Garmin S70 Golf GPS Watch - 2023 Forum Review

[GolfSpy_APH]

Testers Announced!

It is commonplace now for golfers to have some sort of GPS or Shot tracking system while on the course. There are a lot of options available as well. From apps to enhanced rangefinders to clips and of course watches. 

All have their own unique potential benefits and potential drawbacks, but the Garmin Approach S70 aims to narrow that being a premium GPS Golf Smartwatch which you can use not only on the course, but in your day to day life as well. 

The Garmin Approach S70 has a variety of features including: Bright 1.4-inch amoled touch display, pre-installed with 43,000 golf courses worldwide, optimized playslike distance, an improved virtual caddie including green contour data as well as a variety of health and fitness features. 

Available in two sizes and three different colors there is an option that should suit any golfer. Claiming to have an impressive battery life that lasts up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and up to 15 hours in GPS mode. It also claims to be waterproof for those who like to play in the rain and has a 5 ATM water resistance rating. 

Please welcome and congratulate our testers!

@Josh Ross

@FallenSaber

@Parshooter36

@goaliewales14

[Josh Ross]

Introduction
Hello, everyone!

First, I want to thank MyGolfSpy and Garmin for this amazing opportunity! If you couldn’t tell from my super creative username, my name is Josh, and I’m 33 years old. I work in the golf industry for Edison Golf and I’m the biggest Georgia Southern alumni/fan/supporter you’ll ever meet. I live in the beautiful North Georgia Mountains and play most of my golf at the course where I live, Whitepath Golf Course. I’ve been swinging a club since I was old enough to hold a cut down 7-iron my dad made for me as a little boy, but started to take it seriously at 14 years old. I’m a pretty competitive person and am constantly working to better my golf game. I finally got back to a 5 handicap last year before tearing every ligament in my ankle and missing nine months of golf. The game is starting to come back to me and I’m still chasing that elusive scratch handicap. My top goal however, is a shared goal I have with my 9 year old nephew to play golf in all 50 states (pictured below is us crossing off Alabama). I’m looking forward to my third official review for MGS (2020 SkyCaddie LX5 and 2021 MaxFli Tour and TourX) and couldn’t be more excited that it’s for this particular product.

I’ve skipped signing up for quite a few really nice review opportunities because I was hoping this watch would pop up. As many know, I suffer from some cardiac issues that require me to monitor my heart rate and other metrics when things aren’t feeling right. Up until I was picked to test a different watch for MGS, I had to keep different devices around such as a pulse oximeter so I could log my heart rate.

This watch will not only be tested for golf accuracy, but also for its health monitoring accuracy as well. On the golf side of things, I will be testing this out on multiple different courses and comparing it against the SkyCaddie LX5 that I previously reviewed and also comparing yardages with a Bushnell rangefinder. One place my last watch lacked was that a lot of the courses I played were “Member Mapped” meaning they were lacking any details, had plain layouts, and were very inaccurate. I’m hoping to see huge improvements on that front. The Virtual Caddie is something I’m very intrigued by and I have no experience using anything like it. Almost every few holes here in the mountains have some sort of drastic elevation change so that should be interesting to see how accurately it calculates the distance. I’ve watched a lot of videos about this watch already and I’m excited to give this watch a thorough breakdown.

On the health side of things, I really want to track my heart health more than anything. I’m sure there are others out there that may be in a similar situation as me so I want to do my best to give good feedback on the accuracy of the readings this watch gives out.

I chose the 47mm version of this watch, and for it to earn a spot in my daily life and in my golf bag, it needs to be a premier product that I can fully trust. How is battery life and do I spend more time charging it than wearing it? Are the readings accurate for distances and health metrics? Is the watch easy to use both in terms of quickness and UI? The biggest advantage to a GPS for me is that I can see yardages to the front and back of greens and hazards, something that can be difficult for my rangefinder. 

I hope you’ll all follow along and ask plenty of questions for us testers!

First Impressions (9 out of 10)
In what has to be one of the quickest deliveries ever, the watch showed up last night and I was able to charge it, get it set up, and check some things out! It was evident right away that the build quality was premier. I could do without the red accents, but I love the look of the watch. With the proper band attached (more on that later) the fit is perfect and the size is exactly what I want in a watch. The buttons are tactile and easy to press, and even with me putting a tempered glass protector on the screen, the watch is very responsive. I love that the watch goes to sleep and wakes when I lift my arm to look at it.

 

Garmin says "If golf is your world, this is your watch" and they describe the Approach S70 as "the premium GPS golf watch with the tools and insights you’ll need to improve your game both on and off the course." In my almost 24 hours of use, I can say this seems to be accurate so far. The data I've been able to track and learn about my health has been incredible and somewhat overwhelming at first. We're talking sleep tracking, heart variability, calories burned, etc. For people who are usual smartwatch users that's probably not a big deal, but I've never had this data available to me before. 

For golf, we had rain roll in shortly after I got off work so I wasn't able to get out. Living on the course has it's perks though, and I started a round of golf on the watch to see what the hole looked like. The display was stunning, had good graphics and was vibrant. The distance was spot on when compared to my rangefinder from the back porch, even the "Plays Like" distance which was factoring in slope. The best part so far, was that the green was shaped properly and actually had the bunkers around the green. The SkyCaddie I had featured a circle green and no sand on the same hole. The GPS is very fast, as is the watch in general.

