Garmin Instinct - Tactical Edition Rugged GPS Watch - Black

Product Information

The Instinct – Tactical Edition GPS watch monitors your heart rate, activity and stress throughout the day, so you know how much you do — and how hard you’re working to do it. When you’re ready to train, we’ve got you covered with preloaded activity profiles for running, biking, swimming and more. It also has mission-specific training options, including Jumpmaster and a preloaded tactical activity. The Altimeter screen appears after pressing the ABC-button a few seconds and then pressing it shortly two times. The altimeter shows the current altitude in the right hand corner cirkel and shows the altimeter trend from the last 4 hours. It is shown in graphics and above it is the highest and lowest height shown in numbers. The information on the screen is very clear and easy to read and also hard to misinterpret. But don’t forget to read the chapter about the calibration of the altimeter below. The altimeter screen shows current altitude, the climb and decent. Shooting a in studio…. Barometer screen The solar models are a little more expensive, but the photovoltaic material doesn’t have any effect on the look of the display, so it’s well worth considering the extra investment to avoid frequent charging.

With the watch on my wrist, the lux meter next to it and walking with both facing the sun direction but not holding them perfectly in the sun, I measure about 30.000 lux. With a light meter on my wrist I measured how much sunlight hits the watch face when hiking. As mentioned above, the main reason why I wanted to review the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical is because of the fact that it is able to be charged by the sun. The watch face is a small solar panel. Or in fact two layers of solar panels. The light gray area is a 100% solar panel that converts for 100% the sunlight into energy that is stored in the battery. The darker area is a 10% solar panel that is transparent for 90% because it sits on top of the display that displays all the numbers and symbols. As soon as sun rays hit the solar panel the watch starts charging. In the top left side of the screen a little circle – the Solar Intensity panel – shows the amount of sun that hits the Garmin. It is also possible to switch to a dedicated screen that shows how much light has been hitting the Garmin in the past hours. The solar intensity screen shows when and how much has been charged. There’s no microphone, so you can’t take calls or use your phone’s voice assistant from your wrist as you can with the Garmin Venu 2 Plus, but if you own an Android phone then you can automatically reject calls with a text message. Like many of the watch’s more advanced features, that’s easy to set up and customize in the Garmin Connect app. So, the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical is a sports watch that measures and registers what we generally want. That is good. But what about its outdoor capabilities? Should be good since it is the TACTICAL version. GPS Watches in the Instinct and Instinct 2 series are designed with outdoor sports in mind, but they also have a decent set of smartwatch features for everyday use.

Although the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical with its green color might look like an 100% military outdoor watch, this is not the case. The whole Instinct family has a sports and training heart. It’s just a matter of pushing the right buttons. Pressing the GPS button brings me into the screen where I choose the activity that I prefer. In my case it is mostly running and biking but there are many to choose from. Pressing the GPS button again starts the activity. Like most sports watches the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical logs everything from distance to time to laps and of course heart rate. Pressing the GPS button brings me into the screen where I choose the activity that I prefer. Heart rate Some functions that are specific to the Instinct Tactical are a dual position display that uses both MGRS and degrees/minutes/seconds, and stealth mode, which stops the device from sharing and storing your GPS location and disables all wireless connectivity. Further, the watch comes with a night vision mode that allows the face to be viewed under night vision devices, as well as jumpmaster and waypoint projection apps. Like most outdoor watches the Instinct can – or must be – connected to a smartphone. In the Garmins case it uses the Garmin Connect– for smartphone and computer – to send data up and forth. Data that I collected when logging for example heart rate and the route during my evening run. The app shows a lot of information on my activities and what I like best: it is user friendly. Garmin Connect is also used to update the firmware in the watch and it works flawless. The Barometer screen appears after pressing the ABC-button a few seconds and then pressing it shortly three times.The barometer screen looks very similar to the altimeter screen. In the right hand corner cirkel the current barometric pressure is shown. Left to the cirkel the lowest and the highest pressure are shown above each other. The bottom of the screen is occupied by the barometric pressure trend from the past 6 hours. Same remarks here as in the paragraph about the altimeter. The barometer screen shows the pressure change over a periode of time. Altimeter and barometer need to know On a bright clear day in late autumn and early spring I measured about 52000 lux with the lux meter and the watch facing the sun directly. These are ideal circumstances.

