Garmin Descent MK2

[SKS22]

Apple is releasing a watch that will have a dive app by Oceanic. I don't know much about it, but it sounds similar to garmin's descent and G1 lines in that it is a general smart and fitness watch with dive capabilities.

 

[bertschb]

Apple is releasing a watch that will have a dive app by Oceanic.

The new dive features of the Apple Watch Ultra look like a good start but one of the big reasons I moved away from the Apple Watch as a fitness tracker was battery life. The new Ultra has the longest battery life of any Apple Watch at 36 hours but my Garmin MK2i lasts 2-3 weeks between charges. It's not only an excellent AI dive computer but also a fantastic fitness watch. Best of both worlds.

It's nice to see Apple enter the dive market. Competition is a very good thing.

 

[TightLines]

Anyone aware of current or likely seasonal sales for Garmin computers?

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

Delete

 

[Phong78]

Hey everyone, I just got an Mk2 and so far love it as a smart watch and fitness watch. I'll be doing my first dive this weekend on a trip to Croatia but I had a question on conservatism.
I've previously dived with the Zoop then changed to the Mares Smart, which is the last computer I had for diving. What would best match the Mares Smart's conservatism? Medium? High? What's the safest setting when you don't know? High?

 

[DeltaWardog]

What would best match the Mares Smart's conservatism? Medium? High? What's the safest setting when you don't know? High?

Yes, High would be the most conservative setting. I don't remember if the default was Medium or High, but I set mine to Low after a couple dives because it was waaaaay too conservative compared to my trusty Oceanic VT3. Once set to low it almost exactly matches warning and alert times with the VT3 I'd been diving with for over a decade. You can customize it with a different gradient factor but I don't know enough about that to give you advice. But if you could find the gradient factor for your Mares computer you could just plug it in to the Garmin.

 

[Phong78]

I see, thanks! For my first dive, I'll have both my Mares Smart and the mk2, just to compare. I'll leave the mk2 with the default setting (I believe it's High) and see how it goes.... Before changing it to Medium later on if comfortable.

 

[dmaziuk]

Mares Smart is an RGBM computer. RGBM does not map to ZH-L, there is no gradient factor you could "plug" to match it.

 

[scubajasonr]

I am recently back from a two week dive trip with a MK2i. My wife and kids were using Mares Puck Pros, and I also had one as a backup. With the MK2i set to Medium it gave a reasonably close match to the Puck Pro NDL times. I think the Garmin was slightly more conservative, but there wasn’t much in it. Dives were 15m to 30m, and normally 60mins using Nitrox, so we didn’t get too close to running out of bottom time. I am off on another trip in a couple of weeks which will be generally deeper and probably close to NDL on most of the dives so it will be interesting to see how they compare closer to the limits.

 

[dmaziuk]

I am recently back from a two week dive trip with a MK2i. My wife and kids were using Mares Puck Pros, and I also had one as a backup. With the MK2i set to Medium it gave a reasonably close match to the Puck Pro NDL times. I think the Garmin was slightly more conservative, but there wasn’t much in it. Dives were 15m to 30m, and normally 60mins using Nitrox, so we didn’t get too close to running out of bottom time. I am off on another trip in a couple of weeks which will be generally deeper and probably close to NDL on most of the dives so it will be interesting to see how they compare closer to the limits.

One of the things RGBM penalizes for is short surface intervals. The exact amount is up to the vendor, but ZH-L doesn't have such penalty at all. The differences should be more obvious with 3-4 dives/day on 40-ish minutes SIs -- rather than 60 minutes.