The only "issue" I had, and I knew it was one going in, was that the band wasn't big enough for my big wrist. After being selected I purchased a couple of aftermarket bands for bigger wrists and thankfully they fit well and we're good to go! The original band fits, but it is a little too snug and that's on the very last hole of the band. I think it'd be a good idea if they had a small and large band included with the watch like some others have.

Aesthetics (9 out of 10) 
I’ll be honest, I’m being nitpicky when deducting a point here. To begin with, I love the size of this watch as far as the watch face goes. It fits my wrist perfectly and is big enough to provide a good view of the data I’m looking at whether it’s while golfing or checking health metrics. The watch is well put together and seems that it’ll be able to last a long time. It took a football helmet square to the screen during a practice I was coaching and there isn’t a mark on it anywhere. I’m impressed by the durability because I just knew it was a goner.

Where the point is deducted is because of the red accent color. I wish that the red color wasn’t there and was something that could be customized or just left as black to match the rest of the watch. Again, it’s nitpicky but I wasn’t a fan of it at all. It’s not a bad look, I just don’t do the color red. Thankfully the watch is highly customizable with the watch face so I was able to cancel some of that red out with a Georgia Southern background.

The Numbers (17 out of 20)
Alright, the most important part of a GPS watch is going to be the numbers. What good is a watch if it isn’t accurate and can’t be trusted? Well I have great news there, because in my experience the watch was spot on in each round I played. I compared any yardages I got to the yardages from my Bushnell rangefinder and was pleasantly surprised. I have tried GPS apps on my phone in the past and never found them accurate enough for me. Even more impressive were the “Plays Like” distances where slope and wind were taken into account. Now I never found myself playing with anything more than an occasional breeze so I can’t speak on that, but with the slope version of my rangefinder I was able to see that it calculated those numbers very well. In fact, the last couple of rounds I found myself not even touching my Bushnell for most of the round because I had complete confidence in the Garmin. It was that good!

One thing I have always wanted a GPS for was for the ability to get accurate yardages for targets other than the flag. How far to carry the water? Can I reach that bunker from the tee box? These are questions that were oftentimes difficult to answer with a rangefinder, but are a breeze with the S70. 

The only numbers that for me haven’t been “accurate” so to speak, have been the yardages it says I hit my shots. Many know, but I live in the mountains and there is a ton of elevation change. Sometimes it can be two to three clubs worth and it’s only nearly every hole at many courses around here. This has led to the watch inaccurately assigning distances to my clubs because as the crow flies it is one distance but in reality it is another. I personally don’t need the virtual caddie to recommend clubs for me, but in my brief experience with it the numbers are way off. It’s not really any fault of the watch as it can only measure the distance between two points, but it’s something to keep in mind if you live somewhere similar and are looking forward to that feature. I've included a photo below that shows Garmin's measurement of my average and max with my clubs, and I added in the bigger number that shows my actual yardages based on gapping sessions I've done recently. The discrepancies are completely slope based because I've hit my shots well and played some really solid golf in while testing this.

Before moving on let’s quickly talk about battery life and charging. During the insanely easy setup, it says to charge it full before first use. Mine was almost full so I went ahead and used it. It has come off of my wrist only for showers and football practice (after it took the hit I decided not to chance it anymore). I’ve had the watch for over a month and I have only charged it twice with the third time coming later today. The battery life is very impressive considering how much I’m using it and it charges rather quickly, usually in around an hour.

On-Course (20 out of 20)
For me this watch really shined on course. It was very easy to use, found the golf courses way faster than my SkyCaddie, and looked really good graphics-wise. I know some of my fellow testers had issues with the watch interfering with their glove, but I didn’t have that issue. It definitely was up against it, but it wasn't anything I noted until others mentioned it. The watch is so light that I neve even noticed it was on and it caused no issues for me at all. I became so confident in the data that it was providing that I all but ditched my rangefinder and relied completely on the Garmin. It could be argued that a golfer would play better with a product like this vs only a rangefinder because you have access to much more data like yardages to obstacles and how far to hit on a dogleg hole, etc. I can’t imagine a better product or anything being easier to use. A bigger screen like on a handheld would be nice, but this is just more convenient for me.

The Good, the Bad, the In-between (18 out of 20)
I figured this was a good section to talk about the health portion of this watch. For many who are users of smartwatches, this likely is data you’ve got access to and isn’t anything exciting for you. But for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the data I was provided with. I have used the Sleep Score and Body Battery daily to monitor my overall readiness to take on any tasks, and the accurate heart rate readings have been amazing for tracking my heart issue. I was able to avoid a problem with syncope because the watch alerted me that my heart rate was getting too low. That alone is worth everything to me.

I’d also like to note that while the charger is proprietary, the bands are not. There are a lot of options out there and I like that they are easily swapped in and out. That’s a big plus for me.

Other than the little things mentioned earlier, there really wasn’t anything bad about the watch in my experience other than the hole layouts on my home course need to be slightly updated. There are bunkers and water that no longer exist on the course, but still show up on the watch. They’ve been gone for quite a few years so I was surprised to see them on the watch. I also had a weird thing come up where the watch would register a shot between my tee shot and my next shot, so it was throwing off my club distances even more than normal. It only happened on two holes, and my best guess is that when I hit a rough place on the cart path while driving, it picked up the impact as a shot. I'm not as big on all the shot tracking and post-round data so I didn't worry with it too much. It does provide some very useful data in the app on your phone and it's similar to Arccos in that regard. Here's an example of what you can see in the app. My 4-wood was my longest drive of the day since I never pulled driver, and there is a breakdown of how my stats look compared to others. Notice there aren't any putting stats as they aren't available without the sensors that go in the clubs.

