The D2 Air smartwatch that Garmin unveiled yesterday is the company's first touchscreen aviation watch and, at $499, is substantially less expensive than earlier Garmin watches for pilots. A major difference between the D2 Air and the more expensive D2 Delta series is that the Air has a touchscreen interface with two buttons, while the Delta has no touchscreen and is operated using five buttons.

Garmin's D2 Air has most of the features of the company's more expensive watches, except for the moving map. It offers a pulse oximeter, aviation weather, navigation using direct-to and nearest functions, flight plan transfer from the Garmin Pilot app, flight logging, Garmin activity features, Garmin Pay contactless payments, music, and notifications. One of the most useful features for pilots is the ability to display an analog watch face showing local time along with a digital Coordinated Universal Time display in 24-hour format. 

In addition to Metars and TAFs, airport information includes runway orientation with wind components, runway lengths, airport frequencies, and traffic pattern altitudes. Included with the D2 Air is a worldwide navigation database with navaids and intersections. 

Pilots can view a three-axis compass and horizontal situation indicator and altimeter with adjustable baro setting; set alerts for altitude, speed, time, and distance; and use a fuel timer. The Garmin Pilot app logbook can be synched with postflight information from the watch. 

Battery time on the D2 Air is up to five days or 10 hours when using GPS and the pulse oximeter. The bezel size is 42.2 mm and the damage-resistant Amoled screen is made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3.