Description
- 1.2” easy-to-read color touchscreen display with interchangeable quick release bands
- Battery life: up to 15 hours in GPS mode, and up to 10 days in smartwatch mode
- Green View feature allows manual pin positioning; quickly reference distances to the front, middle and back of the green as well as hazards and doglegs
- The AutoShot round analyzer measures and auto-records detected shot distances distances (lie and ball contact may affect shot tracking) and pairs with optional Approach CT10 club tracking sensors (sold separately) for more automatic game tracking capabilities
- Offers smart notifications (when paired with a compatible smartphone) and estimated activity-tracking features such as steps, sleep and built-in sports profiles
- Pair with the Garmin Golf app (when downloaded on a compatible smartphone) for live scoring, automatic scorecard uploads and to review all your stats in one place
- More than 42,000 CourseView maps preloaded from around the world
Book lover –
Since I walk the course I needed something to know distance to The green. This little smart watch is so easy to use and convenient. Worth the $$. Long battery life too!
Corry moench –
Watch works perfectly when you remember to activate the golf course. For the most part the yards are perfect, have tested many times and compared with my range finder and it is extremely similar x well worth the money
Richard Maiden –
It has lots of features so keep playng with it to maximise. the strap seems a little short for people with thicker wrists
Amazon Customer –
Could not re-charge the watch – watch might be expensive the charge unit is cheap
Truth –
Gives good yardages, has good battery life, other features such as interface with phone work great. I had an S40 that I liked and I love this S42. Better battery and interface. Not too large of face for smaller wrist.
Very easy to use, unlike the more expensive one.
DrDUTVol –
Love this golf gps watch. It’s very accurate compared to my range finder data and keeps scoring (for single player) plus handicap tracking and driver distances. >40K golf courses included, even Jamaican courses were on it when I traveled recently. A great buy!
David Hall –
I’m a professional caddie, and need a reliable, accurate GPS watch which doesn’t go wonky during my loop. Although this is the most accurate of the 4 or 5 Golf GPS watches I’ve owned, it also has some annoying quirks. Here’s my list of Pro and Con attributes of the Garmin Approach S42:
Pro:
1. The Approach S42 is by far the most accurate of any GPS watch I’ve ever used. I’ve compared yardages to both sprinkler head and laser rangefinder readings, and it’s dead on. This is especially helpful when I’m caddying at someplace other than my home course for a USGA tournament or qualifier. During a practice round, I can make notes in my yardage book knowing that the distances are 100% good.
2. I’m able to caddie for 36 consecutive holes and still have plenty of battery charge left.
3. The readout is very visible in every light condition, and the graphics are razor sharp.
4. The watch band is comfortable and fits over shirt, pullover, and rain jacket sleeves.
CON:
1. Initial Set-Up was a painful experience. Included instruction manual isn’t well-written, and lacks sufficient detail.
2. This watch is NOT good during a rainy golf round, unless set to lock screen all the time. When worn under the sleeve of my rain jacket, the GPS signal is blocked, and it starts defaulting to weird screens, like a close-up of the green when I’m still 200 yards out. Even worse, I have a heck of a time getting the watch to go back to the regular yardages screen. When I wear it outside of my jacket sleeve, the raindrops cause the touchscreen to change randomly. I’ve had to set the watch to automatically lock during the round, which makes it slow to display yardages to hazards…but that doesn’t matter much, as I explain below.
3. I’m not a fan of the way this watch shows distances to hazards, as it includes bunkers, etc, on adjacent fairways which aren’t in play. I’ve stopped using this feature as a result, instead relying on my yardage book and laser sighting, or memory on my home course.
4. I wish that this watch showed the time on the screen during the round. It’s a pain to switch screens, when all I need is a quick glance to see how our group’s pace of play is going. Plus sometimes when I switch to another screen, it won’t go back to the regular yardage screen.
