Well, Garmin just loaned me a sample of the least forgettable Smartwatch, I think Ive ever worn and to test it. I flew it five time zones away to trial its jet lag advisor. I hiked at the highest elevation Ive ever been to to test its altimeter, and I just hung out by the water to see how well its nautical design blended with the maritime setting that inspired it its too big for a lot of wrists and too expensive. For almost everyone, but without that exclusivity it wouldnt be the captain Applause, Music yeah. If the 1850 sticker price on garmins First Mark Captain shocked you back in 2019, the 2200 price point on the sequel might just appall. You theres nothing. I can say in this video thatll justify that cost for those shopping the Smartwatch mainstream, so I wont try, I mean theres a pretty clear reason. This line is aimed at customers like golfers pilots and, in this case boaters, in other words Rich guys, but one of the big reasons I covered this family of watches is because it isnt a cynical cash grab. In other words, the mark Captain Gen 2 doesnt rely on gold plating or a luxury brand name to justify its price. If you spend the money, you get a smart watch that looks and feels like every penny of it. The 46 millimeter case is grade 5 titanium, which means its alloyed with aluminum and Vanadium to increase its strength and scratch resistance.
The crystal is also scratch resistant, domed Sapphire, the bezel is ceramic and the included strap is a gorgeous nylon, Jacquard weave with metal Keepers and a jaunty racing stripe down the center. Also in the box is a Navy silicone strap which attaches easily via garmins quick, fit connector. Just in case you dont want to ruin that fancy nylon one when youre diving to the captains, 100 meter Crush depth, press those pushers and you get a delightful chunky. Click drop it on your wrist and youll feel a quality, 87 gram heft and the closer you look, the more hidden details you find. The first generation Mark Captain was already a stunner this. This is a masterpiece. Now I wore that older model for about three years and the biggest thing holding it back was its low resolution. Low saturation display. The Gen 2 brings us into the 2020s with a 1.2 inch AMOLED screen, thats, just as easy to see in the Sun and an order of magnitude more attractive, no matter what the light level supersaturated colors pop right off. The watch face breathing more life into everything. From the notification list to the weather forecast, another plus, you now have the option of touching the screen to manipulate the software, though, if youre like me and you find tactility more important on a wristwatch Im happy to say, you can still use the pushers to control Everything on the device that physical feedback, muscle memory manipulation contributes to the somewhat retro feel of the marked Captain, which has more of a 90s Gadget Vibe than something like an apple or pixel watch those bold primary colors and blocky fonts pop off the display, like a Dos PC that just got a color monitor and features like the stock, ticker and sunset timer remind me of the old pager, my dad used to carry that served up news headlines as well as beeper numbers, and you know in some ways that retro quality works against It I mean theres still no microphone or speaker here, which means you cant make or take calls you cant dictate replies.
You cant talk to the Google Assistant theres, also no cellular. So if you want to leave your phone at home, youll need to First download your music and maps to the onboard 32 gigs of storage and as bone jarringly. Strong as it is the haptic buzzer that vibrates your wrists isnt as subtle or sharp. As that found on some other modern, smart watches, if you can live with those shortcomings, youll get all the features of a smartphone companion, common to a Bluetooth and Wi Fi, wearable notifications from all your apps heart rate and blood oxygen, Compass, calendar, Etc. On top of that, youll get one of the best fitness Suites in the business and a boatload of features that sadly, were so specific to boat owners that I couldnt test them. I know I know wildly disappointing admission from a guy who grew up on the water and whose Twitter handle is Captain two phones. But unless you own a boat, its pretty difficult to test things like the anchor alarm or the Regatta timer or the GPS integration. And frankly, Im not sure how many of you would find that coverage all that relevant anyway. Those hyper specific Maritime modes are echoed non nautically. On the other watches. In the mark line like The Aviator has an airport database, the adventurer comes with ski Maps. The golfer has a virtual caddy, you get it, but right below that specialty layer are features common to all of the mark, watches more relevant to a wider audience like, for example, frequent Travelers flashback.
