Garmin D2 Bravo Watch

[g3xpert]

We won't repeat all the information on the website or in the video, but one of our team's favorite features of this new watch is the ability to display decoded METARs. There are two METAR pages, and this is the first (the second has age, temps, baro setting).



When you select the METAR airport, you can simply select Nearest, or enter any airport identifier. If the airport you select isn't a reporting station, it will find the nearest to display and identify it. Once you select an airport, it remembers it and uses it each time you ask it to show the METAR page.

You can define in the watch setup the display order of "widgets" like the METAR page and altitude page, and I have mine setup so I just press the Down button on the left side when the watch face is being used, and the METAR page is first up.

How does it do that?

Well, it actually requires a Bluetooth link to your Android or iOS phone which is running the free Garmin Connect Mobile app. The D2 Bravo watch sends the METAR update request to Garmin Connect, which then accesses the Garmin weather server and returns a small amount of data containing the latest METAR which is displayed by the watch. It only takes a couple of seconds for the update.

On an Android phone, you don't even have to be running Garmin Connect Mobile in the foreground. It runs as a service behind the scene.

At $699, it probably isn't for everyone, but we expect that some dealers will have stock at Oshkosh if you want to take one home.

Thanks,
Steve

[greghughespdx]

Can it also get the data via ADS-B through the Garmin Pilot/G3X Touch integrated install, or just through the separate iphone app and requiring a Internet data connection?

[g3xpert]

Originally Posted by greghughespdx

Can it also get the data via ADS-B through the Garmin Pilot/G3X Touch integrated install, or just through the separate iphone app and requiring a Internet data connection?

Hello Greg,

Good question. No, it only receives METAR data via Garmin Connect Mobile, so once you get airborne, you will need to use the good stuff in front of you in the panel to view weather data.

Thanks,
Steve

[rongawer]

Seeing this post, I had to add that I just got mine and I'm very happy with it. I considered buying an apple watch, but this one does everything I could ask of a watch with features the apple watch doesn't have, such at waterproofing to 10 ATM, a battery life that goes for six weeks vice 18 hours, a Garmin WAAS GPS (apple has no GPS), barometer, altimeter, thermometer, high accuracy 3-axis compass, swim tracking (apple none - voids warranty as well), and ANT+ to connect to a plethora of sensors, including heart rate belt. It also has BT and Wifi.

And I haven't even discussed the aviation features. I used it in flight today and it's very accurate, and although mostly just a cool thing to brag about with your flying buddies, it's truly a very usable backup navigational tool.

The quality, fit and finish are very good and what you would expect from Garmin. The leather band is excellent as well, although I swapped it out with a stainless link band as I use this for swim tracking. It has pretty much all the features Garmin offers in all of their watches combined into one, including pretty much all fitness tracking, skydiving, geocaching, etc.... it's crazy..even tracks your sleep and links with my bicycle speed sensor - so it tracks that too.

From an aviation standpoint, it has a bunch of cool features. Now, whether you'll actually use them in flight? I dunno, but they're cool - and that's at least worth bragging rights.

[Raymo]

I certainly want one but still need a panel and engine and a host of other $500 this or thats

[eddieseve]

Question for Garmin, will the weather app work in Australia?

Cheers

[g3xpert]

Originally Posted by eddieseve

Question for Garmin, will the weather app work in Australia?

Cheers

Hello Eddie,

The D2 Bravo has a worldwide airport database, and the weather server seems to support Australia.

I just put YBTL (Townsville International) into the watch and found out the wind was 070 at 10 kt, 6 miles visibility, and the clouds were broken at 5,000 ft. The temperature is a very pleasant 77 deg F.

Thanks,
Steve

[Pat Stewart]

I saw the Garmin Add on this site last week and ordered mine. Will be checking it out this weekend.

Pat

[bkthomps]

do you have any non marketing pictures of the display? that was the deal breaker for me- i saw these pictures and decided to forgo until I got my hands on one in person, it is my understanding that the display brightness is not adjustable







And with backlight on....

[g3xpert]

Originally Posted by bkthomps

do you have any non marketing pictures of the display? that was the deal breaker for me- i saw these pictures and decided to forgo until I got my hands on one in person, it is my understanding that the display brightness is not adjustable

Hi Brian,

We are with you that readability of a watch is pretty important. The backlight is most certainly adjustable (Settings, System, Backlight) and you can even set it to automatically turn on the backlight for a user selected time each time you push any button. The default backlight setting is 50% (to save battery life), and is bright enough for me, but it gets really bright at 100%.

My eyesight isn't anything like it used to be, but I love this watch and have no problem using it, day and night. I asked the guys on our team to increase the font size of the METAR pages early on to make these important pages even easier to read.

The brighter the sunlight, the easier it is to read the transflective display.

There are many different selections for the foreground/background setup, and I like the high contrast of the dark text/numbers on a light background.

I use this setup on both the watch face and Fly activity data screens and find it MUCH better than the example displays in your pictures which use the light font on a dark background.

Speaking of the Fly activity, the auto-capture and pushing of flights to my Garmin Connect webpages is pretty slick. We launched out of Kansas City early Sunday morning in our G3X Touch equipped RV-7A heading for Oshkosh only to be forced to file IFR, reverse course, and visit Topeka before flying around the worst of the storms and finally getting on a course to Oshkosh. By the time we entered the FBO at Newton, IA for a fuel top off, my D2 Bravo watch had already detected that the flight was over and had used my phone to push the flight to my web page. Who knew we would get to visit Nebraska on our way to Wisconsin!


Thanks,
Steve