D2 Charlie Aviation Watch
Garmin has introduced their new Aviation watch for 2017. The D2 Charlie is the latest model in Garmin’s D2 series, the question I asked myself after looking over the specs was how much of an upgrade this represents to the previous Bravo iteration of the D2 series.
Why do I need the D2 Charlie?
Are you a pilot? Do you like tech and staying as up to date as possible with technology? Then yes.
That was a joke, but it does raise a question; how is this watch designed for pilots? Garmin has taken the time to make tailored products for each of their main categories (Recreation, Marine and Aviation). If you’re seriously contemplating the D2 Charlie, you will want to know what makes this a great watch and if you're a pilot, you'll want to know whether it will actually make a difference. In this section, I’ll highlight some of the most prominent features of the watch.
- Dedicated aviation mode (Full-colour dynamic moving map)
- GPS navigation
- NEXRAD weather display (Requires Bluetooth connection to Garmin Connect App, and also an active mobile or Wi-Fi service. This will be dependent on low altitude or ground)
- Airport information
- Flight Logging
- Dedicated Direct-to and Nearest buttons and Enhanced flight planning capability (build/modify flight plans and transfer to Garmin Pilot app
- Baro-adjustable altimeter, compass with HSI, Zulu/UTC reference
- Battery life up to 12 days in smartwatch mode, up to 20 hours in GPS mode or up to 35 hours in UltraTrac battery saver mode
- Sapphire lens with titanium finished bezel
- Weather Radar overlay METARS (meteorological reports) and TAF (Terminal forecast) information (Requires Bluetooth connection to Garmin Connect App, and also an active mobile or Wi-Fi service. This will be dependent on low altitude or ground)
Price and Australian Release
The Leather version has arrived in store, and we have stock available here. The Titanium model stock shipment is set to arrive in September; we will have exact dates as we get closer to the date.
Quick Summary
The D2 Charlie is a powerhouse GPS watch; it runs on the fenix five operating system as opposed to the fenix three operating system which is what the D2 Bravo operates on. The D2 Charlie also utilises more powerful aviation modes like the dynamic map, NEXRAD weather and NAVAID. These features for the D2 Charlie show that Garmin has been listening to its audience. One of the big complaints with the Bravo was a lack of map information when in aviation mode (country borders, cities, water bodies) this has never been addressed in the Bravo series as the memory capacity made it impossible to store that much data. The 16GB available on the Charlie has now made this possible. Do these features sound like they would make a difference in your cockpit, or is the watch's all round use the most important aspect? In the following section, we've provided a breakdown on what's changed since the Bravo version of the watch.
What's changed from the D2 Bravo?
The following information is from the specification list provided by Garmin on both the D2 Bravo and the D2 Charlie.
Lens Material
Sapphire lens for the D2 Charlie
Sapphire or Domed Glass for the D2 Bravo
Bezel
Titanium bezel for the D2 Charlie
Stainless Steel for the D2 Bravo
Weight
Surprisingly, despite the Titanium Bezel as opposed to the heavier Stainless Steel the D2 Charlie weighs a little more than D2 Bravo in all aspects except the Titanium Band.
- Silicone Band 56g (Bravo) Silicone Band 89g (Charlie)
- Titanium Band 152g (Bravo) Titanium Band 147g (Charlie)
- Leather Band 84g (Bravo) Leather Band 95g (Charlie)
Resolution
- 240x240p D2 Charlie
- 218x218p D2 Bravo
Battery Capacity
- Smart mode
- 12 days D2 Charlie
- Two weeks D2 Bravo
- UltraTrac
- 35 hours (without heart rate) D2 Charlie
- 50 hours D2 Bravo
Memory
- 16GB D2 Charlie
- 32MB D2 Bravo
Aviation (The listed features are available only on the D2 Charlie)
- NEXRAD on moving Map
- Moving Map with aviation airports, navaids, roads, bodies of water and more
- Waypoint information page
- Worldwide NAVAID and Intersection Database/s
Training Planning and Analysis Features (The listed features are available only on the D2 Charlie)
- Training Status (lets you see if you’re training effectively by tracking your training history and fitness level trend.)
- Training Load (your total training load for the last seven days calculated from estimated EPOC)
- Training Effect (anaerobic)
- Segments (Live, Garmin)
- Group LiveTrack
- Fitness Age
- Round-trip course creator (running/cycling)
- Heart Strap ANT+ AND BLE Sensors
Golfing Features (The listed features are available only on the D2 Charlie)
- Garmin Autoshot
- Auto CourseView updates
- Green View with manual pin position
- Hazards and course targets
- TruSwing compatible
- Round timer/odometer
Outdoor (The listed features are available only on the D2 Charlie)
- UltraTrac
- Around Me
- Preloaded topo maps
- Downloadable cartography support
- Dual grid coordinates
Cycling (The listed features are available only on the D2 Charlie)
- The D2 Charlie doesn’t have the Triathlon Profile preloaded
- Strava features (Beacon, live segments
- Garmin Cycle Map (routable cycling-specific street map)
- Compatible with Vector (power meter)
- Compatible with Varia Vision (head mounted display)
- Compatible with Varia radar (rear-facing radar)
- Compatible with Varia lights
- Speed and Cadence support with both ANT+ AND Bluetooth
Swimming
- Only difference is that the Triathlon profile is not preloaded on the D2 Charlie
