Garmin · 2017
Descent™ Mk1Size, Dimensions & Wrist Fit
The Garmin Descent™ Mk1 sits best on flat wrist widths of about 54–73mm (≈ 14.4–19.5cm wrist circumference). Adjust the slider below to check your wrist.
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The Descent™ Mk1 in short
The figures that decide whether this watch suits you, pulled out of the full specification sheet further down.
- Rated for 30 hours of use per charge.
- 101g on the wrist. Heavier than 93% of the 51mm watches we have weights for.
- 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter display.
- Takes 26mm bands, so third-party straps fit without an adapter.
Does the Descent™ Mk1 fit your wrist?
Drag the slider to your wrist width and see the Descent™ Mk1 overlaid at true scale. Lug-to-lug — not case diameter — decides whether a watch overhangs your wrist.
Happy with the fit? Check current availability for the Descent™ Mk1.
Check offer2D Dimension Schematics
The Descent™ Mk1 drawn to scale — from above, and in profile against the wrist.
- Garmin Descent™ Mk151mm · 17.8mm thick
3D preview
Garmin Descent™ Mk1 on a wrist
On an arm sized to your own wrist — the view a product photo never gives you.
Shapes are built from published measurements, not manufacturer 3D models — accurate proportions, generic dial.
Descent™ Mk1 battery life
The runtime the manufacturer publishes for everyday use.
- Smartwatch30 hours
How the Descent™ Mk1 ranks on battery
Against the 268 Garmin watches in our database, ranked on each figure Garmin publishes.
- Everyday use19 days#82 of 257
- GPS tracking20 hours#149 of 233
What size band does the Descent™ Mk1 take?
Lug width
26mm
Any 26mm strap fits, so you are not restricted to Garmin's own bands. Quick-release pins let you swap without tools — check that a replacement lists 26mm and quick-release before buying.
Affiliate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, WatchFitTool earns from qualifying purchases. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Descent™ Mk1 specifications
The figures that decide a purchase, followed by every line Garmin publishes.
- Battery life
- Dive mode: Up to 40 hoursWatch mode: Up to 19 daysSmartwatch mode: Up to 10 daysGPS/HR Activity mode: Up to 20 hoursUltraTrac™ mode: Up to 30 hours
- Display
- 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter
- Resolution
- 240 x 240 pixels
- Case material
- fiber-reinforced polymer
- Bezel
- stainless steel or titanium
- Glass
- sapphire crystal
- Strap
- silicone or titanium
- Storage
- 16 GB
Full specification sheet
204 published lines across 21 groups, unedited
Overview
- Family
- Garmin
General
- Battery life
- Dive mode: Up to 40 hoursWatch mode: Up to 19 daysSmartwatch mode: Up to 10 daysGPS/HR Activity mode: Up to 20 hoursUltraTrac™ mode: Up to 30 hours
- Display Size
- 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter
- Case material
- fiber-reinforced polymer
- Color display
- Lens Material
- sapphire crystal
- Bezel Material
- stainless steel or titanium
- Memory/History
- 16 GB
- Strap material
- silicone or titanium
- Display resolution
- 240 x 240 pixels
- QuickFit® watch band compatible
- yes (26 mm)
Sensors
- GPS
- Compass
- GLONASS
- Galileo
- Gyroscope
- Thermometer
- Depth sensor
- Accelerometer
- Barometric altimeter
- Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor
Additional
- Additional
- Air integration: no
Product Info
- Main SKU
- 010-01760-00
- Product ID
- 568181
- Product Name
- Descent™ Mk1
- Release Date
- 10/31/2017
- Product Variation
- Silver Sapphire with Black Band
Clock Features
- Timer
- Stopwatch
- Time/date
- Alarm clock
- GPS Time Sync
- Sunrise/sunset times
- Automatic daylight saving time
Diving Features
- PO2
- Up to 2.0 with customizable deco PO2 setting
- Tides
- yes (via Connect IQ™)
- Backlight
- yes (configurable time and intensity; auto-on at depth)
- Gas mixes
- Air, Nitrox and Trimix up to 100% O2. 1 bottom gas and up to 11 deco and/or backup gasses.
