… because I just figured out what the actual problem is. And if your problem is the same as mine then you don’t need to send the watch back or exchange it for another one.

Let’s run down what we know:

1. Customers have complained that the 610 won’t keep or take a charge, and in some cases actually actively discharges while plugged in.
2. Customers have also complained that the 610 sometimes will charge and sometimes it won’t, or that it wasn’t charging before and now it does.

My situation went from being #1 to #2 after about 2 weeks of me owning the watch. Then, 2 weeks ago (I’ve had mine for about a month now), it all of a sudden started working. What did I do differently? (This is the part where being pissed comes in…) It seems that Garmin, in their infinite wisdom, decided to save money by developing a charging block that can accept various terminals. I’m sure this is to facilitate charging your watch while you travel internationally since we all do that so often. Well, have you ever noticed how that interchangeable terminal doesn’t always sit flush in the block, in fact it rarely does? Yep, you see where this is going.

Long story short, you’ll have to figure out a way to keep the terminal in good contact with the two pins on the charging block. My proving solution was to get an extension cord (for computers, not the brown one at the grocery store) so I could rest the block vertically on the floor. With enough patience I was able to get the watch to start charging, consistently. You can tell because it will go through that “beep! buzz… beep! buzz…” cycle that drove us all crazy when we first got the watches, but it will settle down and stay on the charging screen once you’ve got the contact just right.

My solution:

1. Make sure you’ve got the charging stand in the right position. Yes, I said charging stand. check out the photos to see what I mean.
2. Make sure you’ve got good contact with the watch in the charging stand.
3. Make sure you’ve got good contact between the interchangeable terminal and the pins on the charging head.

My next test will be plugging the block into the wall directly, but upside down. Hopefully this block doesn’t need specific polarity.