What They Have in Common
Both are touchscreen color GPS watches with no subscription required to use the core features. Both cover ~40,000+ preloaded courses, include slope-adjusted distances, hazard views, a digital scorecard, and tournament mode that strips slope for competition rounds. Both are 5-ATM or IPX7 water-resistant. Neither has wind data or virtual caddie.
Where They Differ
Display and the on-course experience
This is the most obvious gap. The S50 runs a 1.2-inch AMOLED display — vivid colors, high contrast, readable in direct sun. The W12 uses a 1.32-inch TFT-LCD, which is slightly larger but a fundamentally different technology. AMOLED handles sunlight much better than most LCDs; whether the W12's specific panel is comfortable in bright conditions isn't confirmed in its spec data, but it's a reasonable concern for afternoon rounds. If you've ever squinted at a LCD watch mid-round trying to parse yardages, you know why this matters.
The W12 is also the heavier watch on paper (33g vs 29g) despite the larger screen, though both are light enough that this probably won't affect your swing.
Green contours: the W12's actual advantage
Here's where the W12 earns its place in the conversation. Green undulation in color is built-in and free on the W12, available on the majority of US courses. On the S50, green contours are locked behind Garmin Golf membership at $99/yr. The S50 shows a flat green view with hazard distances for free; full contour mapping costs extra.
If you play greens where reading the break is genuinely useful — which is most courses — and you want that visual aid on your wrist without paying annually for it, the W12 is the only way to get it at this price tier. Over three years, that's $300 in Garmin Golf membership costs to unlock a feature the W12 includes on day one.
Shot tracking: automatic vs manual
The S50 has AutoShot built in — it detects when you hit the ball and logs it automatically. No tapping, no confirming after every stroke. The W12 has a digital scorecard with automatic course and hole recognition, but shot tracking is manual. You're updating yardages yourself.
In practice, manual scoring on a touchscreen during a round is fine if you're used to it. Automatic tracking feels more like having a caddie in your ear. The difference shows up most on analysis — the S50 feeds strokes gained data into the Garmin Golf app. The W12 doesn't compute strokes gained at all.
Everything else the S50 does that the W12 doesn't
The S50 is a full smartwatch. Heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, fitness profiles, Garmin Pay contactless payments, 4GB of music storage, smart notifications from your phone. It's the watch you wear all day, not just on the course.
The W12 is a golf watch. It tracks your steps (pedometer), and that's about it off the course. No heart rate, no notifications, no music. If you want one wrist device for golf and life, the W12 isn't it.
Battery life also tilts S50: 15 hours in GPS mode vs 10 hours on the W12. A 36-hole day or a long twilight round on the W12 is cutting it close.
A note on the W12's availability
The W12 is a 2023 product that's no longer listed on GolfBuddy America's own store, though US retailers still carry it. That's worth knowing before purchase — warranty service and course updates could get complicated if the product is quietly being phased out.
Who Should Buy Which
Buy the Garmin Approach S50 if:
- You want automatic shot tracking and strokes gained analysis without managing it manually
- You wear your GPS watch all day and want heart rate, sleep tracking, music, and notifications
- You play 18+ hole rounds and want headroom on battery life
- You're a Garmin ecosystem user (Golf app, CT10 sensors)
- You care about green contours but are already paying for Garmin Golf membership, or don't need contours at all
Buy the GolfBuddy aim W12 if:
- Green undulation data is genuinely important to your green-reading and you don't want to pay $99/yr for it
- You keep a mental budget of ~$200 (street price) and want a capable no-subscription golf watch, nothing more
- You don't care about health tracking or smartwatch features on your wrist
- You prefer slightly larger watch faces and a bigger touchscreen surface
The Bottom Line
The S50 is the better watch in almost every measurable way — display tech, shot tracking, battery, smartwatch features, strokes gained, and course database quality. The W12's one real lever is free green contours on a color screen. That's a legitimate feature at a legitimate price point, and if green shape data is the thing you'd actually use most, the math works in its favor. But if you're building a daily-driver GPS watch that also happens to do golf well, the S50 wins without much debate.
Get the Garmin Approach S50.