Update

I am happy with the Descent in general. Mine just does not score intensity minutes, so I'm waiting for an update, that hopefully will fix this. Often updates cause more problems than they solve. I reckon if you have the best product then it should not need constant "updates". The screen on the MK2 is the best I have ever had .... and I've had heaps of Garmins, Currently Epix 2, Fenix 7X sapphire solar, Fenix 6X Pro Solar and of course the Descent Mk2!

Unfortunately, this has been an issue since the first MK1. I had that watch for 2+ years and the way Garmin approach’s their “specialty” divisions is laughable.

The G1 just came out and I decided to buy it since I like the Instinct lineup. I’m curious if the “speed” picks up since it’s a simplified version of their MK series or if they’ll continue to embarrass themselves with the development.

I don‘t agree here. The point is that there are issues with this watch which were adressed by users in this forum without any action from garmin. Yes, aside from theses issues (eg GPS distance, or turn-by-turn during navigation as recently complained after 11 months without reaction) the watch is functioning. But not completely accurate. And I believe that a customer could require a correction of incorrect or broken functionality, moreover since this requires ‚only‘ a fix in software. This model is still young and within manufacturer warranty. And more than 6 months after system updates or fix is bad customer handling. 

1) Dive apps have been available 3rd party dating all the way back to the Fenix 3, until Garmin locked the barometer to read a max depth of 8m.  ALL of their premium watches are capable of diving based on their hardware, but they followed Apple's footsteps and forcibly removed capability so that you have to buy more of their products.  

2) Are you seriously arguing that I should have to physically build a course and rectify distance for EVERY run to get accurate GPS readings out of my 1500$ watch?  I'm guessing you don't train that often; which is fine, BUT it's absurd to suggest that I should have to do what you are suggesting for every single run.  

A calibration similar to the treadmill calibration would make sense; one and done, but not every time - 

OR Garmin could fix their algorithm.  

1. The reason 3rd party dive apps are not allowed is because there is no way to validate their accuracy and safety.  Dive (and aviation) products need a different level of testing/safety/certification/etc . If you cannot recognize that, then i cant help you.

2. No, that's I am suggesting. But feel free to do whatever you want.

DeanF said:

The decent series are built on platforms that have already been field tested and had years of updates to make them stable reliable, so that they could be a suitable platform for a dive watch. 

And this is the crux of it.  There are still issues with the original Mk1 that have not been addressed despite numerous requests from users since way before the Mk2 series came out.  Yes, it is "stable" in that it won't kill you, but the platform could do with so many improvements.

Very early on, Mk1 users complained about the way the device detects a dive start.  It is poorly implemented with the whole Descent series.  My 22 year old Citizen Hyper Aqualand does it better.  My 15 year old Citizen Cyber Aqualand NX did it better and in fact could very reliable tell the difference between skin diving and scuba diving.  With my stupid Mk1, if I reach down to grab a dropped fin, while on the surface, it registers it as a dive.  I even proposed a very simple method for them to more accurately detect the start of the dive but Garmin did nothing with it.

The Mk1 still does not have an actual alert when you are getting close to you NDL!  However, it does have an alert that says "Approaching NDL" but this alert has nothing to do with the NDL at all and triggers when tissue saturation reaches 80%.  On multiple occasion I've received that alert when my NDL was 99+!

The rate of updates we received for the Mk1 was slow and the total number of updates was small.  I have a Shearwater Perdix AI which has had way more updates in the time: not because there were lots of bugs to fix but because Shearwater are always improving their products and don't just shelve them when the bring out a new product.

The Descent series had the potential to be a killer dive computer, but because of Garmin's neglect, it is just a satisfactory one.

I agree 100% with your points!

When I have started my dive mode, and i go down, diving starts. When I come up it ends.  same on my Suunto D4i - i which I have never updated in the 8 years i had it.

From what I can see here , it really doesn't matter what I say. I have a solution on how to fix a course when you know the distance on a run, and I am getting responses about dive detection - which to me is a function that works fine. Actually all the functions work fine on my watch, the GPS and the dive mode.  I don't like the fact the activity select screen only has a white background still when every other screen can be set the black background.

I guess next will be the thing will be something X person doesn't like in the sleeping tracking  functions, or Garmin Pay not available in country X - since we are just going to keep moving the goal posts here to make sure the end result is "Garmin bad".

Just sell your watches and move on with your lives instead of wasting your time here.

DeanF said:

I can adjust the depth it triggers.

How?

Although, that is only part of the problem.  As I said, Citizen worked out a much better method 20 years ago.