I agree, it's a direct competition for ABC Protreks. Is lacks maps though, so the smart Protreks have and advantage. It also lacks the solar charging of the RangeBeast. The $300 price tag is sweet, you don't get a GPS Casio for that much. Form factor is better, cool factor is worse, and I trust the reputation of Casio better than claims by Garmin. Never owned a device from them but plenty of broken watches at acquaintances.

So, in my opinion, it is a poor man's RangeBeast.

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Sorry, but to me the Instinct is way too basic and cheap looking. I guess Garmin was trying to make a simple and cool looking watch, but ended up instead with something that looks like one of those $15 look alike smart watches.

 

Looks for me are as important as functionality............so IMO no.

[Casios' looks are my idea of a tough watch..........and Garmin cannot hold a candle in that department]

 

What I don’t understand about Instinct is why the display doesn’t go all the way to edge of bezel, rather leaving a lot of empty spaces in odd shape around it? It’s not for solar panels for sure so seems to me a lot of good real estate wasted.

 

i'm tempted to get this, but i'm also tempted by the protrek wsd-f30 thats coming out jan 2019...so i'll probably just not get anything

btw, for the sunrise / sunset...i'm guessing there are no options for say civil or nautical?

What I don't understand about Instinct is why the display doesn't go all the way to edge of bezel, rather leaving a lot of empty spaces in odd shape around it? It's not for solar panels for sure so seems to me a lot of good real estate wasted.

usually its where garmin places the gps antennaes.

 

They differ by 57 seconds. Which is correct?

 

GARMIN does not use radio signal but smartphone connection, the difference is the same you have in phone network time and atomic station.

 

Battery life....2 weeks versus 20+years for a solar Casio? I rest my case.

 

My Motorola 8700 i suppose was one week durable, my Note 9 one day and half...

 

Garmin is enlarging the offer, big range in prices, value received from customers, features, for men and women, for professional and everyday use, the battery life is one of the best improvements, display readability, sensors precision. Garmin is the best meeting for sport smart and ABC watches. The smartphone application is simply perfect, compared with Casio Suunto Polar, notifications library is complete 100 %,.
I compare this INSTINCT with the Rangeman, first and last edition, Protrek digital, and I do not find technical reasons to prefer CASIO.
Garmin is opening the offer, Casio is pushing to metal watches, analog top quality market, not focused in smartwatch...
The Instinct will drop to 250 € online, difficult to resist.

I'm using two Garmin, Fenix 5, model 2017, battery life 8 days, Fenix 5X Plus duration 25 days, no competition is possible against Garmin. Range 450-850 €.
You can prefer G-Shock style, but if the focus is on features, the winner is only one.

 

I love the Old School black and white screen of the Instinct.
Just wait for Gérard Butler to wear it and it will be a success. [emoji41][emoji106]

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The Instinct is a good watch for its price point. After playing with it for awhile, I believe it’s more so attacking the Suunto line, more than Casio. I’ve played with it extensively and the GUI is easy to maneuver. The one question I keep coming back to was the long term wear and tear. Will the fiberglass bezel hold up. I’ll be interested seeing where this watch is 1 year from now.

I have the Descent MK1 and this wasn’t enough to make me want to switch. But if I didn’t have this watch or previous experience with the Fenix lineup, then I would have switched over to the Instinct.

 

The Instinct is a good watch for its price point. After playing with it for awhile, I believe it's more so attacking the Suunto line, more than Casio. I've played with it extensively and the GUI is easy to maneuver. The one question I keep coming back to was the long term wear and tear. Will the fiberglass bezel hold up. I'll be interested seeing where this watch is 1 year from now.

I have the Descent MK1 and this wasn't enough to make me want to switch. But if I didn't have this watch or previous experience with the Fenix lineup, then I would have switched over to the Instinct.

Now that I got one, let see how it stands its ground !! ;-)
https://www.watchuseek.com/f296/gar...24981.html?fbclid=IwAR3FV1wEyO1nb6Ao2VAOZCT5sYZOj9vxWCzTRaI-SOPiDLBSeDSQYM6DURo

 

Looks like a legitimate contender.... it boils down to the features and looks...

 

If only this instinct would have come with solar power... I still can't stomach charging a watch

I guess I'll hold up for some more of that GBR-1000 tech to end up in watches I can wear on my 6.5" wrists

 

Depending on your usage, you'll have to charge the watch every 1-2 weeks for about an hour.

That definitely is a bigger inconvenience than charging your rectangular device every night [emoji57]

On a serious note though, I understand the want for solar. So I solved that problem and wear 2:

 

How's durability (shock, water, temperature, etc.) compared to the G?

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How's durability (shock, water, temperature, etc.) compared to the G?

