If anything this is the time to get another 965 for a discount.
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Ouch. You know what’s even worse? Europeans having to pay €750!
Definitely skipping this generation.
If we open our ears for them, they will absolutely be happy to fill them with ‘reasons’ for us.
As long as, in the end, we say “Ok, yes, no problem.”
However, if we do this experiment one hundred times, you will get the exact same result, one hundred of those times.
This doesn’t even qualify as “economics”, it’s just basic human greed.
We are literally dragging our own prices up by keeping sales up, no matter what they do to us.
EDIT: The below chart is meant to show gradual, sustainable increase in price in ‘NO THANK YOU’ , but I got the curve a bit wrong, and it looks too flat. Apologies. You all get it.
I’m trying to get out of the Garmin ecosystem gradually, as even though they’re industry-leading, their price point is just getting higher and higher for what I don’t consider essential functionality. Once you’re at the $450+ mark for a watch or bike computer, what the heck are you gaining from it.
My Garmin bike computer 530 broke earlier this year and I replaced it with what I thought would be a very temporary el-cheapo throwaway unit, the iGPSSport BSC300 for $130 on Amazon (not a sale price). Thought it sucked for the first 2 times I used it as I was used to the “Garmin way”, but after that, I found it was quite good, and did pretty much everything my 3x costing Garmin 530 did. Once I got used to it, I’ve come to find things I actually prefer on the iGPSSport. It has been good enough for me to ride a century ride and to StGeorge 70.3 this past weekend, no problem. It’s going to be my main until something compelling comes up, it’s that solid.
I’m hoping to find more products at this competitive $100-$250 pricepoint from now on, even if it means moving away from Garmin. Garmin’s going to have to pull something really special out of their hat to make me want to spend $400+ on a watch or bike computer again. I just don’t feel it’s enough value at that pricepoint.
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My bike computer mount broke two weeks ago (poor design and the metal snapped from fatigue) and launched my Edge 1050 to the pavement. It absolutely annihilated the screen, as in computer guts were oozing out. Just like that, $700 is gone. Buuuut, the 1050 is far and away the best all-around bike computer for folks who both use mapping and have older eyes. The Karoo & Wahoo offerings really do not compare. So, I bought another one.
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What’s so important about the 1050 that’s a must-have that other units can’t do?
Stuff I want in a road bike computer, several driven by presbyopia. Garmin, Wahoo, and Karoo all do several of these, but nobody does the overall combination as well as Garmin. The Karoo screens are fantastic, but the latest updates to the 1050 screen push it pretty close to the Karoo. Wahoo is still just a little behind the other two in overall screen awesomeness, and display awesomeness is probably my top priority.
- Large screen
- High-resolution screen (high pixel density)
- Bright, high-contrast screen
- Lots of colors
- Mapping (all the features, like easily importing routes, sharing routes, dynamic rerouting, good use of colors and icons)
- Touch screen
Well, I tried to indicate that that Q ([quote=“Chris1982, post:63, topic:1288349”]
[/quote] was intended to be pink (I can’t recall how to do that in our current discussion tool).
So, removing the ‘pink’ to answer my own Q … my guess is that some of this large increase is … tariffs. Companies who say, hey this item now costs $X and of that, $Y is due to the tariff uncertainty or the tariff plan put themselves in the crosshairs of the Executive Branch. Better to not make it explicit and just include the tariff costs in the new price w/o describing the ‘why’. IMO, of course!
Ha - yeah, you’d hate my cheapo unit. Even though it actually does everything you listed - just worse than a Garmin. But hey, it’s $130! I’ve found you can get used to most things and not miss the hi-end stuff. For example, I no longer have ClimbPro after having had it on my prior Garmin. It was one of the first things I was immediately horrified that I no longer had on iGPSSPort. But in the months since then, I"ve learned that I’m far better off previewing the route myself, and as well my buddies keep overheating themselves since Climbpro says the end of the climb is there, but they forget that there are plenty more smaller climbs afterwards!
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You kind of answered your own question, but not in the way you wanted to. The % increase from 955 to 965 was 20%. The 965 to 970 is 25%. You ought to go back further to see what Garmin’s generational price increases have been (in percent change) with their premium watches and bike computers. You might find that this one is not totally out of line with their recent patterns. It looks like Garmin shifted to a premium pricing model around 10 years ago - I think triggered by Apple’s watch pricing. If so, this increment is more in keeping with a longer-term strategy shift than short-term political currents.
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@giorgitd I gotta agree w @exxxviii 's comment above.
Garmin’s pricing has been hooked-on-crystal-meth exponential for years now; all this tariff silliness is very fresh.
A hamburger is simply not worth $ 156, no matter how great it is. Period. If you opened a burger joint @ that price, nobody would buy.
For some reason, with some products, people have just completely lost the plot. There’s 1 - 4 favourite brands, so they have full market control of the price.
And for a market like cycling, that has just magically been deemed “expensive”, people almost like to spend more. No clue on motivation; the feeling of owning "luxury items’, a status symbol, the dopamine hit of buying something “nice”, whatever.
I scuba dive. There’s a common joke among divers: A waterproof flashlight is $ 20. [ Yes, that could go to 30 - 100 ft. ] But a SCUBA flashlight is $ 150 !!! 
But the end result is we wake up one day and Garmin is like
“A bike computer now costs more than your monthly internet, in $ / mo over the 2 - 3 yr life of the watch.”
and ppl just go “Ok, can the battery last longer?”
“Nah, F you, gimme your money now.”
“Ok, thank you for the fancy watch ! I can’t wait to buy my next one in 6 - 36 months for 1.5 - 2 x the price ! I hope your CEO has a lovely day on his yacht !”
