Designing a Practical, Tactical Garmin Watchface
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Modern GPS watches offer a huge amount of additional capability over the standard, already-indispensable wristwatch. What are the additional tools and features that we can build on top of these devices?
Fun factoid for you, Garmin was one of the main developers for GPS technology. One of their founders Min Kao (I think I spelled that correctly) went to the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and he funded a new Computer Science, and Engineering building through a grant about a decade ago.
As a Tennessean and computer scientist, most people don’t know the rich history of UT and its role in the world of computing.
Enjoyed your comment!
As a photographer and drone pilot, golden hour and civil twilight on the watch is super useful. I want one of these now lol.
It's pretty handy. When I want to know what time it is, sometimes I want to know the actual number, but other times I want to know how much time I have left before sunrise or moonset or whatever.
I have been a fan of Garmin devices for decades. What makes me a real fan is that I have a buddy that has been working there for a few years, and they are treating him very well. They also seem to have a great culture, at least in his department.
Live somewhat near Garmin, know several people who work there and got the chance to visit their office recently. For companies that size, I don’t think I’ve heard of one that people speak so highly of as they do Garmin.
Hello there. Is there any way to find out about the new Fenix 8.
MIP Display owner here. The watchface is amazing. Being able to change the font to make it more legible will be perfect
I’d like the digital version to show the traditional format (00:00:00) instead of the hours on top of the minutes. I’d also like the sunlight and moonlight to be displayed in time remaining (00:00 of sunlight remaining). As always you guys are killing it. Please keep up the good work.
Please do more content on the watches like the Epix and the navigation features! There is little to no info out there for using these as navigation tools, only the health tracking. A ton of us bought these just from you guys alone when they went on sale so it would do a lot of customers some good!
As someone who purchased a Tactic 7 Pro when it came out, the best way I learned to use the features was just going out and playing with it for hours
@@EliteTactical same here, I’ve learned a ton so far but still feel like there’s potential with it that I’m not reaching. Garmin devices, for how good they are, can be pretty user-unfriendly sometimes
@@EliteTactical I’d also like to see if someone can find a way to search things by address with it. I’d like to use it in my roles as a first responder if cell service is out and I need to get to an address I’m not familiar with, like maybe in a neighboring city for mutual aid.
Regrettably, I have a Google based watch. Would definitely try it if you released a version that worked with my watch.
@@paulmorang8340 That address search would actually be insanely useful I never even thought of that. And you're definitely right about it not being user friendly. Still to this day, I'm finding new tools/apps/etc. to help me in different situations that I never thought of lol. I'll never wear any other smart watches.
As an Aussie, I love the inverted hour setup. Thank you 😊
As a Pilot, I agree that there are some sketchy guys that wear breitling 😂
I run the Tactix 7 Pro Ballistics with the Pixel screen. Love it for outdoors and not having to worry about a screen needing to be brighter just to see. Also the battery life is superb.
I've been looking for the best Garmin watch face for a while now, I downloaded this right away. I can see the dawn and dusk marks coming in handy for hunting.
And working outside.
Rocked a g shock rangeman for years, finally picked up a garmin. Best watch ive ever owned bar none. Every hike, every hunt, every day at work, its so helpful.
40+ day battery life, built in flashlight, and its been bomb proof as well.
Which model did you get?
@@youwebz i went for the Enduro 2 because i wanted the large battery life.
The fenix/tactix/epix/enduro2 are all essentially the same watch, with minor differences in features here or there, the enduro 2 is a thicker fenix7 for the larger battery.
In hindsight i probably would have just gone with a fenix or epix if i was doing it over. They are thinner and id take losing a few days of battery life to have a little bit less bulk (theyre all super long anyways, those get around 25 days vs the enduros 40+)
@@oso1165I get about 28 days out of my fenix 6
@@oso1165 excellent - thank you for taking the time to reply so comprehensively. It makes my decision that much easier. Cheers.
