It's unique and beautiful!
I purchased the Garmin "D2 Mach 1" smartwatch as a gift to myself for having reached 50 years of flight experience as a general aviation pilot. Although this smartwatch has tons of sports, health, and fitness features built into it, as do all of the Garmin smartwatches, I will stick to its aviation aspects in this review. In searching around for an appropriate present, I found only two other current smartwatches that come close to having all of the unique aviation-oriented features as does the Garmin "D2 Mach 1". They are the Garmin "Marq Aviator" (at twice the price) and the Garmin "D2 Air X10" (at half the price), which doesn't have the moving map display, the EFIS type of altimeter watch face, the wind vector arrow on its runway in-use graphic on its default watch face, nor some other features as does the "Mach 1". Also, the "Mach 1", in my personal opinion, is a more upscale and better looking 'pilot's watch' whereas the "X10" looks more like a 'regular' watch. Don't get me wrong...I am not disparaging the "X10" as it is a very nice looking smartwatch with a ton of aviation related features and at half the price of the "Mach 1". The "D2 Mach 1", however, has the appearance a more expensive traditional pilot's watch that grabs your attention, and it has even more aviation tools and capabilities than does the "X10". You really couldn't go wrong with either watch. The "D2 Air X10" is a fantastic aviation smartwatch. The "Mach 1" is even more fantastic!! The "Marq Aviator", Garmin's top smartwatch, has no more aviation features than the "Mach 1", but it costs over two grand 😯 (as of this writing)! I must admit that there is a steep (and I mean REALLY STEEP) learning curve in becoming familiar with, and proficient in using, all of the unique capabilities of the "D2 Mach1". It's not something that you take out of the box, strap onto your wrist, and go flying with. I mean you can do that, but you'll be using it for little more than a basic timepiece without digging in and learning how to call up and use the tools that it offers. Just think in terms of your first experiences flying with a G-1000 or other Electronic Flight Instrumentation System with soft keys that pull up various screens and perform a myriad of functions, and you'll get the idea of what using this watch is like. It's a Garmin! If you've used their equipment before then you know that they pack a ton of functions into their packages! Once you explore and learn how to really use the "Mach 1", it's a dream to have. 😃 There are only two things that didn't thrill me about this smartwatch. 1, you cannot make or receive phone calls or do anything voice wise with it. For the amount of money that you shell out for this watch it should have this feature as do many far less expensive smartwatches. And 2, which is highly subjective on my part, was its bezel. It has a matte aluminum look with information etched above each pusher (button) on the watch case describing their function(s)...but in the same color as the bezel itself thus becoming difficult to read, due to the lack of contrast, in some lighting conditions. I would have preferred a more traditional "GMT" type of bezel showing a 24-hour day in a contrasting color to the watch case (similar to the "Marq Aviator"). So how did I remedy that? I did some research and found a bezel ring on Amazon, that fits right on top of the watch bezel, that looks a bit more to my liking. It has 360-degree compass markings on it instead of the GMT hour markers that I was looking for (see picture), but I think that it brings a more tactical look to the watch than does the original watch bezel...and for less than $20.00! Unfortunately, I couldn't find any bezel rings that were designed specifically for the "D2 Mach 1", but I did find some that were made for the Garmin "Fenix 7" which has the same dimensions as the "D2 Mach 1", so I got one and it fit my new Garmin perfectly! 😁 If Ringke or some other manufacturer comes out with a GMT style bezel ring for my "Mach 1", I will definitely check it out. For the time being, however, I am very happy with my Garmin D2 Mach 1 aviation smartwatch (despite its hefty $1,200.00 price tag). 😉 It's almost like having a "Glass Cockpit" built into your watch! Read more