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Garmin is exposed to damage because the bezel is flat and metal, the glass not protected if mineral, the band is in silicon, less resistant to the abrasion, but you can change with 15 dollars or 40 OEM...
I suppose other element are not dangerous

 

Garmin makes good wearables. When i recently went for 10km run organized by local tourist/adventure equipment store, majority of people in the crowd were either with some polar or smart/garmin watches. Casio and Timex were minority and often accompanied by fitness band.
Casio lost. Casio smartwatch is a sighting of bigfoot in a wild and PRW3000 is a good watch but for most uses outgunned by Garmin or Samsung.
Yes it solar, yes it's a good watch but chances are unless you are watch aficionado and still think in 30 years of use terms you will buy Garmin.
That said, i don't believe they serve same crowd so nobody actively treading competitors waters.
Long time ago my friend was looking for PDA and i suggested Palm which is easy to use does most of the things and serves you well, but no my friend wanted some GPS functionality, Wi-Fi and BT. all above been huge novelty at the time.
All he did is mostly reading some pre - downloaded content on the bus or in washroom. My point for most owners Protrek functionality is a toy. G-Shocks are different and they do not cross paths with Garmin. But in most cases ability to withstand outrageously intensive abuse is overkill and not really needed.

 

^^^^ What I find sad, that in so many instances Casio could have made things soo much better with even just a few extra functions. And I'm not even talking about extra hardware, some extra tweaks via software would have already gone long way.

Hardware? Look at all the smart watch opportunities that now others are so successfully exploiting (and some have built up from zero). That could have been Casio's territory too.

Of course one could argue that Casio is doing great as is with their sales, which is of course true. Yet, still no reason for loosing out on market share that could have belonged to them.

 

casio know exactly what theyre doing, theyre trickle feeding their tech and features. i wouldnt be suprised if they had a flow chart/road map of releases for the next 10-20 years based on production and sales. the could throw everything and the kitchen sink at a watch which might be a hit for a year or two but then what? theyre def. playing the long game.

 

Man, I was unimpressed by the Instinct, but this thread made me check out the whole Garmin line and the titanium DLC Fenix 5plus looks just amazing.

 

Horses for courses. If you want something for your daily run get a Garmin Instinct but if you want to track your progress to Switzerland (see WatchUP69's YouTube vid) get a B1000

 

The thing is Casio makes watches. Classic watches and very good ones. Garmin products do tell time but they are wearables meaning it provides functionality on your wrist.
In the beginning it was not considered anything but tool you use for some time. You don't go all day with hammer or screwdriver unless it is your profession to use them 24/7.
Wearables become more convenient and more attractive as everyday companions and this is a point where they started to displace watches.
If all you want is a watch there is no point in getting Garmin, Fitbit, Samsung or Apple but many people started to want more than a watch.
Let take same PRW3000 great watch but it's 8 years old as it was developed in wearable world it should be in mausoleum not on the storefront.
Casio has 1000s of watches to take care of, produce, support and update, Garmin has several lines but in the core they have less inventory to keep updated.
It's OK to refresh a watch once in 10-20 years (it was not the case in 80s or 90s) but in wearables it's not going to work.
It's a huge shift in operation, R&D and management but Casio mostly doing fine considering that they have at hand.
I wanted to stress one point: how different these products are and how far apart Casio and Garmin are in what they doing.

 

I was waiting for a Pro Trek from Casio in that form factor, with heart rate, GPS, activity metrics, ABC, Etc. .. not considering the massive WSD F20. Turns out Garmin beat Casio to it.

I have been happy with it so far. Besides the usual Garmin feature goodies, the B/W screen is super visible when in sun light without backlight. Battery lasts two weeks.

What do fellow Casio fans think about this competition for $300?

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Thanks for wrist shots. I am also considering this Garmin Instinct for my next watch purchase versus the PRW-3100YB.

 

Having an instinct since a week and many g-shocks: the Garmin is a nice toy! It helps me in getting more mobile and have an eye on my heart rate - which is important for me. But it never ever has the built quality of a g-shock. Yes it looks similar, but the feeling ...!

I wear the Garmin when I walk to get fitter, but all other times of the day: g-shock!

 

I agree. I wear my Garmin instinct usually to the gym, but I often go back to my G-Shocks even though the Shocks are less advanced.

 

I really don't understand to who WSD-F30 is aimed for. It's battery life is totally useless. In normal mode it lasts about 1.5 day and in extended mode around 3 days. In basic watch mode without using GPS, maps or any smart watch features, it last around 30 days, but why to use it as a normal watch? But as a smart watch, battery lasts only 1-3 days? That's so surreal, feels like year 2014, so outdated. I agree with you guys that Casio is so lost with their Pro Trek smart watch line.

If I need a smart watch, I'm using my Suunto 9 Baro and when I need G-Shock, I'm using Rangeman GPR-B1000. I would never ever never buy WSD-F30, Garmin and Suunto makes much, much better smart watches for outdoors persons. And the watch for apocalypse and zombie invasion... The RangeBeast G-Shock.

 

There are many reasons why it not selling well. On plus side it has support of industry standard OS (wear OS) with supposedly great selection of software. This like whole point.

 

Totally agree with the comments in this thread about battery life limitations. If I could live with something with 1.5 days I would just go back to my Apple Watch. But I can't and so the AW sits in a .... on a..... actually I don't know exactly where it is. Those battery figures are utterly useless for me.
Mike