Garmin S70 Golf GPS Watch - 2023 Forum Review

[Parshooter36]

The battery life on this thing continues to impress.  I decided to get my wife a new smart watch for Christmas and went straight to Garmin to find her one.  She is going only having to charge her watch once a week, if that.

[Josh Ross]

Just a quick update, I'm still loving the watch. The battery life is phenomenal and the health tracking is really helpful. Had some heart rate issues recently and the watch warned me in the middle of the night again. Incredibly happy and thankful to have this watch.

[FallenSaber]

Non-golf update. I've been traveling for work and haven't played a round of golf since September. Won't likely get a round in until March. I'm mostly in Sarajevo which only has 1 6 hole course. Haven't bothered trying to make it there.

I'm still enjoying the watch as an everyday watch vs being just for golf. It's a nice try watch as well. The jet lag feature is interesting and provides tips for how to best adjust your schedule to limit the negative impacts of travel. However, it's not straight forward and I have forgotten how to do it more than once. There is no way to directly access the Jet Lag Advisor feature to add travel. You have to go into the Connect app, click more in the lower left corner, then select the calendar. Once you're in the calendar you have to click on the 3 dots in the top right and select add travel. Then you can input your travel dates and location. It is easy to forget how to do it if you do not travel often.

 

I have continued to enjoy the watch while traveling and tracking activities. The battery life is still amazing, over a week between charges. Walking activities do not seem to drain the battery all that much. Two weekends ago, I eclipsed the 40k step count in a single day, walking over 21 miles around Vienna. Highly recommend traveling to Vienna for the Christmas Markets but maybe I'll save that for another post.

Only issues I have had with the watch in the winter season is that it seems to switch menus and features from my jacket touching the watch face. Nothing major or significant haa happened from this, other than the minor annoyance of having to back out of whatever it switched to.

Still highly recommend for anyone who is looking for a golf watch that is much more than a golf watch. I'm not someone who uses a lot of tech on the course. I've never used a range finder. Just the GPS on my phone.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions. 

Edited December 26, 2023 by FallenSaber

[FallenSaber]

Well, one of my fears occurred with this watch. I lost the charging cable while traveling overseas. Due to the unique style of the charging cable, it is very difficult to find a replacement and the Garmin option is rather expensive. I found one retailer in Sarajevo who sold the cable and it was $34 USD. My wife was coming out in a couple of days so I took my chances with a third party option that I found on Amazon for $6.99. 

The one I bought on Amazon works just as well as the one from Garmin. It can provide a full charge from practically 0 in under 90 minutes. Back in the States, I looked up the cost of the charger from Garmin. It's $24.99 on their website plus shipping because they do free shipping for orders $25 and over. If you opt to get this watch, it might be worth getting a backup cable from a third party incase you find yourself in a position where you will not easily find a replacement cable.

[Josh Ross]

5 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

Well, one of my fears occurred with this watch. I lost the charging cable while traveling overseas. Due to the unique style of the charging cable, it is very difficult to find a replacement and the Garmin option is rather expensive. I found one retailer in Sarajevo who sold the cable and it was $34 USD. My wife was coming out in a couple of days so I took my chances with a third party option that I found on Amazon for $6.99. 

The one I bought on Amazon works just as well as the one from Garmin. It can provide a full charge from practically 0 in under 90 minutes. Back in the States, I looked up the cost of the charger from Garmin. It's $24.99 on their website plus shipping because they do free shipping for orders $25 and over. If you opt to get this watch, it might be worth getting a backup cable from a third party incase you find yourself in a position where you will not easily find a replacement cable.

I misplaced mine for a couple days and panicked but thankfully it turned up. Never been a fan of proprietary chargers but I'm glad to know the Amazon one works great. Good update!

Speaking of charging, I fully expected there to be a little drop off in battery life by now but I'm still getting 14-15 days per charge. Love this thing!

[Parshooter36]

12 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

Well, one of my fears occurred with this watch. I lost the charging cable while traveling overseas. Due to the unique style of the charging cable, it is very difficult to find a replacement and the Garmin option is rather expensive. I found one retailer in Sarajevo who sold the cable and it was $34 USD. My wife was coming out in a couple of days so I took my chances with a third party option that I found on Amazon for $6.99. 

The one I bought on Amazon works just as well as the one from Garmin. It can provide a full charge from practically 0 in under 90 minutes. Back in the States, I looked up the cost of the charger from Garmin. It's $24.99 on their website plus shipping because they do free shipping for orders $25 and over. If you opt to get this watch, it might be worth getting a backup cable from a third party incase you find yourself in a position where you will not easily find a replacement cable.

