Garmin Approach Upgrade Guide

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If you already play with a Garmin Approach, buy the Approach S72 only if it does something your current watch cannot. This guide covers every Approach watch from the 2016 Approach S20 to the current range, and says whether to upgrade, which model to choose, and when. It is updated as new Approach watches launch.

Garmin launched the Approach S72 on 6 October 2026 at £699.99 / $799.99 in both sizes. The full feature list is on its specification page, and the S72 vs S70 comparison covers the generational change line by line.

Quick planning table: upgrade now or stay?

Current watch	Released	Still sold by Garmin	2026 recommendation
Approach S72	2026	Yes	Stay
Approach S70	2023	Yes, as a previous model	Stay
Approach S50	2025	Yes	Stay
Approach S44	2025	Yes	Stay
Approach S12	2021	Yes	Stay for the battery
Approach S62	2020	No	Upgrade to S72
Approach S42	2021	No	Upgrade to S50
Approach S40	2019	No	Upgrade to S50
Approach S60	2017	No	Upgrade to S72 or S50
Approach S20	2016	No	Upgrade to S44 or S12
Approach S10	2018	No	Upgrade to S12
Approach X40 or X10 band	2016 to 2018	No	Upgrade to S44

Most golfers replace an Approach with the next watch at the same price. The pattern across the range is simple: the flagship tier runs S60 to S62 to S70 to S72, the mid tier runs S40 to S42 to the S44 and S50 pair, and the entry tier runs S10 to S12. Anyone still playing with a memory-in-pixel Approach other than the S12 is on a watch Garmin stopped selling years ago.

What the Approach S72 adds that an older watch cannot gain

Most of the jump to a current Approach watch is hardware-based, so you get these only if your current watch has the hardware capability:

• Swing metrics from the wrist. Hand speed, backswing length, wrist rotation and swing plane, during a round and in a driving range activity, with no sensor on the club.
• Green reading. Walk to the pin, mark it, and the watch gives the side slope as a percentage and how far the putt runs uphill or downhill. This needs a Garmin Golf membership.
• Golf heart rate. Heart rate lined up with the scorecard, with the average for each hole and a graph of the whole round afterwards.
• The Elevate Gen 5 sensor. This brings the ECG app and skin temperature.
• A speaker, a microphone and an LED flashlight. Calls and voice commands on an Approach watch, for the first time.
• Titanium and sapphire. The S70 uses a ceramic bezel and Gorilla Glass 3, while older models use softer materials.
• Off-course maps. Preloaded road and trail maps with point-to-point navigation and ClimbPro, on 64GB of storage.

If you have an Approach S70

Factor	Position
Screen, 47mm	Identical to the S72 at 1.4 inch and 454 x 454
Battery, 47mm	Identical at 16 days and 20 hours of golf
Course features	Virtual Caddie, PlaysLike, AutoShot and full vector maps, all present
Swing metrics	Tempo only
Heart rate sensor	Elevate Gen 4, so no ECG app and no skin temperature

• A round of golf plays the same on both watches. The database, yardages, hazard view, Virtual Caddie, and PlaysLike are already on the S70.
• The gain is practice and health: swing analysis at the range, green reading on the putting surface, and the newer sensor off the course.
• The S70 is now discounted, and the 42mm remains the only small Approach watch carrying the full Garmin health platform.

Verdict: Stay. Upgrade if you practise at a range and want the swing numbers, or if you want the ECG app. The S72 vs S70 comparison goes through it in detail.

If you have an Approach S62

• The S62 was the last flagship before AMOLED, and it introduced the Virtual Caddie and the first wrist heart rate sensor on an Approach watch.
• Its colour memory-in-pixel screen is readable in the sun but feels dim next to any current Approach, and its sensor is three generations behind the S72.
• At six years old, the battery is unlikely to match its original rating.

Verdict: Upgrade to the S72. This is the like-for-like best replacement for a golfer who bought the best Approach of 2020. A discounted S70 does the same job on the course for less, but cuts the swing metrics and green reading.

If you have an Approach S60

• The S60 brought full CourseView maps, AutoShot, and PlaysLike to the line in 2017, so the basics of a modern, tech-enabled round are familiar.
• It has no wrist heart rate sensor, so it lacks Garmin’s health and training platform is available on it.
• Nine years of database updates, plus advances in screen technology and sensors, separate it from the current range.

Verdict: Upgrade. Choose the S72 to stay at the top of the line, or the S50 at £349.99 / $399.99 if the premium golf tools matter less than the price.

If you have an Approach S42 or S40

• Both are mid-range colour touchscreen watches: the S40 from 2019 and the S42 from 2021, and the S42 is a refresh rather than a redesign.
• Neither has a wrist heart rate sensor, music, Garmin Pay or any of the wellness tracking that the mid-tier gained in 2025.
• The S50 is the direct replacement and weighs 29g, which is lighter than any other current Approach watch.

Verdict: Upgrade to the S50. It is the same tier at a similar price, and it adds the AMOLED screen, the heart rate sensor, the Garmin wellness suite, music and Garmin Pay.

If you have an Approach S20 or S10

• The S20 from 2016 added everyday activity tracking and smart notifications to a monochrome watch. The S10 from 2018 went the other way and stripped the tier back to distances alone.
• Both are eight years old or more, and both predate AutoShot automatic shot detection on this tier.

Verdict: Upgrade. The S12 at £179.99 / $199.99 is the closest in spirit, keeps the sunlight-readable screen and runs 10 weeks between charges. The S44 at £259.99 / $299.99 moves you to AMOLED, a touchscreen, a colour hole map and AutoShot.

