So, I had just gotten back from doing “A” Day Training Dives on Saturday. I was unloading a few pieces of equipment and a customer came into the store, one that I’ve never seen before. So he was looking at the selection of watches (as he was wearing a 5x+) and he noticed the Garmin Descent Mk1, two of them in fact (both silver bezels) sitting side by side. Naturally, I want to sell these as I’ve already had them in my inventory for months now. So he starts asking me basic questions, specifically about the diving features as he was already familiar with the GUI and functionality of the Series 5 lineup. He didn’t want to download the Dive IQ application since it wasn’t a totally “finished” product. So I showed him my Ti version and while his interested seemed to have peaked, this is where it went sideways.
So he started saying that during his research, which also included this forum, he noticed the lack of consistent updates for this watch, specifically one that’s nearly 7 months now (he just mentioned from Jan ’19). We briefly talked about beta’s with the other models and he took the same stance as me that it made no sense why the Mk1 didn’t have them (TLDR: The sport of Scuba Diving is no different than Skydiving aka Jumpmaster, yet these other watches have beta’s), but ok, the Mk1 doesn’t have them. After talking for awhile, he decided it wasn’t worth the investment and this was his EXACT phrase:
“This watch (Mk1) is like that product from some companies that gets put out and then becomes the Black Sheep of the product line and becomes an outcast. I can’t support a product from a company, if they’re not supporting it…regardless of what random comments are made by Garmin employees.”
This is just one random customer that came into my shop (who turns out was from out of town visiting family), that Garmin’s very poor handing of this has turned off from buying.
Not everyone that’s a current or future customer posts on these forums but this has affected current about definitely future sales of this diving model.
