Get the Garmin Approach S50.
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| Garmin Approach S12 | Garmin Approach S50 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (MSRP) | $199.99Winner | $399.99 |
Get the Garmin Approach S50.
The S50 is the better watch. Full stop. AMOLED display, automatic shot tracking, plays-like distances, heart rate, music, contactless payments — at $400 it's doing a lot. The S12 is $200, simpler, and has genuinely impressive battery life (30 hours of GPS vs the S50's 15). If you want a dedicated golf watch that does nothing else and you're not replacing it every few years, the S12 still earns its spot. But most golfers shopping this range should spend the extra $200.
Both are Garmin golf watches with 40,000+ preloaded courses, free course updates, green view, hazard view, and 5 ATM water resistance. Both use the same Garmin Golf app, have similar dimensions (nearly identical case footprint), and support CT10 sensor compatibility for club-level shot tracking. Neither has wind data or virtual caddie — those stay on the S70.
This is the biggest gap. The S12 runs a monochrome MIP display — the same low-power tech you'd find on a Casio. It's readable in direct sunlight, which is genuinely useful on the course, but there's no color and no touch. You navigate with buttons. The S50 has a 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen at 390x390 resolution with full-color hole maps. Playing a course you've never seen? The S50's color fairway views make layout decisions faster. The S12 gives you yardages and basic green outlines. That's a meaningful difference if you play unfamiliar courses.
The S12 can track shots, but only manually, and only if you buy CT10 sensors separately. Those run around $250 for a full set. The S50 has AutoShot built in — the watch detects swings automatically and marks them on your scorecard. It also supports CT10 sensors if you want club-by-club data on top of that. AutoShot isn't perfect (it can miss chips, and anything under a cart canopy or indoors won't register), but the difference between automatic and "tap a button mid-round" is significant if you're trying to track every shot without thinking about it. The S50 also gives you strokes gained stats; the S12 doesn't.
The S50 calculates plays-like distance — it adjusts yardage for elevation change on the approach. The S12 doesn't. Worth noting: the S50's PlaysLike uses elevation data but no barometer, so it's less precise than the S70's version. Still, getting "this 165-yard uphill plays like 175" without a rangefinder is useful, and the S12 just gives you the flat number.
The S50 is a real smartwatch. Heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, Body Battery, Pulse Ox, fitness profiles, smart notifications, music storage (4GB), Garmin Pay for contactless payments. The S12 is a golf watch that also tells time. If you want to wear one device for golf and everyday life, the S50 makes that possible. The S12 has no health sensors, no notifications, no music — nothing.
The S12 wins this one, and it's not close. Thirty hours of GPS battery versus fifteen on the S50. If you play back-to-back-to-back days or just forget to charge, the S12 handles it. Watch-mode battery is 70 days vs 10 on the S50 — the AMOLED display eats power. The S50 charges via USB-C (a genuine improvement over the S12's proprietary clip), but you'll be reaching for the cable more often.
Get the S12 if:
Get the S50 if:
The S12 is a fine watch sold in 2025 for a product launched in 2021. It does what golf GPS watches have always done — yardages, green view, hazards — and the 30-hour battery is legitimately hard to beat. But the S50 is a different generation. Automatic shot tracking, AMOLED color display, plays-like distances, and a full smartwatch feature set for $200 more. If you're on the fence because of price, fair. If you're on the fence because you think the features are similar, they're not.
Get the Garmin Approach S50.