 

6 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

I misplaced mine for a couple days and panicked but thankfully it turned up. Never been a fan of proprietary chargers but I'm glad to know the Amazon one works great. Good update!

Speaking of charging, I fully expected there to be a little drop off in battery life by now but I'm still getting 14-15 days per charge. Love this thing!

The propietary charging cable is unfortunate.  Luckily, I bought my wife a Garmin Vivoactive 5 for Christmas so now we have a backup cable in case we lose one. 

I will say after 6 months of use, this watch is continuing to impress.  I ran into some health issues late last year, so I am paying a lot more attention to the health monitoring features now than I did during the review period.  

[FallenSaber]

1 hour ago, Parshooter36 said:

 

The propietary charging cable is unfortunate.  Luckily, I bought my wife a Garmin Vivoactive 5 for Christmas so now we have a backup cable in case we lose one. 

I will say after 6 months of use, this watch is continuing to impress.  I ran into some health issues late last year, so I am paying a lot more attention to the health monitoring features now than I did during the review period.  

Hopefully nothing too serious but glad to hear the watch is helping you monitor it.

[Shrek74]

On 12/26/2023 at 4:13 AM, FallenSaber said:

Walking activities do not seem to drain the battery all that much. Two weekends ago, I eclipsed the 40k step count in a single day, walking over 21 miles around Vienna. Highly recommend traveling to Vienna for the Christmas Markets but maybe I'll save that for another post.

I second the Christmas markets over there. I was in Europe for 3 weeks for Christmas around 2008 or 09. I went to Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Munich, and Prague. One of the best trips I've ever been on.

[VernL4]

Wow, what an incredible opportunity for you guys! I have a Fenix 7, which has most of the golf tracking features that the S70 has. I agree that $700 is a LOT of money for a watch. I am always on the lookout for deals at Kohl's. They will have promos on weekends when they give you Kohl's Cash. I got about $275 in Kohl's Cash when I bought my watch. Then I used the cash for jeans or shoes or whatever. Regarding the glove interfering with the buttons, I'm curious if you tried to disable the buttons during a golf activity and use only the touch screen. With the watch having a touch screen and buttons, it gives you the option to change these settings for each different activity. One more thing- some mentioned their dislike for propietary chargers. I completely understand. However, all of the knockoff stuff from Amazon that I've tried works, so that's the way I go. 

[goaliewales14]

On 2/22/2024 at 3:26 PM, VernL4 said:

Regarding the glove interfering with the buttons, I'm curious if you tried to disable the buttons during a golf activity and use only the touch screen. With the watch having a touch screen and buttons, it gives you the option to change these settings for each different activity.

I did not try to disable the buttons during play.  I'll try looking at that feature more in-depth as I'm curious if it'll lose any functionality/convenience with the button disabled.  I haven't been able to make it to the course yet this year with the weather, but I'll see if I can't try it from my house to hit the nearest course.

[goaliewales14]

Wanted to post an update.  I was able to load up a golf course from my house to test the "auto lock" feature that would lock the buttons during play.  I tried having it on just for activity and then put it on always.  Both settings I received a vibration feedback when I went to press a button while a round is in progress.  

[FallenSaber]

First round in roughly 5 months. Played well enough but it was raining most of the morning so I wore a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. I know I'm spoiled because I live in San Diego and wear short sleeves year round. But the long sleeves drove me nuts on Saturday. I had to lock the screen on the watch to stop the watch from being manipulated by my sleeve. This was probably the most annoying aspect of the watch so far. After 3 holes, I made the switch and it was fine after that. Manually unlocking the watch is easy enough. All you have to do is hold the top action button for about 3 seconds and it will unlock.

 

Edited March 6 by FallenSaber
In 5 months. Not 9 months.

[VernL4]

9 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

First round in roughly 9 months. Played well enough but it was raining most of the morning so I wore a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. I know I'm spoiled because I live in San Diego and wear short sleeves year round. But the long sleeves drove me nuts on Saturday. I had to lock the screen on the watch to stop the watch from being manipulated by my sleeve. This was probably the most annoying aspect of the watch so far. After 3 holes, I made the switch and it was fine after that. Manually unlocking the watch is easy enough. All you have to do is hold the top action button for about 3 seconds and it will unlock.

 

I've noticed long sleeves that are made from fabrics like polyester tend to interfere with the touchscreen more. I don't have problems with the typical cotton hoodie. 

