Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED announced — rugged fitness tracking meets old-school timekeeping
By Dan Bracaglia
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Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED announced — rugged fitness tracking meets old-school timekeeping
Dan Bracaglia
last updated
17 September 2025
The Instinct 3 just got some old-school charm
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(Image credit: Garmin)
Key features
Garmin just dropped a wacky new smartwatch that combines state-of-the-art fitness and adventure tracking tech with old-school timekeeping chops. Meet the Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED, a fun take on my favorite rugged smartwatch of 2025 and one of the best smartwatches overall.
When I reviewed the Garmin Instinct 3 earlier this year, I called it “a near-perfect smartwatch for outdoor adventure enthusiasts thanks to a rugged and sporty design, weeks of battery life, accurate GPS tracking, loads of training and recovery tools, useful sleep insights, support for a huge range of workout types, and practical features like a built-in LED flashlight.”
The new Garmin Instinct AMOLED and AMOLED Tactical Edition offer all of the above, plus mechanical timekeeping. Here’s everything you need to know.
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Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED: Price
The new Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED is $649 in your choice of Charcoal or Bronze Sunburst, or $749 for the ‘Tactical Edition’ in all black. By comparison, the standard Instinct 3 AMOLED in 45mm is $449, while the 50mm Instinct 30mm AMOLED is $499.
Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED: Key features
(Image credit: Garmin)
The main difference between the standard Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED and the new Crossover model is that the latter has mechanical watch hands positioned above the screen (but still protected by the watch glass).
The 1.2-inch AMOLED screen on the Instinct Crossover AMOLED is the same as the normal Instinct 3 AMOLED 45mm model. However, for discreet timekeeping in dim lighting, the Crossover’s watch hands are coated in a high-quality glow-in-the-dark ‘lume.’
To ensure accurate timekeeping, even in rough-and-tumble environments — the Instinct line is, after all, designed for outdoor enthusiasts — the new Crossover models boast Garmin’s ‘RevoDrive’ technology, which automatically corrects mechanical hiccups resulting from bumps or drops.
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Like the Instinct 3 AMOLED, the new Instinct Crossover AMOLED offers 100 meters of water resistance, a tough-built all-metal bezel, onboard LED flashlight, multi-band GPS, and sapphire crystal screen protection.
It also supports mobile payments via Garmin Pay. Battery life is rated at 14 to 18 days per charge in smartwatch mode. GPS battery life is expected to be around 60 hours.
Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED: Outlook
(Image credit: Garmin)
The Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED is a niche product, for sure. Feature-wise, it offers little over the standard Instinct 3 AMOLED smartwatch.
Just as rugged, long-lasting, and sporting the same bright AMOLED screen, the Crossover costs a premium because it tosses a mechanical timekeeping element into the mix. Is that necessary? Not at all. Is it cool? Heck yes. But, hey, if it doesn’t tickle your fancy, this isn’t the smartwatch for you.
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Dan Bracaglia
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Senior Writer, Fitness & Wearables
Dan Bracaglia is the Tom’s Guide editorial lead for all things smartwatches, fitness trackers and outdoor gear. With 15 years of experience as a consumer technology journalist testing everything from Oura Rings to instant cameras, Dan is deeply passionate about helping readers save money and make informed purchasing decisions. In the past year alone, Dan has assessed major product releases from the likes of Apple, Garmin, Google, Samsung, Polar and many others.
An avid outdoor adventurer, Dan is based in the U.S. Pacific Northwest where he takes advantage of the beautiful surroundings every chance he gets. A lover of kayaking, hiking, swimming, biking, snowboarding and exploring, he also makes every effort to combine his day job with his passions. When not assessing the sleep tracking and heart rate accuracy of the latest tach gadgets, you can find him photographing Seattle’s vibrant underground music community.
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