Garmin Bounce 2 – a kids smartwatch instead of a first phone

At some point your kid walks to school alone, goes to a friend’s house, or bikes to practice. And you want to be able to reach them. The obvious answer is a smartphone. The obvious problem is also a smartphone.

The Garmin Bounce 2 is a kids smartwatch with its own LTE connection. Your kid can call and text a list of contacts you approve, and you can see where they are in an app. No browser, no social media, no group chat at 11 pm. It’s the “not yet” phone, strapped to a wrist.

What is the Garmin Bounce 2?

Garmin, the GPS company from Kansas, announced the Bounce 2 in September 2025. It replaces the first Bounce with a round 1.2-inch AMOLED screen, two side buttons and a touchscreen. It comes in light purple, turquoise and slate gray, and it’s swim-friendly (5 ATM on the Amazon listing). Garmin says the battery lasts up to 2 days.

Retail listings aim it at kids from about 6 to 12.

How does it work?

You set everything up in the Garmin Jr. app on your phone. The watch needs an LTE plan, which Garmin manages itself, so you don’t deal with a carrier. Garmin’s press release puts that at 9.99 dollars a month.

Then, on paper, your kid can:

• Call you and other approved contacts, and send voice messages. You can read transcriptions of those in the app.
• Read texts and reply on a small on-screen keyboard.
• Use voice commands like “call mom” or “start a timer”.
• Track runs, walks, bike rides, pickleball, jump rope and team sports.
• Listen to downloaded Amazon Music (with Prime or Music Unlimited), through the speaker or headphones.

And you can see their location live, and set temporary zones that notify you when they arrive at or leave a place. There’s also a School Mode to keep the watch quiet in class, and a chores-and-rewards system in the app.

The good and the not-so-good

What I like:

• It solves the actual problem (reaching your kid) without the actual problem (the internet).
• T3 called it “pricey but clever”, and liked the parental controls.
• Garmin runs the plan, so there’s no second phone contract.
• It looks like a real watch, not a toy. Kids care about that more than you’d think.

What could be better:

• The price. The first Bounce was about 150 dollars. This one launched at 299.99, and PhoneArena’s headline said it doubles the price but not the value.
• Battery. TechRadar’s young tester found it ran out faster than other watches, and the5krunner warns that heavy LTE use (calls especially) could mean less than one day per charge.
• No heart rate sensor, T3 notes. Fine for a kid, but worth knowing.
• You pay for the LTE plan on top, every month.

Who is the Garmin Bounce 2 for?

Parents of kids roughly 6 to 12 who are starting to go places alone. It’s a good holiday gift for the kid who keeps asking for a phone, when the parents want to say “almost”. It’s also an easy pick for families who already use Garmin watches themselves.

Skip it if your kid is already 12 and wants group chats. They’ll hate it. If you want something even simpler, the Relay screenless smartphone is basically a walkie-talkie with GPS. And for the kid who’d rather read than call, the Kindle Paperwhite Kids is a gift without a data plan.

Where can I buy the Garmin Bounce 2?

Garmin sells it on its own site and through Amazon. The slate gray one was about 290 bucks on Amazon at the time of writing (October 2026). Check Garmin’s LTE coverage map for your area before you buy, and remember the monthly plan.

Call mom. Seriously. She’s waiting.