The Garmin Instinct Crossover is a rugged hybrid smartwatch designed for the modern adventurer. With a classic analog experience and state-of-the-art smart functionality, this watch is the perfect companion for anyone who loves to explore the great outdoors. The Instinct Crossover delivers accurate analog timekeeping with built-in RevoDrive technology, even in the most challenging environments.
This watch offers a variety of built-in sports apps, including strength training, running, and mountain biking, to help you take your training to the next level. The Instinct Crossover also provides 24/7 health monitoring, allowing you to keep track of energy levels, stress, sleep, and more. Stay connected and never miss a text or notification again with instant alerts right on your wrist from your compatible Android or Apple smartphone.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover is shock-resistant, water-resistant, and built to MIL-STD-810, making it durable enough to handle any adventure. With Garmin Pay contactless payments, you can even forget your wallet and pay for purchases directly from your watch.
Notable features of the Garmin Instinct Crossover include luminescent analog hands in a rugged body with a dual-layered bezel, built-in GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo navigation support, and long-lasting battery life.
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Caden H. –
This is (almost) the perfect watch I need. I throw my other watches (iWatch 8, Garmin 945, Casio Oceanus, Luminox and Rolex GMT II) to drawer and wear this one 100%.For the background. I am a mid-age male, frequent business traveler, I need to hit gym/run regularly to maintain my health and energy. I am reviewing this watch from my perspective.PROS: – READS TIME IN ALL SITUATIONS: This is a fundamental function that disqualifies almost all smart watches. I can tell the time indoor, and out door under direct sunlight, and in a very steep angle (yes I frequently need to glance my watch in the meetings. I don’t want to raise my wrist and hint my customer that I want them to leave, I can read the time even if the angle of the watch face is 10 degree to my eye (see attached picture). OLED (Apple) watch is bright and you can read under direct sunshine, but it shuts off the screen in the night, and wait to read the battery comment. Other LCD (Garmin 945) smart watch couldn’t read time in all angle/sun lighting condition. – NIGH TIME PERFORMANCE: This watch glows in the night. Yes it’s a reliable technology for 80 years but hey it works. It’s 3am and my bedroom is completely darkness, yet watch with physical hands still glow and I can read the time. – BATTERY PERFORMANCE: It’s solid 28 days without charge, without solar. When I travel, I already have enough things to do and I hate to need to charge my watch from time to time. Charging is easy if I work in office daily (and put a charger stand on my desk), but it’s a problem when I travel. I love to have one battery less to maintain charge with. – GPS/SPORT FEATURE: It still work as a full functional sport smart watch. It logs hearbeat at all time. It tracks my run with GPS, and it pairs with my sensor pod that analyze my run. It has everything a typical smart watch does.CONS: – THE FONT IS TOO SMALL: Whoever designed this watch is probably 30years old with sharp eyesight. There is a reason Rolex Day-Date has very readable date and magnifying glass lens for day. Dear Garmin, we are old, please don’t make the font unnecessarily small – 2ND TIME ZONE IS NOT 24hr format: Whoever designed this watch doesn’t really use the 2nd time zone. When it shows SFO 5:45, who knows its 5am or 5pm? I don’t need the ’45’ of the ‘5:45’ because the time zone is almost always 1hr resolution (there is 30 min time zone but very unpopular). What it really should display is “SFO 17” or “SFO 5pm”. Dear Garmin, this is really, really simple and fundamental. – NOT VERY DRESSY (nitpicking): The watch is perfect sized (45mm wide) but a bit too thick (16mm). I have trouble fitting a sleeve in. I am willing to pay 2x or 3x price if it’s lowered to 13mm, and made with premium material and sporty look (like Rolex GMT, Sea Dweller), and I can wear it for the occasion when I need to wear Rolex.OVERALL: This is a very, very good watch and it’s almost perfect. It has every functions I need with minor imperfection. I believe hybrid watch is a very good sweetspot
Saint04 –
I currently own a Garmin Instinct Solar 2 and the Crossover Solar. The Garmin Crossover Solar is my favorite smart watch to date. I use it for monitoring my daily health and fitness. I have owned the AW 1,3, 5 (stainless steel), 7 (titanium), and Ultra. As much as I enjoy using the Apple Watch series, Garmin provides me my health metrics from the watch without aftermarket apps. I don’t like having to continually depend on my iPhone to see my health metrics. Garmin allows me to connect through their app on my phone, web browser, tablet, etc. Garmin also plays friendly with 3rd party providers such as Strava as to where the AW I have to manually sync my data with Strava.I run, bike, weight train, walk, stand up paddleboard, do yoga, and a variety of other activities. The Garmin gives me a readiness score to help prevent over training. I also like that it continually monitors my vitals, stress, sleep levels (quality of sleep), etc and determines whether or not I should take a break from my exercise. Proactive health and fitness are my lifestyle. I can also compare my fitness/performance levels to other Garmin users, and it provides me insight and feedback… the AW does little of that. For example, I can look up on the Garmin Connect site and see my age group and how I compare to other Garmin users for distance, pace, etc. for an activity.I also like to save coordinates while hiking, on trips, etc. I have the Garmin Explorer option to pull