From Aerospace Ambitions to Garmin: Engineering the Technology on Our Wrists
Posted on September 29, 2026
#MyFirstJob is a series focused on recent graduates of the University of South Alabama.
Matthew Chauvin’s father served as a military crew chief on F-15s, so he grew up around airplanes, initially imagining a career with rockets or even as an astronaut. Over time, his focus shifted from the people flying machines to those building them.
“Engineers are the mediators between physics and the dream,” he said.
Today, Chauvin, who holds a mechanical engineering degree from the University of South Alabama, works in the fitness division at Garmin’s U.S. headquarters in Olathe, Kansas. He has contributed to products like the Forerunner running watches and Venu wellness watches. While industrial designers shape the exterior, Chauvin’s team handles the interior mechanics, figuring out how components fit together, ensuring durability and enhancing product performance.
His work involves international collaboration, including with Garmin’s manufacturing teams in Taiwan. This global teamwork reinforced a vital lesson he first learned at South: Engineering requires clear communication.
As an undergraduate, Chauvin, who grew up in Mobile, managed South’s American Society of Civil Engineers Concrete Canoe team, presenting the team’s work at the national competition and later to University leadership and the Board of Trustees.
Chauvin said engineers aren’t primarily known for their communication skills. But the engineers who can articulate ideas effectively are the ones who advance. At Garmin, success means translating complex issues for different audiences, from fellow engineers to business teams.
Getting to Garmin was not a straight path. Chauvin completed internships at chemical plant BASF, Continental Motors, steelmaker SSAB, and Laurence and Associates, a crane design firm in Mobile. The experiences helped him realize he preferred design work over manufacturing environments.
Chauvin built a routine of applying to two jobs a night. He would apply to one safe option and one long shot. After submitting roughly a hundred applications, he received a call from Garmin, which led to a summer internship with the fitness engineering team he would later join full-time.
On his first day, Chauvin left his Apple watch behind, but his boss still noticed the watch-shaped tan line on his wrist and offered him a Garmin. He found it odd that someone would notice something so subtle, but Chauvin now finds himself doing the same thing in public.
“It’s like a dentist looking at teeth,” he said.
Unlike his time in chemical plants and steel mills, working on consumer products gives him a direct connection to end users.
“You start out with a task, and by the time you’re done, we’re mass manufacturing watches that I can go out on the beach and see people wearing,” he said. “Being able to have that kind of impact to that many people is what I have been wanting.”
Recently, Chauvin received a call regarding one of his earlier "Hail Mary" applications. SpaceX wanted to interview him. The rocket manufacturer would have represented his childhood dream.
He declined.
“I would have been jumping all over it,” he said. “But I’m very happy where I am.”
