Garmin Approach S62 Vs Apple Watch – Which One Should I Buy?

Garmin S62 2

If you are a golfer looking to invest in a golf GPS watch, you may be facing tough decision. Do you go with a straight golf GPS watch or do you go for something that can be more helpful off the golf course? With so many third-party golf apps, the latter is more tempting than ever.

We wondered the same thing: is it worth it to buy a golf GPS watch when you could get a regular smart watch and load it with golf apps?

With this question burning in our minds, we set out to find the answer and tested one of the latest and greatest golf GPS watches on the market and one of the best smart watches.

The following review will highlight the best and most important features of these two watches and help you decide which investment is the best for you.

The Garmin Approach S62

The Garmin Approach S62 is one of the latest golf GPS watches from Garmin. It came out in January of 2020 and has impressed a lot of golfers. The first thing we noticed about the Garmin Approach S62 is its sleek design.

The Garmin Approach S62 looks like a watch designed by Fossil or some of the other high-end timepiece manufacturers. It features a beautiful scratch resistant ceramic bezel which surrounds the vibrant 1.3 inch color LCD touchscreen display.

This high quality screen is very handy on the golf course, as it prominently displays all information even in direct sunlight. It is also amply backlit so you can read it easily in darker conditions. We also really love the advanced golf features you get in the Garmin Approach S62.

It comes standard with greeniew which allows you to see the distances to the front, back and middle of the green. You get touchscreen pin setting and touch target distancing too.

You can see plays like distances and there is even a virtual caddie feature that suggests clubs and calculates shot based on wind speed and direction.

Of course, you get all the golf basics as well such as 41,000 preloaded courses, auto course and hole recognition, distance calculation, distances to hazards, layups and doglegs, par information and full color aerial course maps.

This was a great watch to have on the course with us and we didn’t have to worry about charging – the Garmin Approach S62 lasts up to 18 hours in GPS mode.

The Garmin Approach S62 Pros & Cons

The S62

Pros:

  • Beautiful watch on and off the course
  • There are different fitness modes too
  • Pairs with the robust Garmin Golf app
  • You can download custom watch faces
  • Pinpointer feature tells you where the pin is even if you can’t see it
  • Comes in black or white

Cons:

  • It’s a bit heavy
  • Cannot be charged wirelessly
  • Loses Bluetooth connection easily
  • We were afraid to scratch the screen as we played

Check Out More Reviews Here:

Shop_Now

The Apple Watch

For this review, we tested the Apple Watch Series 5. The Apple Watch has a lot of cool features that we found to be helpful on and off the course. First of all, you can wear it while you are swimming and it tracks your reps.

The retina display was also gorgeous and made it easy to read even for those of us whose eyesight isn’t all that great. All the onboard screen information is rendered in sharp color and contrast, day or night.

Of course, the Apple Watch can be synced to your iPhone so you can actually take calls and respond to texts and emails right from the watch. You also get access to all your music and any apps that you have installed on your phone.

Of course, the Apple Watch can be loaded with a huge array of third-party golf apps. For this review, we tested the Hole19 app which was great for providing all the essential features like distance to the front center and back of the green, shot distances and course recognition.

We also tried the 18Birdies app which gives more in-depth information like fairway distances, target distancing and hazard distances.

The Apple Watch Pros & Cons

Pros:

  • The screen makes it easy to swipe smoothly
  • Advanced fitness tracking features
  • Built in compass
  • You can use Apple Pay on it
  • Tons of third-party golf apps
  • Customized watch faces

Cons:

  • Pretty useless if you are an Android user
  • Lacks advanced golf features
  • The design is lacking in our opinion
  • Will be obsolete in a short amount of time

Check Out More Reviews Here:

Shop_Now

Performance Comparison

If we are talking about performance on the golf course, the Garmin Approach S62 was hands down the better watch. Our main problem with the Apple Watch on the course was having to switch through different apps just to get the information we wanted.

If we are talking about overall performance, we would say the Apple Watch had a slight advantage. The superior processor made navigating the Apple Watch very quick. The screen was also higher quality and more resilient. Plus, the Apple Watch has about the same battery life as the Garmin Approach S62.

Price Comparison

By and large, the Garmin Approach S62 is actually the more expensive watch. You will find it selling for around $500 most everywhere you go while the Apple Watch Series 5 can be had for about $390.

Which Watch Should you Buy?

Ultimately, it comes down to how useful you think your Apple Watch will be off the course. If you are thinking that the Apple Watch will provide you with robust golfing metrics and help improve your game, you are probably mistaken.

So it is only the better buy if you intend to get a lot of use from it off the course. In terms of a pure golf GPS watch, the Garmin Approach S62 is hands down the better buy. While it isn’t compatible with the endless ocean of third-party apps the Apple Watch is, it provides important details for the serious golfer.

And, the Garmin Approach S62 is still pretty handy off the course to boot. If you are serious about your game, check out the Garmin Approach S62.

Get The Best Price On The Garmin Approach S62 Here:

Check Best Price Amazon