Switching from Apple Watch to Garmin (Pros + Cons)

Are you considering switching from an Apple Watch to a Garmin? Here are some of the pros and cons we've experienced.

I’ve been an Apple Watch user for several years, and I really like it! It’s a convenient extension of my phone and wallet and has worked fairly well as a fitness tracker.

Earlier this year, my husband (who has never used an Apple Watch), upgraded from a Fitbit to a Garmin Fenix watch.

At first, I was not impressed because it looked COMPLICATED. (Spoiler alert: this watch IS complicated to set up, at least in comparison to an Apple Watch.)

However, on a three-day backpacking trip on the Art Loeb trail, my Apple Watch did not perform as well as his Garmin Fenix. Not only did the battery need charging at our breaks, but the fitness tracker kept resetting when my trekking pole strap (wet from rain) bumped it.

And then again when backpacking in Iceland, his watch lasted the entire six-day trek, while mine needed charging multiple times a day. The battery couldn’t hold up to the cold temperatures and the extended fitness tracking.

As we’ve continued to do multi-day treks, or even just long day hikes, I’ve become more and more impressed with his Garmin, and have the continuous feeling that my Apple Watch might not be built for endurance sports.

I found that switching from an Apple Watch to a Garmin was not as easy as I hoped! Actually, I tried to do this test months ago and gave up on the Garmin within 48 hours because I found the whole process frustrating. But I decided to try again, and this time things went better.

If you’re thinking about switching from an Apple Watch to a Garmin, here are some things to consider.

For this post, I compared an Apple Watch 8 with a Garmin Fenix 8. The following assumes that you’ll still be using an iPhone.

Similarities When Switching From an Apple Watch to Garmin

There are a lot of similarities between the watches, particularly when it comes to basic tracking like heart rate and activity.

The Garmin watch has more stats available, which some users may prefer and others may not.

If you’ve been using the Apple Fitness app, those workouts won’t transfer to the Garmin app. New workouts recorded on the Garmin will not import into the Apple Fitness app.

The watches also have similar fitness tracking activity options, although there are some differences. Both have activity customization options that may not be obvious until you dig into the settings.

Garmin’s biofeedback features are notoriously more critical than Apple’s. If you love closing your Apple Watch activity rings and getting a tiny pat on the back as the watch does its little firework show to celebrate your accomplishments, brace yourself for the lack of that.

Each can also be used as… a watch. Or when the battery runs out, as a fancy overpriced bracelet.

Cons When Switching From Apple to Garmin

Most of the challenges listed below are simply a result of switching from a device built as a direct extension of the iPhone to one that isn't.

Some compatibility issues may improve over time; others likely won’t.

The Shopping Process

More choices isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be overwhelming. When shopping for an Apple watch, the decisions you need to make are basically:

• Do I want to save money and buy an older version of the watch with fewer features?
• What size watch do I want? (Included in this might be some decisions about opting for the larger Ultra watch for longer battery life.)
• What color do I want?
• What type of watch band do I want?

When shopping for a Garmin watch, you have all of the above questions to consider, PLUS things like:

• What activity am I using the watch for? (Not all watches have the same built-in activity features, although there are options to add custom activities.)
• Do I want solar charging options?
• Do I want a more scratch-resistant Sapphire watch?
• Do I want GPS to track workouts?
• Do I want additional built-in map features?
• How important is it for me to have a brightly colored touchscreen display? (If that is important, consider one of the AMOLED display watches.)
• How waterproof do I want the watch to be? (Some are even dive compatible.)

I found the shopping process extremely confusing. Using the filter option on Garmin’s website was helpful.

The User Interface

This actually could go under both pros and cons, but I think it’s likely to be the biggest entry barrier for Apple watch users switching to Garmin.

Unlike an Apple watch, a Garmin watch is not automatically customized for you as soon as you log in. The setup period can feel somewhat complicated, a bit like switching from a Mac computer to a PC.