- APNEA mode
- Deep Stops
- yes (using custom gradient factors)
- Gauge mode
- No fly time
- yes (with 24hr countdown)
- Safety Stop
- yes (customizable off/3min/5min)
- Dive planner
- yes (basic NDL + multi-gas deco planner)
- Multi-gas mode
- Nitrox support
- Trimix support
- APNEA hunt mode
- Alerts & alarms
- Audible and vibration alarms for ascent rate, PO2, CNS/OTU, NDL, deco, gas switching. Customizable (up to 40) audible and/or vibration per dive mode, based on depth or time
- Single-gas mode
- 3-axis dive compass
- yes (with adjustable heading, quick change to 90R, 90L and reciprocal). Indicates degrees and direction back to set heading
- Auto start/end dive
- Decompression model
- Bühlmann ZHL-16c with gradient factors
- Missed Deco Lockout
- yes (can be disabled prior to dive with user acknowledgement)
- Custom end-dive timeout
- yes (20s to 10 m)
- Customizable conservatism
- yes (low/medium/high or custom using gradient factors)
- Surface diver status widget
- yes (surface interval, N2/HE loading, CNS, OTU and tissue compartment status)
- Automatic altitude adjustment
- Residual Tissue Loading Reset
- yes (on the surface with user acknowledgement)
- Dive ascent/descent rate indicator
- Dive activity maximum operating depth
- 100 meters
- Sync dive log to Garmin Dive™ Mobile app
- Automatically saves dive entry and exit locations
Boating Features
- Available Boating Profiles
- Boating
Cycling Features
- Courses
- Race an activity
- Power meter compatible
- Compatible with Varia™ lights
- FTP (Functional Threshold Power)
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- Speed and cadence sensor support (w/sensor)
- Cycle Map (routable cycling-specific street map)
- Bike lap and lap maximum power (with power sensor)
- Compatible with Varia™ radar (rear-facing radar)
- Compatible with Vector™ and Rally™ (power meters)
- Compatible with Varia Vision™ (head-mounted display)
- Alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goals including time, distance, heart rate or calories)
Golfing Features
- Digital scorecard
- Garmin AutoShot™
- Round timer/odometer
- TruSwing™ compatible
- Auto CourseView updates
- Yardage to layups/doglegs
- Hazards and course targets
- Green View with manual pin position
- Preloaded with 43,000 courses worldwide
- Yardage to F/M/B (distance to front, middle and back of green)
- Stat tracking (strokes, putts per round, greens and fairways hit)
- Measures shot distance (calculates exact yardage for shots from anywhere on course)
- automatic
Running Features
- Run workouts
- Race predictor
- Foot pod capable
- Running dynamics
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- Lactate threshold
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- Trail run auto climb
- Performance condition
- Stride length (real time)
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- Vertical oscillation and ratio
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- Ground contact time and balance
- yes (with compatible accessory)
- GPS-based distance, time and pace
- Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute)
What You'll Love
- Training status
Activity Profiles
- Gym
- Strength and Cardio Training, Indoor Rowing
- Swim
- Pool Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Swimming/Running
- Cycling
- Biking, Indoor Biking, Mountain Biking, Triathlon
- Outdoor recreation
- Hiking, Climbing, Mountain Biking, Skiing, Snowboarding, XC Skiing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Rowing, Jumpmaster, Tactical
Swimming Features
- Pool swim workouts
- Drill logging (pool swim only)
- "Repeat on" rest timer (pool swim only)
- Basic rest timer (up from 0) (pool swim only)
- Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) (pool swim only)
- Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories)
- Open-water swim metrics (distance, pace, stroke count/rate, stroke distance, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories)
- Heart rate from external HRM (real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim)
- yes (with HRM-Tri™, HRM-Swim™ and HRM-Pro™)
Tactical Features
- Dual grid coordinates
Outdoor Recreation
- Tides
- yes (via Connect IQ™)
- TracBack®
- Sight 'N Go
- Back to start
- Fish forecast
- yes (via Connect IQ™)
- Explore Nearby
- UltraTrac mode
- Vertical speed
- GPS coordinates
- Area calculation
- yes (via Connect IQ™)
- Elevation profile
- Projected waypoint
- Total ascent/descent
- Future elevation plot
