Let’s be real. Nobody wears a watch to see the time anymore. Your cellphone, music player or whatever other gadget you have can tell the time all on its own. People wear watches to show off affluence, look funky or have some other function (e.g. smart watches) easily accessible on their wrist. For golfers needing a little help with their game, the Garmin Approach S3 sounds like the perfect thing to strap on.
Designed to be worn like a regular timepiece, the gadget is clad in an attractive design that takes cues from modern sports watches currently in the market. While fitted for comfortable play on the course, it looks stylish enough for casual everyday use, with all the standard watch functions integrated into its feature set. You can even use it as an odometer to track how far you’ve traveled on foot if you like to run or walk for fitness.
If you’re familiar with Garmin’s handheld golf GPS units, the Garmin Approach S3 is basically the same thing — except in a wristwatch form factor. Instead of another gadget bulging up your pocket, though, it sits right on your wrist, allowing you to access helpful information with minimum fuss. Watch display is a 1-inch diameter round touchscreen monochrome LCD (128 x 128 resolution), with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery powering the whole thing (4 weeks in watch mode; 8 hours in GPS mode).
A total 27,000 of the most popular courses from around the world are preloaded on the watch, with more updates available directly from Garmin. Features include course previews, touch-targeting (just touch the display to see distance from where you are to any point), manual pin positioning, shot distance measurement, stats tacking (e.g. putts per round, average distance) and a digital scorecard.
The Garmin Approach S3 will hit stores before the end of April, priced at $349.99.
[Garmin]