Goodbye Apple Watch Ultra, Hello Garmin Enduro 3: A Month on One Charge

Gear · Published 9/29/2025 ·

Apple Watch Ultra, goodbye~ Hello, Enduro 3

I used the Apple Watch Ultra for about eight months. Battery life was around 2.5 days, and since I’d charge it every time I showered anyway, that part was fine — but the fatigue of constantly charging it just kept piling up.

So I went back to the Enduro I’d set aside, this time picking up the Enduro 3.

You never know what you’ve got till it’s gone… and right now my mind is completely at ease.

For everyday use, just getting message notifications is honestly enough…

The Apple Watch has gorgeous graphics, seamless integration with the iPhone, and real beauty to it…

But for me it was, well, just a watch. Garmin’s MIP display is perfectly readable in bright daylight without any backlight at all.

At night, even setting the backlight to around 30% brightness is plenty to read it.

If anything, this “low-quality,” washed-out style of display is actually the advantage.

At least for someone with poor eyesight like me, it’s completely legible.

26 days of use at 80% battery

About 28 days of use on roughly an 80% charge.

Even with GPS-tracked workouts, you’ve got well over a hundred hours available. The solar charging actually adds a meaningful amount of usage — it’s no longer just a solar panel stuck on for show.

In normal smartwatch use, Garmin burns through less than 5% a day. 10% is two to three days of use.

Plug it into the charger and it’ll hit 20–30% in a matter of minutes.

I charge mine once every Monday, and only up to 80%.

I bought charging cables off AliExpress and tossed one in the office and one in the car, but I barely end up using them. At the office I just connect it to my laptop or my phone (USB-C), and

it charges right away. After that I don’t need to charge it for at least a week or two, so my old habit of constantly checking the Apple Watch battery is slowly fading away.

Brompton T Line tune-up

I’m planning to ride the bike at least once a week, after a long stretch of not riding. The job here was reattaching the mudguards I’d taken off and swapping the handlebars to a flat bar.

I also redid the brake cables and added aero bars.

Next up, I’m putting together a post about the aero bars.

I haven’t been able to post much lately due to some personal matters.

I’ll do my best to post more often from here on out.

This post was written by me, without any AI help.

Thanks for reading.

#Garmin #GarminEnduro3 #AppleWatchUltra #BromptonTLine #BikeAeroBars #FitnessWatch #MarathonWatch #BromptonWatch #BromptonMaintenance

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