Garmin Approach S60 GPS Golf Watch Review | GolfBox

Posted by GolfBox on 27th Jun 2017

The new Garmin Approach S60 golf watch oozes so much class and style that it may well remain strapped to your wrist long after your final putt has dropped on the 18th.

On the golf course, the S60 Approach is a bit like having your own coach, caddy and stats guy at your beck and call, but Garmin have also raised the style stakes with a sleek new design and interchangeable watchbands for those unavoidable off-course outings.

With 11 QuickFit watchbands to choose from, ranging from brightly coloured silicone to a classy leather and rugged stainless steel option, the S60 can be toned up or down in just seconds, with no tool required.

Garmin Approach S60 GPS Golf Watch

While the Garmin Approach S60 will sparkle at any off-course undertaking, it still retains its golf-bred pedigree on the inside. It comes preloaded with over 40,000 course maps that come to life on a 1.2-inch (3.04cm) colour touchscreen that is readable in even the strongest of sunlight glare.

Using GPS satellites, the Garmin Approach S60 displays accurate distances to doglegs, hazards and the front, middle and rear of greens and also features several modes to make those tricky on-course decisions a great deal easier.

The Touch Targeting mode is used to measure the distance to any manually selected point on the S60's course map and is a godsend when determining where to lay-up. Both the distance to the selected target and the distance from that point to the green is displayed to get that crucial sweet-spot approach distance right.

Golf Watch

Also taking the guesswork out of club selection is the Plays Like mode, which factors in elevation changes when calculating distances. For example, a 150-yard uphill shot will display as 160 yards once the elevation has been determined, while a 150-yard downhill approach will have a Plays Like distance of 140 yards.

The Green View function zooms in for a close-up view of the green shape and allows users to tap or drag the pin to its current position for the round. Distances are adjusted to reflect the new pin location and it resets back to the original point after the round.

Garmin Approach

The Garmin Approach S60 also features an Autoshot app which detects and records the location, distance and club selection (via a prompt from the S60) of each shot. The data is logged and uploaded to a Garmin Connect account to be reviewed post-round and compared against previous games at the course. Autoshot is a handy tool to obtain an average distance reading for each club in the bag and also provides an overview of areas for improvement - there's no disputing what you have to work on when Autoshot logs a banana ball drive that finishes two fairways wide of its intended target.

The Garmin Approach S60 also has a couple of built-in teaching aids in the form of the Swing Tempo app and Tempo Training tool.

The Swing Tempo app reveals your backswing-to-downswing speed ratio to monitor the all-important rhythm and timing of your swing. Based on the swing tempo of professional golfers, a ratio of three is the benchmark - in other words, your backswing should be three times slower than the time it takes to start your downswing and get to the impact position.

The Tempo Training tool takes the perfect tempo concept and helps ingrain it into your swing. It produces vibrations in the Garmin S60 Approach at the ideal tempo to cement the correct feel of the 3.0 tempo ratio.

S60 GPS Golf Watch

The Garmin S60 Approach is also compatible with the Garmin Tru Swing sensor to enable you to extract a veritable truckload of key information such as swing speed and club path angles and also links with the Garmin Golf app, which gives users the ability to create tournament leaderboards and compete with anyone else using the app. Live scoring can be uploaded to the leaderboard via the S60 Approach and is a less-than-subtle way of revealing to your rivals that the fist-pump you just busted out was legitimate after holing out for a birdie, not a double bogey save.

On the non-golf widget front, the S60 includes a step counter, distance travelled counter, sleep tracker, and calories burnt tracker - which comes in handy when scoffing down the pie and cheese sausage before a round. When synced to a phone, the S60 can notify you of any phone calls, text messages and emails received.

S60 GPS Golf Watch

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery is good for 10 hours in golf mode and lasts for 10 days in watch mode.

The Garmin Approach S60 will retail at GolfBox for $579 for the standard model, which comes in black or white, and $699 for the premium package, which is fitted with a scratch-resistant ceramic bezel and black leather watchband.