What Is A Hiking GPS Watch?
In short, exactly what it sounds like: A watch that includes GPS functions and that is made to fulfill your needs on a hike. Beyond that, there’s a great deal of variation from watch to watch. For instance, not all hiking watches include GPS. And according to GPS Tracking Review, hiking GPS watches can offer a wide variety of functions and features to meet the needs of outdoor adventurers.
Some watches might include a heart rate monitoring function. Most hiking watches will include an altimeter, barometer, and compass (which is why they’re also sometimes referred to as ABC watches). The value of those three tools should be quite apparent when you are out in the woods or the mountains, as the altimeter can tell you your elevation, the barometer can help you see what the weather is doing, and the compass (in combination with a map, even if you don’t have GPS functions on your watch) can help you determine where you are. Some hiking watches even have built-in weather alerts.
Similarly, if you want to use your hiking watch for other sports, such as running, cycling, or swimming, you’ll want features that are applicable to those sports as well. If you want a watch that you can also use as an everyday watch, the design and style of the watch might be more important. If you hike in remote areas or heavily wooded areas that don’t get great GPS service, the ability to use more than one satellite system (such as GLONASS or Galileo, or both) might also be a major plus.
How Do Hiking GPS Watches Work?
Hiking GPS watches work by using triangulation and satellite data to determine where on earth you are, as well as your precise elevation. They do this by capturing data from at least three (but preferably four) satellites on the GPS (which stands for Global Positioning System) network to determine how far you are from each of those satellites, then using that data to determine your precise location.
The beauty of consistently knowing your precise location at set intervals (determined by the watch’s settings, though many are set at 1-second to 15-second intervals) is that you can determine your speed, distance, and other data by using that data set. Some GPS watches can even display real-time graphs so you can see how your speed and distance and even elevation profile has changed over time, based on the data your watch keeps in relation to your GPS location. As a result, a hiking GPS watch can also be thought of as a hiking GPS locator or hiking GPS tracker because it also serves those functions.
Hiking GPS Watch Accuracy On Trails
Of course, with any GPS device, there will always be a question of accuracy, especially when in locations where you might not get a particularly good satellite signal, such as in heavily wooded areas or in canyons, for instance, where the signal can bounce off the canyon wall. That’s one of the reasons why some watches have started using multiple systems, relying not only on the GPS satellite network but also on the GLONASS network and or Galileo satellite system so that they can get a more precise lock on your location. In general, hiking GPS watch accuracy is within 5 meters or so—roughly 16 feet—though there’s always some variance.
The best way to determine how accurate your watch generally is might be to talk to other hikers in your area. For instance, in some areas a Garmin Forerunner 935 might consistently measure one hike as 16 miles whereas the Suunto Ambit 3 Peak might measure it as 15 miles. The more time you spend with your watch, too, the better sense you’ll get for which conditions it seems to fare best in, as well as how it compares to the quoted distance of various trails.
Which Garmin GPS Watch Is Best For Hiking?
Ultimately, this comes down to your personal preference as to which features are most important to you. We’re partial to the Fenix 5 Plus if you want a feature-laden watch, however, the Forerunner 935 if you want multisport functionality (particularly if you want to use your watch for swimming, too), the Foretrex 401 if you want the capability of putting your watch on your other outdoor toys (as it can be mounted on a kayak or bike), or, if you want a watch you can wear for everyday life, either the Fenix 3 HR or the Forerunner 235.
The truth is that Garmin makes a great line of hiking GPS watch choices, regardless of how you’re going to use your watch or where you are going to take it, and as long as you do your research to ensure that the watch you purchase will work for what you want to do with it, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these watches.