Two(2) S60 watches from Amazon BOTH have battery problems???

First watch came in, updated it, went out and played a round. Battery percentage around 6% after 1 round. Stopped for lunch about 30-45 minutes, paused the watch. Get back to the clubhouse, 6% battery. Went out next time. Checked watch at turn and battery at 67%. But at 3% at the end of round. Both rounds took about 5 hrs, including lunch. 

Amazon replaced the watch. Updated software and courses. Then watch hangs. Hard reset, jump through hoops, finally starts. Play golf.  Battery at 12%. Is the seller on Amazon selling bad watches? Did the hacker leave Trojans that have infected the software updates?  

Garmin US tried to be helpful bc they at least talked to me before referring me to Garmin Japan. But in essence, they pretty much said the only fix is to update the software. Which I have done. If I don’t work this out, and return this one, I’ll be out about $50 I spent for screen protectors, port plugs, and a couple of extra bands. Should Ai just bite the bullet and take the loss?

  • A thought... could it be that the GPS signal at the golf course I played is weak. Many (most??) courses here in Japan are rather remote. The S60 was MUCH slower in finding the satellites than my Bushnell Neo XS. Could that cause excessive battery drain?

  • I am sorry it has been a bad battery experience. The S60 has been out for quite awhile now and we rarely get reports of bad batteries. They do occasionally happen given the batteries are acquired in large batches but we test the batteries and can see detailed information to ensure they are good when they are in the watch. To get 2 in a row that are bad is unheard of but possible and incredibly frustrating if that is the end result.

    Where your course is in the world should not be the impact. Your watch uses 3 satellites, that are 12 miles up, to acquire your position regardless of where you are physically. As long as you are not in a slot canyon or under a heavy tree canopy, you will be good. I recommend getting multiple full charges and drains before declaring this 2nd one bad too. If you have installed anything from CONNECT IQ, remove it. It could be the culprit.

  • Thanks for the response, Chris.  I contacted Garmin US first and the only the rep said was it could only be the update. And I had updated it already.  I’ll do as you suggest and put it through several charge cycles. The only app I have added is a battery level indicator. And I got that bc I was trying to find a low drain watch face. But I’ll try removing both the watch face and the meter.

    So I’m glad you chimed in. I was just about ready to request a refund from Amazon and call it quits. 

  • Perhaps you need to pass the above advice around and make sure all tech reps know about it. 

    I started a round on the watch and just let it do its thing with the GPS. Ran down the battery, charged it up and repeated the process 2 more times.

    Took it out and played today. Such a difference. Watch was at about 73% at the turn. Paused it. Started it and finished the round. I had 47% battery level left. Total round was a bit less than 5 1/2 hrs. That’s a huge difference from the first watch. I now love the watch. I’m double checking some distances with my Bushnell X7 Pro slope. I get minor differences but I have more variance in a given clubs distance than the error. There have been a couple of times when it was really off, butI love the watch.

    Thanks, Chris!