[FallenSaber]

13 minutes ago, VernL4 said:

I've noticed long sleeves that are made from fabrics like polyester tend to interfere with the touchscreen more. I don't have problems with the typical cotton hoodie. 

Thank you for the info. I'll keep that in mind and might be something to test out. The rain also didn't help since the screen was wet the entire time.

[William0946]

Has anyone been able to collect and track stats and data for 2 separate sets of clubs using the Garmin S70 and/or CT-10 sensors?  I have 2 sets of irons that I sometimes alternate between, as well as 2 drivers that I sometimes also alternate between.  Does the S70 and Garmin golf app allow you to have multiple sets of clubs or more than one "golf bag"?

[FallenSaber]

34 minutes ago, William0946 said:

Has anyone been able to collect and track stats and data for 2 separate sets of clubs using the Garmin S70 and/or CT-10 sensors?  I have 2 sets of irons that I sometimes alternate between, as well as 2 drivers that I sometimes also alternate between.  Does the S70 and Garmin golf app allow you to have multiple sets of clubs or more than one "golf bag"?

Yes. You can track as many clubs as you want. It's very critical to properly nickname the clubs so you can easily identify them. Unfortunately, I don't think you can separate the clubs into bags. That would be a useful feature. All of the clubs will just show up on the list of optional clubs. The one thing that will help scrolling through the clubs to select which club you hit is that it will usually populate the list of clubs in the area of what the recommended club was.

[VernL4]

On 3/16/2024 at 5:26 PM, William0946 said:

Has anyone been able to collect and track stats and data for 2 separate sets of clubs using the Garmin S70 and/or CT-10 sensors?  I have 2 sets of irons that I sometimes alternate between, as well as 2 drivers that I sometimes also alternate between.  Does the S70 and Garmin golf app allow you to have multiple sets of clubs or more than one "golf bag"?

I'm currently working with a new set of clubs. I edited all of my old clubs to show the maker as part of the name- "GB 7i". When I added the new TaylorMades, I added those clubs as "M6 7i". Now, when I'm playing, those are the names shown on my watch, so I can easily choose which one I used. 

[William0946]

12 minutes ago, VernL4 said:

I'm currently working with a new set of clubs. I edited all of my old clubs to show the maker as part of the name- "GB 7i". When I added the new TaylorMades, I added those clubs as "M6 7i". Now, when I'm playing, those are the names shown on my watch, so I can easily choose which one I used. 

Thanks for the tip.  So you just need to give your other set(s) of clubs another name or tag.  Very cool.

[William0946]

On 8/15/2023 at 11:30 PM, FallenSaber said:

Having some fun with the dial face. Photography is a side hobby of mine so it's nice to add some of my favorite photos as back round images for the dial. Also threw in some golf themed and MyGolfSpy themed options. You can use practically image you want as a background. I've been very impressed with the range of color on the display. It has taken every image I've used and made it look great! An image of a golf ball works great as well. I really like how the MyGolfSpy version turned out. There are also a lot of pre-designed options you can download. Some have a ton of data displayed if you want to see everything at a glance and some are more traditional. You have to download the ConnectIQ app. You can also get additional apps for the watch. I just downloaded the Amazon Music app and downloaded a Playlist with 110 songs on. Downloading the Playlist does drain the battery a bit. I think it dropped about 8% over the course of the download.

I also love the fun features on the S70 like being able to customize your watch and create your own watch faces.  These are some very nice designs and I really like the MyGolfSpy design you have here.

I've been playing with some design ideas for my S70 and have created a couple of personal designs I'm trying to decide on keeping.  Here are 2 I'm trying to decide between.  Let me know what people think.  Are these too much? Is simpler and cleaner better?

 

[FallenSaber]

I don't mind the busy dial. Mine right now has a lot of info on it. My wife thinks it's overkill but I like it. Out of the two you have @William0946 I like the first one.

[William0946]

4 hours ago, FallenSaber said:

I don't mind the busy dial. Mine right now has a lot of info on it. My wife thinks it's overkill but I like it. Out of the two you have @William0946 I like the first one.

Thanks for the input.  I like the clean color scheme on your watch face.  Simple but classy design.

[VernL4]

I personally like plenty of data. Looks like @FallenSaber and I think similarly!

 

[VernL4]

On 4/6/2024 at 11:04 AM, William0946 said:

I also love the fun features on the S70 like being able to customize your watch and create your own watch faces.  These are some very nice designs and I really like the MyGolfSpy design you have here.

