Apple Watch Series 10 vs Garmin Descent Mk2S
🗓️ Release Year
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: 2024
2️⃣ Garmin Descent Mk2S: 2021
🏃 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 Mk2S: The Garmin Descent Mk2S is a compact, rugged dive computer and multisport GPS smartwatch designed for divers and athletes with smaller wrists. It provides precise tracking for dive-specific metrics, alongside comprehensive tracking for steps, distance, calories burned, and active minutes. Its wide range of activity profiles caters to both underwater and topside sports, offering detailed data for performance analysis across diverse activities in a more streamlined form factor.
❤️ 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 Mk2S: This device provides continuous wrist-based heart rate monitoring, advanced fitness metrics, and in-depth dive tracking. It includes Pulse Ox for blood oxygen saturation monitoring, crucial for assessing acclimatization at altitude and during dives. Stress tracking and sleep analysis contribute to a holistic view of health and recovery, vital for dive readiness and overall well-being, scaled for a smaller device.
🔋 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S offers robust battery life for its size, providing up to 50 hours in dive mode, up to 7 days in smartwatch mode, and up to 30 hours in GPS mode, ensuring reliable performance during extended diving trips and multi-day activities, balancing compact size with power efficiency.
😴 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 Mk2S: Advanced sleep tracking on the Descent Mk2S monitors sleep stages and provides valuable insights into sleep quality, contributing to a better understanding of recovery essential for both athletic performance and dive safety. Consistent tracking is supported by the device's battery performance and comfortable wearability.
📍 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 Mk2S: Equipped with built-in GPS, the Descent Mk2S provides accurate outdoor activity tracking and mapping capabilities on the surface. This GPS functionality is also integrated into dive logging for recording entry and exit points, and for surface navigation back to a dive site.
🏋️ 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S supports an extensive range of multisport and individual workout modes, including dedicated profiles for various types of diving (single-gas, multi-gas, CCR, 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 Mk2S: 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones, connecting via Bluetooth for seamless data synchronization, detailed 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 Mk2S: 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, accessible from your smartphone.
💡 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 Mk2S: Beyond its primary focus on diving and sports, the Descent Mk2S includes practical smart functionalities such as on-wrist notifications for calls, texts, and calendar alerts. It also supports Garmin Pay for contactless payments, enhancing convenience on and off the dive boat, all within a compact form factor.
💦 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 Mk2S: With an impressive water resistance rating to 100 meters (10 ATM) and built-in dive computer functionality, the Descent Mk2S is specifically designed for scuba diving, freediving, and other underwater activities, providing essential dive data and safety features in a smaller size.
⌚ 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S features a 1.2-inch, sunlight-readable, color display with high resolution, optimized for visibility both above and below the water. This screen provides clear and easy-to-read data during activities and dives, scaled for a compact device.
👌 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 Mk2S: The device utilizes a user-friendly interface with a combination of buttons and a touchscreen, designed for easy navigation and access to features both on land and underwater, prioritizing reliable operation in various conditions and providing quick access to critical dive information in a smaller size.
✨ 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S features a compact and lightweight rugged design built for the demanding conditions of diving and outdoor adventures, specifically tailored for smaller wrists. It maintains a comfortable fit for all-day wear and long 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 Mk2S: An integrated Pulse Ox sensor is a key feature, allowing for monitoring blood oxygen saturation levels during dives, at altitude, and throughout daily activities, providing crucial data for assessing physiological status and dive readiness in challenging environments, integrated into a smaller device.
💖 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 Mk2S: It is important to note that the Garmin Descent Mk2S 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 Mk2S: The Descent Mk2S 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 and safety.
🩹 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 Mk2S: 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 Mk2S: A significant benefit of the Garmin platform is that all core features and data tracked by the Descent Mk2S, including its extensive 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 specialized compact professional device.
🏷️️ Price
1️⃣ Apple Watch Series 10: $399.00
Check Apple Watch Series 10 Price *2️⃣ Garmin Descent Mk2S: $1,199.99
Check Garmin Descent Mk2S Price ** If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you