What is the maximum underwater depth supported by the fenix 7 ?

RobinNZ said:

It says it's water resistant to 100m, then it should be WR to 100m with ordinary use. 

https://jackmasonbrand.com/blogs/news/what-is-a-water-resistant-watch

https://www.watcho.co.uk/watches/information/water-resistance-on-watches-guide.html

https://hiconsumption.com/watch-water-resistance-rating-explained/

„The water-resistance of IWC watches is shown in bar and not in metres. Metres, which are often used elsewhere in the watch industry to indicate water-resistance, cannot be equated with the dive depth because of the test procedures that are frequently used. By way of explanation: an IWC watch with an indicated water-resistance of 1 bar is protected against splashing water. With water-resistance of 3 bar, the watch can be worn when swimming or skiing, and at 6 bar it will have no problem with water sports or snorkelling. Diver’s watches with an indicated water-resistance of 12 to 20 bar are professional measuring instruments designed for scuba-diving.

https://www.iwc.com/de/en/specials/water-resistant.html

https://www.timex.com/Water-Resistance-Ratings.html 

I took my Fenix 6x Pro Solar snorkeling for a few hours in Hawaii.  I recorded the activity as an open water swim.  The GPS didn't work well since whenever the watch was below water, the GPS didn't function correctly.  So it really begs the question of why you wear it in the first place.  But anyway, I did not press any buttons while underwater, only above water to stop and start the activity.  And I cleaned the watch with fresh water after we were done.  However, within an hour, I had water damage (various malfunctions like the compass no longer worked correctly and the lower left button got stuck and caused all sorts of problems). 

I contacted Garmin about it and they offered me a new 7x pro solar sapphire for a much reduced price since my 6x pro solar was out of warranty.  So I took their offer, paid a few hundred bucks and got a new 7x pro solar for a much reduced price.  However, to answer your question, yes, you can dive in saltwater with your fenix, but you had best not get any saltwater into the buttons.  You're really taking a risk if any salt gets in there.  And since the GPS data doesn't really do much and you can't measure depth, there's really no point to wearing it while snorkeling and less of a point to wear it while diving.  If you are diving to 40 meters, you'll need a dive computer.  So just use that.  If you want to track your heart rate, you can wear an HRM on your chest which will record your HR that you can then download to the watch after the activity is over.  Just start your fenix on an open water swim, leave the watch on the boat, perform your dive with the HRM, and then when you surface, stop the activity and download the HR data from the strap.  You can bring a real compass with you on the dive.  There are lots of wrist or hose-mountable compasses available for under $50USD and some extra special ones for around $100 if you don't care about money.

Well the sad thing is that garmin restricted the depth gauge from  Model Fenix 6 onwards to a depth of 7 something meters. I believe 7.2 or .4 m This extremely annoying because with older models such as Fenix 5 you were able to download the following app;

Apnea CWT

 and comfortably use it as a "freediving" computer or as a redundant depth gauge for scuba diving with very exact readings. YOu can use it to a depth of -40m , perfect for recreational scuba and freediving.

You construct a watch that whitstands pressure up to 10 ATM but at the same time you deactivate it's depthgauge almost completly.

Obviously Garmin wants you to purchase an additional dive computer because otherwise every freediver would just buy a Fenix and dive with it instead of spending triple the amount for purchasing an additional Descent Model which the didn't even bring out in a 47mm version, pretty sad in my opinion...

I freedived the G1 for a year now, monochrom display, very small font, no maps, short batterylife and so on for the same price of Fenix 7 pro solar.. all you pay is that your depthgauge isn‘t restricted, for serious cold warer deepdives it‘s not your ideal unit, can just be used as a gauge…

tactico45 said:

for serious cold warer deepdives it‘s not your ideal un

For serious cold water deepdives, I would use a dedicated diving computer anyway, even if F7 had an unrestricted depth gauge.

..fair enough.. I‘m happy with Mk2 & easyQ for a setup..it just bugs me that they sabotate this option on purpose…

tactico45 said:

it just bugs me that they sabotate this option on purpose…

That's in their best interest to avoid the legal responsibility in case of accidents caused by 3rd party CIQ diving apps without any certification. As the barometric altimeter is not designed to work accurately in the range of pressures exceeding the working range by more than an order of magnitude, if someone tried to use such a gauge, it might easily expose him to a serious risk of a fatal accident.

The F7 (as well as other non-diving models) is simply not designed for diving, and hence there is no reason to allow 3rd parties to bypass that limitation. As written earlier, it may change at F8, though.

true.. makes absolut sense to.. all I ever wanted anyway was an Mk3 in 47mm lol

Occasionally, the Garmin watch user may need to press buttons underwater regardless of depth (e.g. manually time a lap during a swim while hands are in the water). I find such operation always damages the altimeter/barometer sensor on Fenix 6, 7 or Epix watch. That's my lessons learned.