Drive your boat from your watch?

[Gustywinds]

Garmin Quatrix 7 - any good?
I have a significant birthday coming up shortly (when I would be getting state pension if the government hadn't shafted me!) and the good lady was going to buy me a new Apple Watch Ultra to replace the series 3 I have at the moment. Bigger screen so my failing eyesight can read it!
But now she's been looking at the Garmin website to learn up about our MFD and the new autopilot system we have just ordered and chimes up "hey, you can control the boat from your watch while sitting up on the bow if I got you one of these!"
And, sure enough, it says you can interface the Quatrix 7 to the auto pilot system.
Otherwise the watch seems to have some pretty neat features but, to be honest, I mostly use the Apple watch for Notifications (which the Garmin does), Health stuff like heart rate, sleep monitoring and fall detection (which it also seems to do) and payments which it does but only in a very limited number of banks/card not including the ones I have. Its not insurmountable as I could easily get another credit card on one of the supported ones.
My gut feeling is to stay with the Apple watch (I have an iPhone, iPad and a Mac) but just wanted to sound out anybody on here that has a Garmin? Am I missing some standout feature on it?

 

[julians]

Stick with the apple watch-unless you have a specific need for something the garmin does that the apple doesnt

I've got a garmin fenix 6 pro and it's excellent for fitness and sports stuff, way better than apple or pretty much any other, but for generic smart watch stuff the apple watch is better.

 

[Martxer]

Garmin Quatrix 7 - any good?
I have a significant birthday coming up shortly (when I would be getting state pension if the government hadn't shafted me!) and the good lady was going to buy me a new Apple Watch Ultra to replace the series 3 I have at the moment. Bigger screen so my failing eyesight can read it!
But now she's been looking at the Garmin website to learn up about our MFD and the new autopilot system we have just ordered and chimes up "hey, you can control the boat from your watch while sitting up on the bow if I got you one of these!"
And, sure enough, it says you can interface the Quatrix 7 to the auto pilot system.
Otherwise the watch seems to have some pretty neat features but, to be honest, I mostly use the Apple watch for Notifications (which the Garmin does), Health stuff like heart rate, sleep monitoring and fall detection (which it also seems to do) and payments which it does but only in a very limited number of banks/card not including the ones I have. Its not insurmountable as I could easily get another credit card on one of the supported ones.
My gut feeling is to stay with the Apple watch (I have an iPhone, iPad and a Mac) but just wanted to sound out anybody on here that has a Garmin? Am I missing some standout feature on it?

I have all apple products and moved from an Apple Watch to a Garmin quartix 7. The health features on the Garmin are far better along with the battery life typically getting 3 weeks between charge.I don,t use my watch for making any payments so can’t comment on that function and I don’t have auto pilot on the boat so I can’t drive the boat from the watch either. I do think the Garmin is far better than the Apple Watch and if you can drive your boat from it too then happy days.
I would say that moving from an Apple to Garmin watch there is a bit of a learning curve to operate probably due to the extra functionality.

 

[finestgreen]

Given how often I accidentally start tracking a run on my Garmin watch, I would absolutely not link an autopilot to it!

 

[TrondS]

I have the Quatix 7 and I really like it. It works fine with the autopilot, but I have only tested it a few times, in open waters, being out on deck. I always drive the boat from the helm, and would never trust a wireless "pilot/helm" device in close quarters anyway.

 

[vas]

I have a quatix 6 menus are a bit convoluted and haven't spent much time sorting the thing up as I'd like.
A/P connection is not v.swift and since I do have a proper handheld remote for my garmin A/P I mainly use that instead.

since I never buy apple products, I'd say go ahead and get it

 

[Paddy Fields]

Is it actually a self contained chart plotter, that stores its own navionics maps? That would be cool!

Have you investigated whether the satellite SOS functionality on the Apple Watch Ultra is of any use in a marine environment?

 

[ashtead]

Don’t buy an Apple Watch whatever you do -the battery life is short and they spend more time charging. I have a Garmin watch and very happy with functions etc having replaced the defunct Fitbit which I would also avoid.

 

[Gustywinds]

Don’t buy an Apple Watch whatever you do -the battery life is short and they spend more time charging. I have a Garmin watch and very happy with functions etc having replaced the defunct Fitbit which I would also avoid.

I've had an Apple watch since they first launched and that is tripe. The battery life isn't great but it is doing a lot more than the likes of the Garmin. It needs charged for about 30 mins a day depening on use while I'm in the shower/getting dressed. My wife has had several Fitbits and they are crap.

 

[Gustywinds]

Is it actually a self contained chart plotter, that stores its own navionics maps? That would be cool!

Have you investigated whether the satellite SOS functionality on the Apple Watch Ultra is of any use in a marine environment?

No, it needs a Chartplotter to get map information from as far as I can see.

The Apple SOS by satellite only works in the US, everywhere else it is 3/4/5G

 

[Martxer]

I've had an Apple watch since they first launched and that is tripe. The battery life isn't great but it is doing a lot more than the likes of the Garmin. It needs charged for about 30 mins a day depening on use while I'm in the shower/getting dressed. My wife has had several Fitbits and they are crap.

Charge my quartix for about 30 mins every 2 weeks give or take a day

 

[CaptainDram]

I have the Quatix 7 and I find some things great for sailing; tides functionality is great. Nice to quickly check when on the boat or simply going to the beach what tide times are.

Storm alarm is also good. On long passages, the barometer will trigger an alarm with a drop associated with squalls/storms.

Anchor alarm is good also.

Never used autopilot as my boat has B&G gear fitted. Charts are handy sometimes but not often.

Battery life is amazing. I’d take my garmin over the Apple Watch any day (that’s coming from an ex-Apple employee and big Apple fan!)

 

[ashtead]

I’m also an Apple iPhone and iPad Pro user -the Quatix is great when on hols saying to Tobago keys say in itself to see how far to an island even without the Garmin plotter to pair. I also like the barometric pressure and sunset info displayed. It’s also quite intuitive to use and quite entertaining to pass time on a boring passage .