Garmin Enduro GPS Watch 3 Review

There are many fantastic watches on the market right now. It seems like every few months, a new watch is released promising giant (read: iterative) improvements to everything from batteries to screens to must-have features. I tend to gravitate toward gear that is utilitarian and blends into the background — something I can buy now and not think about replacing for years to come. 

After an extensive search, I ended up with the Garmin Enduro 3 ($900). I’ve been testing this watch daily for 6 months, and it has proven to be a reliable companion. From backcountry navigation to health tracking to being my flashlight and morning alarm, the Enduro 3 is the only item that I use 24/7/365.

It’s there when I need it and can handle every activity I do: from getting pounded on shorebreak in Hawaii to ripping dirt bikes to splitboarding in sub-freezing temps. It tracks all of these activities while providing valuable insights into my overall health. It has everything I want and nothing I don’t — without the flagship price tag.

In short: If you are looking for a watch that has all the same high-end software and features as a $1,200+ top-tier smart watch — but lasts longer and is far lighter — then the Enduro 3 might be the watch for you. 

Looking for a new activity-tracking watch? Check out how the Enduro 3 compares to other wearables in GearJunkie’s Best GPS Watches and Best Fitness Watches Buyer’s Guides.

Garmin Enduro 3 GPS Watch: Review 

The Garmin Enduro 3 is a big watch. It comes in one size, 51 mm, and is 14.9 mm thick. This was my biggest concern when I started using it. Thankfully, it blended into the background for me after a few days. In fact, the only scenario where the thickness was remotely a nuisance is when wearing it underneath a 5/4 wetsuit.

The build quality is top-notch, and the sapphire screen is seemingly indestructible. For purely testing purposes, I managed to crash mountain bikes and motorcycles and even pulled off the most violent tomahawk of my life on my snowboard — the watch held up to everything I could throw at it.

I used it in temperatures from 110 degrees F in Ethiopia to 0 degrees F in the Sierra Nevada. The watch still looks exactly like it did the day I opened the box.

The titanium bezel around the sapphire screen provides added protection and a utilitarian look. The rest of the case is made of fiber-reinforced polymer to save weight. My favorite feature from a materials standpoint is Garmin’s UltraFit nylon strap. It breathes well, never comes loose, and dries quickly. 

All of these features work together to allow the Enduro 3 to weigh only 63 g. That’s over 34% lighter than the fēnix 8, Garmin’s flagship model. And 63 g or so is about as heavy as I would personally want a watch, as the heavier models that I’ve tested never quite blend into the background like the Enduro 3. This is most noticeable while running.

Battery, Battery, Battery 

The headline for the Enduro 3 is the battery life, which is enhanced by a significant jump in performance over the previous generation. Garmin markets 36 days of typical use (90 days with solar charging). But there are a ton of battery-saving options within the settings, where you can toggle features on and off and really stretch the watch. In Expedition mode, for example, Garmin claims near-unlimited use with adequate solar charging.

During this focused period of testing, I recorded 22 activities that added up to 31.5 hours of full-featured tracking. It took me 22 days to get down to 4% during this time period. (I bailed on draining it to zero, as I had a long trip starting the next day.) This included full-featured sleep tracking, too, with heart rate and pulse oximetry always on. 

Having a watch that can last this long not only provides peace of mind during long expeditions where access to power is limited or nonexistent, but it’s also been a huge benefit to daily life. I’m not thinking about charging my watch at all — but when I do, I throw it on a charge and top it off here and there — knowing that I always have more than enough for a spontaneous full-day mission if I choose.

Feature-Rich

The Enduro 3 possesses Garmin’s most advanced sensor suite (the same as the fēnix 8), including heart rate, pulse-ox, multi-band satellite reception (five in total), SatIQ to maximize the best signal, barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, thermometer, and ambient light sensor.

The accuracy of all of these is the best I’ve experienced on a watch. And, though my professional athlete friends might scoff at this, I find the heart rate monitor to be totally sufficient for my needs. In the winter, it syncs up with my bike trainer, and in the summer, it pairs seamlessly with my Garmin Edge 1040 bike computer to provide reliable enough-for-me heart rate monitoring.

I used to have a different brand of bike computer and watch, and though it was satisfactory, having everything in the Garmin Connect app has been a big upgrade for me. It allows the watch’s recommendations on recovery, sleep, and training to be fully integrated with everything I’m doing instead of excluding certain biking activities.

