Garmin entering the dive industry?

[dmaziuk]

Descent, Garmin’s next Fenix4 model?

Great movie. Now coming to an underwater cave near you.

 

[flyboy08]

I use Garmin in the air and on my motorcycle....would be nice to swim off in any direction then 1/2 way into your dive select home...or back to boat and it'll graph out the route.... yeah, I'm lazy....found some of the most interesting roads looking down on my Garmin map

 

[admikar]

Since the signals currently used for GPS have little ability to penetrate water (and not very far into it), it's unlikely you'll get one from them anytime soon. First, GPS technology would have to be changed to utilize a different type of signal which could reliably penetrate water.

Why? Put a receiver on a dive flag, put some cable as a line, and Fischer connector on your DC and you're good to go.

 

[dmaziuk]

we don't need no stinking dive flags

 

[jstreetley]

It has arrived: Descent™ Mk1 | Garmin

Surface GPS is included. In fact it is basically their Fenix 5 sport watch, so will also work for running, swimming, cycling etc and will function as a smartwatch. In terms of diving, it's running Bühlmann ZHL-16c.

I'm interested, as someone who needs to replace an ageing Garmin sports watch for triathlon, so looks like I could get one watch that will do everything.

ETA: here's a hand-on review from a sports tech blogger. He's the best when it comes to running/cycling watches, so good to know he dives too! Hands-on: Garmin’s New Descent MK1 Diving Watch

 

[RainPilot]

It looks awesome, if it has custom GF I can see myself getting one as an EDC watch and backup DC.

ETA:

Nevermind, just saw it has custom GF.

Damnit. There goes the budget.

 

[Storker]

Looks neat. If they launch an AI model, and it's possible to download the profile to a 3rd party logging program, like Diving Log or SubSurface, I'd be banging on their door begging them to take my money.

I'm not particularly happy with any of Garmin's desktop software newer than Mapsource 6.13. It's almost as bad as Suunto's Dive Manager newer than v.3.1.

 

[RainPilot]

Garmin files are pretty open-source, there's a bunch of 3rd party stuff. I am sure it won't be long till someone at Subsurface makes a plan.

 

[Rhyno]

Garmin files are pretty open-source, there's a bunch of 3rd party stuff. I am sure it won't be long till someone at Subsurface makes a plan.

Now that it's out in the open I don't mind mentioning I've been a beta tester for the Descent and also a user of Subsurface. I have to admit I posted the link originally because I was curious about people's desires out of the device.

To your point: I can't wait until Subsurface gets the dive logs integrated in.

One thing that Garmin has done 1000% correct is the "last mile" of the dive logs.
They are stored within common FIT files. The file format itself is unchanged, however some of the fields are new and unknown. I'm working on identifying that info now.

The watch also doesn't require some expensive interface or use an archaic serial protocol for communication. You drop it on the included charging cradle and it mounts as a USB mass storage device.

Easy transfer to your PC, easy files to parse.

 

[NicKara]

Now that it's out in the open I don't mind mentioning I've been a beta tester for the Descent and also a user of Subsurface.

Could you please compare Garmin logging features vs. Subsurface? Try as I may, I never quite got into Subsurface, but I do use Garmin for everything else. Running, strength training, activity tracking. They aren't without a problem, but having my diving info in the same place as everything else would be huge.

Also, I noticed in Mk1 spec that all strength/cardio activities are missing while indoor rowing is included. Is this the case? Can I add Strength Training and Cardio on the watch? Download from ConnectIQ store?