Garmin Tactix GPS Navigator Watch Review
Garmin Tactix is a GPS navigator watch priced at around $370 USD. Is it worth the high price? Let’s take a look today in our review.
What is the Garmin Tactix GPS Navigator Watch?
The Garmin Tactix is a GPS navigator watch that comes in a sleek black color. The watch uses high-sensitivity GPS positioning with an automatic calibrating altimeter, barometer, and 3-axis compass.
You can find the watch on Amazon for $369.99 USD or on Garmin.com for the same price.
One of the unique features on the Garmin Tactix is the ability to create routes and record up to 1,000 waypoints through the watch. Garmin claims this can be useful for creating rally points, LZs, or potential campsites – which can be useful in a survival situation, a tactical military situation, or for any number of other purposes.
Using the watch, you can navigate to coordinates, follow a track or route along waypoints, or head towards a particular bearing.
The watch also comes with a TracBack feature that guides you back along a previously recorded tracklog.
Like with most tactical watches, the Garmin Tactix emphasizes durability. It’s water-resistant up to 50 meters underwater and comes with a scratch-resistant lens.
The watch is primarily marketed towards active duty military and anyone who loves the outdoors.
Garmin Tactix Features
-High-sensitivity GPS positioning with an automatic calibrating altimeter, barometer, and 3 axis compass
-All metal surfaces on the watch come coated with PVD in black to avoid reflection (the lens is also curved to minimize reflections)
-Rugged, durable, and waterproof up to 50 meters underwater
-Negative mode liquid crystal display with green LED backlight to avoid night vision flares
-Scratch-resistant with curved mineral glass lens and stainless steel rare case
-Rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasts up to 50 hours in GPS mode, 3 weeks in sensor mode, and 5 weeks in watch mode
-Watch comes preloaded with Jumpmaster software for skydivers, tide data (only in US locations) and a worldwide basemap
-Basic watch functions, including time, data, alarm, timer, chronograph, chimes, and vibration
-20MB of onboard storage space (able to track 10,000 points, 100 saved tracks, 50 routes, or 1000 waypoints, favorites, and locations
-Accelerometer to calculate distance for indoor workouts
-Compatible with Vector for cycling (also comes with bike speed/cadence sensor)
-Comes with optional heart rate monitor
-Tracks calories burned across multiple workouts (change sport mode with the press of a button)
Hunting and fishing calendar, sun and moon information, area calculation, and more
Garmin Tactix Pricing
The Garmin Tactix GPS Navigator watch is available online from Amazon.com or from Garmin.com where it’s priced at $369.99 with free shipping.
The watch is also available used through certain retailers. At the time of writing, Amazon was advertising 4 used Garmin Tactix watches from $219.00.
What Do Customers Have to Say About the Garmin Tactix GPS Navigator?
The Garmin Tactix generally comes with favorable reviews. On Amazon.com, the watch has an average rating of 4.1 stars out of 5, with 64% of reviewers giving it 5 stars out of 5.
Many of the reviewers claim to be active duty military. One five star reviewer claims to have purchased the watch prior to a deployment in Afghanistan and says the watch “does it all for me except make my coffee”:
“I've started using the GPS function when outside the wire, just as a tertiarybackup and it hasn't failed me yet. With as many functions as this watch has, it's an easy design to navigate. The ability to set multiple alarms with vibration notification helps be stay on track with time. Just a SOLID design. Haven't noticed any flaws the past two weeks I've had it. Easy to read display with customizable display.”
Other reviewers praised the watch’s quick GPS acquisition, claiming they had to wait up to 5 to 10 minutes with other watches (including Garmin devices), but with the Garmin Tactix, they only have to wait about 5 seconds.
Not all reviews are positive. One two star reviewer claiming to be an active duty military infantryman and avid outdoorsman said that he liked how quickly the watch acquired satellites and also liked the long battery life. However, he claims he had problems with the durability:
“Serious physical issues after a one-week field problem with perfect weather and minimal ground pounding; I'm talking some light digging of fox holes, some buddy team bounding, but mostly OC'ing guys. The buttons stick due to dust between the housing and the buttons, the rubber strap smells somehow worse than a nylon/cloth strap, and I feel like I'm going to constantly bang this thing on all sorts of stuff because of how much it sticks out from my wrist.”
Other reviewers echoed the sentiment that the watch was quite large, so it sticks out quite a bit from the wrist.
Overall, reviews of the watch are generally positive – especially among active duty military.
