It looks like my faithful and old Suunto Observer has not recovered after the last battery change. It certainly served me well for over 15 years.

The Observer was one of the early ABC watches, which stands for Altimeter, Barameter, and Compass. It was my main outdoor activity watch, and while the altimeter may not be highly useful in Minnesota or Ontario, the barometer and compass definitely were. Suunto still makes several ABC watches, as do other makers.

I've also quickly looked at some of the more advanced watches - namely ones that incorporate GPS functionality. They tend to cost a bit more, but the big thing that set off my alarm bells was the shockingly short battery life. Some models brag about getting "up to" 10 of 14 days, while I'm use to putting in a new battery about every 18-24 months. I"m also wondering if I need GPS in a watch when I am likely to have my phone and/or Garmin Mini with me, or is it more valuable than I am thinking?

Any thoughts on GPS in a watch or not - especially for canoeing, hiking, biking, hunting, etc? Have any of you been troubled by need to recharge yet another device frequently? Curious to hear if anyone has some experience and/or relevant opinions. Non-watch wearers - don't bother trying to persuade me.

I have GPS in my Fitbit (I collect different data) but it is a battery drain and I have it on my phone and in-reach so it is turned off. Having a backup data system is always a good idea. Using the in-reach with my phone screen is better for navigation, but I still bring paper maps and a compass.

I have an old Suunto Watch that’s probably 11 years old. I really like the Barometer and Compass features. I look at the barometer 12 hour trend graph and if there is a falling barometer over a 12-24 hour period it usually means chance of rain. It’s quite accurate at forecasting rain.

I like using the digital compass to help me with direction. I also like to point it to look at wind direction ( cold wind coming from the north or winds from the east and possible coming rain). But I do have a compass on my IPhone.

I use Gaia Map App on my cell to determine my location when tripping. I download maps of the area I will be in when I am OnLine. These downloaded maps are always available to you when you are Offline when tripping as your cells GPS always works wherever you are … even with no cell service.

My battery in my Suunto watch needs replacing every 12-14 months. I set up a plan with a nearby Batteries Plus store for a Lifetime Battery Replacement. So I replace it every year at no cost after initial battery replacement.

Not sure I would spend the money on a watch with GPS as I use my cells GPS.

I use my Garmin 245 Music for Mt Biking, Exercise Paddling, and XC Skiing. But for the BW I don't see it being of much use.

I bought the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical for several reasons (I do Search & Rescue as a volunteer) but this has GPS and solar recharging. I feel it does quite well. I mostly use the GPS for the quick dropping of waypoints and then annotating into my notebook. Though it does decent GPS tracks, the storage most likely wouldn't last for an entire trip. I THINK it can bluetooth to my phone and greatly increase storage that way, I've never explored that option.

For a rugged watch that I don't have to worry about battery life when I'm outdoors, I'm very happy with it.

WonderMonkey: "I bought the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical for several reasons (I do Search & Rescue as a volunteer) but this has GPS and solar recharging. I feel it does quite well. I mostly use the GPS for the quick dropping of waypoints and then annotating into my notebook. Though it does decent GPS tracks, the storage most likely wouldn't last for an entire trip. I THINK it can bluetooth to my phone and greatly increase storage that way, I've never explored that option.

For a rugged watch that I don't have to worry about battery life when I'm outdoors, I'm very happy with it."

I’ve looked at the Instinct and it’s in the consideration set (if I go with GPS, which is still TBD). I’m curious how long you have had yours. Also, and this might sound like a stupid question, but the little solar panels are on the outside face of the watch, right? It would seem ridiculous to put them on the underneath side meaning you would have to have the watch off to charge, but I haven’t seen it listed anywhere.

I use a dedicated GPS with inReach, so I don't see much reason to have GPS on my watch. I use a super cheap Casio that has an alarm and a backlight. Durable, slim, and functional. It's all I need a watch for!

Jaywalker: "

WonderMonkey: "I bought the Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical for several reasons (I do Search & Rescue as a volunteer) but this has GPS and solar recharging. I feel it does quite well. I mostly use the GPS for the quick dropping of waypoints and then annotating into my notebook. Though it does decent GPS tracks, the storage most likely wouldn't last for an entire trip. I THINK it can bluetooth to my phone and greatly increase storage that way, I've never explored that option.


For a rugged watch that I don't have to worry about battery life when I'm outdoors, I'm very happy with it."

I’ve looked at the Instinct and it’s in the consideration set (if I go with GPS, which is still TBD). I’m curious how long you have had yours. Also, and this might sound like a stupid question, but the little solar panels are on the outside face of the watch, right? It would seem ridiculous to put them on the underneath side meaning you would have to have the watch off to charge, but I haven’t seen it listed anywhere. "

I purchased mine on June 6th of 2021 and have taken it on about 10 outings, being the SAR, disaster services, or camping. It's been reasonably beaten up. The solar panels are around the outside of the square that's dedicated for display, and yes on the face of the watch! As for non-solar charging, that port is underneath. You can sync the watch via Bluetooth or the charging cable. A few people have other watches that have a larger face, which is nice, but I feel mine is more protected against damage from contact. Is it really? Not sure, but it looks that way.

I'm sure the other watches are great, but I don't have direct experience with them. I like that the modern watch uses the various GPS sources (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) if I need them. I've turned on the tracking to compare against my InReach, and it did well, but since the storage is lower I fell into allowing my InReach to track me (on all my outings) and use the watch to drop a waypoint.

If you do get the Garmin, purchase the plugs that go into the charging port to protect it against stuff that could go in there. I've not had an issue with things going in there as it is snugly against your wrist, but I figure it's a minimal cost to help protect an expensive watch.

I don't wear any watch unless I'm doing one of my outdoor activities, so it's not a daily wearer for me.

I use a Gamin 5X daily. I also have a Suunto Observer, it's a great ABC watch. I needed a watch that did little more for cycling so I bought a Suunto Ambit. It was fine until their proprietary non-ant+ senors turned me off. At the time the 5X was what I gravitated to. I've had it 5 years now without complaint. It's similar to the Instinct but with few additional features(mapping). I only run the wrist HR monitor when I'm moving. So for paddling trips I can go five days plus as I recall. We do bring a battery brick for camera, Spot X, watch & phone (GPS).
I have a chest HR monitor strap, speed & cadence senors for cycling. It works seamlessly unlike some of the other cyclometer garbage I've used in the past.
Enjoy the shopping! lots to choose from. Check out DC rainmaker's site www.dcrainmaker.com it's packed with loads of product reviews. I'm liking the new 7X's but they're extremely expensive at the moment.

Check out DC rainmaker's site www.dcrainmaker.com it's packed with loads of product reviews.

This all the way. DC Rainmaker is the king of all sports technology.

I have a Garmin Fenix 2 I bought years ago for triathlon. It's served me well and with every new version I think of upgrading but just can't justify the $. In it's smart GPS mode I can track several days worth of paddling without recharging. I bring a battery pack to charge it and my phone which I run the Gaia GPS app as well as Garmin Inreach from. I like this setup. It's nice to see where I was.

That being said if I didn't already own the watch, I wouldn't bother.