@@youwebz no worries. Rumour has it the new fenix 8 is out later this year with some significant upgrades to the screen and sensors
A properly set analog watch face is a compass as long as you can see the sun. Point the hour hand at the sun and half way between that hand an 12 (or half way between 12 and 1 during daylight savings) is approximately south.
Your watch face simplifies that idea. Point the little orange triangle at the sun or the moon icon at the moon and 12 (or 1 during daylight savings) is approximately south. Saves having to activate GPS mode which drains the battery a lot faster.
Holy cow, this is so well thought out! I just dipped my toe into the smartwatch pool, and purchased a Galaxy Watch 7. I would love to see this ported to android and would happily purchase such a watch face.
This has become my favorite YT channel, thank you Isaac and keep up the good work.
That's an awesome watchface. The utility of it is what makes it look so great.
Garmin's customer service is out of this world awesome.
Love the Garmin content. I’ve had my watch for about a year and gone deep down the rabbit hole with watch faces. Can’t wait to give this one a try. But as a fan of more traditional watches, I’d love more content on how to get the most out of these tools to make them worth the investment. Can’t wait to try this out and thanks for the info and innovation!
In my opinion, the paid version should allow you to remove the logo
Absolutely. if you pay for something you should no longer need to be a sign post.
@@goffe2282agreed. First thing I did when I bought my Speedy Pro, was to remove the Omega logo.
@@goffe2282remove all badges and logos off your car and shoes 🤣🤣
@@goffe2282 interesting thought. It's not exactly something common in any industry or product, every brand puts their name and/or logo on their product. especially more premium products. I agree that obnoxious branding can really ruin an otherwise very attractive or well designed product. Still, a tiny trex skull isnt that bad. Especially in the world of watches. That said I bet that will be an option in the pro version.
@@SmokesKwazukii absolutely, but I don't buy such products
Dang, thanks for making this watch face! I use one called "Teko" on the Fenix 6 and will continue to use it. This is because it shows all the info I need in text rather than visual dials and icons.
I learned that in Australia, the sun is not "up" in the middle of the day. Very educational video.
Having the option for MGRS instead of lat/long would be great, plus hemisphere changes/confirmation.
I've literally just retired my G-shock 5600 solar. My needs were a compass, STW, TMR, moon and sun, 100m wr, auto time and solar. I liked my 5600 because it stood up to loads of abuse, but I didn't want the master of G bulk screaming out tacticool. I settled on a casio protrek. The ALTI function is not used (as it goes off of pressure, which changes far too often), but I like the look of the BARO on the main display to get a hint of changes in the weather.
I also settled on the pro trek , have had it for over a year and I love it .
@@joebuck574 yeah, it's quite low Vis but functions well! The strap has a lovely texture too
Interesting... good to see you guys leveraging this tech.
Just installed it on my instinct and I absolutely love it. The only thing I wish it had was battery life.
It dose in the pro version for 1.99 I just bout it and it has a battery icon below the time now
@bdon24 I haven't gotten it yet but I'm planning on doing it soon. I think it's somewhere in the settings on the connect IQ app for the watch face that says "get code"
I would get it if I could remove the trex logo. Lucas is a cancer in the gun community with his god complex. I supported and liked this company but can’t anymore. Sold my holsters. He can apologize to the rest of the industry if be wants our support back.
@FoxholeIndustries Lucas can be pretty immature and doesn't know how to watch his choice of words but Trex as a company is ultimately a force for good.
We need to learn to unite as a community instead of calling certain people or entities we may disagree with as cancerous, or gay, or whatever other term. Build each other up to be better instead of tear each other down or dismiss each other.
@@FoxholeIndustriesbro you’re 1 individual, no one cares.
Just installed this on my Instinct 2. I love it! Thanks!!
Just picked it up for my Tactix 7 AMOLED; looking forward to trying it out
Me too, just installed it. Will probably by the unlock code. This is awesome.
Just installed on my Epix2… pretty good.
