By Brendan Jones 

Garmin’s Instinct 3 line of rugged smartwatches provides unique integration capability to sporting shooters. 

As long as you plan on taking your wrist with you, a sporting shooter can bring any old smartwatch along on their adventures. But of course, not all smartwatches are created equal when it comes to venturing outdoors. With a core brand tagline ‘Engineered on the inside for life on the outside’, Garmin’s smartwatches are designed with the outside in mind. 

The Instinct 3 family 

The Instinct 3 is a product family that has something for everyone. Family resemblances include a fibre-reinforced polymer frame, metal-reinforced bezel, and water-resistance rating of 10 ATM (100 metres), allowing it to achieve a MIL-STD 810 ruggedness rating. They also share: 

• dual red/white LED torch 

• advanced GPS sensors 

• heart rate, sleep tracking, and other health features 

• training applications 

• contactless payments 

• Garmin ecosystem and app connectivity 

• smartphone notification mirroring. 

But beyond these common traits, the Instinct 3 family branches with screen type (MIP/AMOLED/Solar), size (40/45/50mm) and niche functionality feature sets – resulting in a price range of $549 for the Instinct E and topping out at $1099 for the Instinct 3 50mm AMOLED Tactical. 

While Garmin introduced the first ever wrist-based GPS trainer in 2003, ruggedised wearable smart-tech is of course now offered by other brands. But what the Instinct line offers the sporting shooter that others can’t is native integration with a host of Garmin’s other products. 

Ecosystem integration 

Garmin’s Xero C2 chronograph represents one of these symbiotic integrations. Compatible with all the Instinct 3 models, shooters can set and forget this industry-leading chrono, with real-time results mirrored to the wrist, and the ability to control the device remotely for starting, stopping and resuming sessions. 

Considered the gold standard of dog tracking over many years and product models, Garmin’s current handhelds like the Alpha line can mirror to the Instinct watches, displaying dog distance, direction and status (treed/pointing) on your wrist. Having the handheld tracking unit safely stored in a pocket, pouch or backpack not only leaves hands free for other important tasks, but reduces the risk of forgetting it on the ute roof or next to a gate in the dark (which happens far more than it sounds like it should). 

Speaking of gold standards, the Garmin inReach (satellite communicator) products also pair with the Instinct family. Having your inReach within, well… reach, is always a balancing act between urgent accessibility and not losing it. But with watch integration, a safely stowed inReach deep in your backpack or UTV glovebox can still be triggered remotely in an emergency. After a tumble off the hiking track down a slope, or a buggy roll over, laying a hand to your inReach might be out of the question, while touching your wrist could save your life. 

Lastly, we’ll mention the new Xero L60i laser rangefinder that boasts onboard GPS mapping functionality. When combined with compatible Instinct 3 watches (not all models), a ranged and geo-located target can be transmitted to the wrist, allowing you to use the watch to navigate to the waypoint of interest with your expensive rangefinder safely stowed. 

Wrapping up 

Smartwatches are more common and capable than ever, but truly rugged outdoor-focused examples less so. The Instinct 3 line from Garmin represents smartwatches that span both worlds. Not only functional for day-to-day ‘inside’ city life, but designed for the outside pursuits, whatever outside means to you. 

A Garmin Instinct 3 50mm AMOLED was loaned to The Report for the purpose of this review. It, along with the entire Instinct family, other Garmin watches and non-watch tech are available from the Garmin Australia website and though their dealership network: garmin.com/en-AU/