up waypoints. It’s convenient sharing my data with other people as to where the AW only allows me to share a screen shot of my workouts with some data. I noticed that the AW does not record stand up paddleboarding as an activity or exercise. The Garmin does, while also recording my route on a map… pretty cool.I wore both devices and found that the Garmin is a bit more accurate running indoors on a treadmill compared to the AW Ultra and Crossover/2. I finish my distance right on point with the treadmill as to where the AW ultra at one mile is .15 to .25 miles off typically; yes, I’m familiar with the calibration process (deleting old calibration… 20 min walk/run outdoors). The Ultra and series 7 (watches used at the time of comparison to the Instinct 2 solar and Crossover Solar) also counts a bit more steps with basic wrist movements as to where the Crossover/2 do not. Once my Garmin gets to one mile, I can calibrate it to match what the treadmill says and it’s good to go.The AW is great to generally observe data regarding health, but the lack of feedback is concerning. Also, I do like to check maps out on my adventures or saved coordinates on a map. If I save coordinates on the AW, it is a bit more extensive to pull things up on a map as to where the Garmin side of things just does it. I feel stuck on the AW viewing travel data/waypoints. The Garmin Connect app on my iPhone has all my data in one location. The AW, I need three different apps. Apple has a ways to go on the health/fitness side of things. I see them getting there in the near future and I can see myself eventually getting back on board once things catch up… assuming they do.I will miss closing rings and competing with family/friends on an Apple Watch, but the Garmin is much more on point for my daily lifestyle. I kept trying to convince myself the Ultra would be adequate, and I greatly enjoyed having cellular/music while out on runs, but I’ll stick to bringing my phone at this point. I do have a AW5 that I can occasionally use for cellular when I do not want to carry a phone on me. Choosing between the two for my lifestyle, Garmin is ultimately the platform I am choosing to stick to for my active lifestyle of monitoring my health and fitness.I forgot to mention that I like that the Crossover’s display is always on with physical hands and I can glance at it. I’m not a fan of the limited battery life of the Ultra and I’m not sold on the always on display or OLED… just a preference of mine.One other point I’d like to leave is I like the plastic polymer casings on the Instinct/Crossover series. The titanium and stainless casing show scratches like crazy on the Apple watches (aluminum too… my children have the SE and series 5 aluminum, which we keep cases on). The polymer-fiber casings on the Instinct hardly show any where and tear… just mentioning that for those who are a little OCD such as myself. My Instinct Solar 2 has been seen a lot of wear and tear and still looks nearly new despite having scratches (these scratches are matte and hardly noticeable… one must go out of there way with angle lighting, etc. to even see a glimpse of anything)… my point is the polymer-fiber ages well and has seen its fair share of knocks and use in an active lifestyle… my Apple watches patina hard over time and look banged up. I’ve used cases on my Apple watches in the past and they seem to just add to the wear and tear. Aging gracefully and not concerning myself with aesthetics and durability is another win on the Garmin for me with daily use.—————————Well, my minute hand became loose on the watch. I noticed another person had this issue on a Reddit forum. Amazon made an exception past the return date and authorized a return for me, which I greatly appreciate. I’ll being opting for the Garmin 955 Solar and will definitely miss this watch. I just don’t trust the longevity of the mechanical aspect of this Watch given that I’ve come across others having this issue. Had this issue in reliability not been an issue of mine, it’d still easily be one of my most favored watches I’ve owned to date… there’s nothing like it out there…——————13MAR23————I decided to try another watch… same issue (reference photos of watch at the 2oclock and 7oclock position. I decided to keep it because I like the fit and practicality of the watch so much and I guess this may just be the nature of the watch unless there’s a bad batch out there. I contacted Garmin about the issue and the rep said this does not seem “normal.” I’ll test the replacement. If I have the same issue I’ll likely keep the watch although the loose minute hand is a bit of an annoyance. I tried the 955 Solar… a great option too around the same price. The screen is much easier to read indoors on the Crossover Instinct Solar compared to the 955 Solar and the battery life is much better on the Instinct Solar… the Solar option on the 955 doesn’t seem to benefit the battery life much, but on the instinct Solar there is a significant difference for my daily use scenario… especially when running/biking outdoors.
Saint04 –
Love the ruggedness of the watch. Has great GPS function and tracking. Battery life is amazing for a smart watch.It takes a while to get used to the buttons and menus, after a short time, everything becomes second nature.The Garmin app is amazing and you get all the functionality for free (looking at you fitbit).Using all the functionality, except the O2 sensor, I get two or three weeks between charges. This is winter usage and not a lot of exposure for the solar to help out. I’m also running three days a week and tracking with GPS, along with numerous walks tracked with GPS. Probably 6-8 hours or more of GPS tracking each week.Picked up some quick release bands on the cheap too and they work fine.After almost two months it shows no signs of wear and tear, I don’t baby my watches,so this is a good sign in my opinion.