Play it or Trade it? (20 out of 20)
This is easy, I’m keeping this until it no longer works which I hope is years from now. The health benefits are a given for someone like me, but I love the golf aspect of it which is why everyone is here to read this. Accurate yardages, easy to look at hole layouts, and the ability to move the pin make this a no-brainer. It does everything I want a watch to do and then some.

Conclusion
If you’re just here to read the conclusion, I’ll make it simple. I love this product and Garmin may have the industry leading watch on their hands. I have been able to fully rely on this watch during my rounds and haven’t been misled yet. While dealing with a lot of slope can skew my club data that it tracks, the watch is able to account for that where it matters most and that’s giving you the yardage you need to play to be successful. For someone who has never had a smartwatch other than a SkyCaddie golf watch that didn’t do 10% of what this watch does, I have been blown away at everything this is capable of and I feel like I haven’t even scratched the surface of some of the features it has. I’m going to continue using this daily and exploring more of what all it can do, so if you’re reading this and have questions, please don’t hesitate to comment and ask away!

Final Score (93 out of 100)

[FallenSaber]

Introduction:

Hi all fellow spies! I am very excited about this opportunity! I'm a relatively new spy but have been playing golf off and on for the past 15ish years. I picked up golf while I was in college and worked at Sports Authority. I had about a 7 year gap where I did not play much golf, if at all but I'm getting back into it. Grint has me at a 20-2 handicap and looking to get down to at least 15.

My name is Joe Higgins and I'm 37 years old, married with 2 little boys (4 and 2) and live in San Diego. My family is everything to me. I'm a Gold Star brother, the single most defining event in my life. My brother USMC LCpl James W. Higgins Jr. was killed in action on July 27 2006.

Now my golf life, my first set of clubs was a crap Ram set. Can't tell you much beyond that. I miss my first good driver, the Nike Sumo 2. Being young and dumb, I had my 3 most unforgettable drives with that monster. 360/350/350. I still remember each of those drives. Estimates since carts and phones didn't have GPS back then but i have witnesses. Now, I feel like I crushed it if I hit 260. I play mostly early back 9s on the weekends so that I'm back home with my kids either before or right after they wake up. My 4 year old will sleep til 9 if you let him. I am also spoiled as being a San Diego resident, my home course is Torrey Pines.

Finally, why Garmin, why this challenge? I use to sell luxury watches for a living but I have yet to dip into the smart watch world. I've been very interested in smart watches, specifically Garmins. If you want a luxury timepiece, buy a Rolex because thats all they do and they're one of the best at it. Want a GPS device, buy a Garmin because thats what they do. If I made the jump, I wanted a watch that was high quality and met my needs. I wanted a watch that would help improve my golf game but would also be a complete athletic watch and track other activities. I run races while carrying the flag in memory of my brother and the 10 other Marines who were killed during his deployment. I believe the Garmin S70 will be an effective watch to track my golf game and hopefully improve it while also tracking my other activities and my overall health. I'm very excited to put this watch through its paces when it comes to golf, running, biking, and overall health. I am really intrigued by the virtual caddy and as a 20 handicap, want to see if it can help me play smarter.

If you are interested in following my journey, I will also be posting my golf and running adventures to the following Instagram accounts.

@beer_and_sports52 

@running.for.the.fallen

Unboxing and First Impressions:

First Impression Score: 8 out of 10

Positives: It looks and feels like a quality product. A ton of useful features that go beyond golf. Comfortable fit. Highly customizable display.

Negatives: Initial issue with Bluetooth pairing, useless physical manual, and a strange good morning message at 10pm.

Aesthetics Score: 10 out of 10

Positives: Overall, a great looking watch. I really like the brushed ceramic bezel with the burnt orange color on a black case. The actual watch display is highly customizable to meet the preferences of the individual.

Negative: This could be that I'm used to traditional watches, however, your higher-end watches typically have an anti-reflective coating on the crystal. The glass for this watch seems to be fairly reflective of lights around it. There might not be much smart watches can do in this regard but so not penalizing it but something I noticed.

The watched arrived late this afternoon. I was very excited when I heard the door bell ring and saw the box sitting outside my door. The box was a little damaged so I had to hold my breath. My son's were also excited about th3 new watch and had to be around me as I unboxed it, as you will notice in a picture below.

I'm not saying a T-Rex damaged the box during shipping but you can't rule it out.

The packaging for the watch was nice and clean (no damage) . Looks and feels like a quality product. Inside the box was the watch with a user manual that was practically useless, a charging cable, and a rather thick safety booklet. While the user manual that came in the box is useless, there is a QR Code on the manual that will take you to a digital manual. The digital manual is worth going through.

The watch has a sharp looking satin brushed ceramic bezel. The burnt orange accent color looks great between the bezel and black case. The watch and rubber strap are incredibly light. I went with the 47mm and was a little concerned about the size but it's certainly not an issue.

There were some minor hiccups in setting up. The app and phpne said that the pairing was a success but the watch kept saying that the pairing had failed. I had to remove the pairing and do it a second time. No issues since. I am impressed with all of the features and how customizable the dial of the watch is. This watch seems to be jam packed with features and uses. I've been adding all the activities I plan to try to use this watch for into the accessible menu (golf, tempo training, running, biking, bike commute, treadmill run, strength training, snowboarding). I won't be able to do all of these activities within the review period, such as snowboarding but will try to do as many as I can.

