If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I LOVE my apple watch and wore it every single day! I recently made a switch to Garmin and have been giving their watch a try for about a month now. A lot of you guys have noticed my watch change on IG stories and asked me what I think. So today I want to give a totally honest review + my thoughts on the apple watch vs the garmin! BTW, just in case you were wondering, this post is not sponsored in any way! (Not that that changes anything ha but, just because I know people will ask).
Why I Wanted to Test the Garmin Watch
So first, let’s chat about why I wanted to switch from the Apple watch in the first place! I have the Apple Watch series 4 and loved it! I used it to track my workouts, get notifications like texts, calendar invites etc…and then other things like check the weather, time (duh) haha things like that. I really liked my Apple watch and don’t have anything negative to say about it! But I was interested in trying out the Garmin for a few reasons:
- This sounds so dumb…but, just being real haha. The 3 circles on the apple watch messed with me! (If you have an apple watch, you know what I’m talking about!). As silly as it sounds, it bugged me if I ever had a day where I didn’t “close all 3 rings” (any other 3 enneagrams out there?!). I workout 5 days a week so on the two days I don’t workout…I typically didn’t ‘close my rings’ and as silly as it sounds, in some small way, that messed with me, or made me feel like “darn I should go do something so I can close my rings”. So. I was tired of the rings haha.
- The battery life on the apple watch isn’t great – you definitely have to charge it every single night. And when we were going out to the lake alot for weekend trips, I was sick of having to pack my watch charger. I heard the Garmin battery life could go several days so that intrigued me.
- I’d also heard that the Garmin can tell you way more specifics about your workouts, sleep, stress levels, even menstrual cycles! It just tracks / reports way more data so that was enticing to me as well!
Why I Picked Garmin’s Venu Watch
I decided to go with the Garmin Venu after doing some research and chatting with someone who works for Garmin! They have TONS of watch options on their website haha it’s slightly overwhelming!
I knew I wanted a watch with a touchscreen, and one that had smart watch capabilities. I also wanted one that would track workouts but I didn’t need anything crazy detailed / high tech (a lot of their watches are geared more towards hiking / GPS / trails which is awesome if that’s your jam! but that’s not what i was needing). The Garmin Venu has a touch screen and similar face to the apple watch IMO. I also really like the size of it and it has tons of ‘smart watch’ capabilities (like receiving text messages, calendar notifications, etc).
The Verdict! Apple Watch vs. Garmin
TBH, it took a solid two weeks of me wearing the Garmin to really get used to it / start liking it haha. If you are used to the Apple Watch, there’s definitely a learning curve with a new fitness watch. (It’s like switching from a Mac computer to a PC). Now that I’ve fully adjusted though I can honestly say, I think I’ve decided I like the Garmin more than my apple watch! Here’s why:
- Battery life – the battery life on the garmin venu is INSANE! I only have to charge it once or twice a week! This is really nice when you’re taking a weekend trip and don’t have to worry about bringing another charger with you! I also like being able to sleep in the watch at night so it can track my sleep. I never slept in my apple watch because you have to charge it every night.
- Hydration tracking – I’m sure there are apps you can get on the apple watch to track how much water you’re drinking…but the garmin venu has this built into like your home screen options! So you just swipe up on your home screen and right away, there’s a watch face that lets you track how much water you’ve drank that day! It’s made me be way more intentional about getting my water in!
- Well-rounded health reporting – the Garmin venu tracks so much more than workouts. It can track your stress levels, sleep, ‘body battery’ and more. I tend to think this type of tracking is so fake haha BUT I actually think the Garmin venu tracks these really well BECAUSE…this watch also tracks your breathing which can affect stress levels. It tracks your heart rate and sleep and water intake…and all of these factors can affect your ‘body battery’ and stress levels! So i’ve found the tracking so actually be pretty accurate and helpful! This watch also has advanced sleep monitoring so you can get a full picture of how you’re sleeping, with a breakdown of your light, deep and REM sleep stages as well as Pulse Ox and respiration data!
4. Round face – I actually just like how the Garmin looks more than the apple watch! The Apple watch has a square face and I like the round face on the garmin. I feel like the garmin looks better with ‘normal’ (non-workout) outfits than the apple watch does!
5. Workout stats – the Garmin venu can tell you WAY more specific data about your workouts / runs than the apple watch can! I haven’t even tapped into a fraction of everything this watch can tell you. But I do like that this watch not only tracks your heart rate during workouts, but at the end of a workout it will tell you exactly how much time you spent in each “zone” (so, red zone is when your HR is at its max, orange is moderate to high, etc. If you’ve done orangetheory before, you know what i’m talking about!). This has been interesting for me to see because I used to think cardio was the only way to really get your heart rate up…but I’ve seen how high my heart rate gets now from doing strength training workouts as well! Both can be great workouts that get your HR up! If you WANT to get super detailed, the Garmin can also track like how many sets you’ve done, reps, etc! And there’s even a quick button to press to start your ‘rest timer’.
One feature I miss from the Apple watch that my Garmin doesn’t have
So overall, I think the Garmin Venu gets my vote for a fitness / smart watch. BUT, there there is one thing I miss about the apple watch that I can’t do on the Garmin: responding to text messages! The garmin can receive texts but you can’t respond to them! I didn’t use this feature on my apple watch super often but…at times, it was convenient to be able to respond to a text on my watch if my phone wasn’t in the room
Overall, the Garmin and the Apple watch are both great watches and you can’t go wrong with either one! I didn’t cover all of the features the Venu has because most of them are exactly the same as apple watch – you can receive text messages, notifications, your calendar is on there, you can get the weather, my music is on there, etc. It also has ‘garmin pay’ which is basically the same feature as apple pay. I really do love both watches but if I had to pick one…the Garmin Venu currently gets my vote!
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Let me know if you guys have any more questions about either watch in the comments below! If you have a Garmin – do you love it?! Any features I’m missing that I need to know about?!
xo Lauren
