Best Garmin Golf Watches 2026
After putting many models to the test, we run through the best Garmin golf watches currently on the market.
Joel Tadman
Garmin is one of the world's leading tech brands and over recent years it has made a big slash in the golf industry with its market leading GPS technology. A brand synonymous with high-quality products, Garmin is now one of the top names when it comes to the best golf GPS devices. While Garmin excels across all golf GPS platforms, perhaps the area they are most accomplished in is when it comes to producing the best golf watches. Garmin offer some of the best watches across all price categories.
So whether you want something basic that gives you front-middle-back yardages, something a little more upmarket with a bright and easy-to-view display, or an out-and-out fully-fledged smart watch with golf capabilities, there's a Garmin to suit your needs. The reason they are so good is that Garmin has found a perfect balance between usability, convenience and powerful features in all of their watches.
The Quick List
For golfers who demand elite accuracy and a wealth of data on their wrist, the S70 is the ultimate high-performance wearable. Its headline feature is a brilliant, high-definition display that brings course maps to life with incredible clarity.
The S50 offers everything you need for a successful round, plus a wealth of health features for off the course. It’s an ideal choice for golfers who value high performance on the links but also want detailed fitness insights elsewhere.
The S44 is essentially the S50 but with fewer health features, meaning it comes in at a slightly lower price. Nevertheless, it's still a very well-rounded device that looks great on your wrist, allowing you to wear it on and off the course with ease.
If you’re looking for a straightforward device that simply tells you how far you are from the pin, the S12 is the perfect fit. It swaps complex menus for ease of use, delivering precise yardages on a crisp black-and-white screen.
The Approach S62 was Garmin's flagship offering before being upgraded by the S70. This watch is one for the gadget loving golfer who wants lots of cool golf features and the ability to track shots all in one place.
The MARQ Golfer is the luxury counterpart to the S70, offering identical top-tier features in a significantly more premium chassis. With its Grade-5 titanium build and vivid AMOLED screen, it is a smart, high-end watch.
Best Garmin Golf Watches
Top pick
There is a strong argument to say that the Garmin Approach S70 is the best golf watch out there on the market currently. Despite the wealth of technology, it is very user-friendly, and it is a perfect option for the gadget-loving golfer. That being said, even the not so tech-savvy golfer should be able to get the hang of this watch fairly quickly.
The S70 delivers fast, accurate yardages at a glance, but also offers deep-dive stat tracking for those who want to crunch the numbers to help gain a further understanding of their strengths and weaknesses alongside dialling in their club selection. With real-time weather integration and a Virtual Caddie that learns your personal yardages after just five rounds, it provides an elite level of insight. It easily earns its spot as one of the most feature-rich watches we have ever tested.
This watch looks fantastic on the wrist as the large screen is bright and colorful. As with most Garmin watches it comes pre-loaded with over 43,000 courses and can swiftly transition from watch face to golf mode at the flick of a button. As a golf watch it's unrivaled, but you can use this watch for general fitness tracking too and it boasts a number of smart watch features.
A lot of golf smartwatches can have poor battery life, but this is not the case with the S70 which can hold its charge for up to 16 days when using it as a standard smartwatch. In golf mode using the GPS you will get 20 hours, which is still very impressive.
- Read our full Garmin Approach S70 Golf Watch Review
Best for golf and health
One of the most complete watches we've ever tested.
'How can Garmin make their watches better?' we asked ourselves ahead of the release of the S50. The answer was making this not only a golf watch, but a fully functional fitness watch too.
Beginning with golf functionalities, 43,000 courses are at your disposal on the crisp 1.2-inch color AMOLED screen, giving you all the information you need in relation to yardages to hazards and the front, middle and back of each green. It's also great how lightweight this watch is - we barely noticed wearing it as we swung the club. Add to that the fabric strap and it's the best watch-wearing experience I've had bar none. Unlike many silicone straps, which have specific holes to fit around your wrist, this fabric strap uses a small Velcro closure that means to can fit it to any size you like. It meant no awkward fit, and the lightweight, low-profile watch barely made an impression on my wrist.
As for the fitness capabilities, this is one of the best watches we've reviewed in terms of day-to-day functionality. It is fully loaded with the best health tracking features modern watches can offer. Heart health can be tracked through the HRV status, blood oxygen saturation can be tracked thanks to the Pulse OX sensor, sleep is tracked in excellent detail, and all your daily activity can be tracked too.