Final Review

Summarize the Garmin Approach S70 in 1 sentence: A great golf watch that is an amazing complete health and fitness smart watch.

The Numbers (18 out of 20)

The watch does exactly what you would expect from a watch by Garmin. It is a very powerful and useful golf focused watch with all around usefulness. The battery on this watch is incredibly impressive. On average, I have to charge the watch every 8 days and it only takes about 1.5 hours to charge. The charging cable is a proprietary connection and the cable provided is a USB-C cable without a the charger base. So you will have to either already own or buy the base. Not a problem for most Android users but could be a minor inconvenience for an Apple user. Set-up was relatively easy minus an issue that I had with the initial set-up (-1 point) and the utterly useless physical manual (-1 point). The virtual manual was better but still lacked some usefulness. I turned to it a few times hoping to find in-depth information for a feature, only to find basic information. 

The accuracy of the GPS seems to be spot on. Yardages always seemed to be correct and were incredibly helpful, especially when I played courses that I was not familiar with. The distance to traps were very helpful and it was nice to be able to zoom in on a spot to pin point the distance. A handful of times, I'd give the distances to the guys I was golfing with and would sometimes show them the distances to hazards or the plays like distances displayed on the watch.

On Course (18 out of 20)

On the course, the watch performed exactly as expected. It effectively tracked most shots and even tracked some shots around the green which I didn't fully expect it to track. The watch would connect to the GPS signal very quickly and would almost always be on point. One time, it had me on the 13th hole when I was starting on the 9th which caused a minor issue that was easily corrected by manually changing the hole. Additionally, the tee box colors were off on some courses. For Torrey South, only 2 of the 5 tee box options were correct (-1 point). Another issue seemed to be with the Pin Point feature (-1 point). When I would pull the feature up to look at it, there were times when it was completely off. As you can see in the photo below, I'm facing the green but the Pin Point feature said it was to my back left. Thankfully, I never truly needed to use that feature to find the green.

Other than some of these minor issues, the watch was incredibly useful on the course and a joy to use. It would prompt me almost immediately after every shot to input the club I used. It even captured some green side chips that I did not expect. I got so use to the ease of the watch in a limited amount of time that I completely stopped or would forget to use the apps I typically used on my phone. I'm someone who plays with my phone in my pocket so pulling it out after a hole or to get a yardage was not a problem. I got to the point where I exclusively used the watch and fully trusted it. The Plays Like feature proved to be incredibly useful on holes that had drastic elevation changes. I'm not someone who plays with a range finder so I found the watch to be incredibly helpful.

Lastly for On Course, there were some concerns raised about the fit while wearing a glove. Certainly, some gloves proved to be more watch friendly than others. Mizuno was probably the best fitted glove I tried that provided plenty of room between the glove and the watch. I bought and played a FootJoy glove that was less friendly and did not notice any issues with the overlap of the glove and the watch. If you prioritize your glove over your watch, then you might run into issues. If you're flexible with your glove of choice then I'm sure you can find one that works with the watch.

The Good, The Bad, The In-between (18 out of 20)

Let's talk about this watch as a non-golf watch for a minute. If you've been following this forum and the post from the testers, you've likely learned a great deal about how great of a golf watch this watch is. But if you're buying this watch to exclusively be a golf watch, you are truly missing out on its full potential. This watch is a full fitness/health/lifestyle watch. It can track every fitness activity that you engage in. Below is an example of the stats in collected and averaged out for the past week.

From the 5k run I did in the screenshot above.

It's also interesting to look at the general stat differences between two courses. This is Balboa Park Golf Course on the left on 16 holes of Torrey South on the right.

Additionally, it has a lot of fitness activities that it can track to include weight lifting. It does seem to figure out what movement you did and will try to pre-populate the activity with the movement it thought it might be and the number of reps. While it did a decent job at this, it was not 100% and is not great with a HIIT workout that doesn't allow much time to manipulate the watch. It does have pre-loaded workouts and will even show you a video of how to do the workout if you are new to lifting which is a nice feature.

There are so many non-golf features to this watch that I cannot possibly discuss them all here. Want to monitor stocks, you can add that to the menu to quickly see. Weather, calendar, sunrise/sunset, steps, oxygen levels, heart rate, jet lag, steps, floors climbed, respiration level, and stress levels can all be monitored and easily swiped through among many other features. You can even download playlist to it and connect Bluetooth headphones so you can listen to music without your phone.

The minus 2 points for this category comes from the hiccups the watch has had. Set-up required a second run through to get it to work properly, had an issue where it wouldn't exit sleep mode before I tried to play a round of golf and had to manually restart the watch mid-round to get out of sleep mode, had to do a similar manual restart to get the watch to recognize my headphones that I had paired to it before I went for a run. Some technical hiccups are expected but I have experienced 1 minor issue that was solved through minor problem solving per week so far. Not a major issue but could be problematic if these issues continue.

Play It or Trade It (17 out of 20)

The biggest setback for me for this watch is the cost. At $700 and playing as a 20/21 handicap, I find that price a hard one to go with. The features are great and I really like going through the data. At $700, I would like to see some companion sensors, at least 3 for putter and wedges around the green. I had been using the free GRINT and GolfShot apps. I have stopped using both but I would happily use either of those free apps and receive similar on course features with some greater effort. I had also considered the Shot Scope $100 sensors which required some manual effort to track shots but if combined with the GRINT app, would provide similar stats at a much more reasonable price. See below for an example of the stats that the golf app provides.