Ultimately there are MORE customization options and MORE ways to make the watch work for you than what Apple offers, but getting the thing set up can be downright painful. (Or at least it was to me.)

Here are some user interface things that were a learning curve for this Apple Watch user:

Multiple Apps

Most of the settings and health stats are in the Garmin Connect app, but watch face settings are in a Garmin Connect IQ app. There’s also a messenger app within the Garmin system (instead of texting from your phone).

Since I also have the Garmin Explore app for my InReach Mini 2, I now have four Garmin apps to choose from.

Watch Face

In Apple's interface, the “Watch” app on your phone contains all the possible watch faces. But Garmin watches have MANY watch face options, and the number of options depends on which watch you buy.

For the Garmin Fenix 8 that we tested, you could build a watch face from within the watch, download one in the Garmin Connect IQ app, or use a website to code your own.

Only some of the options were free. Some available watch faces are free native ones (made by Garmin) and some are user-created. Many of the user-created ones either had an up-front cost, or had some free features and some paid.

I ended up doing a Google search for the best native Garmin watch faces, and was happy with the Summit watch face, which ended up looking quite similar to the “Activity Analog” face I use on my Apple Watch.

This watch face was highly customizable, but I did need to look up HTML color codes to customize the colors. I think changing the settings would be confusing or overwhelming if you weren’t very techy.

It also seemed that the watch faces used a different weather program than the watch itself, because even the native watch faces we tried required a free account at OpenWeather, getting an API code, and adding it to your watch face settings.

Interestingly, my watch's “good morning” report included weather reports even without the OpenWeather API added, but the watch face weather wouldn’t work until I added that.

General Watch Settings

There are a LOT of customizable settings on Garmin, and (to me) many seemed hard to find or confusing. I spent a lot of time doing Google searches for where a setting was located or what a particular option meant.

Sometimes I realized that a setting was not in the Garmin Connect app like I thought, but in the Garmin Connect IQ app with my watch face settings.

The setting options are also different depending on which watch you purchase, so locating them can be tricky.

Focus Mode

iPhone focus mode doesn’t work with Garmin watch.

Garmin watch does have its own focus modes, but they don’t seem to integrate with the ones you may have already set up on your iPhone.

Previously when I started a workout on my Apple Watch, I had it set to automatically turn on a focus mode and silence phone notifications. That had to be set up separately on a Garmin watch.

Notifications, Calls and Texts

You can view texts on the Garmin watch, but you can no longer type a response or create a reaction as you would on an Apple watch. It's the same for phone calls, although some Garmin watches have a voice assist option that seems to let you answer your phone through the watch.

Both of the above (text and phone calls) assume your phone is nearby. Garmin watches don’t have cell signal options like Apple Watches.

A big con for me is that on the Garmin watch, iPhone app notifications can either be on or off. You can’t customize which notifications go to your phone but not your watch.

One workaround for this: it seems that notifications set to “Lock Screen” and “banners” but not “notification center” don’t go through to the Garmin watch, so that might be an option for adjusting notification settings.

Apple Music and iTunes Compatibility

If your iPhone is nearby, you can listen to streaming Apple Music or music purchased from iTunes, but you cannot stream Apple Music directly to a Garmin watch.

The Garmin watch "Music" app allows you some control over the music or podcasts streaming on your phone, but I missed the option to skip forward 30-seconds or back 15-seconds.

That said, the Garmin watch does work with some other music and streaming services.

Also, while you can download purchased iTunes songs onto your watch, you have to do it on your computer with the Garmin Express app. You can’t simply connect the Apple Music app to your watch and download songs.

Other Apple Watch Features That Aren’t Compatible With Garmin

Apple Pay: You can still use Apple Pay from your iPhone, but not on your watch. Instead Garmin has “Garmin Pay,” which has a somewhat more limited bank/card compatibility. See Garmin’s site for a full list.