If you have an Approach X40 or X10 band

• Garmin discontinued the golf band line after the X10 in 2018, and the watch range absorbed the everyday-wear role it was built for.
• The X40 carried the first wrist heart rate sensor in any Approach product, four years before the S62 watch.

Verdict: Upgrade to the S44 or S50. There is no current band to move to, so the choice is which watch tier suits you. The S50 keeps the heart rate tracking the X40 gave you.

If you have an Approach S50 or S44

• Both launched in January 2025 and share the same 43mm case and 1.2-inch AMOLED screen.
• The S50 includes PlaysLike distance in the price, plus wrist heart rate, the Garmin wellness suite, music, and Garmin Pay. The S44 puts PlaysLike behind the Garmin Golf membership and lacks has heart rate sensor.
• Moving to the S72 costs roughly twice the S50 price and buys swing metrics, green reading, the Virtual Caddie and the premium case.

Verdict: Stay. An S44 owner who finds the watch too dependent on the membership has a cheaper fix than the S72, which is to move up to the S50.

If you have an Approach S12

• Garmin still sells the S12, and nothing in the current range matches it for battery life. It lasts 10 weeks in watch mode and 30 hours of GPS golf, compared with 15 to 20 hours on the AMOLED watches.
• Its sunlight-readable screen shows yardages rather than a colour hole map, and is measures shot distance when the golfer marks the shot rather than automatically.
• At 34.1 g, it is the lightest Approach watch Garmin makes.

Verdict: Stay. Move up only if you want the colour hole map, AutoShot and a heart rate sensor, and accept charging every two or three rounds instead of twice a season.

The Garmin Golf membership question

Which watch you buy decides how much of it works without a subscription, and this is the single biggest difference between the tiers.

Feature	S72 and S70	S50	S44
Full vector hole map	Included	Membership	Membership
PlaysLike distance	Included	Included	Membership
Touch targeting	Included	Membership	Membership
Green contours	Membership	Membership	Membership
Green reading	Membership, S72 only	Not available	Not available
Virtual Caddie	Included	Not available	Not available

A golfer who refuses to pay the subs gets the most complete watch by buying at the top of the range, because the S72 and S70 include the hole map, PlaysLike, touch targeting and the Virtual Caddie outright. On the S44, the hole map itself depends on the membership.

The battery question

Watch	Watch or smartwatch mode	Golf
Approach S12	Up to 10 weeks	Up to 30 hours
Approach S72 and S70, 47mm	Up to 16 days	Up to 20 hours
Approach S72 43mm and S70 42mm	Up to 10 days	Up to 15 hours
Approach S50, S44 and J1	Up to 10 days	Up to 15 hours

Bright screens cost battery. Every golfer moving off the S12 loses most of the charging interval, and the 43mm S72 gives up six days and five hours against the 47mm for the same money. If you play weekly and resent charging, the S12 remains the watch that does that one job best.

Which Approach watches have wrist heart rate

The S72, S70, and S50 have a Garmin Elevate sensor, and the S62 was the first Approach watch to get one in 2020. The S44, S12, J1, and all Approach models older than the S62 don’t, so they don’t have Body Battery, HRV status, sleep tracking, or the rest of the Garmin health platform. This matters more than it sounds, because it decides whether the watch is worth wearing on the six days a week you are not playing golf.

Buying for a junior golfer

The Approach J1 at £309.99 / $299.99 runs the same 43mm hardware as the S50 with junior-specific software. Tee-off guidance places forward tee positions down the fairway so each hole is scaled to the child, personal par sets a realistic target, and a visual timer teaches pace of play. The learning features switch off as the golfer improves, which is what keeps the watch useful past the first season.

Considering a Fenix or a MARQ instead?

Garmin classes several of its multisport watches as golf watches, and they carry the same course database and yardages. The Fenix 9 Pro and Fenix 9 add full topographic mapping, longer battery life and the complete multisport training platform, at a higher price and in a larger case. The MARQ Golfer adds premium materials again.

The trade runs the other way on golf-specific tools. Swing metrics, green reading, and driving-range activity are Approach features, so golfers who want those buy an Approach. A golfer who plays 18 holes occasionally and trains the rest of the week seriously is better served by a Fenix. Every other upgrade guide is listed on the buying guides page, and the Garmin watch specifications database has full figures for every model named here.

Garmin lists its current range on the Garmin golf products page.

Quick answers

Should I upgrade from the Approach S70 to the S72?
Only for practice and health features. On the 47mm, the screen, battery, and every on-course feature are the same, so the upgrade adds swing metrics at the range, green reading on the green, the ECG app, and a titanium-and-sapphire case.

Should I upgrade from the Approach S62?
Yes. The S62 is the last pre-AMOLED flagship; its heart rate sensor is three generations behind, and its battery is six years old. The S72 is the like-for-like replacement, and a discounted S70 performs about the same for less.

What replaces the Approach S40 and S42?
The Approach S50. It is the same mid-tier at a similar price and adds an AMOLED touchscreen, wrist heart rate, the Garmin wellness suite, music and Garmin Pay.

Which Garmin Approach watch has the best battery life?
The Approach S12, by a wide margin. It runs up to 10 weeks in watch mode and 30 hours of GPS golf, while the AMOLED models manage 10 to 16 days and 15 to 20 hours.

Do I need a Garmin Golf membership?
It depends on the watch. The S72 and S70 include the hole map, PlaysLike, touch targeting and the Virtual Caddie outright. The S44 puts the hole map, PlaysLike and touch targeting behind the membership, and green contours are needed on every model.