However, I do believe that this watch earns its high price point by being something so much more than a golf watch. If you are someone who is strictly looking for a golf watch, there might be options at a lower price point. If you are looking for a golf watch that can serve as your range finder, stat tracker, running watch, biking watch, total fitness tracker, calendar, music player, and general health tracker, then this watch is for you.

Conclusion

The Garmin Approach S70 watch is your go to watch to replace your range finder, golf app, smart watch, and fitness tracker. This watch will do it all with a very impressive display that is highly customizable. I wish this watch would have come with at least 3 sensors or would be compatible with non-Garmin sensors to help justify the price point. If you are looking for a do-it-all golf watch that is much more than a golf watch, then this watch is for you. If you are simply looking for a golf watch then you might be able to find something at a lower price point.

Final Score 89 out of 100

Possibly, my best hole while playing with this watch.

Please ignore the duplicate image below. No matter how many times I try to delete it, it just keeps coming back.

[Parshooter36]

Introduction:

Let me start with a big thank you to Garmin and MGS for this opportunity, I am super excited to be selected!  I am 49 and have been playing golf since I was 15.  I didn't play any formal golf growing up and didn't get serious about golf until 12 or 13 years ago.  I am not a long hitter, but if I'm playing from around 6000 yards, I usually have a chance to break 80.  I am located about an hour east of St Louis and play 2 leagues through the week and usually at least once on the weekend.  I also have a simulator in my pole barn, so I hit balls out there most days when I'm not at the course.

For the past 3 golf seasons, I have used the Shotscope V3 watch, so I will be doing a lot of direct comparisons.  I also use a Bushnell Tour V5, so I will be checking the yardages of all 3 units.  I wear a Galaxy watch 3 was my everyday watch and have been looking for a watch with enough features to be my every day watch as well as my gof watch.  I had watched several youtube videos about the Garmin S70 prior to this testing as it seemed to check all of the boxes.  I am really looking forward to the hole maps and extra details the S70 provides as well as the virtual caddy feature.  I am usually pretty good with club selection, but a 2nd opinion never hurts!

 

Unboxing:

Some of the other testers got shipment notifications yesterday, but I did not. Imagine my surprise when I got home from work yesterday to a small box sitting on my kitchen table.

In the box you'll find the watch, user manual, and charging cord.  The charging cord is a proprietary connection on 1 end and USB C on the other.  It does not come with a charging block which is not suprising in this day and age, but I don't have a USB C charger so it is a bit of an inconvenience.  I do have a USB C port in my truck, so I plugged it in there to charge. The watch was already fully charged, so I downloaded the Garmin app and started setting it up.

 

Here is a picture of the S70 next to my Galaxy S3.  It has a 2mm larger face and looks every bit as premium as the S3.  While setting it up there were 12 watch faces to choose from and an add more button that showed 2 more faces.  I don't know if more faces can be added as of this writing, but there was a decent variety included out of the box.  Once you select a face, they are very customizable.  You can choose from several different data points depending on your needs and change all of the color features to what suits your eye.  I set up the notifications and was able to select which notifications I wanted sent to the watch.  At first it was sending everything, so my phone was going off everytime I got an email which is a lot. I was glad I could continue to get texts and phone call notifications without getting emails.  I am not a hardcore smart watch user by any means, but so far the S70 does everything my old watch was doing.  I had a busy night last night, so I didn't get into it much past the basic setup.  I have my Tuesday night golf league tonight and I am excited to see how it handles on the course.

 

Final Review

 

First Impressions (8 out of 10)

 

The Approach S70 is the latest in a long line of golf watches from Garmin.  This model has an upgraded AMOLED screen and builds on the S62 platform by adding even more sensors and health monitoring options this time around. 

The screen is gorgeous as advertised and seems to be the major upgrade from the previous model. I do not have experience with the S62, but you can see in the stock photos that the S70 AMOLED screen is much more colorful and detailed than the MIP display on the S62.  I initially had issues with seeing the screen outside, but it turned out to be a faulty backlight on my original watch.  Luckily, Garmin took care of me and replaced it. I work in manufacturing and understand that sometimes things happen, and small defects can make it out the door, but I would consider this a critical failure as it basically made the watch unusable outside. (-2 Points)

 

The health monitoring sensors seem to work as they should.  I am not a workout guy, so I did not try the numerous workout activities available on the S70.  I tried wearing it at night so I could see the data and make use of the body battery feature, but I sleep better without having anything on my hand or wrists, so I only did that a few nights.

 

Aesthetics (10 out of 10) 

 

I loved the look of the S70 right out of the box. Coming from a Samsung Galaxy watch 3 as my every day watch the S70 had a similar style so I was right at home.  I have the 47mm version which fits my wrist perfectly, although Garmin does offer a 42mm version for those with smaller wrists.

 

Out of the box there were about a dozen watch faces to choose from, but once you download the Garmin Connect IQ app onto your phone there are hundreds more to choose from.  You can customize the layout and color scheme of the faces till your heart’s content. The Connect IQ app also has many apps available for the S70.  Everything from workout tools to garage door openers.  If you can think of it, it’s probably there.

 

The S70 is also built like a tank... well, a lightweight tank. It seems to be very durable and extremely well made but is still light enough to be worn without interfering with my golf swing.  The included silicone band looks great and very comfortable, but is also very durable so the S70 can be worn during pretty much any activity you find yourself partaking in. One thing in particular about the band is the loop that holds the excess band in place has a nub in it so it locks into the band securely.  This might be a common feature in sports watches, but I have never seen that before.  I see no signs of any wear at this point and expect to get several years of use out of the Garmin S70.

