Our co-owner and outdoor leader, Robert Forto is a technology and data nerd and loves trying to find solutions that fix multiple problems at once. He may have found the ultimate adventure smartwatch that fits all of his needs, the Garmin Descent MK3.
Robert is a huge fan of his Rolex Explorer 2, which he received as a graduation gift years ago from his wife Michele. Also, he wanted to get behind the Apple Watch Ultra and was quick to order one when they were released a couple of years ago. While the Ultra works well, it is not an adevntyre watch as it claims to be.
The Garmin Descent Mk3 is a versatile dive computer and multisport smartwatch designed for divers and outdoor enthusiasts. Here are its key features:
1. Diving Functions: Supports multiple dive modes, including recreational, technical, and free diving. It features a surface GPS, water temperature readings, and can record dive data.
2. Smartwatch Capabilities: Offers smartwatch features such as notifications, music control, and Garmin Pay. It also includes health monitoring tools like heart rate tracking and sleep analysis.
3. Battery Life: Provides long battery life, with up to 16 days in smartwatch mode and up to 40 hours in dive mode.
4. Connectivity: Compatible with the Garmin Connect app for syncing data and accessing additional features.
5. Navigation Tools: Includes GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo support, along with maps for hiking and cycling.
6. Durability: Designed to be rugged and water-resistant, suitable for various outdoor activities.
7. Customizable: Allows for the installation of apps and watch faces through the Connect IQ store.
Overall, the Garmin Descent Mk3 combines advanced diving features with robust smartwatch functionalities, making it suitable for both divers and outdoor adventurers.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series is not only an exceptional diving tool but also a comprehensive fitness companion. It comes with preloaded activity profiles for trail running, swimming, running, biking, hiking, rowing, skiing, golfing, and more. This ensures that you have the correct metrics and tracking for every activity you engage in.
For a more detailed look at your fitness level, the watch features VO2 Max, which shows your current fitness level and tracks changes over time. This data can be utilized to set goals and evaluate progress. To ensure you get proper rest and avoid overtraining, it also comes with a Recovery Time function. This tool tells you how long you need to recover before your next high-effort workout based on your latest training.
To keep you engaged and motivated, the Descent Mk3 series offers Daily Suggested Workouts, giving you a view of your entire week of daily suggested workouts that adapt after every run or ride. For a more guided training experience, follow the Animated Workouts for cardio, strength, yoga, and Pilates workouts right on the watch screen.
In terms of health monitoring, the watch provides a Wrist-Based Heart Rate feature that constantly samples your heart rate during activities, giving you a clear gauge of your effort levels. With the Pulse Ox sensor, you can track your blood oxygen saturation whether you’re awake or asleep, helping you understand how you’re adapting to altitude.
Sleep plays a crucial role in the body’s recovery process. The Descent Mk3 series supports this with a Sleep Monitoring and Sleep Score feature that gives you a breakdown of your sleep stages and detailed insights for improved sleep quality. With the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series, getting a comprehensive picture of your health and fitness has never been easier.
Location, location, location. In terms of outdoors and wilderness, knowing your position is the key! The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series is a navigation master, equipping you with an array of features designed to pinpoint your location with precision. It incorporates SATIQ™ Technology that provides superior positioning accuracy with multi-band GPS while optimizing battery life, ensuring that you stay on track during your outdoor adventures.
The watch comes preloaded with Multicontinent Topo Maps from around the world, keeping your explorations on track, be it diving, hiking, or trekking. For the skiing enthusiasts, the SkiView™ Maps feature offers view run names and difficulty ratings for more than 2,000 preloaded ski resorts worldwide, making your skiing experience safer and more enjoyable.
The built-in ABC sensors, consisting of an altimeter, barometer and a 3-axis electronic compass, provide comprehensive navigational aids. Whether you are diving deep or climbing high, these ABC Sensors enhance your awareness of your surroundings.
With PacePro™ Technology, you can plan race-day strategy with GPS-based pace guidance for a selected course or distance, equipping you with the tools to make informed decisions as you chart your path.
Additionally, with the Garmin Connect™ app, you can create or find existing courses and get turn-by-turn directions. This feature supports courses from your favorite third-party platforms, ensuring that you have a wide array of routes at your disposal. The unique Round-Trip Routing feature further enhances your navigation experience. Simply enter how far you want to go, and get suggested routes that will bring you back to your starting point. You can even use TrendLine™ routing to find the best local paths. The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series, with its advanced navigation features, aids in simplifying and enriching your exploration experience.
