Garmin Approach S12: Easy GPS Golf Watch with 42k Courses
Original price was: $199.99.$149.99Current price is: $149.99.
Price: $199.99 - $149.99
(as of May 20, 2025 10:25:19 UTC – Details)
Dominate the course with the Approach S12, a sleek golf watch designed to power on when you tee off. Instantly get key yardages to the green, hazards, and doglegs on over 42,000 preloaded global courses. Its new round design boasts a high-resolution, sunlight-readable display, ensuring clarity in any light. Keep score directly on your wrist and seamlessly upload to the Garmin Golf™ app for weekly leaderboards. With an impressive battery life of up to 30 hours in GPS mode, play multiple rounds on a single charge. Simple, accurate, and essential for any golfer.
Product Details:
- Design: New round watch design
- Display: High-resolution, sunlight-readable
- Courses: Over 42,000 preloaded worldwide
- Yardages: Provides distances to front, back, and middle of the green, plus hazards and doglegs
- Scorekeeping: On-watch, uploads to Garmin Golf™ app (via paired compatible smartphone)
- Battery Life: Up to 30 hours in GPS mode
- Optional Tracking: Compatible with Approach® CT10 club tracking sensors (sold separately) for automatic game and club tracking.
Advantages:
The Approach S12 offers exceptional battery longevity, lasting multiple rounds on a single charge. Its vast preloaded course library ensures you're covered globally. The clear, sunlight-readable display combined with simple button navigation makes it remarkably easy to use, providing accurate yardages essential for gameplay. On-watch scorekeeping and direct app uploads streamline performance tracking.
Our Recommendations:
This watch is highly recommended for golfers seeking a dedicated, no-fuss GPS device with core functionalities. It's perfect for players who prioritize ease of use, long battery life, and accurate distances without needing advanced smartwatch features. If you want to track scores digitally and participate in online leaderboards, the S12 is an excellent choice, especially if you're already in or considering the Garmin ecosystem.
Conclusion:
The Garmin Approach S12 is a strong, dedicated golf watch excelling in core GPS functionalities, battery life, and ease of use. While some users have noted inconsistencies in GPS or durability, its extensive course database, clear display, and accurate yardages make it a valuable tool for golfers wanting essential data to improve their game. It's a solid performer for those who value simplicity and reliability on the course.
13 reviews for Garmin Approach S12: Easy GPS Golf Watch with 42k Courses
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Mike –
Why haven’t I ever had one?
I’ve been golfing a long time. I don’t know why I never had one of these gps golf watches? It’s rare I would say “it’s a game changer” for things. But I gotta say after researching golf watches and come upon this one in particular I’m sold. To the S12 now, I’m not a stranger to electronic devices we all have them. However on a golf course while playing it needs to be: easy to use and navigate through functions, easy to read in rainy or sunny conditions with a lot of glare, accuracy is key also looks and feels good wearing it along with tough durability. Definitely all of these things and more. I played my first 18 (pouring rain first 4 holes) with it after getting accustomed to the functions and being familiar enough to actually use it. I was thrilled with the performance and ease of use. Funny I only somewhat generally knew how far I was hitting each club.. now I know for sure. Big help cutting scores just that alone. On only two holes I noticed it didn’t move to next.. so I manually kicked over to next hole pretty easily. On another that was close to last green as well.. just walked over to tee box and it flipped automatically easy peezy. If that’s a negative thing I’ll take that all day every day no problems here. All in all I’m super happy with the S12 from seller to fast delivery to actual accuracy and simplicity of use it’s been a very good purchase. Hopefully I get even better at using it’s functions and that it holds up for a long time. In closing you can spend a lot more on a gps golf watch for sure. So far this seems to be well worth the money. I can pretty much guarantee you won’t have to ask anyone for yardages again. It does enough and well enough in my book not to be a major distraction and balances high tech and useful features to up your game and joy of playing golf.
Grandmother6 –
Accurate, Dependable and good price.
This was a birthday gift to my husband. He absolutely loves it. He came home after playing and said I am in love with this watch. He says it is dependability. It is easy to operate. It is accurate. I said that is why I bought a Garmin. We both have old forerunner watches to walk. Can not beat a Garmin.