 

The Numbers (15 out of 20)

 

The yardage numbers from the S70 are very consistent with what I am used to seeing on my ShotScope V3.  Some holes they were dead on with each other and other holes there would be a few yards separating them.  I would attribute the variance on how the hole was mapped by each company, but I have a friend who also has a V3, and we have seen up to 5 yards of difference between our V3’s on the same hole so it could just be a variable of using GPS.  That’s why I ultimately depend on my Bushnell Tour V5 range finder for precise distances for approach shots into the green.  (-1 point)  Where the S70 had a huge advantage was the ability to move pin locations to match what I was seeing from the laser range finder.

The ”plays like” distance is another nice feature I found very useful.  There were times when it was giving me wind readings that were definitely not consistent with what I was feeling so I still used my own judgement in those cases.

Another favorite of mine is being able to check layup yardages for hazards.  While I love my range finder for shooting pins, I never quite trusted the numbers I would get when trying to shoot the ground in front of a pond.  With the S70 I can move the anywhere on the map I like whether it is for layup or forced carry shots.  I have tried to do this with golf apps on my phone in the past, but the convenience of being able to do it from the watch is hard to beat.

 

Setup of the watch was straight forward although the included instruction manual was not very user friendly (-1 point).  I initially had issues getting wind readings on the watch which ended up being user error on my part as I had not allowed all location permissions when I set it up. Luckily one of the other testers helped me with that issue.

 

I mentioned earlier that I had issues viewing my original watch outside.  The MGS team worked as a mediator between me and the Garmin technical staff, which was a painless experience. I also posted the issue in their forum, but the moderator just responded with a canned response about how AMOLED screens naturally dim in sunlight. (-2 Points) Before I reached out for help, I did countless searches online for this issue hoping I had something wrong in the settings that was causing the problem but could not find anybody else that had seen this problem.  Hopefully than means that it was an isolated event and no other watches with this issue have made it out into the wild.

 

I also had an issue at one course I play where the layout had changed and needed to be remapped.  I searched online and found a remapping form to fill out and send to Garmin.  I filled out the form and noticed at the top that said they only do updates quarterly.  This was a bit disappointing coming from ShotScope that usually remaps courses within 48 hours. (-2 Points)

 

In my opinion the most impressive feature of the S70 is the battery life.  Garmin claims battery life of 16 days in smart watch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode and I believe it.  I have used multiple GPS units over the years and could maybe get 2 rounds at most out of them.  My 1st week with the S70 I played 63 holes of golf and still had 18% battery left granted that was the watch that had back light issues that that probably saved some battery life.  The 1st week with the new watch I played 36 holes and was still at 28% battery at full brightness.  My Galaxy Watch 3 must be charged every 2 days.  I don’t know how Garmin does it, but it is impressive.

 

On-Course (18 out of 20)

On the course the S70 really shines.  The watch vibrates when a swing is detected prompting you to select the club you used for that shot.  Sometimes this happens withing seconds after the shot, but sometimes I am almost to my ball before it prompts me. I am not sure why that happens, but it does.  It also prompts you to enter your score and number of putts and penalties after you leave the green.  I do have one hole at my course where the tee box if very close to the previous green and the watch will add my drive from that hole to the previous hole if I have not entered my score before I tee off. (-1 Point)  Both take just a couple of taps to do and do not interfere with my normal routine.

 

Like I said earlier, I have been a ShotScope V3 user for the past 3 seasons.  I am very impressed with the club data I am getting from the S70 without having club tags like the V3.  Even with limited rounds on the S70, my numbers are very similar to the V3 numbers I have for the season.  I expect the few clubs that are off will normalize once more data is collected. Initially I was missing the chipping and putting data that I got from the ShotScope tags.  What I do not miss is all the editing I had to do after each round.  Moving putts around to the proper spots on the green and removing or adding shots that were tagged incorrectly is a common occurrence with ShotScope.  When I am done with a round with the S70, I am done.  The scorecard can be edited right from your watch if you accidently entered the wrong score on a hole during the round.  Garmin sells a 3 pack of their CT10 club sensors that I may purchase for my putter and wedges if I decide I can’t live without that data.  Shotscope does win in the data department.  There are stats and data there that I have not been able to find on my Garmin dashboard.  I’m not sure how necessary some of that data is as Garmin seems to give me all the data I need to make good decisions on shot selection.  But for the stat lovers out there it is worth noting. (-1 Point)

Garmin Club Stats

ShotScope Club Stats

 

The Good, the bad, the inbetween (18 out of 20)

 

I have not yet mentioned the virtual caddie, but that is another feature I find very useful.  I am fortunate to have a simulator at my disposal, so I have a very good idea of my club distances.  I know a lot of people that seem like they are guessing on club selection several times a round.  I think the virtual caddie would be an enormous benefit to that type of golfer.  Most of the time it is calling for the same club that I would normally hit, but it has been off a club either way a few times.   

 

The S70 is also very quick to lock onto the GPS satellites.  It has never taken more 30 seconds to lock on and usually its under 10 seconds.  On an overcast day my old watch could take several minutes to find the satellites.

 

One last feature I want to mention is the Tempo Training.  I have always considered my self as having a smooth swing, but I really struggle to get the 3:1 tempo they are looking for.  I am always looking for ways to improve my swing and I never had a way to measure tempo before. I plan on continuing to work on my tempo with this feature as I feel it is a very useful tool.