As an Olathean, I can say we love Garmin being our hometown brand! I went from an AW5 to an Instinct 2 and will never go back. I love my Garmin and am constantly looking to add more of their devices to my kit. If anyone is ever in the area, stop by their showroom!
As a photographer, If I was going to get into smart watches, this might be what I pick with the Golden hour/ Blue hour callouts, but I'm still hooked on mechanical's and currently my Sinn 856 UTC
Very very awesome watch face. I'm stoked it works great with my old forerunner 245! It's nice having so much information packed into the ring! I like the night and day modes, the only thing that would be nice is if the auto switch could be customized, for example at dawn/dusk, rather that just sunrise/set, or x minutes before/after. Because when I switches at sunset I lose the dusk/dawn function. Similar to the dots on night mode for dawn/dusk rather than sunrise/set so I could have a more accurate idea of when very first/last light will be. But otherwise it's great. Gladly paying a few bucks to help future development and other ideas.
The one thing i am really waiting for with smartphones, wearables, and other pieces of kit that connect wirelessly is a secured Bluetooth protocol. Or ideally Bluetooth 2.0 - military version.
Something that's encrypted and self-regulates the reach and intensity to just work with connected devices and not emit any more than neccesary, both in the amount and range of communication between them.
For?
@@JeronimoStilton14lower your voice
I'm about to move to a place with a LOT of hiking. I have ALWAYS worn a mechanical watch. You just sold me on a Garmin smartwatch.
We want a watch that does certain things for you as a person. Family of mine has the Apple watch but they use it for timers, telling time and answering a call. Then there are practical people that want just a bit of that but alot of other stuff. When you go the the Connect IQ store and start to look at faces and apps you can download - you are flooded with what is available. The best part is you can get 10+ different faces and customise them with so much info. I have a few favs which I kept over the years coming from the Fenix 3 all the way up to the FR955. When I go on a trip then I want this face with this info, back home sea kayak fishing I want to see the live barometer - there is a watch face for that specifically. There are watch faces that gives so much info you need to be in good light with a pair of glasses to read all the info on it. This is a great watch face, thx
I bought this watch face the other day. I like the look of it and the features are cool, but I've stopped using it for now because it causes the watch's functionality to run slow. The concept is really cool though. I like how the SDK is done in Garmin's own Monkey C programming language and so I think the developer could probably streamline the code to not be so bulky. I hope to see some updates so I can try the watch face again.
I've got a Garmin Instinct 2x solar tactical edition. It's nice. The app is great for keeping track of my workouts.
I bought a Garmin 255 Music 4 months ago. $300ish dollars. Truly, within days I thought, dang I made a mistake, should have gotten OLED, reminded me of buying a HD DVD and finding out 2 months later the world went to Blue Ray. Long story short I do like my watch and I appreciate the fact your supporting the not the absolute latest design. What is frustrating is the fact in most cases there isn't any difference in hardware, purely software options that they have locked down. So, many features should be allowed to be adjusted, which aren't.
Going to try it in my Forerunner 965 with the OLED display. Started using more the built in navigation with GPX tracks.
I don't have Garmin at the moment, and I will be making a purchase soon. I'm just waiting for the next Fenix 8. I will definitely look at the watch face that you've developed and promoted. All the very best Sir.
I have the Descent, awesome dive watch that does almost everything else. I've been hunting for a great face for it and this looks very promising.
Thanks Isaac!
I don't wear smart watches but that is super sick.
Another option: Casio Pathfinder ToughSolar is PRW , PRG series 240 2500. Compass, Barometric Altitude Thermometer. Tide & moon phase & Atomic watch time. With rotating bezel that does a fantastic job protecting the crystal. Crazy durable and useful. Adjustable backlight that can be set to light up automatically by wrist movement. Solar Battery can be replaced easily with a very standard battery if ever needed.
The Trex smartwatch display seems very decent but hate being tied to a charger every so many days. Also concerned about the watch RF footprint. Love the idea of useful digital complications, Daylight tracking with golden hour, stand to, atak etc.