- Read our full Garmin Approach S50 Golf Watch Review
Best looking
The Approach S44 is essentially the S50-Lite. It's easy to wear and has functionalities that allow it to be usefully worn but on and off the course - so much so that I have continued wearing it daily even after I reviewed it in April.
Ahead of our review, we were struck immediately by how good looking this watch is. It's very simple but yet sleek at the same time. There's little fuss in the unboxing process in the sense that it's almost a bit of an anti-climatic feeling once you've opened it up - this sn't a criticism by the way, rather a testament to how a brand is focusing on the important things - the quality of the product.
On the course, this model matches the high standards of the Approach S50, offering a crisp, intuitive display that provides essential data at a glance. The yardage accuracy is exceptional, something we've come to expect with Garmin products, consistently delivering reliable numbers that eliminate guesswork. We found the automated score tracker particularly helpful; it provides a gentle vibration as you leave each green as a reminder to log your strokes - it's a small feature but one that is very well thought out. While it doesn't have the same advanced wellness bells and whistles found in the S50, it remains a capable companion for general exercise, offering fundamental tracking for steps, running, cycling, and swimming.
- Read our full Garmin Approach S44 Golf Watch Review
Best value
The S12 is quite far removed from the more high end options in the Approach family like the S70, S62 and even the S42. It's certainly not as stylish and it lacks most of the golf features as well as the smart watch functionality you get with the more expensive watches, but if you want something simple that does exactly what it says on the tin, this is a great value option.
The S12 has access to over 40,000 courses preloaded so getting set up with the course you are at is quick and easy. Once we arrived at the course for testing we found the overall usability of the watch to be really good. Additionally the testing was a simple, fuss-free experience and it was quite refreshing not having all manner of choices available. It was simple GPS functionality and away we went.
Don't let the simplicity fool you of this watch fool you - the S12 is packed with course data. You’ll get clear yardages to the green, hazards, and layups, with the added benefit of manual pin adjustment for pinpoint accuracy. While shot tracking is a manual process on this model rather than automatic like more expensive models, it remains a powerful tool for learning your distances. With integrated scorekeeping and a high-visibility 'Big Numbers' mode, the S12 delivers everything a golfer needs for a fraction of the cost. It is, quite simply, one of the best value-for-money GPS watches on the market and a regular feature on the Golf Monthly E-Com newsletter each Saturday when we see it on sale, simply because it oozes value for money.
- Read our full Garmin Approach S12 GPS Watch Review
Best features
Prior to the introduction of the S70, the S62 was the flagship offering in Garmin's Approach range and although it has been around for a good few years now, it's still one of the most feature packed golf watches out there and it's available at a considerably reduced price now compared to when it was first introduced.
The S62 pairs a premium screen that is slightly bigger than most models but elite features like a Virtual Caddie that reads wind conditions and slope-adjusted yardages. It’s highly advanced yet remarkably simple to use, with the touchscreen responsiveness making the movable pin feature easy and intuitive, whilst the PinPointer compass is a 'life-saver' for aiming on blind shots - a brilliant feature for those like myself who play a lot of links golf.
With all of these great features on offer it is no surprise that the S62 was included in the Editor's Choice awards at Golf Monthly. Another thing we like is that not only can you use this as an everyday smart watch, but the straps are easily detached so you can purchase different color options to mix and match different outfits.
- Read our full Garmin Approach S62 GPS Watch Review
Best ultra-premium
The MARQ Golfer GPS Watch is simply stunning and that is reflected by the price. It has been built from lovely premium materials including a 46 mm titanium case and a ceramic bezel that has been etched with 1-18 hole markings, making this a real head turner in the clubhouse. It's as much a piece of expensive jewelry as it is a golf watch.
Therefore, as with many golf watches these days, the MARQ is certainly not restricted to just being used on the course and you can proudly wear it anywhere at any social occasion. Don't let that overshadow what it can do on the course though, as it's a fantastic golf watch that has all of the features you'll find in the best golf watches, including the ability to allow for elevation changes, provide insight into what the wind is doing as well as give you the best club selection based on your previous shot history.
It's packed with smartwatch features too and you can also play music through this watch as well as make contactless payments, check your heart rate, and track your daily activity, along with other things. When it came to testing this high-end product we have to say it was something special. It was easy and fun to use and it oozed premium quality. You'll feel like a million bucks wearing this watch, but the price will put it out of reach for many. If you can afford this amazing watch though then you will enjoy it a lot.
