Garmin Instinct® Crossover Solar, Tactical, Hybrid Smartwatch, 45mm, Black

There's something about having the analogue hands that make time tracking so useful, as in watching a dial vs a digital readout. Okay so, battery life is pretty darn good so far. The hand movements are perfect and even move out of the way if you need them to by pressing the bottom right button. They shift just enough to see what they might be covering on the main screen. For other screens they move out of the way completely and it looks really cool. If this is your first time on Garmin. The instincts are where it is at. Charge it when you feel like it, not every night! Anyway, the things I would say I don't like are: So far no white background black text setting. Kind of annoying, but hopefully we get an update that'll allow it? Also the night mode. At night the screen switches to a non-notification style screen that's simpler. Which I love on my Instinct 2. However on this one, the time is at the top and the hands cover it right? Think about it, 11:10, glancing at it. The hands cover it, and it's too dark to read the hands. I don't know if that makes since, but like if I had to pick on ONE thing, it would be this. Overall, exceptional watch. The readings are decent, especially the heart rate monitor apps and GPS tracking. Also the compass I use a lot in my job, and that's the main reason I got these. Works awesome and shows azimuth.

Love the analog hands - easy to see in all lighting conditions. The black & white MIP display is all you need. This is a backup watch to my Enduro 2 - both have amazing battery life. The Crossover would be my prime watch if it had maps, but sadly it does not - GPS works great though. Great price now at only $400! Update on 09JAN2026 - like it so much I bought a non-tactical solar for a backup at only $280 US. The luminous markings are very easy to see in total darkness so backlight is not needed in bed to see the time. Single band GPS still works great. Verified it does have a gyroscope - not in the published specifications. Also got a Crossover AMOLED but battery life is awful - less than one week in daily GPS use and does not offer much more than the Solar model to justify much higher expense. Crossover Solar is easily double the battery life used in the same conditions without AMOLED AOD, and MIP is always AOD.

Best watch I use everyday. I loved it for it's analog aspect and combines the smartwatch and outdoor activity tracker very well. I utilize the sleep tracking alot along with the workouts and couldn't reccoment this watch enough. I hope a newer version comes out because I feel there are no downsides to this watch. Battery life is exceptional and I don't care for the touchscreen aspect I might be missing out on from the Fenix line. Been using it for a little over a year and haven't had any problems with durability as well.

I really wished I could have kept this watch because I liked the features and ruggedness of its construction. It was vary comfortable to wear, surprisingly light weight. I almost forgot I was wearing it after a while. But, I have astigmatism in both eyes and my low light vision is poor at my current age of 55. When trying to read the monochrome display without glasses (sometimes even with glasses) it becomes difficult to make anything out. I’ve set the backlight at 100% but everything remains unreadable. I had no problem reading the display in day light. Reading the time with analog hands helped in low light while they glowed but once they dim out, it’s almost impossible to see the time. This will be a great watch for someone without the issues I have with my vision but for myself, I’m going to stick with Garmin and the next watch I get will either be a Fenix 7X or an Epix with amoled display depending on how well I can read the display at night.

Been using this watch for a year and a half now, love the ease of use. And it tracks literally everything you could want, super accurately I may add. My only complaint is sometimes the garmin app can be finicky which throws off the watch notifications from time to time. 95% of the time it’s all good though, super rugged watch, and the solar function is a game changer.

Not for everyone. However, it is perfect for me. Superb quality all around. Purpose built product that fulfills my needs perfectly. Good aftermarket support.

Man, I really wanted to love this watch. I really did. Having actual, physical, analog watch hands to tell me the time while the smart watch stuff happens in the background sounds great! Unfortunately a few small design choices ruin it for me. 1. There is no option to have the watch hands continue to tell time during an activity. They swing to the 9 and 3 and stay there. While I like having the ability to quickly lock them there to see the screen, most of the time, I am more interested in the time. This should be an option 2. There are no options for black text on white background. As a result, this watch is, for my eyes, VERY difficult to read during daylight and/or indoor lighting. Certain screens display black-on-white instead of white-on-black, but no primary watch faces or activity screens are available that way, so it is mostly illegible to me 3. Backlighting design choice – the watch hands use a luminova type glow-in-the-dark (gitd) coating which, like most gitd coatings, glows brightly for a few minutes, dimly for an hour or so, then is mostly useless. The backlight, on the other hand, is super bright. In fact it is bright to the point of blasting out your night adapted eyes. This is a problem. While using tritium tubes in the hands would up the price point of the watch, it is something I would love. In lieu of that, they could easily have fiberoptic tubes embedded in the hands like Timex does with some field watches in order to have the hands light up independent of the screen. Bottom line is gitd is a gimmick. What I want and hoped for here was a watch with the ability to see the time at a glance all night. 4. Thickness – this watch is thicker than the regular Instinct 2 line. Too thick. 5. Springbar location - the springbar holes are so close in to the watch body that aftermarket watch bands are unable to fold all the way under the watch. This is really only an issue when packing the watch for travel or putting it in your pocket, and even then, it’s a super minor issue, but those springbar holes need to be moved a fraction of a millimeter further out on the next version 6. I would prefer a 51mm Instinct 2X size with 26mm watch band as well as sapphire solar glass. But this is purely personal preference. If I the next version checks all of those boxes, It would likely become my daily wear watch. If it only checked off the first two, I would still buy it to use as an activity watch and continue wearing my analog watch when not working out. A note about the tactical features – I really like the ability to easily wipe the device of personal data, gps tracks, etc (without factory resetting the watch). I also really appreciate the ability to quickly, easily, and completely turn off rf emissions and/or visible light emissions from the watch. While there is a “tactical” aspect to those features, that’s certainly not their only application. I appreciate Garmin including them and wish they put them in more wearables.

Shipped fast. Great watch so far only complaint is that wearing the watch all the time the band did irritate my skin, but they may just be me and with replacement band solving the issue it's not enough to take away a star. Would be nice if there was a way to select other band options from the manufacturer. Looks great with traditional analog time display, easy to setup and way more features than I will ever use. Does offer many tracking features on the watch, and when combined with the app you can customize the watch even further.

I have a few Garmin watches.. this one i bought because i thought the battery life would be even better than my Enduro1.. its not after turning on health monitoring. It's still a nice watch, was quite cheap during Prime Day sale, and watch face is smaller for smaller hands.. i still prefer the bigger 51mm face though.

Lovely watch, however lasted 14 months before moisture ingress. Now I get condensation under the screen which makes the solar charging useless.

There is nothing wrong with this product, but if I could do it again, I would order up the range a bit. The text is small so I need to use my glasses every time to read notifications. Also, the monochrome interference doesn't help with clarity. If I had a time machine, I would order the model with a larger colour face and skip the solar function (which sounded good, but I never use). Ps, I changed the band to a Hemsut rugged Velcro strap. Easy installation and great quality.

Un increíble reloj. Tiene todo lo que necesito para realizar operaciones tacticas. Desde brujula, altímetro, barómetro, te da coordenadas geograficas y de cuadrícula militar. También lleva tu seguimiento de salud. Y por el precio, es genial. Ampliamente recomendable.

El reloj en general es muy bueno la marca lo dice pero para el día a día es muy funcional en lo particular a mi me gusta mucho la mezcla de tener un reloj inteligente con manecillas tiene buen rango de conexión con tu celular y los sensores son excepcioanles