Its worth clarifying you are talking about the data on the phone app, which does require connectivity as nothing is stored on the phone app, its all on Garmin's servers.
However, most if not all of the data (recorded activities or health data) can be viewed directly on your watch, without any connectivity.
I have a lot of experience working with the Garmin API. The data you can see on the recording device (watch) is limited and basically worthless. Akin to looking at a raw csv full of data rather than nicely plotted over a map.
Which data are you unable to view while offline? I never sync my Garmin watch to my phone, and I'm able to view all the data that interests me on the watch.
Any data in the app. It just doesn't work offline, at all. Like they looked at a book chapter on basics of data caching and went "nah, not doing that, that's too f#cking advanced".
Gadgetbridge added support for Garmin watches recently [1]. All data is stored on your Android phone with no internet connectivity required and you can even export the sqlite DB so you own your sensor data. The UI isn't as nice as Garmin's but it does its job.
I'm not sure I understand. I have had an Instinct, Tactix Delta, and Tactix 7 Pro and have always been able to see the data without a phone or any network present.
I love these watches after moving from an Apple watch, primarily for two reasons:
1) the battery life - I cant stand having to charge my watch every day or so - my (current) Tactix 7 will go ~3-4 weeks depending on how much GPS I use.
2) (this may be out of date) when I would use the Strava or Run app on the Apple watch, it would not signal when it had a GPS fix, which resulted in a number of runs that had a "teleport" at the start, resulting in messed up metrics. Only a small thing, but it really frustrated me.
I'm assuming the parent poster is talking about using the Garmin Connect app, which does require connectivity. You are correct, the data is visible directly on the watch.