There is not much bad to say about the S70, it is a great piece of tech.  Some of the user interfaces could be combined as I have 3 different apps on my phone for this watch. (Garmin Golf, Garmin Connect, and Garmin Connect IQ) I know I’m getting older, but I still consider myself somewhat tech savvy, but this confused me for a while. (-1 Point)

 

I would also like to see a manual chipping and putting option for those that want short game stats without buying the club sensors.  There is a manual putting option on my V3 that is actually more accurate that using the putting tag on the green.  Once you’re on the green you simply hit a button on the watch to tag your putt.  Simple but effective. (-1 Point)

 

Play it or Trade it? (18 out of 20)

 

This is a tough one for me as I really love everything about this watch except for one thing and that is the price.  I am absolutely going to continue using it, but I’m not sure I would buy it at $700. (- 2 Points)  I feel like you need to be both a power smart watch user and an avid stat loving golfer to justify that price.  For me, I want all the golf side has to offer but would be happy with just notifications from my phone and the changeable faces for the smart watch side of things.

 

 

Conclusion

 

The Garmin Approach S70 is a great smart watch and an amazing golf watch all wrapped up into one.  It also has battery life for days unlike any smart/GPS device I have ever seen. The price point is high, but if you are looking for an all-in-one solution for your smart watch / golf watch needs this is the watch for you.

 

Thanks again to MyGolfSpy and Garmin for this amazing opportunity.  I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process and hope I was informative and helpful to those that followed along.

 

Final Score (87 out of 100)

[goaliewales14]

Introduction

Hello fellow spies!  I want to thank MGS and Garmin for this amazing testing opportunity!  For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mike, or Goaliewales14.  I live in Indiana with my amazing wife of almost 11 years. 

I have been playing golf for about 9 years now.  Over those years, I have had some of the best experiences including review things such as the Spornia SPG8 XL hitting net and Martin Chuck’s Tour Striker Academy.  This is the first year where I’m actively getting into tournaments while even becoming a member of a course for the very first time.  I even won my first ever scramble and the very next day placed T-10 at a brand new event!  This has really forced me to step up my game which leads me to the Garmin Approach S70.

 

Testing

I have always been curious about the Garmin watches, but never pulled the trigger on one to try it out.  I currently use an array of different distance measuring devices that include, Bushnell V6 Shift, Arccos, and the GHIN app.  Most of the time I just stick to my rangefinder as I’ve played most of the courses around here, but if it’s a new course, that’s when I break out GPS.  I want to get a clear picture of the hole in my mind before teeing off and also make sure I know what my carry distances I need to be clear of trouble.

For my review, I’ll start out on my home course to test the yardages and functionality.  I’ll be comparing the yardages to all of the other devices to ensure accuracy.  To me distance accuracy will be the #1 most important feature.  After that, I want to make sure wearing a watch doesn’t cause a problem.  I’ve never worn anything on my wrist, so I don’t know how that will feel.  While we’re completing this review, please make sure to check out the review that MGS already did!

MGS Garmin Approach S70 Review

 

First Impressions (9 out of 10)

After reading the MGS article and doing a little homework online, I was nothing but excited to received the S70.  The list of features on this watch goes on for days!  When selecting which watch I wanted to review, there was only one choice for me, black 47mm.  You can see from the picture above that there were three color choices, black, gray, and white.  The other two options are only available in 42mm. 

Upon unboxing, the watch was perfect.  The black and red was a perfect and the fit was good.  The watch is very light weight compared to my Samsung Galaxy watch.

Getting the watch setup took multiple tries as the watch and app kept not being in sync.  After two to three tries I was able to get it set up and working.  The watch has a ton of customizable features that lead to hours of fun playing around.

 

Aesthetics (7 out of 10)

As I mentioned above, the fit was good, but what I ran into was my glove kept hitting buttons.  There were a few times during my swing where the watch vibrated in my backswing because my glove pushed the power off button.  That to me is a huge downside for a watch that’s supposed to be a golf watch.

The huge upside to the Approach S70 is the amount of customization you can do with the watch face.  You can take any picture and make it a background while adding in different features such as battery life, steps, and calendar date.

 

The Numbers (15 out of 20)

The most important feature on a GPS watch are the yardages.  The non adjusted yardages were very accurate when compared to GHIN, Arccos, and confirmed with a Bushnell Shift V6 rangefinder.  I actually loved having the front/middle/back numbers on all of the holes.  This allowed me to know exactly what number I needed to get to the green.  When I’m having a rough round, I just want to hit the middle of the green rather than actually try to hit the proper tier.  I did find myself using the rangefinder along with the S70 to confirm the pin position. 

 

The yardages that were hit or miss were the “plays as” yardages.  The S70 is supposed to factor in weather and other factors to give you an adjusted yardage.  There were a few times it was spot on, but others when it wouldn’t register or completely off making you a full club long or short at best. 

 

 

On-Course (15 out of 20)

Being that this was the first time that I’ve ever worn a watching while playing golf, I knew there would be an adjustment period.  The first thing I wanted to check was does it affect my swing?  The answer was yes and no.  The watch didn’t hinder my swing at all, but as I mentioned earlier, my glove did hit the power button causing it to vibrate during my swing. 

The new routine that I adopted with the S70 that made me better was to shoot the pin with my rangefinder on all of my approach shots and then check the S70 to see where it’s located on the green.  This allowed me to make a more informed decision on where the safe miss was for the shot.  If I only had a few yards to the back of the green, then I would just go for the middle number and club up to allow for it to release back to the pin.

