Digital Smartwatch in Analog Clothing: Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED Review

A small, seemingly innocuous update is sometimes all a piece of gear needs to become a near-perfect design. For example, Fenix’s PD36R ACE is now “near perfection” just by adding USB-C charging. Turtlebox did the same thing with waterproof speakers, just by taking its flagship design and shrinking it down to the Ranger.

With the Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED, the beloved technology brand has finally made a hybrid watch that looks and feels like the premium product that it is — just by adding a better display.

Garmin first released its Crossover lineup in 2022, blending smartwatch technology with functional analog hands. The Crossover series also falls under the rugged Instinct collection, made for outdoor athletes who bang up their gear.

But unlike past Instinct Crossover models, this one is the first version with a full-color AMOLED screen. It also improves on past models by adding enhanced GPS capabilities and an integrated two-color LED flashlight (which turns out to be surprisingly useful).

In short: The Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED ($650) is an analog smartwatch that tracks health metrics, has GPS navigation, and more functions. It’s a good-looking and durable watch that tracks data and presents it in a non-overwhelming way. For those who prefer analog watches, it’s one of the few smartwatch options out there. It’s a bit overpriced compared to the competition, but there isn’t much out there quite like this.

Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED Review

I’ve never been a fan of most smartwatch designs. The number-centric, candy-colored displays always turned me off, and I’ve had an irrational dislike of something that automatically tracks everything I do. (After all, I already have an iPhone.)

At the same time, I understand that these watches are most helpful when worn nearly all the time. That way, you can benefit from the incredible amount of health and exercise data that they provide. But I never wanted something that felt like a glorified video game controller strapped to my wrist at all times.

But this dang watch has tapped into a sweet spot I didn’t know was there. As an analog watch (especially in the bronze/sunburst color that Garmin sent me), it appears fun and playful. It doesn’t even look like a smartwatch. But when you do use those smartwatch features (be they health stats, exercise data, or navigation), it’s far easier to understand and process the menus with a full-color AMOLED screen.

The standard version of Garmin’s Instinct Crossover series uses an MIP screen. It’s functional but bland, and (at least for me) not as enjoyable to use. So there’s no denying the beauty of this hybrid design. It proves just how big a difference a high-contrast screen can make.

Like the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED (the non-analog version of this watch), the Crossover also lacks turn-by-turn maps. But it doesn’t really need them, either.

Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED: Design Details

Like most Garmins, the Instinct Crossover AMOLED is hard to break. It has a fiber-reinforced polymer case, stainless steel bezel, and a flat sapphire crystal above the display. You’d have to work pretty hard to even scratch this puppy. I can attest to this through my own testing. I’m naturally apathetic about visual damage to gear, so whatever I use gets banged up pretty quickly.

That said, the watch is still fairly light at 67 g, including the strap. That’s not too bad for a bulky design like this. The watch is 46.6mm in diameter and 17mm in thickness.

Garmin’s two-piece silicone strap uses a tang buckle with two silicone keepers. This tried-and-true band design also includes a small tab on the second keeper to prevent slippage. (I’ve tried some of the other “watch band innovations” and they just don’t work as well, in my opinion.)

Regardless, the strap attaches to the watch lugs via standard spring bars. That way, you can always swap out the band for something you like better. The watch is also water-resistant up to 100 m, making it a solid choice for swimmers, if not scuba divers.

A Hybrid Interface

For those unfamiliar with the Crossover series, the watch’s default function is analog. At a quick glance, its black face and two hands make it look highly minimal.

Once you look closer, a customizable screen pops up behind the hands. It can be changed to a variety of options, including those that offer some extra data at a glance, like the date, battery life, steps taken, sunrise/sunset times, and the body battery.

When you venture into the watch’s wealth of menus for health and exercise tracking, the analog hands automatically move to an unobtrusive position, usually lateral or vertical. This worked seamlessly for me. It’s a testament to Garmin’s design team that I never felt frustrated with this hybrid analog/digital interface.

I also think the introduction of an AMOLED screen is a big part of why the interface works so well. Having a full-color screen allows for more information more concisely, which is even more important when you’re dealing with the smaller visual area of an analog hybrid like this.

This watch doesn’t have a touchscreen, however. Instead, the buttons are used for in-watch navigation. They have both single-click and hold-click functions to make this easier. But it still takes some time to get used to, and I wouldn’t call it swift, especially compared to the dial on Coros watches.

Testing: From Nebraska Hunts to Georgia Weddings

One of the biggest issues for me with smartwatches is how much they demand constant interaction. Most of these watches are meant to be worn all the time. They often fail to maintain the same degree of usefulness if you (gasp!) decide to wear something else or even avoid wearables entirely for a few days.