5. The Bluetooth linkage with my computer and mobile phone was erratic, randomly choosing to display text message or email alerts sometimes, and then nothing 5 minutes later. I have noticed improvement after I switched to a higher-end iPhone with a lot more memory and battery capacity. To be honest, this isn’t an essential feature for me.
Bottom Line: If there was a way to have this GPS watch’s amazing accuracy, easily-readable face, and comfortable band without all of the not-so-helpful features, plus display the time during the round, and work effectively in stormy weather, I’d be a happy caddie! (NOTE: I’ve owned lower-end models of Garmin golf GPS watches, and they’ve lacked the outstanding accuracy of this model. I’m willing to put up with the quirks, because precise yardages are much more important than anything else to me.)
Amazon Customer –
Easy to use and recharge. Great value with many functions for the golfer.
Rigoberto Carrillo Serrano –
Aún no lo estreno pero bien
Bullseye –
This is a great mid-level option for a great golf watch. I’ve tried a few other watches and devices that proved to be of limited value or were just to cumbersome and intrusive to use during play. The S42 strikes a nice balance. Here are some responses to the negative reviews that I read and some thoughts…
-Screen brightness. I’m not sure why some have an issue is here, it seems fine to me. Keep in mind that Garmin uses a transflective screen rather than an OLED/AMOLED screens of other devices. The transflective screen provides better visibility in direct harsh sun than other screens found on watches or tablets. It also does not require a backlight (but it has one to be readable unless in darkness). The downside is that resolution isn’t as good as your Apple watch…. but we’re keeping golf score and tracking distances, not watching 4k movies… so it is more than adequate. Also note that when you interact with the device, the backlight comes on briefly to help with visibility. The backlight then turns off very quickly in the factory setting… you can change this duration in the settings so that the backlight stays on longer… if you have an issue, just adjust the duration setting.
-Acquiring satellites. My watch seemed to acquire satellites quickly (2-3 minutes) if kept open to the sky for just a few minutes. (it should be obvious, but do this outside!) It took even less time to acquire satellites on the second use. Pro-Tip: Set your watch up at home and get familiar with the functions, let it locate satellites in your area… there are some great videos and the manual is very straightforward. Don’t wait til you get to the course to crack open the box with 10 minutes to your tee time!
-Easy to use/ Easy to understand the UI. It is VERY simple to use. Very! The manual is simple and easy as is the device. As I said, just spend a few minutes playing with it before you get to the course… it’s very intuitive. Even without the manual, it’s pretty easy to figure things out. You will, however, get a better understanding of all the features if you watch some videos and read the manual.
-Score keeping was really good, fast easy and you can track some stats and it will even do some club/shot tracking. I’ve used tons of devices for score from phone apps and watches, this one is one of the fastest and easiest even when tracking stats (# of putts, penalties, etc) It’s nice to be able to play a round without pulling your phone out.
-Club Shot tracking – This worked great. Really good even without the CT10 sensors. Just go into the app before hand and list the clubs in your bag. It picked up all my shots very well with the understandable exception of putts and light chips. You can review your shot history on a course map in the app and even make adjustments after play.
-Accuracy – It was spot on. I read some other reviews that listed this as a problem. It was spot on for me all day.
It’s a price-point device… not the most feature rich but not barebones either. I think it strikes a great balance between providing some data and scoring and keeping it simple and fast to use without becoming a distraction out on the course.
Mike M –
This watch works really well if worn on the lead wrist. Right handed, on the left wrist. This allows it to detect impact of a shot being hit and automates the distance tracking feature for each shot. Hazards are put in order from your next shot going away. Easy to scroll thru and see distance to enter a hazard and distance to clear that hazard. It takes a few minutes to read the directions but it was quite easy to figure out. The touch screen can be a bit finicky at times. The ability to move the flag stick around on the green view is nice but again it’s a watch face. So I did get some crazy distances a few times because I had lost the flag stick completely from the green view and it was moved over 2 holes away! I figured it out after a couple of instances of that. Happy with it so far. Played 6 rounds with no issues.