Feeling safe is crucial, especially during solo adventures. The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series understands this and provides features aimed at ensuring your safety. If you ever feel unsafe or if your watch senses that an incident occurred, it will send a message with your live location to your emergency contacts. This feature is designed to provide peace of mind and a safety net during your explorations.
For music lovers, the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series lets you download songs and playlists from your Spotify, Deezer, or Amazon Music accounts. This allows for phone-free listening, keeping you entertained during your activities and making your adventures more enjoyable.
In today’s digital era, cashless transactions are a norm, and the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series supports this with the Garmin Pay™ feature. This allows you to breeze through checkout lines or transit systems with participating providers, making transactions seamless and convenient.
Stay connected with the world even during your activities. When paired with your iPhone® or Android™ smartphone, the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series allows you to receive emails, texts, and alerts directly on your watch. This feature ensures you never miss an important notification, even while you’re on the go.
Customization is key to creating a unique experience, and the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series caters to this with the Connect IQ™ Store feature. Here, you can add watch faces, data fields, and apps to your paired smartwatch, allowing you to personalize your device to suit your preferences.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series offers expansive compatibility with a variety of Garmin devices to enhance your adventures. You have the ability to pair your Garmin Descent Mk3 Dive Smartwatch with an array of Garmin products, such as Garmin GPS trackers, for precision navigation on your journeys. The watch can also be synced with emergency GPS tools such as the Garmin inReach Mini2, providing you with communication, location sharing, navigation and critical SOS functions for your safety. For videography enthusiasts, the Garmin Video Cameras are a perfect companion to your watch, capturing your thrilling experiences in high resolution. Cyclists can also exploit compatibility with Garmin’s selection of Sensor Bike Lights and Radars from the VARIA Series, promoting safety by increasing visibility and awareness. No matter your adventure, the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series, with its wide array of compatible devices, ensures that you are equipped for any situation.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 Series is a must-have for divers looking for an advanced dive computer and smartwatch that combines performance and convenience. From its dive-ready design and multiple dive modes to the dive readiness tool, SubWave™ sonar-based communication, and smart features, this watch is the ultimate companion for all your diving and multisport training needs. With the Descent Mk3 series, you can confidently explore the underwater world and stay connected and informed above water, too!
Designed specifically for divers, the Descent Mk3 series boasts a bright 1.2″ or 1.4″ AMOLED display with a scratch-resistant sapphire lens that can withstand the toughest underwater conditions. The watch is dive-rated to a depth of 200 meters, while the inductive buttons are leak-proof, enabling you to operate it effortlessly even when wearing gloves.
One of the standout features of the Garmin Descent Mk3 series is its versatility in accommodating a variety of diving styles. Whether you’re a recreational diver or a technical diver, the Descent Mk3 has a corresponding mode tailored to your needs. For single and multiple gas dives, it provides modes for both nitrox and trimix, giving you the flexibility to switch gases with ease. The gauge mode is perfect for divers who prefer to rely on their carefully pre-planned runtimes. For free divers, the apnea and apnea hunt modes are designed to monitor breath-hold dives and hunting times efficiently. The Descent Mk3 also supports closed-circuit rebreather mode, offering you a seamless dive experience including customisable setpoints and adjustable gradient factor decompression. These multiple dive modes truly make the Garmin Descent Mk3 a robust, all-round dive computer that suits every diver’s needs.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series comes packed with features that add to your underwater adventure. Dive into the abyss with variable light intensities and strobe modes (51mm models) that enhance your visibility in the water. The watch also conveniently stores and reviews data, allows gear tracking, and note-taking – all of which can be shared through the Garmin Dive™ smartphone app. You can spend more time exploring underwater life with its extended battery life of up to 66 hours in dive mode and up to 25 days in smartwatch mode.
What’s more, you can customise your diving experience by adding additional screens for each dive mode, featuring the fields you want to see. With advanced satellite connectivity, you can track your entry and exit points on the surface. The ambient light sensor ensures high readability and maintains night vision by emitting a green luminescence in low-light conditions.