[ Clifton Pemble’s approx yrly is 7.2 M. So little Cliffy can gently and smoothly slide any “Sorry, it’s the tariffs.” inside himself. ]
Key critique of all this… It does not appear that you are familiar with pricing models and product strategies. You seem to view all sport watches through a cost-plus or value-based pricing lens. Except you do not understand how your lens affects your picture. Garmin looks like they shifted to a premium pricing model a while ago. Your scuba example is also a premium pricing model example. Those alternative flashlights are probably using a competitive or cost-plus pricing model.
Garmin’s competitors like Coros are probably using value-based or penetration pricing.
Have you looked at Garmin’s pricing for their MARQ and Fenix watches? Those do not cost materially more to produce, yet they have very high premium-based prices. Garmin does not price them that way to sell a a bunch of them. They are priced that way to establish Garmin as a premium brand, a cut above the mongrel masses.
You appear to prefer products that are cost-plus or competitive pricing. That is not Garmin. They would happily sell you one of their entry watches, like the 255, but the reality is you are a Coros or Polar customer, not Suunto or Garmin.
A hamburger is worth $156 to someone who values a premium, exclusive experience that no other burger offers. McDonalds could never sell a $156 burger, but Chef Ciaran Hickey can and does.
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You’re right, I don’t understand how this all works; I overstand it.
I see the entire picture, from the top down. Many / most do not. You do [ srs, kind tone, not sarcastic ], so let’s talk about it. But let’s talk about all of it:
I understand completely the explained reasons for premium pricing models, the value signaling of owning premium priced things like luxury vehicles. The deep, genetic motivations for that, the link btwn perceived material goods and increased false sense of security and genetic success = passing on your DNA.
This is all extremely simple monkeys-that-fell-out-of-the-tree-too-young stuff.
But all these motivations are false; it’s a dopamine hit that isn’t earned [ like a ride, a well cooked meal ], it’s a fake sense of being more secure. You’re less secure; you gave away some of your wealth, instead of keeping it, and building net worth & your empire.
What you’ve really bought is a lie: All the reasons, all the fake value signaling. You fell for the trick: The entire system, all the explanations only lead to one thing:
Them on a yacht, and you working to pay their fuel bill. While other people have cars, cycling computers, watches, that perform just as well or better, for 1/4 the cost, and have put their money into something of actual value, or experiences with friends or family that enrich their lives beyond words.
Because of this strategy, I have lived the life of a dozen kings, on a pauper’s budget.
I have over 100 dives and seen all the most dangerous wrecks in my area, with my family and friends, toured Europe multiple times, skied Vermont and the Alps, been in dozens of caves, taken professional race driving courses, driven boats, hiked north of the Arctic circle three times, off roaded through rivers in Costa Rica for two weeks, and dozens more. Too much to list. And I’m dirt - ass poor.
Many middle earners in their 40s - 60s could correct course now, and live until they were 100, and still never have half the experiences I have.
Darn right I’m not a ‘Garmin customer’.
There is no “premium, value experience” in that $ 156 burger. I was a professional winemaker for years, I know this, deeply, from the inside.
The actual sensory experience is the same, or worse. The customer has little to zero true sensory analysis skills anyways, and blind, couldn’t tell the difference. This IS true, for >99% of the population. Proven. Dozens of times.
There is no experience; it’s just the price: It’s feeling and believing that you are experiencing something “better”. It’s pure mental trickery. Sensory based bias confirmation is incredibly powerful.
They’re sitting there, stark naked, wearing their emperor’s clothes, while the people who overstand the stupid trick they fell for all watch, pointing and laughing, enjoying our $ 24 genuinely superior quality, better tasting burgers.
Underwater lighting != waterproof lighting
Strength and wavelengths you wouldn’t want to use on land, surely.
This is premium tin hat grade. I’m pretty confident that you neither overstand nor understand marketing, pricing, product management, etc.
If you were a winemaker for years and do not know how wineries, especially wineries, generate perceived value and premium brand management, then your job must have been something like rolling barrels.
This kind of stuff belongs in the Lavender Room, not here.
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I was half of a two man team that took a winery hucking swill for $ 7 / btl through both a complete winemaking process overhaul, crush pad redesign and construction, and simultaneously a complete marketing strategy overhaul and rebrand.
Our fist vintage we jumped to $ 19 - 30 / btl and won national Gold for one of our wines, as well as a couple provincial Gold and Silver. All wines sold out in a good timeframe, and we vastly increased our product range in stores province and nation wide.
I’m sure you have gone through similar experiences as well.
I’m also formally trained. I took a BSc in winemaking, which involved analytical sensory analysis courses that train professionals to blind taste accurately, to help design new corporate food product flavour profiles, etc.
So I don’t just think that most of the population can’t detect these differences; I have read the research papers, spoken to the researchers who wrote them, and worked under them, in their labs.
I also know that those perceived differences in ultra - premium products do not actually exist. As you eluded to; it is a marketing strategy to create perceived value, like ultra premium wineries do.
So I’m all good on my understanding of these things, thanks.
I also know when someone’s trying to sell me a non - existent robe. I prefer actual clothes, and flights to Europe.
Actually, you’d be surprised. It’s the same wavelengths; they’re all pure white light, same as “on - land” flashlights.
You’re right, they are super powerful; you need the penetration power to cut through particulate in the water. A beam that gives good illumination up to 200 ft on land may only do so underwater to 20 - 100 ft. Depends on cloudiness. Can be zero some days !! Sometimes you can’t see your hand touching your mask.
But I have some on - land lights that shoot 200 - 1000 ft. Pretty cheap.
The waterproof seal is something; that’s an added cost. But you rly can get lights that will do recreational depth limits way cheaper.
It really is just gouging because it’s a “specialized product”.
[ Doesn’t apply for tech depth limit lights. Those are serious pcs of engineering. ]