Instinct or not?

No loadable profiles, but you can use a generic cardio or track me profile and change it laterin the connect app.
You can disable the HRM (and use an external if you want).

Notibiru said:

GPS (Michibiki support would be nice too)

GPS, Glonass, Galileo. Not sure whether the APAC version has Michibiki 

Notibiru said:

Loadable sport profiles

Plenty of sport profiles available. You cannot load new ones, but you can create a custom one. No horse riding mode by default. You could use a custom activity based for example on cycling.

Notibiru said:

No wrist based heart rate sensor

Instinct does have a HR sensor, but you can turn it off, if you prefere using a chest belt (or nothing at all). Though without any HRM you'll lose a significant part of the functionality - besides the HR graphs, and the HR zone evaluation, also for no proper Calories tracking or Intensity mnutes, no Body Battery, sleep tracking, or stress monitoring, etc.

Notibiru said:

Durable construction with premium materials

Not sure whether you consider plastic a premium material, but personally I prefer the plastic over metalic models like the Fenix, because of the lightness of the watch. Besides other it helps the HRM to work better than at models with higher inertial mass. As for the durability and raughness, I think it is one of the best Garmin's models. For me it was especialy the 100m water resistance, that was important. Most other Garmin models are rated to 50m only (good just for a shower or some short swim).

Notibiru said:

Long lasting battery.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/instinct/EN-US/GUID-60C10B40-6071-44EA-B507-8A244764338B.html

Not too bad, but recent models may have even better battery life

Notibiru said:

Minimum bells and whistles. I do not need music in my watch, neither connectivity with smartphone all the time.

Instinct does have plenty of bells and whistles, and does have connectivity, but nobody can force you to use it if you really do not want for some reason.

You will not find in Garmin a watch which is as cheap as the Instinct, with a proper barometer and with its extensive navigation capabilities. And the BW screen is very good under sunlight, actually it is more readable than a colour one. Construction is very robust, the only issue (for me) are the two buttons on the right (GPS and SET) which, with use, have become harder to press. Other had problem with the baro sensor, not me, it works really well and it was the main reason I bought this watch.

Thanks for thorough answer!

trux said:

Plenty of sport profiles available. You cannot load new ones, but you can create a custom one. No horse riding mode by default. You could use a custom activity based for example on cycling.

My past experience with vivoactive says that run profile would be closer than cycling. Steps and cadence do matter in riding. But still dedicated horseback riding profile would be nice to have.

trux said:

Instinct does have a HR sensor, but you can turn it off, if you prefere using a chest belt (or nothing at all)

My dislike of wrist HR sensors base on:

1. I use to wear watches rather loose, so reading won't be reliable anyways
2. Paying for technology you are not going to employ gives uncomfortable feelings
3. LEDs of wrist HR sensors draws the power from batteries, data occupies memory.

I wonder, are some Garmin sport watches without wrist HR sensor still exist?

trux said:

Not too bad, but recent models may have even better battery life

Would you happen to how much switching off HR sensor gives in terms of battery life?

trux said:

Instinct does have plenty of bells and whistles, and does have connectivity, but nobody can force you to use it if you really do not want for some reason.

Thanks. I prefer highest possible autonomy of use. Connecting to PC once in a while to dump data and charge batteries is quite enough for me.

Rick11 said:

You will not find in Garmin a watch which is as cheap as the Instinct, with a proper barometer and with its extensive navigation capabilities.

Perhaps. But I am not aiming at cheap device. Long life cycle is preferable for me.

There is no Garmin product that meets all your requirements.

You can stop the wrist heart rate sensor on Instinct if you don't want it.

I have a Fenix 6X, and my son has an Instinct, and I've also had the VivoActive 3 Music in the past.

I agree that the VivoActive touchscreen stinks - so we'll just exclude that one from the conversation.

My 6x costed like $900, and my son's Instinct I picked up on sale for like $220. So the 6X was 4 times more expensive - is it 4 times better?

Nope.

I do like it better, and I am glad I spent the extra money for the better screen, mapping functions, etc, but it definitely does not have 4x as many features as the Instinct.

The Instinct is an amazing value, and it works incredibly well in our experience so far. All of the things it does that my 6X also does, it does equally well.

It has everything you seem to be looking for, aside from "premium materials" (but as others pointed out, the plastic/polymer they use is very durable), and what others also said about loadable sport profiles.

You're not going to find a watch (from any brand) that has everything you're asking for AND doesn't have a OHR sensor. If you really don't want it, you can disable it, but I really don't understand what the downside is for having OHR. As others mentioned, if you use a strap then it will override the OHR. So there's really not any downside to having it, that I can think of. It doesn't even drain the battery much, you'll still get 7-14 days out of a charge (depending on usage) even with OHR turned on.

First, I do love my instinct.

Second, I've found the Garmin site to be the EASIEST of any site when comparing features of watches. 

But, if you really don't want a heart rate monitor, I think you'd have to go with a Suunto. Before I got my Instinct I remember being somewhat surprised that the HRM was not standard on all their models.

But... Get the Instinct. :-)