Navigating your dive has never been easier with built-in ABC sensors, including an underwater compass. The GPS tool assists in surface navigation, allowing precise location tracking to your dive sites. For freedivers, the Descent Mk3 series offers a tool that monitors descent and ascent rates through tone and vibration feedback. It also provides a simplified dive screen with larger text for easily visible critical diving data.
Stay updated with ocean conditions by pairing your Descent device with your compatible smartphone. For off-grid satellite messaging, pair the Descent with inReach2 devices and the inReach dive case. Dive deeper, navigate better, and enhance your underwater exploration with the Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series introduces an innovative feature: The Dive Readiness Tool. This breakthrough technology is designed to gauge your readiness for a dive, taking into consideration various factors that could impact your overall preparedness. It takes into account lifestyle elements like sleep patterns, physical exercise, stress levels, and even jet lag to provide comprehensive insights about your readiness to dive. The tool’s primary function is to help divers make informed decisions while planning their underwater adventures, ensuring a safe and enjoyable dive. This pioneering tool from Garmin is a testament to their commitment to enhance the diving experience with cutting-edge technology, truly revolutionizing the way divers prepare for their underwater explorations.
The Garmin Descent T2 transceiver is crafted to endure the harshest underwater conditions. Its robust construction is dive-rated to 20 ATM (200 meters), permitting you to explore the depths without any concern about the reliability of your equipment. Understanding your tank status is crucial during any dive, and the Descent T2 perfectly satisfies this requirement.
One of the remarkable features of the Descent T2 transceiver is its ability to link multiple divers. You can effortlessly monitor your dive buddies’ tank pressures and depths at a glance, as it allows you to pair up to 8 transceivers on your group’s tanks with each compatible air-integrated dive computer within a range of up to 10 meters. It provides key data such as tank pressure, remaining air time, the rate of air consumption, and battery life, all of which can be conveniently transmitted directly to your paired air-integrated Descent dive computer.
Communication is a vital aspect of any diving mission, and the Descent T2 has got that covered as well. It will soon offer the ability to exchange preformatted diver-to-diver messages with other Descent T2 transceiver-networked buddies wearing Descent Mk3i dive computers up to 30 meters away.
The Descent T2 also simplifies the tank pairing process. Its wireless area networking enables easy identification of your buddies’ names with the Descent T2 tank transceivers they’re wearing. With the Descent T2 transceiver, deep diving adventures are made safer, more convenient, and more enjoyable.
The Garmin DESCENT™ Mk3 series offers expansive activities and workouts and for dog mushing specifically you can add an activity right from the watch and then track specifics like route, speed, distance, temperature, elevation and more. There is also an ‘Expedition’ feature which will essentially put the Garmin Descent Mk3 into low battery mode and will only ping your GPS signal once an hour.
If you have been following this page for a while you know that we are building the ultimate mushing vehicle with our Sled Dog Jeep. This vehicle is caoplable of any adventure and we are adding plenty of tech to get us out on the trails and on the road.
One piece of tech that works seamlessly is the Garmin Overlander.
To use a Garmin smartwatch with a Garmin Overlander, you need to pair your watch with the Garmin Explorer app on your smartphone, which syncs with your Overlander device, allowing you to access navigation data like waypoints, routes, and tracks directly on your watch while on the road or off-road using the Overlander’s planned routes; essentially, your watch becomes a secondary display for navigation information from the Overlander.
Also, why not stay in the Garmin eco-system and get the Garmin PowerSwitch?
To use a Garmin Overlander with a Garmin PowerSwitch, you need to install the PowerSwitch device in your vehicle, pair it with the Garmin PowerSwitch app on your Overlander, and then use the app to control the PowerSwitch to control the connected accessories, essentially allowing you to turn on/off things like lights or fans directly from your Overlander device while driving; always consult the user manuals for both devices for specific instructions and wiring details before installation.
You can take navigation a step further and use your Garmin Descent MK3.
To use a Garmin watch for turn-by-turn navigation, you need to access the navigation menu within your chosen activity, select a destination and then start the navigation; most Garmin watches will display turn-by-turn directions on the screen as you follow the route, with the option to view a detailed list of directions by accessing the menu while navigating.
You be the judge. Is the Garmin Descent MK3 the ultimate adventure smartwatch?
Our editors believe it will take you anywhere you want to go and provide you with the tech tool to make your next adventure epic.