I'm hoping to get a 2nd hand Fenix 5x from a friend, so I'm very happy you made the watch face backwards compatible
I like the watch I got from MaMaCoo. That rubber strap combo looks really cool! Been wearing it since last year and love every minute of it.
2nd comment - I constantly look at weather underground to see about daylight and moon cycle... Def useful stuff to have at your wrist. Cheers
Works great on the tactics delta solar. Only thing I'd change is the topo line back round in day mode. Makes it look kinda busy for me. I will do the paid version its really nice, good job on this. As a note if you enable the sleep mode your display is laggy so when you hit the button to turn on the backlight it doesn't always display the watch face, just a blank screen.
I’ve been using this watch face all day and although it’s taken some getting used to, but it works well with my Instinct 2X Solar Tactical.
Great watch Face, currently downloaded on my Tactix 7 Amoled... so far so good. I need to give it a few weeks of use to get use to the new face and features.
I missed it, how can I get the watch face please?
I came expecting to have to upgrade my watch glad you thought of us with the instinct
I just downloaded for my Fenix and I love it!
Love my Instinct Crossover, battery just lasts for ages when you just want a watch that does watch things and smartwatch stuff on the side.
A clean minimalist face for the Apple Watch that conveys information quickly is pretty easy to do on your own and tailor to your needs, I feel like premade faces for Garmin help significantly more just because of the less friendly UI they’re running on
Lmao Apple Watch.
Glad to see compatibility with ENDURO 2
That's some really convenient timing. I literally just bought my first Garmin watch like a day before this video dropped. Definitely gonna try this watch face.
Garmin is amazing, great work👍
Works great! Haven’t tried on my older Tactix Charlie, but the face looks good on Epix Pro.
Don't forget the chronograph and the Fenix 5X is still working great
Have this on my instinct 2X Tactical. Love it!
Unironically useful outdoor content creator watch face
In the 90s I had a Casio 'data' with the key pad. Looked cool at ibm. That was the last time i wore a watch. BUT i have been working on a superior idea for a wrist device.
Sounds neat. Interested to see how it works on an Instinct 2.
Would like to see a silicone flip cover for the watch face to hide any potential reflection and add additional protection/water resistance that slips over (or clips onto) the band so it can be removed in desired.
Kudos Isaac this is cool
I daily a Instinct 2 and in the past tried to set up the built in watch face to get the most out of it i can, and have used plenty of different watch faces for it in the past to try and get something similar, albeit worse, to what the Trex Watch face is now. I think it is for sure the best watch face for me atleast, as it has ALL the data visible on the face without having to fumble with the UP/DOWN buttons to scroll and find each specific widget.
Overall, great watch face, the perfect set of data perfectly visible at all times, and features i didnt think were possible before. Throwing the extra bucks at the Pro version might be worth it just for the notification icons alone. If i had to make any suggestions or changes, first would be optimization, going up and down is slow, but not necessary anymore with all the data front and center. Second, i think different versions for different tasks would be excellent.
You had me at ATAK plug-in!
I am a huge fan of my fenix 6 and this watch face. Thank you
night lume mode should turn on when sleep mode is enabled. would be a slick feature
While OLED "is the future", the e-ink display of the Instinct 2X Tactical in combination with its solar battery ensure far, far more endurance in the field. In some scenarios, and with enough sun, it has unlimited power. Sometimes that's more valuable.
Really looking forward to the Fenix 8 release this coming Tuesday. I’ve got the original instinct.
pretty dam awesome! it would be cool to have a GPS function for tide as well for those working at sea
It would be cool to see this ported to AsteroidOS
I spent an hour trying to get it to work with my instinct 1. Probably shouldve read the compatibility specs Sooner. Oh well. Great design!
I've never wanted a smart watch but this is convincing me otherwise!
This is the single best watch face of all digital smartwatch faces. It's worth more than the $3.25 paid for the Pro account, but thank you for keeping it affordable. This may be a Garmin OS limitation, but is there a way to install this watch face more than once? It could be helpful to pick any one of 3 different watch faces depending on my activity. For example:
1. edc (green): date, alt time zone, lo/hi & current temp, countup timer
2. workout (blue): hr, thr, distance walked/run, steps & step goal
3. radio (orange): UTC, lat, long, grid square
Thanks for considering our feedback.