- Distance to destination
- Sun and moon information
- yes (via Connect IQ™)
- Point-to-point navigation
- Preloaded road and trail maps
- Bread crumb trail in real time
- Downloadable cartography support
- Barometric trend indicator with Storm Alert
Daily Smart Features
- Calendar
- Connectivity
- Bluetooth® Smart, ANT+®, Wi-Fi®
- Find My Phone
- Find My Watch
- VIRB® Remote
- Weather forecasts
- Smart Notifications
- Smartphone compatibility
- iPhone®, Android™
- Controls smartphone music
- Pairs with Garmin Connect™ Mobile
- Text response/reject phone call with text (Android™ only)
- Connect IQ™ (downloadable watch faces, data fields and apps)
Activity Tracking Features
- TrueUp™
- Move IQ™
- Step counter
- Floors climbed
- Calories burned
- Distance traveled
- Intensity minutes
- Garmin Connect™ Challenges app
- yes (optional Connect IQ app)
- Move alerts (displays on device after a period of inactivity)
- Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal)
Workout and Training Plans
- Cardio workouts
- Strength workouts
Health & Wellness Monitoring
- Sleep
- yes (advanced)
- Hydration
- yes (in Garmin Connect™)
- Fitness age
- yes (in app)
- Women's health
- yes (in Garmin Connect™)
- Resting heart rate
- Abnormal heart rate alerts
- yes (high and low)
- Wrist-based heart rate (constant, every second)
Training, Planning and Analysis Features
- % HRR
- % HR max
- HR zones
- HR alerts
- Shortcuts
- Manual lap
- Auto max HR
- Auto scroll
- Finish time
- HR calories
- Voice alerts
- Custom alerts
- Physio TrueUp
- Recovery time
- Training load
- VO2 Max (Run)
- Course guidance
- Training effect
- Virtual Partner
- Race an Activity
- Advanced workouts
- Interval training
- Garmin Live Segments
- Strava Live Segments
- GPS speed and distance
- Configurable lap alerts
- Customizable data pages
- Touch and/or button lock
- Activity history on watch
- Downloadable training plans
- Training effect (anaerobic)
- Manual multisport activities
- Customizable activity profiles
- Auto Pause® automatic timer halt
- Auto Lap® interval tracking feature
- Round-trip course creator (running/cycling)
- HR broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+® to paired devices)
- HRV stress test (measures your heart rate variability while standing still, for 3 minutes, to provide you with an estimated stress level; the scale of this is 1 to 100; low scores indicate lower stress levels)
- yes (with compatible accessory)
Alternatives to the Descent™ Mk1
Watches that cover a similar amount of wrist, with the measurements that separate them.
Garmin
tactix® 8 – 51 mm, AMOLED
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 14.7mm
- Weight
- 92g
Garmin
tactix® 8 – 51 mm, Solar, Elite
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 15.4mm
- Weight
- 95g
Garmin
tactix® 8 – 51 mm, Solar
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 15.4mm
- Weight
- 95g
Garmin
Enduro™ 3
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 15.7mm
- Weight
- 63g
Garmin
fēnix® 8 – 51 mm, Solar
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 15.4mm
- Weight
- 95g
Garmin
fēnix® 8 – 51 mm, AMOLED
- Width
- 51mm
- Thick
- 14.7mm
- Weight
- 102g
Descent™ Mk1 — Frequently Asked Questions
Will the Garmin Descent™ Mk1 fit my wrist?
The Garmin Descent™ Mk1 looks balanced on flat wrist widths of roughly 54–73mm (about 14.4–19.5cm circumference). Drag the slider above to check it against your own measurement.
What size band does the Garmin Descent™ Mk1 take?
26mm. Any 26mm strap fits, so you are not limited to Garmin's own bands — look for a quick-release fitting if you want to swap without tools.
How long does the Garmin Descent™ Mk1 battery last?
Garmin rates it at 30 hours per charge in everyday use.
How does the Garmin Descent™ Mk1 battery compare with other Garmin watches?
At 19 days in everyday use it ranks #82 of the 257 Garmin watches in our database — the top 32% of the range. The full ranking, including GPS and power-saving figures, is on our Garmin battery life comparison.
Is the Garmin Descent™ Mk1 thick for a 51mm watch?
At 17.8mm, thicker than 95% of 51mm watches — it will sit noticeably high on the wrist. Thickness, not case width, is what decides whether a watch catches on a shirt cuff.
What other watches are the same size as the Garmin Descent™ Mk1?
Huawei Watch D, Omega Seamaster Chrono-Quartz, Tissot Lepine Mechanical all sit within half a millimetre of the Garmin Descent™ Mk1's 51mm case, so they cover the same amount of wrist.
