Any Garmin watch experts willing to provide some advice?

I have used a secondhand Garmin Forerunner 230 for a few years. It does everything I need. I’m not very enamored with mapping on a watch; the interface is so small it seems pointless. Personally, the iPhone (GAIA) is for mapping. IMO distance, elevation, time, pace, and speed are all I’m really interested in tracking on my wrist. The most basic units do all of this.

Don’t forget to look into aftermarket watch apps for the models you’re considering. I installed a free UTM coordinate app on the 230 that allows me to sync coordinates with a paper map if necessary.

Following.  My original Apple Watch’s battery life is tapering off for even a full day’s use and I was considering a Garmin in lieu of a new Apple Watch. There are enough options to make your head spin.  The solar feature is intriguing to me.

I have the Enduro.  I was smitten by the solar feature too, but it is far too weak to make much of a difference if you are using GPS or sensors.  I would not buy it for the solar charger unless you will be using it only as a very expensive timepiece.   As was said, the map is useless.  I do really like the watch for a lot of other reasons, including very good battery life using the gps and sensors.

This is very helpful.  Any Fenix users have a different perspective or willing to share features of the Fenix that they really enjoy/use?

I’ve got a Fenix 6 Sapphire in excellent shape that I’d sell for $340 if you’re interested.

I have the Fenix 6 Pro – expensive. But I am sure you can get something that is more affordable. I like mine a lot. I use it for cycling, hiking, backpacking etc. Mine has maps – so, I can use mine for navigation with pre-loaded routes with waypoints etc. On my off route hike on the Sierra High Route, I had my route downloaded and could just check my watch to see if I on the right track etc. Didn’t have to use the phone much. The cheaper models will just have capabilities for a bread crumb trail that you download into watch – no maps. But, that also works. For the traditional long distance hikes like PCT or AT etc, Guthooks on phone still rules. But, lets say you leave your camp site for peak bagging or even when looking for water, I will turn on the GPS and then track back to my campsite. I find this very useful as you can easily get lost when coming back to your campsite as every clump of trees looks the same.

I like my watch a lot. I wear it 24 hours a day except during baths. It monitors your heart rate – resting heart rate etc. It is fun to see what the numbers are – what amount of sleep you got, what the resting heart rate was etc.

When doing a activity, it provides amazing amounts of information that you can analyze – elevation, heart rate, temperature, distance etc. You can spend lots of time customizing the watch face.

If you get the Fenix 6x Pro solar – my model – the battery lasts easily for 5.5 days of backpacking with 12 hours or more per day of usage looking at maps every 10/15 minutes etc. And these batteries are very small – easy to top it off.

I have the original Instinct (non-solar) and use it exactly as you describe, even for a 50k. Battery life is just so-so. But overall it’s simple, affordable and seemingly indestructible.

Have you looked at Coros? The Pace 2 looks really good!

I did get a Coros to check it out – but returned it. Battery life is great. But, I feel it is geared towards runners only with respect to watchface fields etc. Their navigation features are not that great….no waypoints, no maps. Recently they introduced primitive maps – but again no waypoints. For backpacking, I think nobody can beat Garmin. Also, you can pretty much disable every field in Garmin – like heartrate etc to save on power. Coros doesn’t provide that level of flexibility – like heart rate cannot be disabled unless you are doing an activity etc. I felt that the Sapphire only screen was not that easy to read with sun glasses on compared to Garmin non-sapphire glass screen.

Sorry if this is off track for the OP, but does anyone want to compare their Garmin to an Apple Watch?  REI has the Garmin watches on sale, and my original version Apple Watch needs to be replaced soon due to battery aging.  I know I would only use a small percentage of the features in a Fenix, but leaving my phone in the pack/pocket or bike bag and checking my route on the watch would definitely reduce the battery drain on the phone.  I believe even a new Apple Watch will not have the battery life of a Garmin.

Forerunner 745 has OPs requirements. Lighter and less expensive than Fenix.