I have been a Garmin fanboy since the original Fenix watch. I have had my fair share mostly in the sport category and currently daily drive a Forerunner 945. I wish I had your sons discount haha. They are expensive but are feature packed for their price point. If you are in the smart watch game I really do think they are the best.I'm a 100% mechanical watch guy so far. My kid likes them too and he has a couple, but he's a runner so a smart watch with a fitness tracking app makes sense for him. He bought a Garmin a while back and loved it. Now his mechanical watches only get worn for dress up.
He started a new job at Garmin last week and has been giving me the hard sell on getting a smart watch. His primary selling point is his 45% employee discount. I browsed the options and even at 45% off, I don't think I'm going to be buying one. I had no idea you could spend over a grand on one of these things.
His first day on the job the gave him about 10 different watches from their line up to wear/play with.
His current favorite is the tactix® 7 – Pro Ballistics Edition model. I comes with lots of handy features like a ballistics calculator that works with your laser rangefinder and portable weather station, jumpmaster mode for when you need to jump from a plane and navigate to an objective, a green or white LED flashlight, even a handy app with maps of almost every golf course on earth.
It retails for about $1600.