Middle Left: Menu/scroll (Menu) button. Press to scroll UP through the widget loop and menus. Press and hold to view the menu. The original Garmin Instinct was a brilliant sports watch, but its chunky, utilitarian design meant it wasn’t one we were inclined to wear it as a regular timepiece. The Garmin Instinct 2’s slimmer profile, optional 40mm case and new colorways mean it’s fun rather than purely functional, so you’re more likely to wear it as an everyday smartwatch. Let me start with a bold remark: I have never been a great fan of Garmin outdoor watches. And… Garmin is not to blame; I am a small guy with small wrists and the Garmins that I tried in the past were just too big for me. I liked their function, for sure. With the Garmin Instinct series the US-based brand totally changed the ballgame for me. About half a year ago I gave Garmin a call and asked if I could do a review on one of the Garmin Instinct models. First they sent me the Garmin Instinct Tactical. Because of the release of the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical I decided to go for that solar powered model. Garmin was so friendly to exchange the watches and I continued testing. The Garmin Instinct Solar is light and not too big so it fits smaller wrist super. Size and weight When you're in the gym, there are also profiles for strength, cardio and elliptical training, stair stepping, floor climbing, indoor rowing, and yoga. Hiking, climbing, mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, cross-country skiing, stand-up paddleboarding, rowing, kayaking, and Jumpmaster (for skydiving) are also available. The original Garmin Instinct has a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels. The 45mm Instinct 2 has a resolution of 176 x 176mm, and the 40mm Instinct 2S has a resolution of 156 x 156 pixels. Battery life

Garmin's super tough sports watch gets a fresh splash of fun

To use the watch’s alarm, timer or stopwatch, all you need to do is long-press the Set (bottom-right) button and select the appropriate option. From this menu, you can also set sunrise and sunset alerts, which is a handy feature if you want to make the most of the early daylight hours or avoid getting caught out when the sun comes down. If you don’t have time to browse through historic stats, that’s not an issue – the app will provide you with occasional ‘insights’ based on your lifestyle and workouts. For example, if you tend to take fewer steps on a Thursday, the app will nudge you to get outside and take a stroll before the day is out. The second one is that the Instinct is able to display the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid system and the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) at the same time. The third one is the Stealth mode that switches the storage and sharing of gps data off and turns the watches function to offline so no data is being transmitted. For me not being in military circumstances ever the tactical functies are not that useful but I can imagine that for people who are in tactical situations this can be key. Stealth mode turns the watches function to offline so no data is being transmitted. Charging the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical Part 2

On a sunny day the sun produces about 50-100.000 lux. With a lux meter I measured a couple of days outdoors and how much sun hits Garmin Instinct Solar. Since this is the tactical edition of the Garmin Instinct I need to write a few lines on the tactical functions. The first one being the readability of the watch face in night vision mode. This means that if you are wearing night vision goggles you are able to read the watch without the risk of being blinded by the watch’s light. Long battery life is a key selling point of the Instinct series, and the Instinct 2 range last even longer between charges. The solar editions can keep running indefinitely with sufficient sunlight, but as with any smartwatch, the real world battery life will depend on which features you use. A monochrome face might seem an odd choice when more and more smartwatches are arriving with bright color displays, but it makes a lot of sense for the Instinct 2. It uses far less power than an AMOLED display (like that of the Garmin Epix and Venu 2), and it offers more contrast than a color MIP screen (which was one of our few complaints about the Garmin Fenix 7). The Garmin uses a pressure sensor inside the watch to register the air or barometric pressure. This pressure is used for the barometer – logical – and is also used for the calculation of the altitude.This low weight has to do with the materials the Garmin is made of: 100% fiber enhanced polymers. Or in non-polite consumer language, plastic. This ‘plastic’ is not only light but also very strong and it feels nice – warm – to the skin. The 22 mm wide wristband is made of silicon with a fixture from metal. The glass of the watch face is made from Power Glass which is in fact Corning Gorilla Glass. Charging the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical Part 1

Also like most smartwatches the Garmin takes over a part of the smartphone functions: I like the fact that it shows messages so I don’t have to grab my phone. I can also use the ‘Find my phone’ function in case I lose my iPhone. Be aware that it uses the bluetooth connection to find your smartphone so when the connection is lost… Weather forecast Watches in the Garmin Instinct range are designed to be tough and durable rather than flashy. All Instinct and Instinct 2 models come with a fiber-reinforced polymer case and silicone band – though you can replace this with a woven, leather or metal strap if you buy one separately.

Besides a few minor flaws, the Garmin Instinct is an excellent expedition companion

The Tactical edition has a stealth mode that cuts off all wireless communications, a screen mode designed for reading with night vision goggles, and a killswitch that deletes all data stored on the watch, including location information. It also has Garmin’s Jumpmaster app installed for skydiving. Doing the same on a day with overcast results in almost the same measurements as on a sunny day and keeping the Instinct in the shade. The compass screen shows the bearing when you open it and the bearing is clearly visible in large numbers in the right hand corner; the direction is also shown with N, S, E, W and everything in between. By pressing the GPS button a menu opens. In this menu I can calibrate the compass, change what the display shows – degrees or milliradians -, I can change the North Reference from True, Magnetic, Grid or to my own preference. This is good because now I can change to wherever I am on this planet and be accurate. Did you know that the magnetic North is not everywhere the same way and that it changes from year to year? That is why you should know how a compass works when you are going out. The compass on the Garmin Instinct Solar does what it needs to do. If you want an outdoor watch that you don’t have to charge everyday or think about carrying around a charger with you, that’s something you don’t need to worry about with the Instinct.