Do you have $400 to spend on a new smartwatch? If so, I’d gladly recommend either the Apple Watch Series 11 or Garmin Instinct 3, two new releases for 2025 aimed at very different users.
So, how do you decide which one, the Apple Watch 11 or Garmin Instinct 3, is right for you? I’ve compared the two across seven categories: price, design and durability, display, wellness tools, fitness features, smartwatch features, and battery life.
Short on time? Jump to my ‘Which one should you buy?’ section for the TLDR.
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Price
Both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Garmin Instinct 3 start at $399. With the Series 11, that gets you the smaller 42mm model without cellular (add $100 for 5G capability). The larger 46mm Series 11, meanwhile, starts at $429 or $529 for 5G.
$399 buys you the smaller 45mm Garmin Instinct 3 Solar model, which boasts solar charging but a rather unimpressive memory in pixel (MIP) display. However, for $449, you can pick up the Instinct 3 AMOLED in 45mm with a brighter, better-saturated screen.
If you prefer a larger watch, the 50mm Instinct 3 Solar is $449 and the 50mm Instinct 3 AMOLED is $499. Note: None of the Garmin models offer cellular connectivity.
Winner: Draw
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Design and durability
Both the Apple Watch 11 and Garmin Instinct 3 are well-built models, but they couldn’t look any different. The Instinct 3 has a sporty-meets-rugged aesthetic with bold case colors, an oversized protective bezel, lots of physical buttons, and no touchscreen. It’s both chunkier and heavier than the Series 11 (though not overly so).
The Series 11 is a far sleeker and easier-wearing device that mixes physical controls — a button and a digital crown — with a super-responsive touchscreen.
The Apple Watch sports an aluminum case, while the Garmin case is a mix of aluminum and fiber-reinforced polymer (plastic). Ultimately, the Instinct 3 is the more rugged device, with 100 meters of water resistance — the same as the Apple Watch Ultra 3 — and an impact-resistant design.
The Series 11, by comparison, offers just 50 meters of water resistance, which is enough for short surface-level swims but not watersports or diving.
Finally, the Instinct 3 design packs a secret: There’s an LED flashlight hidden in the case at the 12:00 position. This supremely useful little feature is one I wish every smartwatch had. While the Series 11 has a flashlight mode that shows a white screen at max brightness, it can’t touch the ‘Torch’ light on the Instinct 3.
Winner: Draw (Garmin Instinct 3 for durability, Apple Watch Series 11 for sleekness)
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Display
As noted above, the Instinct 3 comes in two screen configurations. The Solar models use a MIP display, which can be difficult to read in certain lighting conditions and is nowhere near as saturated or contrasty as the display on the Instinct 3 AMOLED model. The tradeoff of the duller screen is that you get solar charging capabilities.
The Series 11 also boasts a bright and well-saturated display that’s particularly easy to view at even the oddest of angles. More importantly, it gets brighter than the display on the Instinct 3 AMOLED models, making it a better choice for viewing in direct sunlight
Winner: Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Wellness tracking
Both the Series 11 and Instinct 3 offer comparable health sensor arrays, including heart rate sensors and pulse oximeters, with tools to track your sleep quality, stress levels, and overall well-being.
That said, while Apple’s on-wrist holistic toolkit is impressive, Garmin’s is a bit more extensive, especially when it comes to metrics and the level of insights. Apple Watch users just got a daily sleep score, a number from one to 100 that’s based on your previous night’s rest.
The best Garmin watches, including the Instinct 3, also offer a sleep score, along with a dynamic Body Battery metric to monitor energy levels throughout the day, heart rate variability tracking, a ‘Fitness Age’ metric that compares your wellness to others in your age group, and many more.
Overall, Garmin’s sleep reports are also more in-depth than Apple’s, though the latter’s are steadily improving.
On the flip side, the Series 11 is better set up for monitoring and alerting users to signs of potentially deadly health conditions, including sleep apnea, Atrial fibrillation (AFib), and even hypertension.
Winner: Draw (Garmin for sleep metrics, Apple for chronic disease detection)
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Fitness tracking
Both devices support long lists of physical activities, but the Instinct 3’s list caters more toward nuanced outdoor adventure activities like climbing, mountain biking, snowmobiling, and bouldering.
Garmin’s workout recovery insights are also more actionable than Apple’s. Both offer some form of personalized fitness coaching; however, Apple’s Workout Buddy requires that you have one of the latest iPhone models to use it.
Finally, the Instinct 3 boasts a more capable multi-band GPS antenna compared to a single-band antenna on the Apple Watch 11. Even though both also sport onboard altimeters for elevation tracking, in my head-to-head walk test with the Apple Watch vs. Garmin Instinct 3, the latter proved more accurate at keeping tabs on my distance, step count and elevation gain.
Winner: Garmin Instinct 3
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Smartwatch features
When it comes to connectivity and non-wellness/fitness smartwatch features, the Apple Watch Series 11 has the Garmin Instinct 3 seriously beat. While Garmin watches have access to a small smattering of useful third-party apps, the Apple Watch 11 is compatible with more third-party apps than pretty much any smartwatch in existence (other than other Apple Watches).
Still, the Instinct 3 supports things like NFC payments and mirrored phone notifications, but you won’t be able to check global tides, translate messages in real time, jot down notes, or call a friend, all things you can do on the best Apple Watch models.
Finally, only the Series 11 is compatible with a cellular plan (5G).
Winner: Apple Watch Series 11
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Battery life
The Apple Watch Series 11 is the brand’s longest-lasting flagship model, rated for 24 hours of use with the always-on display, up from 18 hours on the Series 10. However, in my testing, the Series 11 battery life well surpassed its rating. When using GPS tracking, you can expect about 12 hours of battery life.
While those stats are respectable, the Instinct 3 has the Series 11 beat. In fact, it’s basically the smartwatch battery life king of 2025. Even the non-Solar models are rated for up to 24 days in smartwatch mode and 86 hours of GPS tracking. The Solar models, meanwhile, can go for up to 40 days or 150 hours of GPS tracking.
Winner: Garmin Instinct 3
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3: Which one should you buy?
If tracking physical fitness and sleep quality is your primary focus, the Garmin Instinct 3 is better than the Apple Watch Series 11. Similarly, if you’re looking for a super-durable device with a long-lasting battery that can take a beating and accompany you on even the most extreme adventures, the Garmin is again going to be the better option.
That said, when it comes to both smart features and fitness/wellness ones, the Apple Watch Series 11 is more well-rounded than the Garmin Instinct 3, with third-party apps and smart features galore. The fitness and sleep tracking isn’t quite as comprehensive as Garmin’s, but it’s still pretty good. The Series 11 is also a better option for folks who prefer a sleek, lightweight wearable to a chunkier, sporty one.
Which smartwatch would you choose between the two, the Apple Watch 11 or the Garmin Instinct 3? Let me know in the comments below.
More from Tom's Guide
- Apple Watch 11 vs Apple Watch 10 — biggest upgrades explained
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- Garmin Instinct 3 vs Coros Nomad: Which rugged GPS smartwatch wins?
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