Skip to content
SMASHCOACH

Pair your Garmin watch

Linking your watch puts your next few sessions on your wrist and sends finished workouts back. It takes about two minutes, and you need your watch and your phone together.

Before you start

You need the Connect IQ app on your phone. Garmin installs watch apps through it, not through a browser, and the store page will tell you the same thing if you open it on a laptop.

Have your watch with you and charged. The code it shows you only lasts five minutes, so this is a two-minute job rather than something to start and come back to.

Link the watch

  1. Install the watch app

    Open the Smash Coach listing in the Connect IQ store on your phone and install it. Your watch picks it up the next time it syncs with Garmin Connect, which is usually within a minute or two.

  2. Open Smash Coach on the watch

    Find it in your watch apps list and launch it. It shows a six-character code in the shape ABC-DEF. Leave that screen open. The code is only good for five minutes.

  3. Open the pairing screen in the app

    On your phone, go to You, then Settings, then Connected devices, then Pair a watch. If you have never paired one, there is also a Pair your watch task on your Home screen that goes to the same place.

    The Connected devices screen in Smash Coach, showing no watches paired yet and a Pair a watch button
    You, then Settings, then Connected devices.

  4. Type the code and find the watch

    Enter the six characters exactly as the watch shows them, then tap FIND WATCH. The app looks the code up and shows you which device is asking.

    The Link your watch screen in Smash Coach, with the three setup steps and an empty code field reading ABC-DEF
    The code field accepts the six characters in either case.

  5. Check the device, then link it

    You will see the watch model, the app version and the code. Check that the code on this screen is the one on your own watch, then tap LINK THIS WATCH. The app confirms with a short message and takes you back where you started.

What reaches your wrist

The watch pulls your next three days of sessions, each one broken into its blocks with the target, the short cue line, and a picture on the first exercise. Rest days come through as rest, so an empty day never looks like a missing one.

Start a session on the watch and it records a normal Garmin activity, with heart rate, GPS and laps that line up with your plan. When it finishes, the result comes back to Smash Coach and the session is marked done. If you start the same session on your phone as well, the two stay in step with each other within a few seconds.

Sessions your coach is still writing do not appear on the watch until they are finished.

When it does not work

Code expired. Codes last five minutes. Start pairing again on the watch and you will get a fresh one.

Code not found. Almost always a typo. The characters that get confused are 0 and O, and 1 and I. Read it off the watch again.

Someone else opened this code. A code is claimed by the first account that opens it, and this one was opened somewhere else. That is a protection, not a fault: start pairing again on the watch for a new code, and do not use a code that came to you in a message.

Already linked. The watch is linked to a different account. Unlink it there, or just start pairing again on the watch to get a fresh code.

Couldn't check that code. This one is about the connection, not your code. Your code is probably fine. Wait a moment and try it again.

Common questions

Which Garmin watches work?
Most watches that run Connect IQ apps, roughly from the fenix 5 Plus and Forerunner 245 generations onward, plus the epix, Enduro, Instinct, Descent, Approach, quatix and tactix families. The newest models are covered too, including the fenix 9 series and the Forerunner 170, 570 and 970. The store listing keeps the full list under Compatible Devices, so check yours there before you start.
Do I need my phone with me when I train?
No. Your sessions are fetched onto the watch ahead of time and a finished workout is queued if you are offline, then sent the next time the watch reconnects. You do need a connection at some point, because the watch talks to Smash Coach through Garmin Connect on your phone.
Why does the watch not show the full exercise description?
There is a hard size limit on what a Connect IQ app can receive in one go, and full descriptions do not fit inside it. The watch shows the short cue line for each exercise instead. The full description stays in the app, on the exercise itself.
Someone sent me a pairing code. Can I use it?
No. Only link a code that is showing on your own watch right now. A code that arrived in a message or a link belongs to someone else, and linking it would let their watch read your plan and log workouts as you.
How do I unlink a watch?
In the app, go to You, then Settings, then Connected devices, and unlink it there. You will be asked to confirm, and told what stops working. You can pair it again later with a fresh code.

Related pages

Still stuck

Open the app, go to You, and tap the feedback row at the bottom. It reaches a person, not a queue. Or write to hello@smashcoach.app.