Garmin has been holding their strong position in the golf GPS Watch market for a long time. So, when we think about to buy a golf GPS watch, it can be assured that Garmin will not disappoint you. Particularly if we talk about Garmin’s golf-specific smart watch Approach S60. This watch has all golf features and fitness tracking functionality for avid golfers to navigate their way around the course.
We can definitely say that Garmin has taken the golf watch to another dimension and it offers multi-sports features along with golf features. Lot more features added in Approach S60 GPS watch without compromising the quality of any features that make Garmin golf watches best in market. Garmin Approach S60 features are unique and will not match with their competitor. In here, Garmin has proved once again that they are different and reign supreme of the golf watch market.
Approach S60 provides distances to all positions on the green and even any hazards on the course. The drag and drop feature of this watch will give you accurate yardage and exact shape of every green, it’s a huge improvement. The sunlight readable 1.2 inches high-resolution color touchscreen display shows extremely clear images. We haven’t found or heard of any issues about the technology or features of this golf watch.
However, despite its little high price tag, this watch will undoubtedly impress you by its features that you can use on and off the golf course. So, it’s certainly one of the best golf GPS watches in the market. Even we have also suggested Approach S60 in our top 10 best golf GPS watches list published earlier.
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Approach S60 Key Features
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Design
Although the looks of the Garmin Approach S60 is not particularly sleek or flashy. However, the clean design and matte black finish make the watch appearance great during both fitness activity and basic everyday smartwatch.
The Dimensions of Approach S60 is 1.9 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches and weight is around 45g. Also, it comes with a with convenient QuickFit bands and can change your style without using any tools. So, it’s very lightweight and comfortable to wear. It has a 1.2-inch color touchscreen display which is large enough to display all the essential information, and also interact with the widgets when wearing a glove or when drenched in sweat. The screen is bright sunlight readable and even shows all the information clearly in direct sunlight. The watch is also water resistant up to 50 meters.
Overall, this watch is very easy to use. There are three buttons on its right side that allow you to choose the activities and navigate through the menu. Unlike most of Garmin golf GPS watches, Approach S60 has a touchscreen display, which you can use to swipe through a couple of essential widgets that summarize your daily activities, weather and last round you played. The golf application follows a similar general flow and has the drill-down ability from a round summary down to the selection of club and each stroke distances.
Features
Hazard Yardage – The Garmin Approach S60 shows the distances to all hazards, doglegs and layup positions on the green. A clear sunlight readable color touchscreen allows you to spot hazards easily. Garmin first introduced this technology in their Garmin S6 model. You can narrow distances down to the accurate numbers without guessing. Don’t know how many yards it is to the front, middle, and back of the green? Don’t worry, and it will show you the exact yardages. And the same way, you will get the accurate yardages for any other hazards, layups, and doglegs of any course. This technology is very useful when you are on the golf course to play golf for the first time. We have all estimated the yardage to a creek only to miss the mark and lose a golf ball. However, it no longer a problem with Approach S60 golf GPS watch.
PinPlacement Technology – The touch enables color display screen of Approach S60 allows you to move the flag pin to any location on the course. This watch will give you the accurate yardages to any ridge or shelf on any part of the green, and also show you the exact shape of the green. It’s a significant improvement that keeps you away from placing your ball on the wrong portion or wrong level of the course. Estimating the distance to the pin and leaving the ball on the wrong part of the course can leave you with mini-golf type putts. As well as all know very well, these positions will in general end in the dreaded three-putt all very often.
This technology has another advantage. It will help you dial in the accurate distance from blind positions. You can adjust the pin positions of the front, middle and back of the green on your watch if you know the pin location for the day. So, you can choose a more appropriate golf club from your golf bag instead of guessing.
Course Coverage – Garmin Approach S60 comes with over 40,000 pre-loaded golf courses all over the world. Garmin doesn’t charge any annual/monthly fee to download course updates, and even you don’t need to subscribe anything to do that. This watch will connect to the satellite and automatically identify the courses as soon as you enable the golf mode. So, just bring it out of the box, charge fully and start using.
Watch Face – Garmin Approach S6 features a 1.2-inch color display with 240×240 pixels. This watch weight is only around 45g and has 1 GB memory. As we mentioned earlier, the screen is sunlight readable, and even you can read all the critical information clearly in direct sunlight. So, you will be able to interact fully with this golf watch with confident without being frustrated by the effectiveness of the screen.
