1. Garmin Instinct Solar Custom Watch Face
2. Garmin Instinct Custom Watch Face Display
3. Garmin Instinct Custom Watch Face Apps

Customizing the Watch Face. From the watch face, hold Menu. Select Watch Face. Press UP or DOWN to preview the watch face options. Press Enter on the desired watch face. Select an option by pressing Enter: To activate the watch face, select Apply. To customize the data that appears on the watch face, select Customize. Custom watchfaces in the Garmin instinct AidanM 5 months ago Hi all, who thinks that it would be a great idea to get the Garmin instinct line of watches onto the Garmin connect IQ store and allow us users to get exclusive instinct style watch faces and apps from there? To use the connected features of the Instinct device, it must be ™ ® ™ ®. Learn how to customize the watch face and widget loop on your Garmin Instinct™ watch.For more help, visit http://support.garmin.com.

Time is an illusion. (Albert Einstein)
Lunchtime – doubly so. (Douglas Adams)

There’s a good chance you’re wearing a watch on your wrist right now, and if you’re not wearing a horologically significant or sentimental time piece you’re probably wearing a smart watch, and if you’re wearing a smart watch it should be a Garmin watch (they did NOT pay me to say this)

Garmin watches are awesome. They are rugged, they hold the battery charge for days, some models even weeks, and they are highly customizable.
It is that last aspect that we’re going to concentrate on in this tutorial.

Garmin has an equivalent of Apple App Store (good name) or Google Play Store (horrible name), and it’s called Garmin Connect IQ Store (I’d like to be in that naming meeting)

App development for Garmin watches is done using proprietary language “Monkey C” (https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/monkey-c/) (probably named in that same meeting after everyone got drunk)

…yeah, really! What’s next? Monkey Do?

So, with that in mind, we’re going to design and implement a watch dial in monkey-c and deploy it to Garmin’s IQ store.

I wanted the watch face to look like Casio G-Shock because they are awesome, particularly G-LIDE model (GBX100)

I wanted the dial to show time, date, weather, pulse, steps, calories, distance walked today, and battery charge. I didn’t want to ask users for any extra permissions and I wanted this app to be as easy on the battery as possible, without any background processing.

I went on to design the dial on a piece of paper as I’ve heard that designing upfront makes the whole development process easier, and so I went through a couple of iterations.

Nothing exciting to talk about here, I just followed Garmin’s getting started guide: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/connect-iq-basics/getting-started/
In short, you’ll need to download and install the Connect IQ SDK, sign up for dev account, install Eclipse (yuck) if you don’t already have one, install Connect IQ Eclipse plug-in, which turns Eclipse into a Connect IQ development environment, and generate dev key.
The installation will be somewhat painful if it’s your first development endeavor, but nothing like installation of an IBM Websphere Portal.

After all installation is done you can go ahead and create your own sample app to make sure everything works.

Follow this: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/connect-iq-basics/your-first-app/
Once all steps are completed, run the app and this is what you’ll see in a simulator:

If you followed the instructions to the letter then you’ve probably installed command line tools, which give you wonderful commands like:

// Compile the executable:
> monkeyc -d fenix5plus -f /path/to/monkey.jungle -o project_name.prg -y /path/to/Dev_Key

// Run in the simulator
> monkeydo myApp.prg fenix5plus

I’m starting to really like these Garmin folks, they seem to have a sense of humor.

Source code of the sample app looks very much like Android source code, with classes extending Views, xml layouts and referencing elements by id:

Again, the way layout works is very similar to Android, the watch face layout is located in /resources/layouts/layout.xml

It looks like Garmin is running a highly customized version of Android, so Android devs will feel right at home here… if you want a flashback to the early days of Android.

Unlike working in Android Studio however, working in Eclipse feels like I’m back in early 2000s. It’s clunky and unnatural and unintuitive. Something that only takes a few seconds to implement in Android Studio now takes forever in Eclipse. This makes you really appreciate JetBrains’ IDEs (They did not pay me to say this.)