Bought and installed it on my instinct 2x solar tactical last night and am very pleased and happy with it so far. If i could get a number on battery percentage with/or instead of the icon that would be great. I'll be back later for more feedback
Don't have a smart watch, yet, interesting to see that Garmin offers the possibility to modify the interface!
Just picked up a instinct 2x solar after my own citizen died after 24 years. Been on a week now and using the quad 2 for that watch. One suggestion i would have is the ability to have different time fornats for alternate time zones. For example 12hr format for your main local tine and 24hr format for utc(zulu) time. Just a thought, liking it so far. Thank you.
just downloaded! Can't wait to try it out
I really like that 24 hour disc. That would be super handy for doing... stuff. But I have the instinct 2, so I think I'll wait to get this face until I get a Tactix someday
You still have the 24-hour disc on the instinct, it's just smaller and a little harder to see. Give it a try, and see what you think!
I have the Instinct 2x Solar Tactical and I think it's pretty good
I also have an Instinct 2X Tactical and I really like the T.Rex watch face so far. I've tried several other analog faces and a few digital ones and this is the best analog face yet.
Garmin offers a lot without the tech dependancy of Apple and Android products. Bluetooth connectivity with smarphones but with enough capability to not be crippled without the internet. Didn't know they were based in Kansas though... For some reason I thought they were a European company. Good to know.
It's interesting. My personal fav is the triple sensor solar Casio and the Breitling Emergency watch. Less tech. Tried and tested.
TREX labs needs to get out of my head, I was brainstorming what an optimized PDW would be, and you make a video.
Now im designing a watch face that fits my needs better, and here we are.
With the way you're able to place your hands perfectly with the graphic overlay, you might have missed your calling as a Weatherman.
Well im definitely installing this on my instinct solar 2
The way my brain works is i'd want it flipped so that sun rise in at the right and sun set is to the left, like on a compass East to the right and West is to the left. So the indicator would go counter clockwise. I plan to get a Garmin watch next year. Been using a Casio Pathfinder with solar, compass, barometer, altimeter since 2005. Watch has been through hell and still work fine. I'm going to give it to my son when he turns 10 in a couple years.
Looking good on my Fenix 7 Solar
Very nearly has everything I currently use as a watchface for a Fenix 6X. Will try but I'm not sure I can get all the info I use daily. One feature that would likely cause my switching is an option to have solar noon always be the 12 position(I know that would shift numbers part of the year, I would rather know my point in the day as it relates to the sun always). Golden and Blue hour included on the face might be enough that I ditch my current watch face. Doing astrophotography and working a job tied to sunrise timing has me paying attention to golden and blue hour on the daily.
Lat-Long coordinates, bearing arrow that points to either a waypoint or simply a set bearing.
This is a very cool thing to have on a watch face, but it is pretty battery draining to constantly call the GPS location and the compass heading. Perhaps, we will make an app which you can start whenever you specifically need this feature, and it still shows the watchface stuff.
@@isaacbotkintrex Agree. GPS is notoriously battery draining.
@@isaacbotkintrex It's always bugged me. I'm a bit of a geek and know that GPS electronic modules (components) are not expensive nor large. In fact, you can buy a cheap GPS unit that fits on a KEYCHAIN for 30 bucks (it's not perfect, but on the right track). Why no one has a thin, non descript, "gray man", affordable, watch with that as a PRIMARY function, is beyond me.
I mean, I really don't need to know moon phases, air pressure, altitude, my heart rate, MP3 music, temperature, caller I.D., my sleep patterns, golf handicaps, etc. to get from point A to point B. Time, distance, direction...yes.
@@isaacbotkintrex do these watches support scheduled tasks, like location and bearing every xx mins or yyy paces?
