The Apple Watch is one of the best selling watches in the world full stop, let alone amongst smartwatches, where it is the clear market leader. Thanks to the global popularity of the iPhone, Apple has been able to tempt consumers into buying a compatible wrist gadget to track their health, make quick payments, and handle notifications.
If you aren’t interested in all of those features, you may still want a smartwatch for outdoor pursuits that can take a real battering, handle the toughest weather conditions, help you navigate in the middle of the bush and display high quality offline maps with GPS then one of your best bets is opting for a Garmin watch.
The firm has just announced the Garmin tactix 8, an all-singing new gadget that it refers to as a “tactical watch”, packed with features suited to dedicated outdoors people with a rugged build that’s U.S. military standard (MIL-STD-810) for thermal, shock and water resistance plus a 40 metre diving range with leakproof buttons and an Apple Watch-beating 16 days of battery life.
The tactix 8 comes in a 47mm casing and is sold alongside a larger 51mm option. The latter is available with solar tech to keep power topped up simply by catching the sun’s rays and can last an amazing 48 days on a charge even when using the energy-sipping always-on display but will set you back a wallet-busting £1,279.99. That’s more than five times the price of the £219 Apple Watch SE.
The 47mm tactix 8 model costs a little less but will still set back outdoor lovers £1,189.99. So, why does this watch cost so much more than Apple’s most expensive £799 Apple Watch Ultra 2?
For one, the Garmin boasts an LED torch built right into the casing that is bright enough to take the place of a head torch for finding your gear in the middle of the night when camping or stumbling your way to the loo or plot the next point on your map. But if you want to do away with bulky paper maps, the tactix 8 has full mapping tech built in which can accurately triangulate your position thanks to the multiband GPS. Garmin supports full topological maps too with the ability to save waypoints to track where you’ve been and a full access to aeronautical databases so you can navigate to the nearest airport.
While the Apple Watch can give you your local weather, Garmin goes several steps further with full information on aviation weather reports and accurate climate readings thanks to a barometric altimeter on board. When you’re crashing through the undergrowth the watch also claims to keep up by tracking your movements and health with a heart rate sensor including blood oxygen monitoring.
The tactic 8 watches, which both have AMOLED screens, also have what is known as rucking support and an Applied Ballistics Solver. The former lets you input the weight of your rucksack and gear so the health features can take into account how much load you’re carrying. The latter is software designed to aid you when you’re out shooting, which is also why this watch could prove popular with military buyers as well as the general public.
“Applied Ballistics is a third-party feature on compatible Garmin products that offers customised aiming solutions for long-range shooting based on your rifle characteristics, bullet characteristics, and various environmental conditions,” Garmin says on its website. “You can enter parameters including wind, temperature, humidity, range, and firing direction.”
That’s some serious business, and not something any Apple Watch has the ability to do.
It’s not all serious tactical features though, as the watch can store music for offline playback as well as the expected compass, gyroscope and accelerometer, plus a thermometer. When you’re not in the field, the watch is also ready to go with all manner of exercise tracking from running, HIIT and gym sessions to swimming, pilates, cycling, paddleboarding and basically any sport you can think of. There’s even apnoea detection to keep you safe when diving, plus automatic logging of your dive entry and exit points for safety reasons, and you can check when it’s best to hit the water thanks to live tide tracking.
The tactix 8 looks like a watch for anyone with an iPhone or Android phone that basically doesn’t spend any time indoors and offers specialist tactical and military features for those professions, but is also available to buy for the general public. If you love the outdoors but don’t need to fly a plane or shoot guns it might be too much watch for you, but it can certainly do more than the Apple Watch Ultra 2.