For my use case, the suggested workouts and recovery times have helped me take a more holistic view of my health and kept me accountable to stay on course in my training and recreation alike. The sleep score, albeit an imperfect science, has helped me prioritize sleep more and change my behavior.

This type of stuff is the sweet spot for me. You want data that helps positive behavior change, but not so much that you’re stressed about doing this versus that. The Enduro 3’s ability to track everything all the time without worrying about battery life has equipped me with data to be healthier, and I’m grateful for that.

ABT (Always Be Tracking) 

From coaching plans to contactless payments to an ECG app, this watch has way more abilities than I could include here. From motocross to meditation — and every activity in between — it’s tough to find an activity profile that is not included.

With a ton of customization within each activity profile, you can choose to display exactly what you want and have the right mix of sensors to strike a balance between battery life and data for your use case.

Here are a few of the key features that have been particularly notable to me over the last 6 months:

• Daily Reports: The Enduro 3 offers a morning and evening report that gives you an overview of key stats like sleep, training status, and weather. It also provides suggestions for sleep requirements, recovery time, and suggested workouts for the day. I’m not one to dive super-deep into every metric, so having these twice-daily snapshots gives me information to maximize my health and training. 
• Navigation: The mapping technology within this watch is robust. Garmin has always done a great job at combining bomber hardware with useful maps, and this is no different. I love being able to quickly double-check a route without needing to get out my phone. The 51mm size of this watch makes it extremely useful in the real world, too. A few times during testing, most notably while slightly lost in Baja, following our breadcrumb back out of a wash saved us hours of wandering. 
• Touchscreen: We have enough touchscreens. Don’t get me started on the lack of tactile control across modern technology, but the combination of a time-tested button layout and the touch screen of the Enduro 3 is an efficient and useful combo. From setting an alarm to navigating on maps, it’s been one of the big surprises for me and a delight to use.

All Hail the Flashlight 

A whole section for the LED flashlight? Yes. Absolutely. On a trip a few years ago, I was surprised at how often my buddy was using the flashlight on his fēnix 7 watch from Garmin. I remember asking why he didn’t just use his phone flashlight, as it always looked a bit awkward.

Now, after 6 months of use, I simply can’t imagine not having this feature on a watch. I use the LED flashlight daily, whether digging through a gear bin in the garage or trying to fix something under the sink (I live in a 100+ year-old house), and even more so when out in the wild — getting in and out of my tent, looking for something in my bag — you get the idea. 

It is a quick two-button click to turn on and off. From there, you can use the touchscreen to toggle the brightness between four different levels and even switch to a red LED to not disturb others around you. Am I teetering on hyperbole here? Hardly; I won’t ever own a watch without this feature.

No AMOLED Here 

AMOLED screens are beautiful. More and more companies are bridging the gap between them and the battery life offered by watches with MIP displays. If the screen is the primary driver for you in a watch, then definitely look elsewhere.

Garmin definitely improved the screen over the Enduro 2: it’s brighter and easier to read, and the solar panel itself isn’t a noticeable red bar around the perimeter anymore, either. But, next to an AMOLED screen, the Enduro 3 just can’t compete on brightness or sharpness. 

With that said, my personal opinion is that AMOLED watches are bright and distracting. I just don’t need another smartphone-like screen to pull my attention away from what I’m doing. 

The sunlight-visible transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) screen on the Enduro 3 has proven to be more than sufficient for my use case. More importantly, the use of an MIP screen versus an AMOLED screen on the Enduro 3 allows it to meet the battery life and weight benchmarks that make it so attractive to me. 

Garmin Enduro 3: Conclusion

The fēnix 8 (AMOLED and Solar MIP versions) consistently rank as the top GPS smartwatches, and they’re well-loved by many contributors here at GearJunkie — this praise is well deserved. By all accounts, they’re the best of the best. 

But, hear me out: The Enduro 3 has everything that the fēnix 8 Solar has except a speaker and diving features. It’s also lighter, lasts longer, looks better (in my opinion), and costs $200 less. For my use case, it’s the clear winner. 

No, it’s not quite as defined a screen in direct sunlight compared to an AMOLED version, and the operating system is a version behind the leading edge of Garmin wrist wearables, but the tradeoffs are well worth it for those who adventure day after day.