Chowdah –
Great golf watch, but you’ll possibly need to also buy the CT10s
Garmin golf watch does the job. I’m only disappointed that by changing from my old watch (approach-garmin) to this one, it no longer tracks my shot locations. It did that for no extra cost with the old watch.I would have to buy the CT10 golf club accessories for a lot more money to get those shots registered. So I’m losing statistics like average drive distances. I understand why Garmin went this way, since players can get a lot more detail about all their club distances. I could pay significantly more for the CT10s but I’m not going to do that. Thus the drop off of one star for this watch.Just on the merits of this watch, I like the functionality of it as it matches with what I had before in the Approach S20. Very similar functionality. Distances to hazards is a big plus, along with distances to layup (e.g. 120 yards to get to the 150 yard marker). Keeps score, along with number of putts and whether or not you hit the fairway. Band durability seems solid.In short, if you’re looking for a golf watch that helps you play a round without taking the time to mess with a rangefinder, I highly recommend this Garmin watch. Just don’t expect to have shot locations without the CT10s, otherwise you’ll be disappointed.
Frank – NJ –
Wow, works great, lasts long.
Very reflective and easy to see in the sun. Light and not bulky. Takes 1 to 2 minutes to get go’s signal 1st time but then it’s very accurate on course and simple to use so it doesn’t distract me during the game. Battery is great, after a 3.5 hr round it still had a 90% charge and bluetooth was on to connect to garmin phone app. Absolutely love it and would buy again.Update: syill working and if just using as eatch with bluetooth and gps off it lasts a long time its been 2 weeks and still shows almost full charge. I giess thats the benefit of a watch that only does 1 thing i.e. golf and not all the smart watch features I don’t need, my phone does that stuff.
Janet M Iekel –
Easy set up, just charge, and take it to play your round.
This is one of the best GPS watches I have purchased. If you are looking for easy set-up and immediate “take it to the course” ready then this watch is for you!
Joel Goodson –
Great golf watch
I have had the Bushnell and Tec Tec Tec GPS range finder watches and this is by far the best of the lot. The Bushnell is a good watch and accurate, but the battery only stays charged for 1 round and if a golf course has been redone or had modifications, it is very difficult to get the watch updated for the new layout. The Tec Tec Tec watch is accurate, but doesn’t even hold a charge for a complete 18 hoel round. This Garmin watch has a long charge, is accurate, easy to see in mid afternoon and much easier to attach the charging cord than the other 2. I would recommend
Swimmer –
Accurate Golf Watch
After a month, the primary button stopped working, rendering the product useless.This was disappointing, so I called GARMIN customer service. They told me how to reset the software ( easy) and now it works perfectly. It’s a good golf watch. The distances are consistent with my $500 laser rangefinder.
timothy killion –
The best golf watch rver
This is my third gps golf watch hands down the best ever. The battery life is unbelievable over three rounds. It always stays on the correct hole , love the positive charging system, easy to use I usually don’t write a product review but it needs to be said a fantastic purchase
Ally –
Had this s12 for six weeks I went for the white one looks great down loads are very quick. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but a lot of watch for the price.
Kai Loh –
Easy to use and accurate.
Soggy –
Used this for golf has heaps of courses downloaded.
karla –
Fué un regalo y le encantó
Trevor –
I have always used a laser yardage gun to measure distances. It broke this year so I decided that for a similar price, instead of going for the rangefinder, I’d get the Garmin S12 instead. I’ve used it for multiple rounds and I have to say, it is absolutely the right purchase.What I’ve loved:1. Tracks distances in all my nearby courses very accurately. Gives me yardage to the front, back, and middle of the green — all I need for ballparking my club selection. It also gives yardage to 200, 150, and 100 yards in. Incredibly useful if you like to play golf from the hole to the teebox, instead of just smacking a driver on every Par 4/5.2. Track your score, and looks for trends by asking for penalty strokes, misses right or left, # of putts. Found this very useful for looking back on a round to see where I lost strokes.3. Track your distance. I now know my regular distance with certain clubs by using the yardage tracker — easy to use and intuitive feature that seems quite precise.4. The battery will last you a month, even if you leave it on. I bought this thing two+ months ago and I’ve spent about 2 hours charging it. It lasts forever.I am very pleased I bought this over a rangefinder at a comparable price. Has everything you need.