Earlier quoted context omitted.
I still have an old Garmin for sea kayaking that I sometimes use. With a completely clear view of the sky it can easily take quite a few minutes to get a fix.
This is actually how all gps devices still work, including the latest smartphones and watches. It's just that now, devices can pre-download the almanac over your data connection, mostly eliminating that delay.
Usually the almanac is stored in non-volatile memory so additional startup fixes are much faster.