Semi-smart watch

[reuben]

Well, I didn't buy anything two years ago when I started this thread. I was close to retirement (retired in early 2023), my mom died, I bought a house, I sold a house, and I've been spending goo gobs of time, money, and energy on the new house and land (read: no cycling). But life is settling down. Trips and activities are moving back to the fore.

And two years is not only forever in the land of technology, but also in the land of fitness. Alack, alas.

To refine my specs:

Requirements:
Solar powered with optional charger, preferably USB-C
Long battery life - days/weeks with solar charging
Heart rate - optical is fine

Wants:
Simple display. I'm a minimalist at heart, shaking my fist at 21st century clouds. Apparently Garmin can do this with 3rd party downloads from Connect IQ.
Simple operation. I don't want to have to press N+1 buttons to view something.

No need for:
GPS
Maps
Music
Alerts
Wifi
Bluetooth
Various exercise modes
Logging
Uploading data
Touchscreen
et cetera

Solar/battery - There can be multiday, and even multiweek periods of clouds and rain in both northern Scotland and southern Patagonia, hence the desire for long lasting battery and efficient solar charging - even if I'm outside for 16 hours/day, there may not be much power to collect. Plus, I'm lazy, and don't like plugging stuff in. On the other hand, I'd be going into town every 7-14 days to resupply with food, so I don't need unlimited battery life and super duper solar charging.

Heart rate - Informational only. My old Suunto with an optical sensor told me everything I needed to know (one thing - HR), and it was an older sensor. Garmin is now up to the Gen5, or at least Gen4 sensors, on all of its watches. Gen4 would be fine for me.

Display - Simple is good. Apparently the Garmin faces/displays can be customized using third party plugins. This appeals to me if I can get a simple one, like this ASAP face. That display with HR would be smartwatch utopia for me.

This would be an everyday watch - local day hikes, backpacking for a month at a time, cycling, watching sports on TV without spilling undue amounts of cheese on my shirt, planting garlic, harvesting chestnuts, etc.

I like my old Suunto, but they seem to have fallen by the wayside. If they have something comparable to Garmin I'd surely be open to it. Or any other manufacturer for that matter.

The Garmin Enduro 3 is looking good, as are the updated Instinct models. Fenix looks cool, but I don't see the benefit of them for my desires (I try to put vanity aside).

Date, time, occasional HR, good battery life, and good solar charging are all really want. I realize that I'm gonna get a lot more than that, but such is life in the 21st century. If I can turn off some features because I don't want them for my own use, don't want them to drain my battery (e.g. GPS), or don't want Garmin/Google/whatever to track me, that would be a plus.

Thanks.

[trener1]

Another option aside from the Eduro and Fenix, I was in the market for a Fenix but came across a Forerunner 955 Solar and I good price so figured that I would give it a try, and I couldn't be happier, it obviously does gobbs more then you are looking for but is a great watch and very light.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/777730/pn/010-02638-00

[fourflys]

I bet you can find some really good deals on a used Garmin Fenix 6 at the moment.. maybe Amazon might even have refurbished ones..

[cp43]

Given that you are looking for fewer features, I'd lean much more towards the Instinct than the Endruo.

I have a first gen Instinct Solar. I think it would fit well for what you want to do.

You have to ask it to turn on the GPS, it does heart rate tracking.
I have mine setup for phone notifications, but you don't need to do that.

It claims ~30 days of battery life when fully charged. But, that's when GPS isn't enabled. I track walks and the occasional ride with mine, which use GPS, which eats battery, so mine never lasts that long.

I think the newer ones are better on battery life.

All the things that the Enduro has, which the Instinct doesn't are in your "No need for" category.

All that said, 2 things:
1 - The Enduro is cool, I have been considering replacing my Instinct with one when the Instinct dies.
2 - More recently, I've been considering dumping Garmin stuff all together. I have the Instinct, and an Edge Explore. Both of which now have annoying software bugs that were introduced by firmware updates. They are common enough that other complain about them on the Garmin support forum. The response from Garmin there always seems to be "that rarely happens, we aren't going to fix it." I don't really want to keep buying into a company that breaks my stuff with updates and then doesn't fix it.

Chris

(sorry about the bit of a rant at the end there)

[tellyho]

I got my used Fenix 3 here for $50. Does 2/3 things you want (no solar). Charge lasts a week ish without using GPS, which I don't.

[AngryScientist]

Based on that list you want a G-shock move. Everything you want, nothing you dont.

https://www.casio.com/us/watches/gsh...saAno4EALw_wcB

[benb]

I've had a Fenix in the past and I've had an Instinct Solar (version 1) for a few years now.

I really, really like the Instinct. It is just the right amount of "smart" without being too much of a distracting gadget.

If mine broke I'd get the Instinct 2 Solar in a heartbeat. It seems like a really nice upgrade on both hardware and software. There is some stuff they had artificially locked out in the Instinct Solar like talking to Power Meters and Varia lights. They did that to try and upsell you to the Fenix or the other more high end ones. But in the Instinct 2 they seem to have gotten rid of those artificial locked out features.

[cgolvin]

Man, I wish I had known about this Instinct 2 Solar. I bought a used Fenix 5 Plus here to use instead of a chest strap HR; while it's serving the purpose, the Instinct would have been better, I think.

FYI, found one new for $94 here.

[Pegoready]

Originally Posted by cgolvin

Man, I wish I had known about this Instinct 2 Solar. I bought a used Fenix 5 Plus here to use instead of a chest strap HR; while it's serving the purpose, the Instinct would have been better, I think.

FYI, found one new for $94 here.

Yeah, a $450 watch for $94 on a sketchy website. No thanks.

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by Pegoready

Yeah, a $450 watch for $94 on a sketchy website. No thanks.

Buy it in person at their listed physical address, then go get a sandwich at Banh Mi My Tho, win-win.