John Holt –
Just had to share. This watch is resilient, masterfully designed and programed, had has almost all the features I could want.Minor gripes:The one thing that could make it more versatile is a mic.I wish solar charging had more significant impact to the battery level. But battery life is incredible as is.The included grey strap started to lose some color so I replaced it with a black one – much better color, black silicone stays black.I love this watch and never take it off. It has yet to disappoint me even once. It brings me real value!
Kurt Steinmuller –
I’m digging it so far (also on an Epix 2). Dresses up very nice!
John Holt –
This is (almost) the perfect watch I need. I throw my other watches (iWatch 8, Garmin 945, Casio Oceanus, Luminox and Rolex GMT II) to drawer and wear this one 100%.For the background. I am a mid-age male, frequent business traveler, I need to hit gym/run regularly to maintain my health and energy. I am reviewing this watch from my perspective.PROS: – READS TIME IN ALL SITUATIONS: This is a fundamental function that disqualifies almost all smart watches. I can tell the time indoor, and out door under direct sunlight, and in a very steep angle (yes I frequently need to glance my watch in the meetings. I don’t want to raise my wrist and hint my customer that I want them to leave, I can read the time even if the angle of the watch face is 10 degree to my eye (see attached picture). OLED (Apple) watch is bright and you can read under direct sunshine, but it shuts off the screen in the night, and wait to read the battery comment. Other LCD (Garmin 945) smart watch couldn’t read time in all angle/sun lighting condition. – NIGH TIME PERFORMANCE: This watch glows in the night. Yes it’s a reliable technology for 80 years but hey it works. It’s 3am and my bedroom is completely darkness, yet watch with physical hands still glow and I can read the time. – BATTERY PERFORMANCE: It’s solid 28 days without charge, without solar. When I travel, I already have enough things to do and I hate to need to charge my watch from time to time. Charging is easy if I work in office daily (and put a charger stand on my desk), but it’s a problem when I travel. I love to have one battery less to maintain charge with. – GPS/SPORT FEATURE: It still work as a full functional sport smart watch. It logs hearbeat at all time. It tracks my run with GPS, and it pairs with my sensor pod that analyze my run. It has everything a typical smart watch does.CONS: – THE FONT IS TOO SMALL: Whoever designed this watch is probably 30years old with sharp eyesight. There is a reason Rolex Day-Date has very readable date and magnifying glass lens for day. Dear Garmin, we are old, please don’t make the font unnecessarily small – 2ND TIME ZONE IS NOT 24hr format: Whoever designed this watch doesn’t really use the 2nd time zone. When it shows SFO 5:45, who knows its 5am or 5pm? I don’t need the ’45’ of the ‘5:45’ because the time zone is almost always 1hr resolution (there is 30 min time zone but very unpopular). What it really should display is “SFO 17” or “SFO 5pm”. Dear Garmin, this is really, really simple and fundamental. – NOT VERY DRESSY (nitpicking): The watch is perfect sized (45mm wide) but a bit too thick (16mm). I have trouble fitting a sleeve in. I am willing to pay 2x or 3x price if it’s lowered to 13mm, and made with premium material and sporty look (like Rolex GMT, Sea Dweller), and I can wear it for the occasion when I need to wear Rolex.OVERALL: This is a very, very good watch and it’s almost perfect. It has every functions I need with minor imperfection. I believe hybrid watch is a very good sweetspot
Saint04 –
Love the ruggedness of the watch. Has great GPS function and tracking. Battery life is amazing for a smart watch.It takes a while to get used to the buttons and menus, after a short time, everything becomes second nature.The Garmin app is amazing and you get all the functionality for free (looking at you fitbit).Using all the functionality, except the O2 sensor, I get two or three weeks between charges. This is winter usage and not a lot of exposure for the solar to help out. I’m also running three days a week and tracking with GPS, along with numerous walks tracked with GPS. Probably 6-8 hours or more of GPS tracking each week.Picked up some quick release bands on the cheap too and they work fine.After almost two months it shows no signs of wear and tear, I don’t baby my watches,so this is a good sign in my opinion.
Bob R. –
I’ve been using Galaxy watches for the last few years and I’ve always wanted to own a garmin but never saw a watch I really liked. This watch is beautiful and very accurate. I like that it’s not a touch screen and the GPS is very easy to use. The app kinda sucks but it does have all the data needed
John Holt –
Looks good on the wrist. The hands blend in with the watch dace and it’s difficult to see the time. Lume doesn’t appear to work at all
John Holt –
Received in mail today and took it out of the box. First thing I notice is minor scratches on the glass, the plastic bezel is loose and wiggles and I see what looks like hot glue residue all around the side of the watch….. not very good quality for an expensive supposedly indestructible type watch. I am returning and reordering. Hopefully round 2 is more fruitful.