Does anyone know how to determine region? Battery issues.

As gaijin writes, you can buy it directly from Garmin. At least you know the manufacturer gets directly all the money. And frankly told their sale prices are currently pretty low for Instinct. Another option is buying it from an established local reseller. My favorite one is Decathlon, which has very fair prices, has stores all over Europe, and they have no problems if you want to exchange defectuous or unwanted goods, even if it was purchased in a completely different Decathlon store than the one you can immediately reach.

I appreciate the replies.  I paid full price so this wasn't a discount grab.  I prefer to shop Amazon as they have outstanding customer service if there are issues.  My experience with Garmin customer service has been pretty hit or miss over a half dozen products so they aren't my first choice for purchase. 

I was just hoping there was something in the serial number so that if I order another one I will immediately know there is an issue due to the inventory origin and return it versus being stuck with a defective device after 6 months and having no ability to even have it serviced with the "International" company that is Garmin.

If that is the only way to verify warranty service, I would suggest that Garmin shouldn't allow their products to be sold outside of the Garmin web site...which is just about the most ridiculous thing I have ever typed.

I prefer to shop Amazon as they have outstanding customer service if there are issues.

Then I do not understand why they don't exchange your defectuous Instinct. It is always the reseller who has to handle all warranty requests first. Although it should work, very few corporations will process warranty requests directly.  

 I have never held a retailer responsible for a product that fails well after the return period but well within the warranty period.  I have always expected the manufacturer to honor their warranty...why would that be the retailers responsibility?  I am not saying I won't contact Amazon, but I do feel people deserve to know that depending on the origin of Garmin inventory they may not be able to get their warranty honored.  The product numbers are identical.  The marketing and all packing materials in my box are in English.  I am sure 99 percent of Garmin sales are not from their corporate web store.  It is a fair thing for people to be aware of so they can take up the issue with a seller within the return period should their stock somehow be out of region.

I agree I am probably a little overly upset because in probably 2500 dollars worth of Garmin product purchases in the past two years, their response to a 200 dollar watch that failed after six months is basically "hey, not our problem...we expected that one to ship to Asia".  

I am probably just old school and tend to be pretty big about taking care of the customer.  Just kind of surprised by the whole thing.

Laws may differ depending on the country, so it is certainly not everywhere the same. I have personal experience with warranties, since I used to resell material from diverse manufacturers. Manufacturers usually do not have sufficient infrastructure for dealing directly with end-customers - it is a a very expensive part of the business. And this is exactly why they use resellers, and why the resellers have important discounts for the goods. In many countries there is a warranty required by the law. In my case it was up to me (the reseller) to provide the warranty during the period given by the law. When a manufacturer offered longer waranty than the one required by the law, it was up to them after that period, but usually I handled it anyway, because it was easier for everyone.

That is good info and i do appreciate the feedback...thank you!  Amazon is going to take care of me on this.  I would still love to know if there is some sort of visual way to know if it is the APAC version of the device either on the packaging or serial number I would love to hear from someone.  

Thanks again for the feedback.