Passcode lock screen: The model we tested did not have a passcode system to lock the watch screen, so the watch remains unlocked when it’s not on your wrist. In theory, someone else could access it. I missed Apple Watch's auto-lock and the ability to automatically unlock the watch when I unlocked my phone.

Find My app: You can still ping your phone from your Garmin watch and your watch from your iPhone's Garmin Connect app (if you’re within Bluetooth range), but the Garmin watch won’t appear as a device in the Find My app.

Pros of Switching From an Apple Watch to Garmin

That was a long list of cons, but it really is a big adjustment to switch from one watch style to another!

Next, here are some of the things I really enjoyed about the Garmin watch.

Battery Life

This one is no surprise. Apple Watch’s battery life (when brand new) is currently 18 hours for the standard line and 36 hours for Ultra. Of course, battery capacity declines with age.

For me, switching from a standard Apple Watch to an Ultra wasn’t really an option, as the Ultra is only available in sizes that are larger than my fairly small wrist.

Prolonged activity tracking greatly decreases the Apple watch's battery life, and I’ve found myself needing to charge my watch while we eat lunch in the backcountry, or with no battery left by the end of a long day hike.

I’ve also found Apple watches to be challenging to charge in the backcountry. Solutions like portable wireless chargers inserted in battery banks with a low power mode, or even battery banks with an Apple Watch charging station have had mixed results for me.

I find it’s harder to get the watch perfectly balanced on the charger in a tiny tent, and even though these chargers generally work perfectly at home, in the backcountry they often turn off before my watch is fully charged.

Garmin watches have exceptional battery life.

The actual battery life depends on what features and settings you’re using, as well as how large the watch is (smaller models have smaller batteries), but the Fenix 8 I tried has a battery life up to nine days, or 15 days in battery saver mode! (Check the specific watch stats for more battery life information.)

When the watches do need to be charged, they charge with a cable that doesn’t require balancing on a perfectly flat surface. (That said, it is annoying that it’s a proprietary cable, not a USB-C.)

Ruggedness

Apple watches have a beveled screen that wraps down the side of the watch. That means the watch face is easily scratched (unless you purchase a case with a “bumper”).

Also, some have found that the watches can crack if you hit them wrong (similar to a phone screen). I never had issues with the screen cracking, but my watch did get scratched fairly quickly.

In contrast, the Garmin watch I tried had a metal ring around a flat screen, a built-in bumper. Some Garmin models have the option to purchase the “Sapphire” model, a more scratch resistant screen.

The Touchscreen

This may be more of a con for some users, but I liked how the Garmin Fenix touchscreen worked. Unlike the Apple Watch touchscreen, the touchscreen locks during activities and there are physical buttons that can be used to quickly pause or stop the activity.

Given how many issues I’ve had with my Apple Watch touchscreen accidentally being bumped and ending an activity, I liked this change a lot.

Built-in Mapping Features

Some of the higher-end Garmin watch models include map features that can be incredibly useful when hiking.

My husband’s older Garmin Fenix 6 has maps, and it was kind of shocking to me how much I liked that we could see maps without pulling out our phones. This speeds things up (less stopping) and also helps us when we’re trying to disconnect (mentally) from our phones.

While testing the newer Garmin Fenix 8, I realized that I could connect the watch to my Garmin Explore app and access all the the collections and waypoints I’d added while using my Garmin inReach.

If you’re an AllTrails subscriber, you can also export trails as GPX files and send them to your Garmin device.

Is It Worth Switching From Apple Watch to a Garmin?

It depends on your needs.

There are definitely drawbacks, especially if you’re using your Apple Watch as an extension of your iPhone, if you want lots of control over your notifications or love the simplicity of the Apple Watch user interface.

However, if you’re spending more and more time participating in endurance sports, such as long runs, hikes or multi-day backpacking trips, it may be worth the effort to make the switch. The pros include incredible battery life, more rugged features and fun features like maps.