Garmin Australia has announced the Approach S60, its newest GPS golf watch with a sunlight-readable colour touchscreen display and sleek new design that works well on and off the course. It is preloaded with more than 40,000 courses from around the world with lifetime updates.
It features full-colour course view mapping, quick access to critical information needed during a round like precise yardages to greens, hazards and doglegs to help players master their game.
Adam Howarth, general manager, Garmin Australasia, said, “The Approach S60 is as functional a golf watch as it is a stylish timepiece.
"It is packed with industry-leading features golfers have come to appreciate and rely on with our Approach series — like advanced AutoShot, SwingTempo, and touch targeting — yet it’s the most stylish golf watch we’ve offered so it can easily be worn 24/7.”
{loadposition ray}It features the popular QuickFit watchbands that can be easily interchanged in seconds, without tools in coloured silicone, leather or stainless steel styles, and can be interchanged with many Garmin multisport watches, including the fēnix 5 series.
The new free Garmin Golf app lets users compete in weekly leaderboards on any golf course. It enables users to compete against friends and fellow golfers on the same course, plus view other players’ rank, score, handicap and more. Players can set up their own tournament event and invite multiple friends to compete, plus they can chat with each other and post their results for others to see. Using the Approach S60, players can also utilise the app for live scoring as they’re playing their round; scores entered on the device will automatically sync to the app for instant updates as they play.
Garmin AutoShot game tracking technology allows players to review, map and analyse all of their detected shots from each round they play with the Approach S60. It automatically records the location and distance of each detected shot and uploads it to the user’s Garmin Connect account for post-round analysis.
Players can also use AutoShot data to compare stats from previous rounds, review distances for each club, and analyse their tendencies as they fine tune their game. The Garmin Connect mobile app can also be used to receive updates to the courses users play the most thanks to the CourseView auto updater, which automatically sends updates to the device.
SwingTempo measures the relationship between upswing and downswing, and TempoTraining that uses a 3:1 ratio and gives the user vibrations to synchronise their swing mechanics and fine-tune their swing tempo. When paired with the Garmin TruSwing sensor, it can also provide the user with swing speed and club path angles to improve their swing consistency.
It also measures precise distances to the front, back and middle of the green as well as the distance to course targets like sand traps, water hazards, lay-ups and doglegs. Golfers can use the Green View feature to see the outline of the green on each hole, where they can manually position the pin to that day’s location to get the most accurate measurements.
A new PlaysLike feature considers the elevation change between the player and the target and calculates what the distance will play like. For example, if the shot is downhill, PlaysLike will show that the shot will play shorter than it is.
It doubles as an all-day activity tracker to monitor and record daily steps, calories burned, distance and sleep, with move alerts to keep users active throughout the day. It also receives smart notifications like weather, call, texts, emails and more right on their watch.
It can get up to ten hours of battery life golfing and up to ten days in watch mode with activity tracking. It has a 5 ATM water rating.
It is available now in black or white with a recommended retail price of $579. A premium version with a scratch-resistant ceramic bezel and black leather band will also be available for $699.