I've been playing with some design ideas for my S70 and have created a couple of personal designs I'm trying to decide on keeping.  Here are 2 I'm trying to decide between.  Let me know what people think.  Are these too much? Is simpler and cleaner better?

 

I personally like the second one more. I like how the golf ball background uses the whole screen.

[rkj427]

Question for the testers here, as I have both a S62 and an Epix that I use while out on the course.

Not so much an issue with the watch themselves, but when you download the information to the Garmin Connect feature where the scorecard data and hole and shots are recorded.

I run into this scenario and wondered if any other have seen it too?

Par 3 hole at my regular course, yardage by both the range finder and watch typically shows somewhere between 150 - 160 yards depending upon pin location.

When I complete the round, save the data but then sync the watch and data using the Garmin app on the computer, it typically shows yardages as less than originally measured?

Usually 138 - 146 yards on "scorecard data" versus what was originally seen while out on the course.

Will also have incorrect yardage data on some other holes too, both par 4's and par 5's afterwards.

Wondering if it may be a watch issue or something with the GPS information itself.

 

 

[FallenSaber]

@rkj427 I have not noticed an issue as you have described with the yardage yet. I'm playing Tuesday so I'll try to stay extra vigilant regarding the yardage on the course vs after syncing.

[Josh Ross]

2 hours ago, rkj427 said:

Question for the testers here, as I have both a S62 and an Epix that I use while out on the course.

Not so much an issue with the watch themselves, but when you download the information to the Garmin Connect feature where the scorecard data and hole and shots are recorded.

I run into this scenario and wondered if any other have seen it too?

Par 3 hole at my regular course, yardage by both the range finder and watch typically shows somewhere between 150 - 160 yards depending upon pin location.

When I complete the round, save the data but then sync the watch and data using the Garmin app on the computer, it typically shows yardages as less than originally measured?

Usually 138 - 146 yards on "scorecard data" versus what was originally seen while out on the course.

Will also have incorrect yardage data on some other holes too, both par 4's and par 5's afterwards.

Wondering if it may be a watch issue or something with the GPS information itself.

 

 

Is it showing the actual scorecard yardages for the holes instead of measured yardages? I know in my last round a par 3 measured at 138 yards but the scorecard showed 151.

[rkj427]

7 hours ago, Josh Ross said:

Is it showing the actual scorecard yardages for the holes instead of measured yardages? I know in my last round a par 3 measured at 138 yards but the scorecard showed 151.

No, scorecard yardage ranges from 139 - 183 depending upon tees played and their location.

I typically use a Nikon range finder to get distance to the flag, and the Garmin watch typically matches the range finder reading.

It is when I sync the watch AFTER the round that the shot distance is usually not what was shown initially or even where the ball ended up.

Example: Range finder reads 156 yards, watch reads 155 - 158 yards, and when shown on Garmin Connect scorecard and hole layout it may measure 146 even if the ball was past the measured flag at the higher number.

 

[goaliewales14]

12 hours ago, rkj427 said:

Question for the testers here, as I have both a S62 and an Epix that I use while out on the course.

Not so much an issue with the watch themselves, but when you download the information to the Garmin Connect feature where the scorecard data and hole and shots are recorded.

I run into this scenario and wondered if any other have seen it too?

Par 3 hole at my regular course, yardage by both the range finder and watch typically shows somewhere between 150 - 160 yards depending upon pin location.

When I complete the round, save the data but then sync the watch and data using the Garmin app on the computer, it typically shows yardages as less than originally measured?

Usually 138 - 146 yards on "scorecard data" versus what was originally seen while out on the course.

Will also have incorrect yardage data on some other holes too, both par 4's and par 5's afterwards.

Wondering if it may be a watch issue or something with the GPS information itself.

 

 

I just went back and looked at my scorecards from my rounds and all of the yardages look pretty spot on.  Most of my rounds were at a course where I'm a member, so I can attest to what the yardages should be.  I'm not seeing a 10 yard difference like you're seeing on yours.  It may be worth reaching out Garmin to see if there's a fix they can do.  Maybe first you can just trying a quick reset and see if that fixes it.

[FallenSaber]

I wonder if it could be an update issue. I just recently completed an update for my watch.

[Parshooter36]

On 8/8/2023 at 9:11 AM, Parshooter36 said:

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. 

Just an update , I just played this course for the 1st time this year. After the gps located the course and I selected it I got a new map downloaded prompt on the watch. I am happy to report that they updated the mapping correctly, so I didn't have to repeatedly change the hole I was on.