+Shows lots of data
-Clunky in appearance
-Fragile buttons
+Strong battery life
-Not durable underwater
-Consistent issues with Garmin Connect application
+Great showing of maps (when the app decides to work)
-Expensive. Price to reliability is definitely weak. (I paid upwards to 1000USD on release day).
3/10
Oh. Yes. This review is going to be nasty. Before delving into the specifics of the review, some exposition is in order. This watch has been on my wrist for almost 1 year. It “survives” scuba dives to depths of 22 meters, several trail runs, weight lifting, hikes, and runs. Survives is in quotation marks for a reason. My Garmin has been damaged.
The watch functions, but during a scuba dive where I was hovering at about 17 meters, the watch did not adjust to the pressure well at all. When I pushed my glow button while underwater, it worked. Upon surfacing, the watch glow button was “sticky.” For a watch that costs over 800USD, and claims to operate at depths of 100meters, I should be able to push the glow feature button and not damage my watch! Even today, when I press the glow button, it sticks, and always takes me into the activities menu (which is where I can choose to promote an activity on my watch).
The data portrayed on this watch is its strongest feature. Everything from cadence, to a sleepin heart rate can be calculated on this watch. However, all of this data is pointless since it cannot be analyzed. Garmin’s data is mapped to its application coined Garmin Connect, but mapping data to the app is not reliable. The trail running activity particularly has a difficult time sending data to the app’s interface. I am not the only Garmin user who has had this problem before. Clicking here sheds light on similar complaints.
Garmin offers a weak solution to the mapping problem. The Garmin representative told me to download the Garmin Connect interface for my laptop. I was then instructed to attach my USB charger to my Mac to sync my data. This is not a plausible solution. Again, if a company is going to charge a large sum of money for a watch, it must be reliable.
Unreliable seems to be the theme stemming from this blog post. I am not the only reviewer who has cited this watch as such. Digital Trends discovered Garmin’s heart rate tracker is unreliable for mountain biking, but surprisingly the score for the watch is still high. Why? In my opinion, a watch at this price tag must deliver on what the consumer is buying; there are no exceptions or excuses. Back to my original point: Digital Trends, a far more credible source than this blog, also claims Sapphire 3HR lacks in terms of reliability: “In fact, it was so unreliable for mountain biking that we eventually paired the watch to our ANT+ compatible chest strap and used that for heart rate data capture” (Digital Trends).
This watch does promise and deliver an impressive battery life. During GPS activation, the watch can run upwards to 8 hours on a full charge, slaying Apple’s Series 3’s 2 hour battery life.
Garmin loses points in watch appearance; its a beast of machine wrapped on the user’s wrist. The outer rims of the watch looks like a ninja star used to cut throat(s). In fact, this watch is so clunky that it fails to fit snug in to the cuffs of my dress shirts for teaching. It is too bulky.
“Yeah? Well you should only use it for fitness,” says a critic. Again, I’ll reference the price: why am I paying 800USD to only wear a watch for activities? Also, doesn’t wearing the watch for an extended period of time offer more accurate data? Garmin did a great job of packing on the features, but fails to consider design.
In particular, I love the GPS map feature. Garmin triangulates my location and produces a beautiful map of my route for running:
Overall, this watch is overpriced, and falls short in the category of reliability. Tt does pack a decent battery life. The features are all wonderful in theory, but it fails to deliver data in a consistent manner, frustration surfaces, and users start to wonder why we paid so much for an unreliable, data packed, beast of a watch. Most importantly, the watch does not deliver on what it was designed to do, as it suffered damage under water.
On a personal note: I have debated selling this watch to someone, but I actually think it would be criminal of me.