Got my new VA3 today and I'm a bit disappointed. First, the clock faces and backlight are sorely in need of more contrast. All the clock face examples from the original box to sales images to ConnectIQ store images all show clear, well defined clock faces. My VA3 clock faces are much more washed-out looking. And the gesture to turn the backlight on takes a real snap of the wrist and even then it doesn't work half the time. I end up having to tap the crystal to see the watch face (and even that fails occasionally). Hopefully Garmin can correct these issues in future firmware updates.
The box image is photoshop and unrepresentative unfortunately. The actual watch isn’t as good as it is designed to be low power and so uses the best display it can whilst still giving good battery life (this is why the Apple Watch looks great but needs charging every day).
with regards to the gesture you just need to work out a way to move your arm and it becomes 100% reliable. I put my arm slightly out in front of me, watch face to the sky and then rotate the wrist - works every time.
Thank you thank you thank you! I thought my watch had a gyro hardware issue until the gesture worked while doing activities, so I thought it was a software bug! But I would never think it was (no idea how) set to do not disturb and that is why it has been dark for weeks now!!