There is a feature called UltraTrac that takes periodic GPS updates and extends battery life when in GPS mode. It's only supported on Fenix, Enduro, Instinct, Instinct 2, Tactix, MARQ, Descent and Forerunner 935, 945 and 745 models. Garmin continues to impress.
It would be great if the blue sunset zone could have an exact sunset time written in it so it is less vague.
The dial on the outside edge of the watch face could also be used to show activity. When step count is above a certain threshold in a time slice show an indicator with the indicator changing color or size based on how much activity there was it how active you are (when the Garmin detected active minutes)
Watchface should also do a better job of reminding people to move like when sitting at work. But the move indicator is usually pretty small and usually treated like a data field. Why not have it as a chart of some kind like a pie chat that fills up a large part of the background so a quick glance can show that you haven't moved in awhile and you should try moving. It's not a data field that needs to be read directly to get details from but an overview peice of information that should be readable at a glance.
You guys are amazing!
You're gonna have to port this to Galaxy watches or Apple (if possible) to get more opinions on the matter.
Yeah, but those aren't real watches. Those are lil' tiny phones.
In all seriousness, we probably should work on this. Do you happen to know any good third party watch face developers?
I love this for the garmin. I use my tactix 5 any time I’m away from the paved road and it states ready in my bag, but my daily driver is galaxy watch. Would appreciate if it was able to be brought over.
@@n.timlin1120are the galaxy watches durable? I almost got a watch6 classic a couple weeks ago but held off because I wasn’t sure they’d hold up as well as the garmins.
For my opinion I prefer the original Garmin Fenix 7X watchface. It is clean and it's not overloaded with data, but it still has quite a bit of it.
And one of the most important thing is it has a digital time. I don't like the analog watches.
What the original Garmin Fenix 7X watchface is missing are seconds. I had them at my previous watches.
The good thing you have is the daylight information, but again I can just press the info on the right side of the screen and get as much info about that as I need.
Shut up!
Take my money !!!!
Love your content and TRex arms yall bring community together
Started with my mates old fenix 5x amd quickly snatched myself a tactix delta for 350 bucks. Absolute no-brainer.
The Fenix 7 pro solar does not have an OLED screen so on the face after downloading all the nifty features all share the same color which can be difficult to comprehend on the go. On the PRO version you are able to really dig into the color settings by either picking 3 pre-selected color schemes (and a custom field) . if you want to see contrasted colors, you can dig a bit on the WWW and find the color codes( took me less than a min). you can change the colors for the following areas of your new face for the hand color/ data field color, data field border color, daytime lume color, night lume color and night lume text color.
Trex labs is a treasure
Fenix 6x pro user here with the pro version unlocked. I like the idea and looks behind of the watchface and below my first impressions.
- Sun up/down not visible in the normal or lume watchface;
- Moon azimuth and phase not visible in the normal or lume watchface;
- Solar azimuth angle marker not visible in the normal or lume watchface;
- Don't know what the option for digital time off segments is but nothing changes on my watch.
Personal feedback:
- Background lines are still a bit to much for my taste;
- I would like to see a premade "red" colour scheme;
- A option for "always on" seconds in both analog (the seconds leg) and the digital watchface.
Keep up the good work!
You need to give the watch a GPS fix after you install the watch face so that it knows where you are. Once it knows where you are it can display the sun moon, etc.
Also, we did just thin the topo lines a bit this morning.
@@isaacbotkintrex thanks for your swift response. The GPS fix indeed solved that problem.
Great stuff!
I think there needs to be a way to toggle the lume mode at the watch instead of having to open the app.
yup. or have it to where it auto toggles when you activate "sleep mode."
Would love to discuss meshtastic as an offgrid and team based encrypted comms option for your next video.
Feedback from an Instinct 2X Tactical. The top right data field area does not benefit from the continuation of the circled watchface graphic. It takes up room under the day/date text and looks cluttered. I know it kind of wrecks the prettiness of the data graph from the main screen but it makes that smaller circle more readable. Just an idea.