Your Garmin watch can control your boat’s autopilot. With the free Nauti-Control app from the Connect IQ store and a Nauti-Control box on the boat, a fenix, epix, Venu or Forerunner shows live speed, heading, wind and depth and lets you engage the pilot, change course and tack — with no phone needed on deck. It works with Raymarine, B&G and Simrad autopilots, over SeaTalk or NMEA 2000.

Here is Phil walking through every page on a fenix 7, then putting it on the test bench against real Raymarine, B&G and Simrad pilots:

What you see on the watch

The watch talks straight to the Nauti-Control box over Bluetooth, so the data is the boat’s own — not a phone relaying it. The first page is speed: speed over ground and course, or a tap for speed through the water and heading, with depth alongside. Slide across for wind: apparent or true wind angle on a compass, the speed underneath, and arcs marking your sailing angles on each tack.

Autopilot control from your wrist

The autopilot page shows Standby, Auto, Wind and Track, with a lock bar above them so a knock against the wheel cannot send a command. Tap Auto and the pilot engages; the outline moves to show which mode is active. Slide across for plus and minus one degree, plus and minus ten, and a tack to port or starboard. Tack asks before it acts: hit it once and the watch wants a confirmation, so a stray touch on a wet day changes nothing.

Voyage recording to Garmin Connect

Tap the Voyage page and the watch records your trip as a Garmin Sailing activity: the track from the watch’s own GPS, plus averages and peaks for speed, wind and depth from the boat. It syncs to Garmin Connect when you are done, alongside everything else the watch records.

Light or dark, touch or buttons

Garmin makes two very different kinds of screen. AMOLED watches such as the epix and Venu look best on the dark theme; the low-power MIP screens on a fenix 7 or quatix read better on the light theme in daylight without touching the backlight. Both are a setting in Garmin Connect, along with wind angle as 0–360° or port/starboard, depth in metres or feet, keel offset, and whether the autopilot uses the touch layout or the physical buttons.

Which autopilots does it work with?

• Raymarine Evolution (EV-1 with an ACU), and SPX pilots on the newer autopilot firmware, over SeaTalk^ng with the N2K Wireless box.
• Raymarine ST1000, ST2000, ST4000 and the classic SeaTalk range with the ST Wireless box.
• B&G, Simrad and Lowrance NMEA 2000 pilots — the AC42 and NAC series, and the Simrad TP22 and TP32 tiller pilots — with the N2K Wireless box, which presents itself to them the way an HR22 remote does.

Not sure which box your boat needs? Choosing between ST Wireless and N2K Wireless walks through it.

Try it before you are aboard

The app has a demo mode so you can learn the pages on the sofa. Install Nauti-Control from the Connect IQ store, open it on the watch, and on the connection screen press MENU (or tap the Demo button on a touch watch). Every page runs on simulated data, and no autopilot commands are sent.

Get set up

• Install Nauti-Control from the Garmin Connect IQ store — it is free.
• Get an ST Wireless or N2K Wireless box for the boat, if you do not already have one.
• Read the Garmin Watch User Guide for pairing, PINs, settings and troubleshooting.

Questions or feedback on the Garmin app? It usually ends up in the code. Email admin@nauti-control.com.