Apple Watch Series 10 vs Garmin Descent G1
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: 2024
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: 2022
🏃 Activity
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 offers an advanced fitness tracking system that measures steps, calories burned, distance traveled, active minutes, and elevation changes. It automatically tracks daily movement and provides real-time heart rate zone updates to optimize workouts. The Move, Exercise, and Stand rings help users stay motivated by closing daily activity goals.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Garmin Descent G1 is a robust dive computer and outdoor GPS smartwatch designed for recreational divers and active individuals, built for durability and reliable tracking. It offers precise tracking for dive-specific metrics, alongside comprehensive tracking for steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes. Its activity profiles cater to both underwater and topside sports, providing essential data for monitoring performance in various environments.
❤️ Health Monitoring
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: Designed with comprehensive health tracking, the watch continuously monitors heart rate, blood oxygen levels (SpO2), and skin temperature. It includes high and low heart rate alerts, irregular heart rhythm detection, and AFib history tracking, providing crucial health insights. The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) feature assesses cardiovascular health trends over time.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, and detailed sleep analysis for insights into daily well-being and recovery. The integrated Pulse Ox sensor allows for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, useful for assessing acclimatization at altitude and contributing to dive planning and safety.
🔋 Battery Life
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 delivers up to 18 hours of battery life in normal use and up to 36 hours in Low Power Mode. Fast charging allows it to reach 80% in around 45 minutes, ensuring minimal downtime between charges.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 offers strong battery life, providing up to 25 hours in dive mode and up to 14 days in smartwatch mode, ensuring sufficient power for multiple dives and consistent daily tracking without frequent recharging.
😴 Sleep Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch tracks sleep stages (light, deep, and REM), offering personalized insights into sleep patterns. It also monitors respiratory rate and blood oxygen levels during sleep to detect potential disturbances, such as sleep apnea.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Sleep tracking on the Descent G1 monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery essential for both athletic performance and dive readiness.
📍 GPS Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With precise dual-frequency GPS (L1 + L5 bands), the Apple Watch Series 10 delivers accurate location tracking for outdoor activities like running, cycling, and hiking. It provides real-time pace, elevation, and route mapping in the Apple Fitness app.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Descent G1 provides accurate outdoor activity tracking and basic mapping capabilities on the surface. This GPS functionality is also integrated into dive logging for recording entry and exit points, enhancing the utility for documenting dive locations.
🏋️ Workout Modes
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch supports over 100 workout types, including HIIT, strength training, swimming, cycling, rowing, and yoga. Advanced metrics such as stride length, ground contact time, running power, and vertical oscillation help athletes optimize performance.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 supports a variety of multisport and individual workout modes, including dedicated profiles for diving (single-gas, multi-gas, freediving), swimming, running, biking, hiking, and strength training, providing relevant metrics for each activity.
💫 Exercise Recognition
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 automatically detects workouts such as walking, running, cycling, swimming, and elliptical sessions, ensuring that activities are logged even if users forget to start tracking.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device includes automatic exercise detection for common activities such as swimming, running, and cycling through its Move IQ feature, ensuring these basic movements are captured in your activity log alongside detailed dive data.
🍎 Compatibility
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: Seamlessly integrates with iPhone (iOS 17 or later) via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It syncs with Apple Health and supports third-party fitness apps like Strava, MyFitnessPal, and Nike Run Club.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization, dive log management, and smart notifications.
📲 App Support
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Fitness+ app provides guided workouts, live metrics, and personalized fitness plans. Users can also sync with third-party wellness apps, including meditation and recovery tracking platforms.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Synchronization with the comprehensive Garmin Connect app is central for topside activity and health tracking, while the Garmin Dive app is specifically designed for detailed dive log management, analysis, and sharing, providing a complete ecosystem for both fitness and diving data.
