Documentation
On this page
The watch is for the moment your phone is in a bag: it logs the shot, runs the clock, shows the hold, and, on Apple Watch and Wear OS, says the next target out loud. Everything it shows was solved on the phone; the watch never computes a solution of its own.
The pages
Apple Watch pages run top to bottom; Wear OS pages run side to side; Garmin pages step with one button. A watch reopens on the page you were last on; if a stage clock is running or paused the timer wins, and a fresh install opens on the DOPE page. The Stats page appears only while the watch holds a look-back from Shooter Stats, which is Pro.
| Page | Apple Watch | Wear OS | Garmin | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timer | Yes | Yes | Yes | The stage clock: par time, warning beeps, splits, a ±30 s nudge, and Quiet Mode. |
| DOPE | Yes | Yes | Yes | Your holds by distance for the active load, with a wind adjuster and a distance stepper that the phone can hide to make the numbers larger. |
| Hit Tally | Yes | Yes | Yes | Hits and misses you call for the stage; a zero reads as a miss, never as nothing. |
| Shot Log | Yes | Yes | Yes | Shots as they are detected or tapped in, with the next target read to you on Apple Watch and Wear OS. |
| Firearm | Yes | Yes | — | The active rifle, its round count, and barrel life when a life target is set; a count with no target shows the count only. |
| Stats | When a look-back is held | When a look-back is held | When a look-back is held; never on the Instinct 2 family | Your 30-, 60-, or 90-day split trend from Shooter Stats (Pro). |
| Settings | Yes | Yes | Yes | Shot capture mode and sensitivity, shot confirmation, haptic strength, keep-screen-awake, the two DOPE-page controls, and spoken readout. |
| About | Yes | Yes | Yes | Version and connection state. |
No Garmin has a Firearm page. The Instinct 2 family runs six pages rather than seven because it lacks the memory for the Stats page; every other supported Garmin carries it.
Logging shots
Every watch logs a shot two ways: the watch's motion sensors detect the recoil, or you tap Log Shot. On Wear OS that control sits on the holds page and appears only in Manual capture. A detected shot is dated at the instant of the recoil, not the moment you confirm it; a tapped shot is dated at the tap, because there is no impulse behind a button to know.
The stage timer
Set the par time, the warning checkpoints, Quiet Mode, keep-screen-awake, and haptic strength on the phone under each watch's own Settings page; they are pushed to the watch as you change them. On the wrist you start, pause, and stop the clock, nudge the par by 30 seconds, and read the splits. On Apple Watch and Wear OS, Competition Mode arms the clock, shot capture, and the spoken readout together from one control, and on the Apple Watch also from Siri, or from the Action button on an Ultra, and disarms them together when you end the stage or the quiet window closes.
What the watch says
On Apple Watch and Wear OS, the Shot Log page asks the phone for the next target when capture starts and after every logged shot, and reads the answer with the watch's own voice: the distance, the hold, the windage, and whether the round has gone transonic. A tap on the wrist means it answered, which matters under ear protection. Pair ear protection to the watch. A target whose row you gave a Spoken Callout is read in your words instead. Garmin shows the same target and cannot speak it.
Target Cards on the wrist
The phone sends the whole solved card with every row's sentence already composed, so the watch never converts a unit or drops a caveat. About 33 targets fit on Apple Watch and Wear OS and about 53 on Garmin; a longer card is not sent, and the watch shows its empty state rather than a truncated one. Moving the marker on either device moves it on the other; whichever moved last wins.
What travels between phone and watch
| Direction | What |
|---|---|
| Phone to watch | The active load; the DOPE chart; the firearm glance; the Target Card with its spoken sentences; stage-timer defaults; shot-capture mode and sensitivity; DOPE-page controls; spoken-output settings; on Apple Watch and Wear OS, the Siri summary that lets the wrist answer questions; on Pro, the Shooter Stats look-back. |
| Watch to phone | Logged shots, retractions, timer events, the hit tally, settings you change on the wrist, what the watch can do, and, on Apple Watch and Wear OS, spoken requests. |
Nothing on any watch ever reaches the internet from the watch: the companion apps make no network calls of their own, carry no analytics, and hold your data only in the watch's own storage. When you erase your data on the phone, it tells every paired watch to discard what it holds, if the watch is in range to hear it.