Garmin produces more variations on the smartwatch theme than anyone else, and the Instinct series is the range that prioritizes battery life first and foremost (with a little help from solar charging). Three years after the Instinct 2 series first appeared, Garmin has now unveiled the Instinct 3 models at CES 2025.
The headline feature here is an upgraded screen option. One of the main reasons the Instinct 2 watches offer such good battery life is they use low-res, monochrome MIP displays: These displays are still available with the Instinct 3 series, but there are now models with bright, full color AMOLED displays, too (check our guide to MIP vs AMOLED for more details).
If you go for a monochrome MIP display Instinct 3, the screen is slightly bigger than it was on the Instinct 2, and you also get solar charging—which in theory gives you unlimited battery life (assuming you live in a sunny part of the world). Garmin says the solar charging panel has been improved on the new watches, giving you (for example) more than five times the battery life in GPS mode when solar charging on the largest size.
Opt for the AMOLED screen, and you don’t get solar charging or quite as much battery life, but you do get full color displays. Garmin says the AMOLED models in “smartwatch mode” (with most features switched on but no GPS) can deliver up to 24 days of battery life. For the MIP Solar model, that goes up to 40 days—and if you’re always in sunny weather and never pushing your watch too hard, you may never need to recharge it again.As usual, battery life will depend on a variety of factors, not just the screen—so take these as estimates rather than guarantees. Like the Instinct 2 ranges, the Instinct 3 smartwatches come with a variety of battery modes so you can decide whether to prioritize features and performance or battery lif