💡 Smart Features
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: In addition to fitness tracking, the Apple Watch Series 10 includes smart notifications for calls, texts, and apps. It supports Siri voice commands, Apple Pay for contactless payments, and music streaming via Apple Music and Spotify. The SOS Emergency Call feature provides enhanced safety by detecting severe falls and crashes, automatically notifying emergency contacts if needed.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: Beyond its primary focus on diving and sports, the Descent G1 includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also features essential utilities like a compass, barometric altimeter, and thermometer, valuable for outdoor navigation and environmental awareness.
💦 Water Resistance
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With a WR50 rating, the watch is water-resistant up to 50 meters, making it suitable for pool swimming, water workouts, and showering. It also tracks swimming metrics, including stroke count, distance, and pace.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: With a robust water resistance rating to 100 meters (10 ATM) and built-in dive computer functionality, the Descent G1 is specifically designed for scuba diving, freediving, and other underwater activities, providing essential dive data and safety features for recreational use.
⌚ Display Quality
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The ultra-bright LTPO OLED Retina display offers sharp colors, deep blacks, and excellent visibility in direct sunlight. The always-on display ensures users can quickly check the time, notifications, and health data without raising their wrist.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a sunlight-readable, monochrome display with good contrast, optimized for visibility in various lighting conditions, including underwater and bright sunlight. While not a color screen, it provides clear and easy-to-read data.
👌 Ease of Use
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The watch features a responsive touchscreen, a Digital Crown for precise scrolling, and haptic feedback for smooth navigation. With customizable watch faces, users can personalize their interface based on preference.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The device utilizes a user-friendly interface with a combination of buttons, designed for easy navigation and access to features both on land and underwater, prioritizing reliable operation in challenging conditions over touchscreen complexity.
✨ Design and Comfort
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Apple Watch Series 10 features a lightweight yet durable titanium or aluminum case with interchangeable bands. It is available in multiple sizes and finishes, ensuring a comfortable fit for all-day wear.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 features a rugged and durable design built for the demands of outdoor activities and diving. It maintains a comfortable fit for all-day wear and dives, balancing robust construction with practical wearability.
🩸 SpO2 Monitoring
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The built-in SpO2 sensor continuously measures blood oxygen levels, providing real-time insights into respiratory and overall health, especially useful during sleep and high-altitude activities.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor is a key feature, allowing for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during sleep and at altitude, providing crucial data for assessing physiological status and contributing to dive safety considerations.
💖 ECG Functionality
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The ECG app allows users to take electrocardiograms (ECGs) on demand, detecting signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). Results can be shared with healthcare professionals for further analysis.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: It is important to note that the Garmin Descent G1 does not support ECG (Electrocardiogram) functionality.
🧘 Stress Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: With Mindfulness and Breathe apps, the watch offers guided breathing sessions and stress-level assessments. It tracks heart rate variability (HRV) to indicate periods of high or low stress.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Descent G1 tracks stress levels throughout the day based on heart rate variability and offers guided breathing exercises to help users manage stress, contributing to overall well-being and focus, important for both athletic and diving performance.
🩹 Recovery Tracking
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: The Recovery Insights feature provides data on heart rate recovery time, sleep quality, and fatigue levels, helping users determine when to train or rest. Apple Fitness+ offers personalized recommendations based on recovery status.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: The Body Battery energy monitoring feature provides insights into the body's energy reserves based on activity, stress, and sleep data, helping users understand their physiological readiness for training or the need for rest. This is a key feature for optimizing recovery, essential for demanding sports and diving activities.
💳 Subscription
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: ✅ The watch provides core health and fitness features for free, but Apple Fitness+ (optional, $9.99/month or $79.99/year) offers guided workouts, advanced training insights, and exclusive content.
2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Descent G1, including its dive computer functionalities and access to the Garmin Connect and Garmin Dive apps, are available without an additional subscription fee, providing comprehensive value for a capable and rugged dive-focused smartwatch.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: $399.00
Check Apple Watch Series 10 Price *2️⃣ Garmin Descent G1: $799.99
Check Garmin Descent G1 Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you