I’ve started this thread as a platform to review kit and equipment that we all might enjoy or benefit from wether it’s to help us go fishing with our family or deploy on ops, so it doesn’t have to be tacticool but also not your favourite set of house slippers.
I’m not going to add firearms as there’s plenty of threads regarding that topic and obviously avoid advertising.
I’ll get the ball rolling with a fairly recent purchase of mine (well a present), a Garmin Instinct ‘Tactics’.
(I tried to edit and add a photo here but posted it below somehow!)
If anyone’s familiar with the Garmin smart watches this is a very recent watch but is stripped right back in its functions so it appears to be an older generation but that’s no bad thing. The Instincts range is a lot cheaper than the Fenix or Delta Tactics ranges, like less than half price or even a third depending on where you shop.
The instinct cannot connect to the Garmin online function so can’t be customised, also it’s much smaller and looks more like a G-shock than a Garmin. This puts a lot of people off but considering it’s sold as a ‘tactical’ watch this is a good thing in my opinion. There’s minimum fuss about the watch and maximum efficiency (even if the menus take a bit of getting used to).
The instinct is a basic Garmin smart watch so it has the usual fitness functions plus a simple navigation/gps system. The tactics version has a jump master mode, a night vision mode, a stealth mode which means you can use the GPS undetected and a tactics mode which is a more in-depth nav mode which includes multiple grids and waypoints etc.
I’ve tested all functions which are robust expect for the Stealth mode, I have no idea how to actually test this but it looks like airplane mode on a phone. I’ll look into this more.
It had a few drawbacks. A minor one is that it takes a while to find satellites for nav, plus it struggles if you’re standing under buildings or trees. This isn’t helpful if you’re trying to get out of the pissing rain to do a nav check. Also it’s locking key function is mapped to the button that touches your hand, so imagine if you’re in a press-up position or opening a door, your hand can unlock the watch which is a fucker.
All in all though it’s a great no-frills smart watch that is good value for money considering what it’s designed to do.