Garmin Approach S70 in Canada: C$839.98 as the season ends, buy now or wait for spring

In Canada the Garmin Approach S70 carries a regular price above a thousand dollars for the large model, which puts it in a different conversation from most golf gadgets. It has been Garmin’s top golf watch since May 2023, it still is in September 2026, and it is marked down going into the last weeks of the season. That timing is either an opportunity or a trap, depending on how much golf you have left this year and whether you believe the rumours of a replacement.

This page covers what the watch is, what Garmin publishes, the Canadian prices this month, and what owners say about it in public, both ways. It is a presentation, not a test: nobody here has played a round with one.

What the Approach S70 is, and who it is for

The S70 is a Garmin smartwatch with golf GPS built in. On the course it shows a colour map of the hole, yardages to the front, middle and back of the green, carries to hazards and doglegs, and a touch target that gives the distance in yards to any point you tap. Off the course it covers sleep, heart rate, workouts, music storage and contactless payment, which matters in a country where the watch spends more months off the course than on it.

Two case sizes. The 47 mm has the larger screen and longer battery; the 42 mm is lighter and fits a smaller wrist. The 47 mm is offered in black and the 42 mm in grey or white.

The buyer it suits plays often, wants one watch year round and will use the round data. If all you want is a yardage to the middle of the green, this is more watch than the job needs.

What Garmin publishes

These are Garmin’s figures from its product pages for both sizes. Nothing below was measured by us.

• Display: AMOLED touchscreen, optional always-on. 1.4 inch, 454 x 454 pixels on the 47 mm; 1.2 inch, 390 x 390 pixels on the 42 mm. Gorilla Glass 3, ceramic bezel.
• Size and weight: 47 x 47 x 13.4 mm and 56 g; 42 x 42 x 12.6 mm and 44 g.
• Battery: up to 16 days in smartwatch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode for the 47 mm; 10 days and 15 hours for the 42 mm. Garmin’s own charging plug on the watch.
• Courses: more than 43,000 preloaded, updated automatically.
• Sensors: multi-band GPS with GLONASS and Galileo, barometric altimeter, compass, wrist heart rate.
• Golf features: Virtual Caddie with shot dispersion, PlaysLike distance, wind speed and direction through the phone app, PinPointer, Green View with manual pin placement, AutoShot shot detection, digital scorecard, tempo training, tournament mode.
• Water rating: 5 ATM.

Two footnotes from Garmin change the picture. Putts are not tracked automatically, and some chips around the green may not register; the optional CT10 club sensors address that. Green contour maps on selected greens require a paid Garmin Golf membership.

What it costs in Canada

A large Canadian golf retailer listed the Approach S70 47 mm at C$839.98 in September 2026, marked down from a regular C$1,019.99, and the 42 mm at C$769.98, down from C$949.99. Those are sale prices and will not last indefinitely; the regular price is the honest planning figure. The membership and the CT10 sensors come on top if you want green slopes and automatic putt tracking.

Is a replacement coming?

Not officially. On September 7, 2026, the Garmin Rumors site reported that an Approach S72 is expected in 43 mm and 47 mm sizes, reasoning from the S70’s age rather than from a confirmed specification. For a Canadian golfer the calendar matters as much as the rumour: a watch bought in late September gets a few weeks of golf before the snow, and by next spring the range may look different.

What golfers are saying

Gathered from published reviews, their comment threads and owners’ posts on Garmin’s public forum. These are recurring themes, not a count.

Recurring praise

• The screen. The AMOLED display and more detailed hole maps are the compliment that comes up first. MyGolfSpy’s review described the screen as the biggest change from the S62.
• Battery life. Owners report a week or more between charges, rounds included, despite the bright display.
• Unnoticed in the swing. Even first-time watch wearers say they forget it is there, as GOLF.com’s hands-on review describes with the 47 mm.
• Scoring that takes care of itself. The prompt as you leave each green gets people recording rounds they would never have written down.

Recurring complaints

• A subscription for green contours. The most frequent objection: at this price, slope data should not be an extra.
• The app. Owners on Garmin’s forum describe the statistics as basic next to Shot Scope and Arccos, with no strokes gained, and some mention lost putting history.
• Firmware that loses rounds. Threads after recent updates describe rounds that did not record or save, with fixes slow to arrive.
• Small yardages on the map. Golfers in distance glasses find the figures on the hole view too small and want a bigger font.
• Putts and chips. Without the sensors, putts are typed in and some short shots are missed.

Where to buy one in Canada

Both sizes are sold online in Canada; if a store near you has them on display, compare the two cases on your wrist before you choose. Garmin also sells direct. Check the return policy before you pair the watch, and keep the box until you have played at least one round with it.

Three Canadian points are worth thinking about. The season: if you buy in the fall, most of your first six months will be smartwatch use, so the everyday battery, 16 days on the 47 mm against 10 on the 42 mm, may matter more than the GPS hours. Travel: the 43,000 preloaded courses mean a winter trip south needs no downloads. And competition: the Rules of Golf, which Golf Canada applies, allow distance measuring devices unless a Local Rule prohibits them, but not elevation or wind readings, so turn on tournament mode before a club championship or provincial event.

On handicaps, owners south of the border ask on Garmin’s forum when scores will post directly to their national system. If automatic posting matters to you, check what the app does with Canadian scores before you buy rather than assuming it.

If you are still choosing between a watch and a laser, our guide to rangefinders and golf GPS in 2026 has Canadian prices for both.

Who should buy it, and who should not

Buy it if you want one Garmin for the whole year, with the best golf screen in the range, and you will pay for green contours. Skip it if a yardage is all you need, or if detailed statistics are the goal, because the app attracts the most consistent criticism.

Alternatives

• Garmin Approach S50. Newer and smaller, with an AMOLED screen, PlaysLike distance and health tracking. A large Canadian golf retailer listed it at C$489.98 in September 2026, down from C$579.99.
• Garmin Approach S44. The same family without the wellness features, for less again.
• A Garmin fenix or epix. Replies on Garmin’s forum note that several AMOLED outdoor models carry the S70’s golf features, useful if you ski or run through the winter.
• A laser rangefinder. Exact flag distance, no subscription, no score tracking.

How this page was put together

This is a presentation and a reading of public opinion, not a test. Specifications come from Garmin’s published product pages for both sizes. Prices were read at Golf Town in September 2026, in Canadian dollars. The successor report is from Garmin Rumors. Owners’ views were read in MyGolfSpy’s and GOLF.com’s published reviews and comment threads and in the Approach S70 section of Garmin’s public forum, in English; nobody is quoted by name, nothing is counted, and no impression is presented as a statistic.

Nobody here has worn or used this watch. There is no commercial link on this page, no affiliate arrangement and no commission. If content on this site is ever paid for by a brand, it will carry an advertising notice at the top of the page, before the first line.