Best for: Premium playing
And so here we find ourselves at The Masters. Pushing both boundaries of playing performance and price, it is the Garmin Approach S70’s turn to tee-off, and what a nuanced display of precision and performance we can expect from this powerhouse of play, all glanced through its stunning 1.4-inch, 454 x 454-pixel, AMOLED display.
So, first things first, while the S70 is without any shadow of doubt a golf watch, it’s also a smart sports watch of a much broader kind, coming imbued with monitors to measure your body metrics, such as wrist-based heart rate, resting heart rate, respiration rate, and even your stress level.
Also, it comes armed to the techie teeth with a Barometric altimeter, Compass, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, and Ambient light sensor, while also letting you receive smart notifications, respond to text messages on Android phones, control music on Android phones, and check weather reports and, yes, the stock market.
There are also countless workout, training and activity plans but – whoa, there! – we’re getting too far away from the basic brief: golf.
So, preloaded with over 43,000 courses, full colour, fully accessible course maps are the order of the day, with a virtual caddy that makes club recommendations based on wind, elevation and swing data, to get you started. Then there’s the pin pointer feature to guide your golfing precisely along, hazard view, F/M/B distance to green, and digital scorecard to keep a solid track of your ever-burgeoning brilliance.
Connecting to the Garmin app on your smartphone, you can also pore over your performance in the minutest of detail, analysis every shot to see where you might be going wrong and, of course, where you’re becoming the next Seve Ballesteros.
Okay, so the Garmin Approach S70 costs a lot, but this really is the pinnacle of the GPS golf watch world and, of course, so much more to the sports/health fanatic whose exercise endeavours extend beyond the fairway. A premium product for those angling to become a premium player.
Screen type: AMOLEDScreen size: 1.4-inchesResolution: 454 x 454-pixelsWater rating: 5ATMBattery life: Up to 18-hours (GPS mode)Weight: 56g
