# Garmin watch 123 Hacker News commenters recommended Garmin watch and 49 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 5 years (10 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Recommended for battery life lasting weeks, accurate fitness and health tracking, and phone-independent utility, though many find the interface clunky and dislike the proprietary charger. ## Why people recommend it - Battery lasts weeks per charge (7 comments): "Although there are other watches with long battery life (Garmin, and to a lesser extent Amazfit), their UIs are not good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48959467)) "I love the fact that I can do almost two weeks of exercises (ride, walk, gym) without needing to charge it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46350591)) "only recharges their garmin watch maybe once a month(with dozens of hours of activity tracking)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46569462)) - Accurate fitness and health metrics (4 comments): "The heart-rate monitoring on my Garmin gives highly accurate tracking of calories burned, better than anything I could do by hand." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47462488)) "Garmin smartwatches have a very good measurement and intepretation with their "stress" and "body battery" features." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48617149)) "my Garmin, that and the Stress tracker usually let me know 1-2 days ahead of time that I'm getting sick" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49746408)) - Works without a phone (3 comments): "But yet you'll get the same watch experience with Garmin regardless of whether you have an iPhone or a Samsung or Google phone." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47083336)) "most Garmin Smartwatches will happily stay in airplane mode for months once configured" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054284)) "doesn't require any sort of connection or activation to function out-of-the-box" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49091413)) - Great for hiking and outdoors (3 comments): "I also use my Garmin smartwatch as a scuba diving computer to track depth, time, and decompression." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282196)) "I have a garmin watch which is great for overland hiking, multiple day expeditions etc" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47968842)) "Compared to any phone app I've tried, my watch records much cleaner tracks for hiking" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48949315)) ## What people warn about - Clunky, laggy user interface (4 comments): "Although there are other watches with long battery life (Garmin, and to a lesser extent Amazfit), their UIs are not good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48959467)) "The Garmin O/S UX is a bit ass, but usable and I never need to carry money if I am going on a run." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45783878)) "But on the Garmin it's like multiple button pushes, and even then the list of notifications is not complete." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46508318)) - Proprietary, fragile charging cable (2 comments): "USB-C charging would be awesome, instead of Garmin's proprietary plug and a cable that's made from spider silk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49087191)) "proprietary connector for its charging cable, that is easy to lose/break and expensive to replace" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49090425)) - Sleep tracking gappy or unhelpful (4 comments): "It's an accurate after the fact representation of my sleep, but it doesn't tell me anything that my own body isn't telling me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716855)) "there were so many gaps (even when I was sitting) that I didn't feel I could eyeball them or trust averages over time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46647632)) "typically matches how I feel the next day, but that also makes it not terribly useful" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46647388)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Garmin Instinct](https://hackerapproved.com/p/garmin-instinct.md): 33 recommend - [Garmin Fenix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/garmin-fenix.md): 28 recommend - [Coros watch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/coros-watch.md): 17 recommend - [Una Watch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/una-watch.md): 12 recommend - [Garmin Forerunner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/garmin-forerunner.md): 10 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Garmin+smartwatch&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://WWW.garmin.com/en-US/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Garmin watch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/garmin-watch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).