every Garmin Instinct 3 Watch Face – AMOLED and SOLAR
More: Garmin Instinct 3 Review – full and detailed
Garmin has taken inspiration from its nine Fenix 8 watch faces with a decent set of faces for Instinct 3. Here are all 10 AMOLED faces as of 31 Jan 2025.
I think they are a mixed bag of designs: some you’ll like and some not. Similar ones were released with the Fenix 8, and I liked them superficially. However, once you delve into the customisation of each face, the experience will leave you wanting more. Typically, you can choose from a vast colour palette, but you can’t apply your choice of colour to every visual aspect of the face. Some data field complications can not be changed, and some don’t offer as much choice as you might like. That said, the choice is better than competitors, and the Garmin CIQ store gives a good selection of watch faces, many of which you now have to pay for.
My main criticism is the lack of customisations for each face – particularly colours. My subsequent criticism would be the overall aesthetic of some of the faces. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like most of them.
Solar Faces
The INSTINCT 3 Solar display is quite visible and has good contrast. It’s functional. That’s reflected in the faces which do the job but not with the aesthetics I’d like. Again, maybe it’s just me.
More: Garmin Instinct Series – all models, prices and 13-year history
Last Updated on 29 May 2026 by the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
Very helpful. Do you have access to both Instinct 3 and 2?
The AMOLED watch faces are not too innovative and many are the same ones I have on my Epix Pro. So I guess you have to pay for a couple of nice watch faces, even though they are getting more and more expensive (starting at 2,49 but up to 5,99 (Garmin is really milking their customers) or even 7,99…yikes) and many of them don’t even offer a trial version IOT check it out on your watch. And on top of all that, in some cases, you can use a pro code only for one watch. In case you have two Garmin watches, you would need to purchase the same watch face twice. I don’t mind paying the developer money and I always did in the past when I really liked a watch face and wanted the pro code, but I think this is getting really expensive if you want to try something new.
yes i have thought the same
Lots of existing Instinct 2/2X watchfaces are missing in Instinct 3 MIP. Honestly I know I3 is an incremental upgrade, but cannot understand why they removed them.
Just a stupid question as I’ve never seen a MIP instinct in real life: do any of the default watch faces come with progress bars? It looks like even the utility window does not have a progress indicator, whereas the AMOLED instinct does have multiple watchfaces with progress indicators…