When laying out the elements on the watch face you have to remember that the coordinate system is based on a square screen, so the corners are beyond the round viewport of the watch. So, if you place something in the corners they will not show up, you’ll have to experiment with coordinates, like in the layout I have below:

You can define coordinates in pixels or percent.

I also wanted to display a grid of gray lines, like on Casio watches, this is taken care of by:

<drawable id=“scaffolding”></drawable> which references scaffolding.xml:

At this point all data except for the time is hardcoded. Time to connect it to the real data.

For getting the data on the screen we’ll use

Toybox.ActivityMonitor gives us heart rate, steps, burned calories and distance walked/ran since midnight. The distance is in cm, so we’ll have to convert it to miles or km based on system settings

Toybox.System gives us clock and battery

Toybox.Weather gives us weather

Toybox.Application gives us access to properties that can be set by the user in the app settings.

So now, once we have a layout defined, we can get the element in code by

Garmin Instinct Solar Custom Watch Face

and set its value, for example for the hours and minutes:

There is a way to create a watch face that would accept users’ custom settings, like for colors, or optional fields on the screen. For this you’ll define resources/settings/settings.xml

and resources/settings/properties.xml

To run settings screen for the simulator, use Eclipse’s ConnectIQ tab, then select App Settings Editor.

One of the main struggles I had was the battery icon. I wanted it to be a proper graph, indicating a real-time charge level. The problem is all Garmin devices have different resolutions, and there’s no notion of DIP in Garmin (Density Independent Pixels) So, I had to create my own DIP calculation:

Please don’t laugh, my brain still hurts.

Oh yeah, and be prepared to draw or modify icons pixel by pixel, and with specific colors Garmin recognizes. I used Gimp, it’s free and it’s awesome:

Anyway, after all said and done here’s what I got:

You can find it in Garmin’s app store here: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/c2f2b648-ab65-4329-991a-b9f240bcb92f

It’s great to be able to develop watch faces and apps for smart watches, and I feel that Garmin is making the whole process easy for new developers, especially if you have some Android background.
The only suggestion I have is to make the dev environment a little friendlier and documentation more organized. Working with Eclipse and Garmin’s plugin is a huge step back when compared to Android Studio and Intelli-J that it’s based on.

Working with current dev documentation can be frustrating and you’ll end up hunting for a simple answer forever.

Also, there’s a great forum for Garmin devs: https://forums.garmin.com/developer/connect-iq/

You’ll meet a lot of good folks there. They have changed my perspective on Garmin development from negative to positive over the course of 3 weeks.

Developers and the engaging and appreciative users are what made me enjoy the whole process.

Happy coding!

Joe Berger

References:

Garmin Instinct Custom Watch Face Display

Special thanks to Joshua Miller for inspiration: https://medium.com/@JoshuaTheMiller/making-a-watchface-for-garmin-devices-8c3ce28cae08

The Garmin Instinct Solar smartwatch’s looks won’t inspire poets. It also won’t complement your evening wear at a fancy dinner party. That’s the point. With its hefty fiber-reinforced polymer case, recessed glass face, and chunky buttons, the watch feels like a muscular rebuke of the sleek, minimalist fitness trackers produced by other companies. This burly fitness watch is built for adventure.

Released in 2018, the original Garmin Instinct watch was a popular, durable fitness tracker with a deep feature well. The first Garmin Instinct watch offered fitness tracking, health monitoring, exercise challenges, as well as outdoor GPS and mapping. The Instinct Solar watch, as its name suggests, adds the company’s innovative solar charging tech, which allows it to run almost endlessly without the need for a wired charger. Still, its appeal goes well beyond its longevity. In addition to advanced sports and fitness tracking, the Garmin Instinct Solar includes advanced navigation features and typical smartwatch Bluetooth connectivity with an iPhone or Android device.

Make plenty of room on your wrist for this sizeable watch.

