What you must know
- The brand new Garmin Descent Mk3i can dive all the way down to 200 meters, comes with an AMOLED show and built-in flashlight, and tracks your Dive Readiness.
- The brand new Garmin G1 Photo voltaic Ocean Version lasts 124 days and is the primary Garmin watch constructed from 100% recycled ocean-bound plastics.
- The Descent T2 transceiver permits you to immediately message with different divers underwater by way of sonar, plus examine their air tank ranges and respiration charges (or your personal).
After a number of weeks of leaks dripping in a couple of mysterious Garmin look ahead to divers, Garmin lastly introduced three new merchandise: a premium Garmin Descent Mk3 dive pc, a extra inexpensive (for Garmin) G1 Photo voltaic watch, and a transceiver that’ll allow you to ship out sonar-based SOS indicators to fellow divers in an emergency.
Regardless of most watches having a “5ATM” water resistance ranking, most watches aren’t truly designed to resist a 50-meter dive. Just a few “informal” watches, just like the Apple Watch Extremely 2 (40 meters) and Amazfit T-Rex Extremely (30 meters), come shut.
With the titanium Garmin Descent Mk3i, you possibly can dive as deep as 200 meters with out shedding performance and have a built-in flashlight in your wrist to maintain an eye fixed out for marine critters and megalodons. The one downside is that it prices twice as a lot as an Extremely 2, even earlier than you add the T2 transceiver that makes use of SubWave sonar to transmit air tank utilization and message your fellow divers throughout a dive.
For severe divers, you are buying and selling off the smarts of a standard watch for specialised instruments like Dive Readiness (much like a Forerunner 265‘s Coaching Readiness), diveview maps, tide knowledge, an underwater compass, a variometer to trace your descent/ascent fee, completely different dive modes primarily based on the kind of gases used, and so forth.
Though extra specialised dive pc manufacturers like Shearwater would possibly nonetheless win over Garmin, it is clear that lovers have so much to understand with the Descent Mk3. In any other case, the Descent G1 Ocean Version offers you many of the similar core diving options, solely with an MIP show and a design made totally of recycled ocean plastic.
Garmin sometimes makes use of “fiber-reinforced polymer” in its watches to prioritize sturdiness, however it might be an thrilling change if extra Garmin watches might swap to recycled plastics with the identical ruggedness. A whole lot of main smartwatch manufacturers like Apple and Samsung emphasize sustainability for his or her packaging or watch bands, and it would be good to see Garmin be a part of their quantity.
Even for those who’re solely capable of go diving a number of occasions a yr, the Garmin Descent collection does pack in conventional exercise instruments and metrics like every day steered exercises, restoration time, Garmin Coach, animated exercises, topographical maps, and Endurance/ Hill scores. In the event you’re contemplating shopping for a Garmin Epix or Forerunner 965 anyway, the Descent Mk3 will future-proof it for diving with out lacking out on many different Garmin methods.
The smaller, non-flashlight model of the Descent Mk3 begins at $1,200 and is accessible now, as is the $650 Descent G1 Ocean Version.
