Wrist Gesture Back Light Feature Unresponsive

I would agree w you. 

One thing I have figured out is that the gesture almost never works when you’re lying down and turning your watch towards you.

Unsure if that’s part of the prob for you but agree that the gesturing doesn’t always result in the watch being backlit. 

Perhaps a software update for this?!

Thanks for sharing your experience of it.  I was concerned that I perhaps had a faulty model. 

I have exactly the same problem when lying down and also find it unresponsive even if just sitting upright.

As you said it would be great if an update could fix this. The Venu & Vivoactive have settings which allow the sensitivity to be changed which allows the watch to light up more often.  Would be great if this could be applied to the s62. 

I'll flag this post up to Garmin support and see if they have any comment. 

Thanks 

Yea my watch just came in yesterday and it’s one of the first things I noticed. Initially I thought it might be the watch face I was using but when I set it back to default, it’s doing the same thing. The wrist gesture is very inconsistent.

I would have to agree. Response is very inconsistent. 

unsure if this would be a software fix or otherwise from Garmin. 

Since the gesture feature is relying on the accelerometer sensor to pickup your wrist movement, I have found over the years that there is a certain movement that works best across all of our Outdoor and Fitness watches.

Put your arm in front of you so your watch is facing the ceiling/sky. Rotate your wrist downward, turning your wrist towards your face so you are now looking directly at your watch.

Due to using a sensor to pickup the movement, it will not always initiate.The more you get used to the movement, the more success you will likely experience.

Hi Chris,

Many thanks for the suggestion.  I have tried that repeatedly but it still doesn't really work for me with any consistency. It's actually a bit frustrating as the harder I try the less it works lol.

I noticed on the vivoactive 4 there was an option which increased the sensitivity of the accelerometer.  I had this turned to "high" and the phone always lit up whenever expected. Would it be possible for this option to be included in the next s62 update? If not I would be keen to hear why not.

I played my 1st round of golf tonight and I am very impressed with the golf performance but I continue to be disappointed with the aforementioned problem. Given the s62 costs double the cost of the vivoactive 4 I really hope this can be fixed/updated.

Thanks very much

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If your backlight is working otherwise but you have no backlight with the gesture feature, you may have an accelerometer sensor issue.

Make sure your watch is set to the correct wrist and double check your gesture settings are Always On vs. "Only During Activity" so it works all the time when you check your watch.

When you want the gesture feature to work, you will need to put your arm in front of you, with your watch facing the sky, then rotate your wrist/watch so you are now looking directly at it. The accelerometer was designed for that motion to catch the subtle movement on the correct arm and turn on the backlight.

Interestingly, if you move your arm toward yourself at a 45° angle very fast it will engage the Gesture. It works even if you’re seated but it’s far from what it should be. You shouldn’t have to whip your arm in order just to tell time. Garmin if you’re reading this you have work to do.