Garmin solar charging could soon work under indoor lighting
Garmin’s latest patent filing includes a detail that is interesting. It suggests that future watches might not only bring solar charging to AMOLED screens but also harvest energy from indoor light.
We already outlined Garmin’s invisible solar grid, which is designed to work with OLED displays. But buried deeper in the filing is a clear mention of perovskite and organic photovoltaic materials. These are fundamentally different from the silicon-based solar cells currently used in Garmin’s Fenix and Instinct lines.
Current solar tech only works outdoors
If you’ve ever owned a Garmin with solar charging, you already know the main issue. Unless you’re outside under direct sun, the feature barely does anything. Garmin’s current Power Glass layer is built using silicon photovoltaics. These are great at converting strong sunlight into power, but they struggle when the light is weaker or more diffuse.
Indoor lighting often falls below 500 lux. Silicon cells need something closer to 50,000 lux to function well. Even on a bright day, if you’re indoors or in the shade, there’s not enough energy to harvest. That’s not a flaw in the design, it’s a known limit of the material.
The real potential of perovskites
The patent filing from Garmin makes it clear they are exploring alternatives. Perovskite and organic cells behave very differently from silicon. They can absorb a broader portion of the visible light spectrum, and they’re especially good at dealing with indoor sources like LED or fluorescent bulbs.
It’s unlikely this would charge your watch from zero to full while you sit at your desk. But even a slow trickle could make a noticeable difference. If the watch could stay topped up from office or kitchen light, it might delay or reduce the need for a full recharge. That alone would make a big impact on battery endurance for users who wear their watches 24/7.
Garmin also references “tandem configurations” in the patent, meaning it could combine multiple layers of solar material, each tuned to different wavelengths. One layer might capture UV and blue light, while another works with red or infrared. This is a known strategy in the solar industry for improving efficiency in limited space, and it could finally make solar charging on AMOLED watches practical.
Printed power instead of etched layers
There’s another major shift here: how these solar cells are manufactured. The patent describes a method where the materials are printed as a liquid ink onto a structured surface. This is different from the expensive semiconductor-style process used today, which requires clean rooms, vacuum chambers, and laser etching.
If Garmin can truly print these advanced materials at scale, it could bring down costs. Today, solar models are often $100 more expensive than standard versions. Cheaper production would make it easier for Garmin to include solar across the entire lineup, not just the premium “Pro” models.
This approach could also speed up manufacturing and lower waste, since it doesn’t require etching away excess material. And if the inks can be layered precisely into their invisible grid, Garmin won’t need to compromise display brightness or clarity to keep the feature.
Where this could show up first
The technology described in the filing is still theoretical, but the timing lines up with future models like the Fenix 9. Garmin tends to debut material and display changes in those flagship lines first, before pushing them across the range.
There’s already speculation that AMOLED watches with solar support could be on the roadmap. If these perovskite-based grids prove viable, it could finally make that combination possible.
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