D2 Bravo Titanium: Garmin Releases Updated Pilot Watch

If you're looking for a pilot watch, the Garmin D2 Bravo is the one to get. I'd even say, for most folks, it makes sense to go with the brand-new D2 Bravo Titanium. It's great looking, and it does a little more, too, some of it relevant to pilots, other things that are nice for those of us who do other active pursuits, like golf or running.

Why such an absolute statement? The Apple Watch is a fine multifunction timepiece. It's light and wearable, and you can do a lot of Apple app-y things with it. But for pilots, the functionality of the D2 Bravo is the best game in town.

It's also a great-looking timepiece, especially if, like many pilots, you like your chronographs big enough to be able to read them. (People might joke about our big watches, but at least our optometrists understand us.)

The new watch, the D2 Bravo Titanium, has a matte black metal band and bezel and a cool seeing-eye sensor on the back to check your heart rate (sure to go up anywhere near a P-51, but you can check just to make sure).

Initially, I wondered why Garmin didn't call the D2 Bravo Titanium the "D3." I mentioned it to one of the folks at Garmin and they did their best not to laugh. Luckily, I wasn't the first to ask the question. The "D2," they nicely pointed out, stands for "direct to" (which, embarrassingly, also happens to be the name of my long-running column!double duh). With this in mind, naming the new watch the "D3" makes no sense at all, as it means "Direct Three." At least I was able to laugh at myself in the process.

In terms of form factor and heft, the new watch doesn't feel all that new compared to the existing D2 Bravo; it's about the same size weight---Garmin says it's thinner and lighter, if so, not by a lot. But it looks really nice, and it has a few new functions.

Like the original, the D3, err, I mean the Titanium edition has dedicated "Direct To" and "Nearest" functions, and it's easy to access weather for whatever airport you might want to call up the data for. Metars and TAFs will be sync-able with selected smartphones soon (Garmin has a free software update coming that will also allow owners of non-Titanium D2s to upgrade at no cost.)

One aviation-specific function I like is the adjustable baro altimeter and the O2 sensor alerts. The watch alerts you when you crest 12,500 feet and alerts you to hose up or go down. You can also customize timers to remind you when to switch tanks, a nice feature for those of us who fly planes without the "both" setting for the fuel tanks.

One last feature I'll get into more in the print version of Plane & Pilot is the watch's logging capabilities. It can automatically log your flights and syncs nicely with Garmin's Pilot iOS and Android apps. I'm not saying that I'm one of them, but a lot of pilots hate to log, and if your watch can do the work for you, at least get you started on it, that's a pretty cool thing.

The D2 Bravo Titanium sells at a street price of around $899.

For more information, visit buy.Garmin.com.

Isabel GoyerWriter

A commercial pilot, editor-in-Chief Isabel Goyer has been flying for more than 40 years, with hundreds of different aircraft in her logbook and thousands of hours. An award-winning aviation writer, photographer and editor, Ms. Goyer led teams at Sport Pilot, Air Progress and Flying before coming to Plane & Pilot in 2015.