Thread: Garmin EPIX GPS Watch Review

This is the EPIX Gen 2 Sapphire.
I’ll also briefly report on Topo4GPS, which I have loaded onto it.

What is it for ?
Since using a smartphone app with NZ topographic maps (NZ Topo50), I’ve started using that as my primary navigation tool and leaving the Garmin Oregon in the pack, recording tracks and only to pull out when the going gets serious. The Oregon is mechanically worn out, slow to get a fix, screen scratched, and software becoming flakey (not displaying recent tracks after I save them). So, my idea was to get a smaller, lighter GPS for reserve use and managing tracks & waypoints on and off the laptop. The drawbacks I’ve experienced of relying on the phone are: poor performance at temp <5C, unresponsive when wet all over, need to recharge from powerbank and possibly fragility.

What is it ?
The Epix is a “smartwatch” almost identical to the Fenix but it has an AMOLED screen like mobile phones. Among 101 functions, it has GPS (several systems), can display topo maps and a compass. It communicates by Bluetooth to a phone, by cable to a laptop and via your home WiFi to get software. A number of Garmin apps are available including a ballistic calculator called TruFlite. It has no mobile network, no satellite comms and no camera. Waterproofing is said to be 100 ft. Weight is about 80g and of course it sits on your wrist.

Unlike the hand held GPS units, the Garmin watch range is largely oriented towards urban navigation, monitoring exercise and wellbeing and as a prestige fashion item. It has the hardware to do the same job as the GPSMap and Etrex ranges but the software is not really optimised for it.

Model
The one I got is the Gen 2 Sapphire. A pro version is available with a small torch built in and large and small case size options. I suspect this vanilla Gen 2 might be a runout model as it was on special ($1399). This is about twice the price of most hand held GPS and puts it out of reach for most people who would use one. It’s entirely possible to travel and hunt with a paper map and a compass and even a cheap second hand hand held will do the job if you want more. You would be better to spend that money on a pair of binoculars, an upgrade to your scope or car or even fifteen hundred dollars of ammo or petrol.

Software
There is a touch screen, which is very responsive just like a phone but most control is done by pushing buttons. There are 5 buttons and 2 or 3 ways of pressing each one, then you go through branching menus that I found quite a steep learning curve. Watch Logic is very different from mouse and touch screen control and I have so much to learn that I’ll try and limit myself to talking about what it can do, rather than what I couldn’t make it do at this stage. These are the programs you need to download and use with it:
Garmin Connect - communicates between your phone and the watch
Garmin ConnectIQ – download and install garmin apps via your phone.
Android File Transfer – put third party maps onto the watch
I couldn’t get Garmin Basecamp to detect the watch. This program displays maps like Topo4GPS and Maptoaster on your laptop and transfers tracks and waypoints to and from a handheld GPS unit.

Maps
The Epix Gen2 comes with Garmin TopoActive NZ & Australia, which has 100 ft contours. You will want to adjust the phone settings to metric to get scales in metres. This is similar to the old inch to mile series and pretty good in most mountain areas but in flat Kaimai country the 20m contours of the NZ Topo series are a bit better. Mostly the Garmin maps that come with it would be just fine for navigating in the NZ mountains.

I bought the Topo4GPS map for $40 and loaded it into Basecamp, where I was pleased to see relief shading and the contours displayed earlier as I zoom in compared to Maptoaster, which I have used for many years. The map comes as a .DMG file, which you install like a program.
Getting the Topo4GPS map onto the watch was tricky. I had a few emails back and forth with the Topo4GPS people and they solved it. As I said, the Apple Mac Finder program and the Garmin Basecamp didn’t display the watch for me. First I used Basecamp to “send” the Topo4GPS map to a USB stick, which converted it to the “Garmin .IMG” format needed for Garmin devices to use it. Then, I downloaded a well known program called Android File Transfer which could see the watch and drag-dropped the file, now named gmapsupp.img into the “Garmin” folder on the Epix watch. It doesn’t go in the custom maps folder with the other .img files. Android File Transfer can also transfer files from a Samsung phone to Mac laptop but functionality is quite limited and it’s a bit of a naughty program, lying dormant and starting up whenever the watch is connected and capturing it, so I’ve sent it to the bin now. Anyway, I was then able to go to a settings area on the watch and make the Topo4GPS map the default. When using “activities” it seemed to revert to the Garmin TopoActive map.

Field testing
Well, this hasn’t been too extensive so far but I’ll report back on a day of hunting in the Kaimais. I linked together a few nice places I’d been to before and used just the watch for navigation.

Locating myself on the map worked just fine. Getting the first fix after switching on takes about 10 seconds out in the open. The unit really needed to be set to utilise all 3 satellite systems (GPS, Gallileo and GLONASS), as it struggled to get a fix under medium canopy if you use just GPS alone. It was good for navigating but usually failed to get a location fix on the default setting.

The display was bright and easy to read when I needed it and it quickly fades away to save battery life and avoid shining a bright light around when it isn’t being used. This photo is taken using the Map function and shows the Topo4GPS map. Despite the small screen size, it was just as informative as my larger hand held GPS. The view on the smartphone app is a lot bigger of course but the watch was 100% useable for my average eyesight.



The compass worked well and was easy to read. To be honest, the compass is often the best tool for knowing the right way to go in this undulating country.



As sunset and twilight approached, I felt perfectly comfortable finding my way across a strange ridge and saddle system, back to the track, which was just where the watch said it would be.



The software has several preconfigured "Activities" which display selected screens like the map, compasss, time till sunset, distance travelled and altitude climbed, plus record where you've been. While using “Activities” such as Hike or Hunt, the watch seemed to revert to the Garmin TopoActive map and I couldn’t figure out how to go back to Topo4GPS. Also, I couldn’t figure out how to zoom or pan the map while in the Hike or Hunt activities. This actually isn’t too bad for fine navigation as the scale seems similar to a paper map, about an inch to a mile, and contours and topography are easy to see. At night, the TopoActive map went into a dark mode to preserve night vision.



Battery life seemed good. It used up about 25% over a 6 hr day in the bush plus 8hr at home. Using the special Garmin cable, it tops up pretty fast. It went from 40% up to 90% in 37 minutes on a LED Lenser brand powerbank with one 18650 battery in it, and all the 4 charge indicator lights were still showing at the end. You might be carrying this anyway to top up your phone or other devices including some headlamps, so its quite a flexible power system. This should save carrying spare sets of AA NiMH batteries like I had to do with the Oregon.