Garmin watches review (my opinion)

I have been using the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar for six months and would like to share an honest review that may be useful to others. From the start, it is worth noting that most of the points below apply not only to this model, but to Garmin watches in general and their overall approach to features.

1. These watches are primarily useful for people who actively train, especially runners. They offer training plans that can genuinely help improve performance. However, it is important to understand that this is a sports tool, not a health-focused device.
2. Many metrics — such as training readiness, Body Battery, and sleep recommendations — depend heavily on sleep tracking quality. Unfortunately, the sleep tracking itself is poor. The watch often incorrectly detects even sleep and wake-up times, not to mention sleep stages. Daytime naps are almost never detected. For comparison, Xiaomi watches costing around €35 handled this much better.
3. The move reminder works incorrectly. Even during activity (for example, house cleaning), the watch may notify you that you need to get up and move. It reliably recognizes mainly only rhythmic running and walking.
4. Automatic workout detection performs poorly: it often misidentifies the time, type, or even the presence of an activity. This feature does not automatically start a workout or enable GPS.
5. Weather forecasts are inaccurate, and the weather widget contains multiple bugs. For example, precipitation probability often does not appear on the graph at all, and the multi-day forecast may disappear a second after opening. For devices in this class and price range, weather forecasting is a critical feature, and in my opinion Garmin should rely on top-tier weather services instead of offering such an unstable implementation.
6. Overall, a significant portion of the features feels more like marketing than genuinely useful functionality.
7. The battery life is long, but considering all of the above, this is not surprising — the watch essentially does nothing until you manually start a workout.
8. Heart rate measurement is also not always accurate. Sudden spikes can occur even with good skin contact, especially in cold temperatures.
9. Notifications are a compromise. Compared to Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch, they exist, but without real convenience or depth.

Would I buy a Garmin again? Most likely not. There is little value in wearing it daily — it only really makes sense to put it on specifically for workouts.