When I was in the market for a smartwatch, many people recommended Garmin due to their reputation in fitness and sports tracking. However, I’m not a sports fanatic, so I chose the Venu series thinking it would be more suitable for everyday use. After a year of wearing the Garmin Venu 3, I can safely say: if you're not living a life centered around fitness, you might want to look elsewhere.

In my daily life, I work night shifts – something the watch has a really hard time understanding. Sleep tracking doesn’t adapt well to irregular hours, and I’m often forced to manually enable and disable sleep mode. Even then, it doesn’t provide any useful insights or suggestions based on my real sleep patterns. It’s clearly built with a 9-to-5 schedule in mind.

As a parent, I often push a stroller – yet the watch can’t detect that I’m walking unless I’m using the arm it’s strapped to. While it does have a wheelchair mode, it doesn’t handle the stroller scenario at all. It feels like a huge oversight for anyone with small kids.

Customization options are also quite limited. The built-in watch faces are few and uninspiring. If you want more, you have to rely on the community store, but the free options are rarely better. Many paid faces require you to go through sketchy payment portals and questionable download methods – definitely not a smooth or secure experience.

I also bought one of Garmin’s kid-focused watches, hoping it would integrate well with my own. Unfortunately, it was a complete letdown. The kids’ watches use an entirely separate app, and there’s no meaningful interaction or overlap with my Garmin account. This could have been a great opportunity to create a connected family ecosystem – but it feels like a missed chance.

Sure, Garmin might be great for athletes and serious fitness users. But for anything beyond that – shift workers, parents, or casual users – look the other way.