With me to my review of The Mont Blanc Summit 2., it was my first experience testing an app called time. Shifter meant to help fight jet lag, and I liked it a lot well Garmin baked a similar feature into this watch called jet lag advisor and it works very. Similarly, you tell it when youre flying and where and about a day before your travel itll start giving. You timed suggestions about how much light you should or shouldnt be getting how much exercise to do when to sleep. Even when to drink coffee see, the idea is to acclimate your circadian rhythm, more quickly to your destination time zone and then reset you more quickly. When you return home, I tested it when attending qualcoms Snapdragon Summit in Maui this year, five zones away from my Eastern Time Origins and overall I found it more basic than time shifter, But ultimately about as useful. It certainly helped a lot on the westbound leg and a little less so on the tougher eastbound returns Pro tip youve got to be cool with wearing sunglasses at the airport day or night, ultimately, its a small feature, but until that time, shifter app comes to newer Ware OS smart watches jet lag advisor is one of the only ways to have a feature like this on your wrist, where, in my opinion, it belongs. Oh lets speak of the devil right now, jet lag advisor is telling me to be active.
Unfortunately, weve got a volcano to visit Music thats, the built in altimeter tracking, our Ascent up to the peak of Haleakala over 10 000 feet above sea level, an altitude whose thin air, you better believe this lapsed hiker could feel theres a dedicated mode for hiking in The software, along with virtually every other form of exercise you can imagine, which is one of the big reasons Garmin has done so well with Fitness, focused folks, theres, even a pre loaded, app called Next Fork meant to help you navigate trails. All this is Extreme overkill. For a guy whose normal exercise routine involves walks of less than a mile to his local coffee shop so for the most intense health related reviews, Ive found for these watches Ill direct you to DC Rainmaker, who really puts these things through their Paces? One side note, though he actually had better luck than I did with the GPS performance. I couldnt get a firm enough fix to get my altimeter to agree with the posted elevation markings on that volcano hike, ten thousand two, eighty five or ten thousand twenty three. I dont know who to trust but its over ten thousand thats what matters and at one point the watch kept giving me tides for El Segundo. California, when I was in the middle of New York Harbor, it was possible. This was user error, but if it was a bug it was confined to the tide and altimeter apps back on the hiking trails, I had a quick, clean GPS fix pretty much every time, so I dont think its a hardware issue and even when it comes time To recover from those Expeditions, the captain is great.
With sleep tracking every night I wore the watch to bed and every morning I awoke to a detailed briefing on how well that sleep went not just charts and graphs, but also a few plain English sentences of what that data probably meant. In my case, half a planet away from home spending. My days posting about microchips, usually the watch told me I would probably feel more tired than usual, and you know what it was right and, alongside that every day kicked off with a morning report on my wrist. So I could quickly get a feel for the forecast and my calendar appointments without having to go find my phone, I love little quality of life features like this. Finally, the only reason that sleep tracking is useful is because you dont need to charge the battery every night, as I mentioned in my pixel Watch review. I believe a watch should always display the time without the need for a button press or a gesture. So the first thing I did was enable the always on display. Even so, I managed seven days and seven hours before the captain threw in the towel exceeding garmins estimates. By over a day, if you keep the aod turned off, the company says you should hit 16 days between top ups and the new magnetic charger got me from zero to fifty percent in about a half hour, not bad at all Music. I said I wouldnt carry water for a 2200 smart watch, but the good news is, you dont have to pay that much.
If you care more about the function than the form for months, my friend, Jaime Rivera, has been raving about his Garmin epics gen 2.. The watch that serves as the underlying platform for the mark gen 2. translation. He enjoys most of the features. Ive just talked about and many I didnt get around to and the epics only cost him 7.99, but Im, not a fitness guy Im a sailor guy and more to the point Im a sucker for that time when wristwatches were as ornamental as they were functional a Time when the watchu war told people something about you other than you know, you have an iPhone. The mark series is the line that first taught me what a tool watch is the first product that showed me. I could have both a great smart watch and a statement piece and when I think about how beautifully that first generation Captain has aged over the three years, Ive worn it well. I have no trouble recommending the second generation to those who have the same rare, possibly misguided, certainly privileged priorities. As I Ill say it again. This is a masterpiece. One Ill be sorry to send back Music. This review was produced following 10 days with the mark Captain Gen 2 review sample, provided by Garmin and filmed at the Snapdragon Summit in Maui, for which Qualcomm provided travel and lodging. However, no manufacturer was given copy approval rights, any editorial input or even an early preview of this video.
These opinions are mine and mine alone check out my other Smartwatch reviews here on YouTube and at the Mr Mobile on Instagram until next time from Michael Fisher.pAr03rCugp0