Changeable Watch Bands – One of the basic but noticeable features of Approach S60 is its changeable watch band. Usually, the look of this watch is very nice and can be wear in any setting. But with the addition of changeable watch band, you can easily change watch band between leather and silicon bands without using any additional tools. Also, you can change your watch band with different colors bands to match your style, so you are always in fashion. However, other internal features will not be affected by this feature.
Swing Analysis – Garmin Approach S60 is a TruSwing technology compatible device and comes with a swing tempo app. This feature will allow you to pair your watch with Garmin TruSwing swing analyzer. This feature will also provide you the swing speed as well as club path analysis, and you will able to figure out the swing speeds of various clubs. The club path is also a great feature to analyze your swing level. It will let you know whether you are coming too steep (causing a slice or pull) or too flat (hook and/or skull). So, you will get all swing matrics on your wrist to improve your swing consistency.
However, Garmin TruSwing which you need for swing analysis is not included with this watch. You have to buy it separately and can’t take full advantages of this feature without it. But still, buying Approach S60 golf GPS watch is a great deal.
Scorecard and Stats Feature – There was a complaint about the previous version of Garmin software. The software was unable to view or edit individual holes score during the round. However, Garmin resolved the issue with a scorecard view that you can access with touching the side buttons at any point. Approach S60 digital scorecard feature allows you to keep your score on the watch memory. This feature eliminates the need for a manual scorecard because it’s 1 GB memory can store several golf rounds before you need to upload your data to a computer for analysis. In fact, this feature will give you a real picture of your golf rounds and what your real handicap is. You will also get the real analysis from this watch to compare with your buddies through the Garmin connect app.
Bluetooth connectivity – Garmin Approach S60 golf GPS watch is Bluetooth compatible device. You can pair your compatible smartphone with your watch through Bluetooth and transform your watch to an active lifestyle watch. But you must have the Garmin Connect app on your smartphone to connect your watch. So, you are not going to miss any important notification during playing golf. You will get all of your notifications such as phone calls, texts messages, email, and other alerts on your watch screen when connected via Bluetooth. Therefore, you don’t have to carry your phone when you are on the course.
Multi-Activity Tracker – Activity tracking is an excellent feature added in Approach S60. This watch will not only track your heart rate (Don’t need to buy heart rate tracker separately) but also track activities other than golf. The tracking technology of this watch can accurately track your activities when you are snowboarding, rowing, swimming, cycling, walking, running, skiing and doing other sporting activities. Garmin picks the best tracking features from their running and overall activity watch, and then blend them with golf features in this watch.
Other Features – The Garmin Approach S60 pays attention to jamming this watch with lots of various features other than golf. They are too many and can’t explain all in one watch review. We have already explained the major features of this watch in this article. However, here are some other features (but not all) of Approach S60 listed below,
- AutoShot round analyzer for post-round analysis.
- Handicap scoring.
- Auto-step goal based on daily activity
- Calorie burn calculator.
- Can track sleep and resting.
- Exercise intensity tracker.
- Can customize watch home screen.
Setup and Configuration – According to real users, Approach S60 takes less than 10 minutes to complete the initial setup. They followed the on-screen prompt to download the Garmin Connect App to their phone. After downloading the app, they created a free account and used the Bluetooth connectivity to sync the watch with their new Garmin Connect account. From this point, every setting has been controlled from the watch.
Battery Life
Garmin uses a lithium-ion rechargeable battery for Approach S60. According to Garmin, you will get up to 10 hours of battery life in GPS mode from a single charge. So, you can play at least two rounds before you need to recharge. The battery life will last up to 10 days in basic watch mode, but it depends on the ways you are using the watch. This watch comes with a USB cable to recharge your watch through computer or USB charging unit.
Garmin Approach S60 Review
Pros
- Bright sunlight readable display.
- High-resolution color touchscreen.
- Compatible with QuickFit bands.
- Customizable watch bands.
- Gives accurate distances including hazards.
- Over 40,000 course preloaded all over the world.
- No membership/subscription required for course update.
- Digital scoreboard.
- Multiple sports tracking feature included.
- Can disable smart notification for uninterrupted play.
- Excellent battery life.
Cons
- Expensive.
- Sometimes takes up practice swings.
- Too many features, so it takes little effort to learn all.
- Used glass in the screen (No complaint found about cracking).
Final Thought
Considering the features and built quality, we must say the Approach S60 is one of the best golf GPS watches right now in the market. This watch looks very nice and is super reliable. Price is a little high, but it has all the golf and smartwatch features to justify that price. So, you will not be disappointed if you buy Garmin Approach S60.