- Read our full Garmin MARQ Golfer GPS Watch Review
How we test golf watches
Conor joined Golf Monthly in late 2024 after graduating with a Masters degree in Sports Journalism from St Mary's University and heads up reviews for rangefinders, GPS and golf watches.
Conor is lucky to have Royal County Down as his home golf course, beginning to play the game at the age of four, later becoming a caddy at RCD at just eleven years old and doing so for over 12 years. Playing to a 5 handicap, you’ll likely find him on the range trying (and failing) to hit a Shane Lowry-esque stinger that helped him win The Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
We take our product testing very seriously here at Golf Monthly and we have a comprehensive testing procedure when it comes to golf watches. We do our testing while out on the course and over numerous rounds of golf, while if the watch is also designed for use away from the course we will ensure we test it thoroughly in day to day situations. On the course we aim to test in differing conditions when possible so we can see how these watches perform in the sun, wind, and rain.
Our review process is built on a foundation of trust and expert analysis. Every member of our test team is an avid golfer, meaning we don’t just look at the specs - we live with the technology on the course. By testing devices side-by-side, we can definitively evaluate essential factors like GPS precision, weather resistance, and build quality. This comparative method ensures our reviews are as informative as they are authentic.
Conor Keenan testing the latest Garmin Approach S44 watch on the 9th hole at Royal County Down
We also reiterate that the trust we have built between our brand and our loyal readership is one we value greatly, meaning our only goal when writing reviews is to deliver informative verdicts free from bias. No manufacturer can ever 'buy' a good review, nor can a brand get preferential treatment over another. Instead, we simply call it how we see it.
How to choose the right GPS watch
Features
When shopping for a golf watch, start by separating your 'needs' from your 'wants.' While you might dream of a high-tech caddie on your wrist, make sure the watch you buy first excels at the basics. Every GPS watch on the market delivers core yardages to the green; if that’s all you need, a budget model like the S12 offers incredible value. However, if you want a watch that transitions from the 18th hole to the gym or the office, you should be prepared to invest more in a model that offers the lifestyle features.
Your routine
Are you a speedy golfer who relies on a five-second glance for yardage, or more of a deliberate player who prefers to analyze wind, slope, and hazard carries before pulling a club? For the fast-paced player, a simplified interface like the Garmin S12 provides essential numbers instantly without distraction. Conversely, more deliberate players will find immense value in the Approach S70, where the extra time spent navigating touchscreens and virtual caddie suggestions directly informs a more precise shot.
Golf course
Course layout is key in your decision; keep in mind that for blind shots and doglegs, a GPS watch is your best friend. The PinPointer compass on premium models takes the guesswork out of hidden flags. If your course is open and simple, a laser might be faster, but if you're a traveler or match-play regular, the deep-dive course data on a GPS watch provides the confidence you need to tackle unfamiliar terrain.
Additionally be aware of how many golf courses are preloaded onto different watches as well. Finally for more buying advice around GPS handhelds, take a look at out guide on the best golf watches for ladies.
Versatility
Many brands and watches do not work off the course so if you are looking for something versatile then make sure you check the range of features that watch is offering. The more features, the higher the price, but if you are buying something you plan on wearing all the time rather than just for golf then it's easier to justify paying more.
Budget
With a Garmin for every budget, choosing a watch is a simple matter of features vs. price. If you’re after a high-value, no-nonsense tool, the S12 is the definitive budget pick. But if you want a 'lifestyle' watch that handles everything from club recommendations to emails, it’s worth spending more for a premium model.
FAQs
Which company makes the best golf watches?
Garmin are arguably the most recognized name when it comes to the best golf watches, but there are also companies like Bushnell and SkyCaddie which also offer high quality options.
Is it worth getting a golf watch?
Yes, we think certainly think that golf watches are worth it. Firstly, they save a lot of time, last a long time, are convenient and simple to use, offer in-depth detail of the shot you face, and can sit easily on your golf bag or wrist. With a golf watch you no longer have to find a sprinkler, or guess yardages because you can simply look at the screen to help you plot your way around the course.
Can I use golf watches for non-golf activities?
You certainly can as most double up as not just a watch for golf, but for fitness and work as well. Along with on course activities, golf watches can be used to check email and make calls, as well as track steps and your heartrate during a workout.