For me it takes quite a long time, up to several minutes.
For me it takes quite a long time, up to several minutes.
It can take up to several minutes if:
1. You start the activity in unfavourable terrain, for example surrounded by tall buildings.
2. You haven't synced your watch with your phone for some time (like more than 12 hours).
3. You start your activity in a location which is very far (hundreds of miles) from last GPS fix.
4. You start moving before getting a decent GPS fix.
Your answers are strange and interesting.
1) I start my activity next to the house, where the buildings have a maximum of 2 floors.
2) I don't understand what syncing with the phone has to do with it. Does the watch get any information from the phone? Is it related to hardware or software?
3) I always start my activities in the same place, the maximum difference of several dozen meters.
4) I always wait patiently.
I will add that the quality of the recorded path is acceptable. I have another Garmin watch and I catch the GPS fix after a maximum of a few seconds. How can I check which GPS version (hardware model / chip) each Garmina watch has?
this watch should just work as it should and I should not worry about such details.
You are right, to some extent.
All the points I mentioned above are a result of various limitations of GPS technology. GPS receiver designers take measures to minimize this (like for example updating EPO or CPE from your phone), so normally a GPS fix in a modern device should take a relatively short time. If none of the points applies to you, and still you see long GPS fix times, then there might be something wrong with your device.
You might want to read this, if you're interested in some details:
https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=ZCFBNlxeiM3oipPmFoYfs7