How modern smartwatches can help your hunting, fishing, and outdoors lifestyle

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Smartwatches accelerated in popularity around 2015 when Apple stepped into the ring, so it was only a matter of time before companies began integrating hunting and fishing friendly features and apps to support your outdoor lifestyle. Garmin in particular has dominated the outdoor space.

Brandon Brinkman, Garmin’s senior product marketing manager, said its outdoor-focused smartwatch, the fēnix, was introduced in 2015 with built-in GPS.

“The lineup has expanded significantly since then – today we’re on the fēnix 8, available in multiple sizes, Brinkman said. “The Pro versions also add the ability to send two-way satellite messages right from your wrist.”

As technology grew, models started to add features that specifically catered to hunting, fishing, hiking, golfing, diving — you name it.

“A smartwatch can be a big advantage for hunters in a few key ways,” Brinkman said. “First, it helps you track your training and recovery as you get ready for the season – especially if you’re preparing for Western hunts with steep climbs and rugged terrain. Second, you can use mapping and navigation right on your wrist. With mapping layers like satellite imagery, Topo Pro, and relief shading, you can quickly get a sense of the terrain and drop waypoints for things like scrapes, rubs, or glassing points.”

Much like fishing rods can be tapered to specific species and techniques, some smartwatches dial in to a hobby a person loves most. For instance, upland hunters, or folks who hunt bear with dogs, would love models like the Alpha 300 dog-tracking handheld, that lets a person see their dog’s direction and distance at a glance.

Sure, smartwatches offer features like heart rate, steps, GPS and more, but how do they help you seek game of fish more efficiently?

“Garmin smartwatches offer robust mapping features, he said. “In many cases, the same types of mapping layers you’d use on a dedicated handheld or smartphone can also be loaded onto the watch.”

Garmin relies on pairing its smartwatch with the Garmin Explore app which is designed to gives you access to a wide range of mapping options.

Cody Rich, founder and CEO of Bridger, a new smartwatch company, said they decided to build mapping on a wearable in a way that would allow people to download offline maps and use the touch screen to navigate just like you would on your phone.

“A frustration for us was having to pull your phone out of your bino harness or your pocket every two minutes,” Rich said. “Additionally, we wanted to build a true backup to the phone, not replace it. As hunters we rely on phone maps so much we have to constantly worry about phone battery management. As someone who has lost my phone on a hunt we wanted our smartwatch to be good enough to be a redundancy to the phone maps.”

Just about anyone who hunts or fishes have heard of or use onX Hunt or onX Fish on their mobile devices. The Bridger Reckon watch is very friendly when it comes to these apps.

“We built ours to have an integration with onX maps,” he said. “The topo maps on our watch are our own maps and users won’t have all the features of onX maps on a smartwatch but you can easily import your tracks, waypoints, markups into the Bridger watch.”

Anglers can take advantage of smartwatches also, especially when it comes to saving time on the hard or soft water. Waypoints can easily be transferred from locators to smartwatches, which can save a lot of time and holes drilled in the ice.

“We offer a dedicated wearable built with anglers in mind called quatix,” Brinkman said. “ It can integrate with compatible Garmin marine electronics, so you can control chartplotters and even a trolling motor from your wrist.

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When transitioning between seasons, you could mark waypoints during the summer – either on your watch or your Garmin marine electronics – then use those saved locations when you’re back out on the ice in winter.”

Bridger, which offers only one model, the Reckon, said waypoints also can be easily transferred to their unit.

Factors to consider

So, when a person is looking for a smartwatch, what should a person consider?

Brinkman said that two things stand out to him: one is battery life and how handy a built in flashlight is.

“Some Garmin smartwatches can deliver 30-plus days on a single charge and select solar models can extend battery life even further in sunny conditions,” he said. “Several versions also include a built-in flashlight, which is great for walking to a stand before daylight or digging through a tackle box.”

Reckon also has outstanding battery life and one of the best warranties in the game, which is a good idea when the unit is being exposed to the hunting and fishing lifestyle.

Oh, and although the last thing a person should do when enjoying the outdoors is check emails, most brands allow that on either an Android or iPhone platform. For safety, some Garmin models offer inReach satellite technology that lets people send two-way messages and trigger an SOS.

While there are a ton of models, Brinkman said that two of their main lines to consider are Instinct (a strong value and purpose-built for the outdoors) and fēnix (their premium line).

“Instinct packs a lot of capability into a durable design, while fēnix adds higher-end materials – like a titanium bezel and a sapphire, scratch-resistant lens – along with more advanced features,” he said. “From there, we also offer specialized variants, such as quatix for marine use and tactix for long-range shooting.”