Need ’em or not, Garmin throws more aviator smartwatches into the market. The two new models are the flagship $1,499.99 D2 Mach 2 and the $649.99 D2 Air X15. My first impressions are these models have come a long way from the first Garmin D2 (it stands for Direct To) I reviewed somewhere around 2014, and the company hasn’t let the line go stale. That’s easy because these watches trickle down from Garmin’s packed line of sports watches, but with aviator functions (and biometrics sensors including pulse oximeter and heart rate) tagged on to the feature set. As a result, I’ve found this makes the aviator watches good for daily wear. Truth is, I don’t use half of the features on my current D2 Mach 1, which turned out to be a good sports watch and a comfortable daily wearer. I use it on my bicycle where it connects with all of Garmin’s cycling electronics, for running, snowboarding, paddling, and yes, in the airplane for measuring biometrics. I never use it to navigate.
The latest D2 Mach 2 built with an AMOLED display, sapphire lens, and leakproof buttons (it has a 40-meter dive rating and single-gas scuba dive activity) takes the utility a couple steps higher with detailed topography, terrain shading, color-coded airspace boundaries, user waypoints, intersections, and navaids. Garmin says they designed it to easily jump to the watch’s Maps from the Fly activity page and zoom into runways to view positioning and orientation.
There’s a fair amount of customization, where you can set personal minimums (MVFR, IFR, LIFR), max crosswind, max density altitude, max gust factor, max wind speed, minimum ceiling, and minimum visibility. Since the watch is configurable for nearest airport and multiple additional airports, the D2 Mach 2 monitors weather conditions against their own personal minimums and sends alerts when a threshold is crossed. The weather elements on the watch face will turn orange if the selected airport’s METAR is reporting weather conditions that exceed the user-configured personal minimums.
Garmin says the new D2 Air X15 is an everyday aviator/smartwatch. It has Gorilla Glass 3, with an electronic face that can dynamically change colors to match current flight conditions based on the user’s selected airport’s METAR. It has a built-in LED flashlight with multiple white light intensities and a red light for night ops. In aircraft with Garmin’s PlaneSync GDL 60 transceiver, you can access the aircraft dashboard to view the aircraft’s fuel, electrical, database, and location information remotely. The 45mm D2 Air X15 comes with a stainless steel or slate metal bezel with a black silicone band.
Each watch can display the day’s weather outlook and field conditions at the user’s chosen airport and receive a customized health summary based on sleep and activity patterns. There are also voice commands (the watches have a speaker and mic) to set a timer, start an activity, and use aviation-specific commands such as “Start Fly activity,” “Direct to,” and “Show me the METAR.” With Garmin’s Messenger App (used with the company’s InReach satcoms) you can communicate via the watch.
Choose Your Size
The D2 Mach 2 is available in two sizes and optional styling. The 47-mm version (priced slightly lower at $1,349.99) has a titanium bezel with polymer watch case and comes with an Oxford brown leather watch band. The 51-mm version has a carbon gray Diamond-like carbon (DLC) titanium bezel with polymer watch case and comes with a vented titanium bracelet with carbon gray DLC coating. Both options also come standard with a QuickFit Pilot blue/black silicone watch band—a better choice, from my experience, for everyday and sports use.
The watches are available now, and Smart Aviator magazine has already started evaluating the flagship model for an upcoming video report here on AvBrief.
Really? $1,499 for a watch?
Garmin does price it like an aviation item, for sure. But they are also well built, so there’s that I suppose.
Looking forward to the review!
I still have my D2 Delta that I bought at OSH when it was new, and aside from the power/data connector sometimes needing a wiggle to connect properly, the thing can take a beating and keeps on running. The one feature I wish it had was a pulse-ox, and is the only thing that would get me to upgrade to a newer model (because it otherwise still works great).
I have a D2 Delta I purchased at Oshkosh ~2018. A few years back the altimeter function got wacky so I inquired about a repair, $350 for an exchange, not my watch repaired. Their claim was it’s no longer supported. I think I paid around $1k for the watch and in 4-5 years they wanted 1/3 of the cost for a repair. I told them no thanks I can live with it the way it is.
Thanks for the review Larry. I’m deeply invested in Apple’s product line, and have an Apple Watch. The cost is substantially better and the battery can be replaced for $100. With aviation apps, such as WatchMETAR, and Windy on my watch face, along with other “complications” such as sunrise/sunset, outdoor temperature high/low, heart rate, exercise, and music. I can even show radar on my Apple Watch face using Windy, but rarely do. I’ve just never seen the advantage of Garmin’s pilot watches over Apple’s despite being a big Garmin and preferring Garmin Pilot over ForeFlight while in flight in my Bonanza that has a GDL88/Flightstream 210.
I don’t think anyone is going to navigate or flight plan on one, but that seems to be Garmin’s main selling point.
The only feature I’d like is continuous oximetry displayed on my Garmin Pilot screen. That will never happen using an Apple Watch. I’ve requested it to the developers at Garmin Pilot, who I correspond with intermittently.
My question is, with a Garmin watch with oximetry, how often is oximetry data refreshed? I would think continuously checking it would drain the battery rapidly, but for a pilot watch it would make sense to have the option to do so. Have you tried displaying oximetry on Garmin Pilot?
I just use my finger oximeter. It has worked well for 20 years and there’s usually no reason to keep checking it once I get the oxygen flow rate set and oxygen level stabilized. Plus, it seems to work better than the oximter in the Apple Watch, which requires one to be very still, and doesn’t work in turbulence.
Justin the new Garmin watches will measure SpO2 constantly when the watch is in the Fly activity. During non-flying wear, you can set for On Demand, During Sleep or All Day. It graphs the readings over time on a biometrics display that also displays Garmin’s body battery data. You can set Garmin Pilot app’s custom data field to display pulse ox readings from the connected watch.
Cool. Thanks for the follow up Larry!