I was surprised by how comfortable the Garmin Instinct Solar watch felt on my wrist. Despite the fitness watch’s relatively large size—45 mm in diameter, 15.3 mm thick, but only 53 grams—I barely noticed it after a week of use. I wore it on jogs, to the gym, while packing to move to a new apartment, and on the job as a professional cameraman. The latter is particularly important to me; I’m already lugging all sorts of camera gear, I don’t want something hanging off my wrist that distracts me when I’m trying to shoot. Plus, I never knew previously how much of a workout I was getting on set; it was nice to learn that my job gives me a passable excuse to skip the gym.

The basic silicone watch band packaged with the Instinct Solar fit my average-sized wrist comfortably, but it trapped a lot of sweat. Thankfully, the Garmin watch uses quick-release pins to make it easy to swap out bands and there are plenty of replacement options to choose from. Garmin and other third-party manufacturers offer them in a variety of materials like leather, nylon, and plastic. There are plenty of color options as well. I even found people making and selling compatible custom watch bands on Etsy.

You can buy the Garmin Instinct Solar in five different colors; the review sample was a dark gray called “Graphite.” The face has button names printed in white on the edge of the watch’s glass. Secondary functions appear molded into the bezel and painted black. My only complaint is that the black lettering on the dark grey plastic is nearly impossible to read without holding the watch up close to my eyes. However, the buttons are large enough to find without searching. Once I had memorized the basic user interface, navigating functions became much faster—and I didn’t need to squint.

The large face has plenty of room for information.

Garmin Instinct Custom Watch Face Apps

I grew up in the ’80s with old Casio solar watches that wasted about 30 percent of the face’s real estate on photon-gathering panels. Whatever buttons the watch had were crammed in like passengers on a crowded subway car. Garmin avoids this problem by collecting solar energy through what the company calls “Power Glass,” which sits behind a scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla shield (you can read more about how it works here). The clever design has a matte finish that you won’t even notice after a few days.

While the Garmin Instinct Solar isn’t ugly, it’s also not shy about its rugged nature. It pairs with a fancy suit or dress like wine pairs with Pop Rocks. But since when does that matter in a sports watch? This exercise tool is built tough to withstand your workout or a no-holds-barred afternoon on the field. It laughs at sweat, wipes clean after hiking through the mud, and won’t run out of power when you decide to run a super marathon through the desert—or spend a long weekend working in your garden. Even after a few weeks of rigorous testing, our review unit didn’t look any worse for wear.

Setting up the Garmin Instinct Solar smartwatch was simple and fast. While the watch comes with a partial charge out of the box, you’ll still need to fully charge it by plugging it into a power source via the included multi-pin USB cable. I had to supply my own outlet adapter. The charging cable physically plugs into the watch instead of relying on the familiar magnetic wireless charging found on other popular smartwatches like the Apple Watch. The direct connection isn’t as convenient, but it is faster.

Here's a look at the thickness as well as the buttons on the side.

Once charged, I was surprised at how easily the watch guided me through set-up. Clear prompts lead me step-by-step through the process, which took roughly 10 minutes. The free Garmin Connect app for your iOS or Android phone and then make sure Bluetooth is activated. The watch syncs up quickly. Once linked, the Garmin Instinct Solar asks for biometric data, including your height, weight, and stride length (I had to double-check all three) in order to better establish exercise routines, set goals, and track activities.

The Garmin Instinct Solar watch delivers a lot of information via its monochrome memory-in-pixel display. It lacks some of the fancy visual tricks found on watches with full-color screens, but that’s almost a relief. The display is clean, bold, sharp, and you can read important information at a glance without having to interrupt your activity. It has an adjustable backlight for use at night. Garmin also makes it easy to customize the watch face to fit your tastes. I like a very simple arrangement with time and date that I can read quickly. But, if you hike, maybe you want to see sun-up and sunset (vampires will like that, too, I’d imagine). Those counting steps can create a face that includes that information.

