The Garmin S4 Golf Watch has been retired. Check out our current recommendations for today's best golf rangefinders..

UPDATE: Our Garmin S4 Golf Watch Review is a little bit dated. We still think this is a great watch, but there are newer Garmin Golf Watches that outperform the S4 and cost less. The new Garmin golf watches provide distances to hazards, where the S4 only includes layups and doglegs. The Garmin S4 is a solid golf watch, but the price would need to around $100 to make it a good value.

For all it’s features, it is remarkably simple to navigate. The screen is easy to see and one touch will get you layup distances to the 50, 100, 150 and 200-yard markers. The touchscreen is perfectly responsive (once you realize it’s not supposed to be quite as sensitive to touch as your smartphone), the green view, scorecard and shot measuring features couldn’t be easier with dedicated buttons on the side of the watch. To move the pin, you press the green view button and press and drag your finger to the pin location and the distance will adjust. To enter your score, press the scorecard button and adjust the number of shots and easily add putts and fairways if you want. The watch calculates greens in regulation for you. If you use the scorecard on the first hole, it automatically pops up at the end of each hole, making it even more convenient. For all of that, the Garmin S4 is perfect!

There is one issue and it may be a factor for a few buyers. The S4 has the ability to connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth and display your text messages, emails, and other notifications right on the watch. It’s easy to pair the watch with your phone and amazingly unobtrusive. A small box displays the number of new messages on the screen when there are new messages. You can tap it to view the messages. The font for the messages is quite small, but you can adjust it by pressing the face once or twice and then scroll to read the whole message. You can easily go back and forth between your distances and your notifications. So what’s the issue? If you get too far away from your phone, the Bluetooth sometimes disconnects and does not always automatically reconnect. It won’t happen if you keep your phone in your pocket or clipped to your belt, but it happened way too often when the phone was left in the cart. Reconnecting wasn’t difficult, but it meant getting the phone out and turning the Bluetooth off and then back on. That defeats the purpose of having notifications in the first place, so for those who would use it with the intention of leaving it in a golf cart, don’t count on that feature. We reached out to other users and those who walked with their clubs and they had not experienced the problem. Even with this issue, we still think this coolest golf GPS watch on the market.

• can display text and email messages and other notifications from your iPhone.
• high resolution touchscreen easily readable even in bright sunlight
• provides distance to the front, middle and back of every green, plus layups and doglegs.
• dedicated “green view” button for easy access to manual pin positioning
• detailed stat tracking
• preloaded with over 30,000 golf courses
• battery life lasts up to 10 hours in GPS mode.
• waterproof to 10 meters
• allows the creation of custom yardage points

User Manual for Garmin S4 Golf Watch