on how they implemented it.

 

[stayzeroed]

I'm a total gear nerd as well and somehow this just doesn't "do it" for me. The thing is, I'm always still going to bring my cell and when I do it's going to be my primary GPS. But let's face it, none of us are looking at our watches OR maps every 2 minutes. If you know you're going "over there" it might take a half hour to an hour to get there. I'll sometimes grab my GPS to make sure I'm relatively on the bearing I wanted to be if I'm bushwhacking through heavy brush and having to zig-zag a lot but otherwise I bet I only look at it a half dozen times a day. Honestly 90% of the time I'm looking at it "a lot" it's because it's dark, I'm headed back to camp, and I'm making sure I haven't wandered off track.

I guess what I'm saying is my use cases aren't really "I need a crisp, clear topo that I can look at that place a mile over" category. But maybe I'm an odd duck because lately I've stopped wearing a watch at all while hunting. It's just one more place for sweat and bits of brush to get caught in.

14 days of battery life ought to be pretty appealing for anyone who DOES want a GPS watch, though. I think the longest commonly available ones right now are in the 2-3 day range. GPS is a huge battery suck. I wonder how they do it though? A GPS receiver is very power hungry. Maybe it requires pairing to a phone to offload the receiver side of that? That might be a pro or con depending on how they implemented it.

You bring up a very good point, the lack of a need to constantly look at GPS. I suppose there are scenarios where it could be utilized, but you're right, for the most part, it's I need to get 'there', so I visually aim and go.

I did see that MSRP is upwards of just over $1K.

 

[NMNomad]

Nice! Pretty happy with my Fenix 8. But, I'll certainly keep my eye on this to see what advantages this has over my current setup.

 

[dsharpe]

Hi Guys, my name is David. I am the co-founder and product guy for Bridger Watch. I would be happy to chat about any questions you have.

 

[stayzeroed]

Hi Guys, my name is David. I am the co-founder and product guy for Bridger Watch. I would be happy to chat about any questions you have.

David, that's great. Thanks for reaching out. Honestly, I am excited about the new watch. I am glad that Garmin is receiving some other competition. Admittedly though, it will be a tough sell for me to part with my Fenix 7, especially given the prices I have been seeing with smart outdoor watches.

With that said, are you able to speak of the battery life? Is the 14 day battery life with active, intermittent, or off GPS?

Again, thanks for commenting on this post. I look forward to learning more about the Bridger Watch.

 

[griebel303]

I came acrossed it on Instagram the other day. I was looking at upgrading my Garmin Instinct but may wait to learn more about this one

 

[realunlucky]

I think I saw @Jordan Budd post something about the bridger maybe she has one and can chime in.

Sent from my SM-S926U using Tapatalk

 

[Dioni A]

I think it would be super useful to be able to check where I'm going every couple minutes. I go into places in the dark very often and it's easy to get off track especially in heavy timber or dead fall. I can't count how many times I've veered off path and lost a significant amount of time or got into the wrong patch of dead fall. It'll also be really handy when I'm riding my dirt bike so I can make sure I don't miss turns. I hate digging my phone out of my pocket and I think this will be a nice alternative.

 

[taskswap]

Now see I think dirt / mountain / etc biking might be an underrated target demographic here. Bike mounts for phones are often unreliable (phone falls out) or hard to use (phone hard to see or interact with). The larger screen on this watch compared to other options on the market could give it an edge there.

 

[tony]

Look at amazfit, I have the t rex 3. Dumb name, awesome watch.
On day 32 of a charge. I don’t run run apps or the features everyday, trying to see how far it’ll go. If I remember they say a few weeks running hard. Therese a new model out as well.

 

[dsharpe]

David, that's great. Thanks for reaching out. Honestly, I am excited about the new watch. I am glad that Garmin is receiving some other competition. Admittedly though, it will be a tough sell for me to part with my Fenix 7, especially given the prices I have been seeing with smart outdoor watches.

With that said, are you able to speak of the battery life? Is the 14 day battery life with active, intermittent, or off GPS?

Again, thanks for commenting on this post. I look forward to learning more about the Bridger Watch.

The battery life is going to surprise people — in a good way. We haven’t shared official specs yet, but they are coming very soon.


The “14-day” figure floating around came from an early partner. That was also based on overall smartwatch mode. Since then, our team has made huge improvements. In Hunt Mode, which includes daily GPS use and active screen time — our latest estimate is already outperforming early estimates of 10 days.

We’re building this to last an entire hunt, not just a weekend.