The routine that I kept trying to adopt was getting carry yardage over a fairway bunker or to have certain distance into a pin.  While the S70 can do this, the functionality seemed a bit labored especially compared to other apps out there on your phone.  Whenever you trying to get a number, you had to zoom in and out to find the spot you wanted and if you drug your finger on the screen, the cursor read a bit ahead of where you’re actually pointing.

 

The Good, the bad, the in-between (10 out of 20)

For this section I’m going to focus on the “lifestyle” side of the S70.  For me the whole point of a smart watch is to not look at your phone.  With the S70, I felt like I was able to view things like text messages, but if I wanted to reply, I had to get out my phone.  With my first-generation Galaxy watch, I can reply directly on the watch.  That’s a watch that is five years older than the S70 and was half the price. 

The other thing I noticed was that the calibration of the step count and heart rate were always above that of my Galaxy watch.  For example, when walking from my car in the parking lot to the clubhouse, which is approximately 400 feet at max, it recorded close to 1000 steps.  The average stride is around 2 – 2.5 feet.  That would make it 200 steps at maximum.  I did record my height and all other factors into the app correctly before allowing the step counter to activate.

 

Play it or Trade it? (10 out of 20)

With everything considered, the S70 will not replace my Galaxy watch in my normal day-to-day.  With the interference with my golf glove, I will not be wearing the watch on the golf course.  However, what I did find out I like is making it a fancy version of the Bushnell Wingman.  I have wrapped it around my Bluetooth speaker that I use on the golf course and check my yardages for my approach shots, or if I need to lay up. 

 

Conclusion

Overall, is the S70 worth the $700 price tag?  My thoughts are no.  If it were up to me to go out and buy this after this review, I wouldn’t do it.  I’d rather have my Galaxy or Apple watch and just use one of the GPS apps that are out there in the stores.  At the end of the day, it won’t replace my rangefinder either.
 

Final Score (66 out of 100)

Edited September 12, 2023 by goaliewales14

[GolfSpy_APH]

A very highly anticipated test. Very much looking forward to this one!

[sirchunksalot]

Congratulations testers! It looks like we have a great group here and I can't wait to hear how the Garmin works for you. 

[MattF]

Congratulations  @Josh Ross @FallenSaber @Parshooter36 and @goaliewales14

[Tx-Ping]

Congratulations to all who were selected, look forward to your reviews.

[rkj427]

Congrats. to this great group of testers.

As a Garmin Epix user, I am looking forward to seeing the comments and reviews on the S70.

[revkev]

Congrats guys!  I will be looking forward to this one for certain. 

[Shapotomous]

Congrats to the testers!

[Cfhandyman]

Congratulations to the testers.  Look forward to the results as there will be much interest in your findings. 

[bens197]

Congrats

 

[GolfSpy_BEN]

Congrats Gents! Now the fun begins!

[Q22Golf]

Congratulations testers!! @goaliewales14 you’re going to have to show me this one out on the course! 

[MDGolfHacker]

Congratulations!  Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with the S70!

[Vegan_Golfer_PNW]

Wahoo way to go. Excited to see how this goes. Neve bought a garmin but heard lots of good things, especially the swing tempo tracker

[dan708]

Placeholder

[golfinnut]

Congrats everyone!  Looking forward to your reviews, as I'm looking for a good GPS tracking device at the moment.  

[GolfSpy_KFT]

Congrats testers!!

[crisj]

Nice. Congrats everyone 

[ckeller52]

Congrats testers. And here is the watch face you will want. 

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/149ecaf5-6b8d-487c-8571-8df4ff3e2ba8

Thank me later.

[MattWillGolf]

Congrats @FallenSaber @Josh Ross @Parshooter36 @goaliewales14 This is a great looking device. The H4 part of the Pro LX+ I tested last year after a course map update no longer works well on my home course. So my interest is high.

[Slight shank]

Congratulations testers. My dad uses some version of these and he loves it

[Doug Life]

 

 

9 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Testers Announced!

It is commonplace now for golfers to have some sort of GPS or Shot tracking system while on the course. There are a lot of options available as well. From apps to enhanced rangefinders to clips and of course watches. 

All have their own unique potential benefits and potential drawbacks, but the Garmin Approach S70 aims to narrow that being a premium GPS Golf Smartwatch which you can use not only on the course, but in your day to day life as well. 

The Garmin Approach S70 has a variety of features including: Bright 1.4-inch amoled touch display, pre-installed with 43,000 golf courses worldwide, optimized playslike distance, an improved virtual caddie including green contour data as well as a variety of health and fitness features. 

Available in two sizes and three different colors there is an option that should suit any golfer. Claiming to have an impressive battery life that lasts up to 14 days in smartwatch mode and up to 15 hours in GPS mode. It also claims to be waterproof for those who like to play in the rain and has a 5 ATM water resistance rating. 

Please welcome and congratulate our testers!

@Josh Ross

@FallenSaber

@Parshooter36

@goaliewales14

Congrats testers 

[nvizble1]

Congratulations all!

[Bohnson]

Congrats testers! I’m on my second Garmin, looking forward to the review of the s70!! 

[Trapper23]

Congrats.  I knew I wasn't getting chosen,  but a guy can hope!  Good luck!!

[TSauer]

Congrats y'all, I am excited for this one! I've been contemplating retiring my Apple Watch for an S70, so I'll be following along.