The Garmin Epix 2 is a watch to pay close attention to over the Black Friday period. Although it has now been superseded by the Garmin Epix Pro and Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED, the Epix 2 remains one of the best sports watches you can get, and is ripe for big discounts.
It recently dropped to $549 on Amazon Prime Day, which is close to the cheapest I’ve ever seen the watch. It briefly hit $499 earlier in the year, and might do so again as Black Friday approaches, but if you don’t want to wait right now you can get it for just $538 on Amazon, which is an incredible deal for the sapphire titanium version of the watch.
The fact that this deal is on the sapphire model of the Epix 2 is important. Not only does it have a more durable sapphire crystal display and titanium bezel than the cheaper steel model of the watch, it’s also lighter and has multi-band GPS tracking — a feature that isn’t on the steel Epix 2.
Although it was initially launched in January 2022 the Epix 2 has been kept up to date with new features through software updates. I used the watch for a year after its launch and ran four marathons with it, and it remains one of my favorite sports watches even now.
I’ve also tested the Epix Pro and Fenix 8, and there are some updates with the newer watches. The key ones are that there are three sizes of each, while the Epix 2 only comes in one size, and the newer watches have an upgraded optical heart rate sensor and a built-in flashlight. The Fenix 8 is also diveproof to 40m and has a mic and speaker, as well as an updated user interface compared with the Epix 2 and Epix Pro watches.
These are meaningful upgrades and I do think the Epix Pro and Fenix 8 are better watches, especially as the larger 51mm models in each range offer much longer battery life than the Epix 2. However, the core sports tracking experience on the Epix 2 is still just as good and you can save a lot of money with the older watch, so unless one of the new features is worth several hundred dollars to you, this deal is worth snapping up if you’re in the market for a top-tier AMOLED sports watch.
