Garmin Forerunner 745 Screen Fractures
The Garmin FR745 watch was something I had on my Christmas list for 2021. I didn't get it, and ended up going ahead and ordering it before the holidays were over. I had a Garmin Vivoactive 3 prior to this, and while I liked it....the FR745 is much better. Admittedly, it's a newer model and a higher end watch than the Vivoactive 3. It has many more tracking and sports features, although no maps (the FR945 is essentially the 745 with maps). The swim functionality is improved over the Vivoactive (although not without its quirks and shortcomings...), the battery life is several days longer (I get 5-7 days between charges, with several tracked workouts during that span), and I like the non-activity-specific features like sleep tracking. The newer generation heart rate sensor functions when swimming as well, unlike the older Vivoactive.
It's all been great, until about 6 months later. I noticed after doing the weekend lawn work in late June that there was a horizontal fracture in the watch face. I assumed I must have hit it on something while wearing it for the yard work, but there is no clear point of impact...just this clean crack across the face. I assumed this would be like cracking a cell phone screen: Garmin would fix it (or maybe swap with a new or refurbished equivalent) for maybe $100 or $150 (guessing). This seemed not horrible for a still quite new $500 watch. I filed a ticket with Garmin, and they asked for pictures of the watch and circumstances. Because the crack did not appear to be from any obvious mistreatment or impact, they said they'd exchange the watch for a new one, nothing paid other than shipping.
I had the replacement watch in a few days and resumed wearing it. All was well. And then a few weeks later, at the very start of August:
The same thing – a horizontal crack with no sign of impact. Like before, I noticed it after doing the weekend lawn work. I thought I'd exhausted my luck with Garmin, but upon filing a ticket and being asked for pictures again...they did the same thing! I was shipped a brand new replacement and sent the broken one back. They did say that if this happens again, they will want to involve Garmin Engineering to assess further, but still did this swap a second time just weeks after the first. Pretty sweet customer service!
Perhaps some the vibrations involved in mowing or using the blower or edger hit some resonant frequency that led to the crack; I don't know. Since the second swap, I've taken to wearing my Casio Protrek instead when doing yard work!