While simplicity is a nice benefit, maximizing battery life provides the primary motivation for the monochrome face. Garmin says that the watch never needs to be charged off its cord if it’s used for at least three hours in direct sunlight each day. I certainly found this to be true; the only times I needed to charge it were when I was stuck inside at the editing bay.

Switching between active apps and widgets is easy using the Garmin’s up/down buttons to change screens. However, the “instinct” in the Instinct Solar’s name doesn’t quite refer to its user interface, which isn’t as intuitive as it could be. It sometimes took me a while to find the function I wanted and many of the widgets contain their own set of submenus. There were definitely times when searching for a particular setting was almost as much of a workout as any of the activities I had planned. But with use, the system made more sense and I eventually found it fairly quick to navigate the watch’s interface. Expect at least a slight learning curve.

This GPS fitness watch tracks a wide range of athletic activities—like biking, paddling, hiking, walking, hunting, and rafting—and it even has a triathlon mode. It offers a few different running options, including outdoor running, indoor track running, and trail running to meet whatever challenges you set for yourself. Not just focused on monitoring its own power reserves, the Garmin Instinct Solar’s sensors also work together to optimize what Garmin calls your “Body Battery.” Wellness monitoring includes heart rate, stress, sleep, and blood oxygen levels, and there’s even a Virtual Trainer to help you develop exercise routines that fit your lifestyle. Ultimately, it’s at least one step beyond what you’d expect from a do-it-all smartwatch like the Apple Watch.

Like all Garmin smartwatches, the Instinct Solar syncs with the Garmin Connect app. If you own multiple Garmin watches, you can select the one you want active in the app with the touch of a button. The app shines when it’s tracking your activities. My wife and I went for a bike ride around town and the watch told me not only my heart rate, how many calories I burned, and other biometric stats, but it also gave me an extremely accurate map of where we rode. It measured elevation and ambient temperature as well—information that would be extremely useful if I were training for bike races.

I really enjoyed “TracBack” routing, which kept track of me as I walked through a large, urban park. It generated a map that helped me get back to where I started, and then made it easy to retrace my steps with my wife to show her some of the sites I found. No surprise that Garmin produces a watch with excellent GPS, and the watch connects to GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS systems to cover you anywhere on the planet.

The Garmin Connect app opened the door to an online community and, once connected, I found people to challenge me, cheer on my successes, and provide helpful fitness tips. It’s easy to link up with friends. I found one of mine from college, and we spent two days seeing who could wrack up more steps. The friendly competition provided great motivation no matter how lazy I felt.

Other online tools include something called Garmin Coach, which provides customizable training via videos made by noted running experts. You can set race goals—whether you’re a beginner or experienced runner—as well as personalized training plans. It’s easy to access these online features, and I was impressed by Garmin’s app-based user interface.

The Garmin Instinct Solar watch connected seamlessly to my iPhone 12 Mini, which I loved being able to leave in my back pocket most of the time. I set the watch to vibrate whenever a new message came in and, with a flick of my finger, I could access Spotify to advance through songs on my playlist. This was particularly useful when I was on a shoot and my hands were full. In short, it handled the day-to-day smartwatch stuff well, which isn’t always a given with some of the more fitness-oriented wearables. That’s especially true with devices that don’t offer any screen at all, like the Fitbit Flex 2 or the Amazon Halo.

Fitness trackers have become essential gear for athletes, people concerned with health, or anyone living an active lifestyle. The Garmin Instinct Solar watch builds on the original Instinct watch and provides a host of features at a price in line with feature-rich smartwatches (though a little less than fashion-forward flagship models). Sure, it’s far more practical than stylish, but its ability to operate endlessly with no need for a charging cable will more than make up for that with adventurous types. Campers and hikers, or people who work outside for a living, can rejoice at the freedom they feel with this Garmin watch while pausing every once in a while to check a notification or change a song.

Brian S. Hawkins is a journalist and documentary maker who focuses on technology and pop culture. He has contributed product reviews and recommendations to Popular Science since early 2020.