Garmin’s watches can certainly function as 24/7 wearables, but I find them more amenable to on-and-off wearers (like myself) than many competitors.

I already receive too many notifications on my smartphone, thank you very much. With this Instinct Crossover AMOLED, I only messed with its internal menus when I really wanted to check something or record an activity. Otherwise, it leaves me alone and just tells me the time.

That “waiting-in-the-wings” capability is probably my favorite thing about this watch.

Perhaps as a partial result of that respect for my attention, I ended up using this watch during far more activities than others I’ve tried. It came with me on daily runs, all-day road cycling, mountain biking, and even indoor and outdoor rock climbing. Honestly, the list of activities this watch can track is overwhelming. Suffice it to say that your preferred sport or exercise is likely represented.

When I climbed multi-pitch crack routes in California on a media trip with Patagonia, I strapped it to my harness and recorded the routes. Even so, it got pretty banged up on a classic offwidth, yet the scratches are only visible with an extremely close inspection.

I even used it during a week-long hunt trip in rural Nebraska, where its powerful, built-in flashlight proved quite valuable for avoiding cow patties while walking in pitch darkness to the porta-potty. While some may write off a watch flashlight as a mere gimmick, the brightness of this torch is no joke. Moreover, it comes with several light settings, including a red-light option for stealthy night activities.

Visually, it’s also quite fetching. When I wore the watch to a recent wedding gig, I half expected to get ribbed by my bandmates for not wearing something more elegant. Instead, they all asked about it and wondered if I would gift it to one of them once I finished my review. (Sorry, guys, but I’m keeping this bad boy.)

Battery Life & Other Features

Many of us have begun to feel the fatigue of constantly charging our devices. It can often feel like just another thing to worry about. That’s especially true with smartwatches, since their analog predecessors can still run for ages without a new battery or tune-up.

Garmin has long excelled in the battery life category, especially compared to the Apple Watch. That’s even true of the Instinct Crossover AMOLED — despite the fact that AMOLED displays use more juice than lower-contrast options like MIP or LCD. But even with the upgraded display, this watch can last for 18 days in power-saver mode.

Without that, the battery can last for about 14 days with low use. In my case, it typically lasted for about 10 days before needing a recharge. The more you use the AMOLED display, GPS tracking, and especially the flashlight, you’ll drain the battery much more quickly.

Speaking of GPS, the Instinct Crossover AMOLED also boasts improved GPS compared to past models in the series. Like its non-analog cousin, the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED, this watch has multiband GPS. It can use SatIQ technology, which chooses which satellite band will offer the best performance based on your location.

Like most Garmin smartwatches, the Instinct Crossover AMOLED comes with the laundry list of features you’d expect. So while this is an uber-durable timepiece for any outdoor adventure, it also offers plenty of health data, like sleep tracking, heart rate, stress, and more.

Health Tracking

Regarding the health metrics available here, I will build on the comments from my colleague, Nick LeFort. In his review of the non-analog Instinct 3, he noted that the sleep functions on the watch proved to be a surprisingly salient feature during his testing. I had the same experience with the Instinct Crossover.

Like the Instinct 3, the Crossover AMOLED version also offers a nightly sleep mode that keeps the watch on a Do Not Disturb function while tracking your hours of sleep (complete with a breakdown of REM, deep sleep, etc.) and heart rate. While initially dismissive of this function, it ended up being quite helpful, as sleep has become increasingly difficult for me lately, for various reasons.

I’m generally interested in using the many health metrics available on devices like these. However, the usefulness of the sleep feature has piqued my interest in exploring whether the other features (oximeter, heart rate variability, etc.) could also provide some helpful insights.

Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED: Conclusion & Options

There’s seemingly endless customization these days, and that’s true with this watch as well. The Instinct Crossover AMOLED has three versions. That includes two colors of the base model: black/gray or the bronze/sunburst version that I reviewed.

While I’ve tried many watches over the years, none have quite sold me on keeping them around. That changed with this one. The Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED has officially converted me to smartwatches. It strikes a balance between the bulky G-SHOCKs I loved as a kid, a classy analog for adults, and an uber-serious smartwatch with nearly all the bells and whistles

There’s also a “Tactical” edition in an even darker shade of black. It comes with extra military-oriented features like “Stealth Mode,” which turns off GPS and Bluetooth, and a “kill switch” that immediately deletes watch data. Of course, the Tactical version also costs an extra $100 for an already expensive watch.

Those looking for a more formal appearance (or at least something that works across more outfits) will likely want the black/gray color. As for me, I’m perfectly happy with a color scheme reminiscent of my youthful days lusting over G-SHOCKs at Walmart. Nostalgia ain’t too shabby — especially when it comes with some of the best smartwatch features on the market.