Garmin has turned up at IFA with a whole host of new watches,
including the flagship Venu and its Avengers-branded special editions.
But the company has also taken the time to refresh its line of cheaper
Vivoactive GPS watches. The new Vivoactive 4 and 4S models offer the
same features you would expect from the series, with the addition of
respiration tracking. Watches can now monitor your breathing when you're
doing yoga — previously limited to when you wore a chest strap.
That respiration tracking will keep watch over you while you sleep,
tracking your breaths per minute and monitoring how much much oxygen
you're getting at night. The company says that it examines the "broadest
range" of vital statistics to give you a complete picture of your
health. It'll also bundle in a number of innovations announced over the
last year, like menstrual cycle tracking and reminders to keep you
hydrated.
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| © Provided by Oath Inc. |
Obviously, these are good-looking watches, but in the vein of someone
who wants you to think that they like to do triathlons every now and
again. They all come with the ability to store up to 500 songs locally,
either from your own collection, or via Deezer, Prime Music and Spotify.
Not to mention that the 45mm Vivoactive 4 has a battery life of around 8
days, with the 40mm 4S comes in a little shorter, at 7 days.
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| © Provided by Oath Inc. Garmin |
At the same time, Garmin is updating its lower-end Vivomove hybrids,
the third-generation of which ships in three different styles. At the
top of the range, you have the Vivomove luxe, which has a 42mm stainless
steel case and the option of an Italian leather or Milanese metal
strap. It has two color AMOLED displays that are embedded in the case
and a touch sensor over the crystal for easy control. Double tap to wake
it and you can check your heart rate, view messages and calendar
notifications or activate Garmin Pay.
Further down the range, the
Vivomove Style has the option of a woven nylon or silicone band and the
same 42mm case. It has a Gorilla Glass lens and the same dual-color
AMOLED displays as the Luxe, plus Garmin Pay, although the color options
make them look, to me, a little more anonymous. That said, the woven
nylon bands are pretty cute, straddling the line between formal and
sporty.
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| © Provided by Oath Inc. Garmin |
At the bottom of the series, there's the Vivomove 3 and 3S (for
small), with 44 and 39-millimeter cases, respectively. Both get just a
single AMOLED display (compared to the two found on pricier Garmin
models), and are stylish enough if you're looking for a very basic
fitness tracker in a hybrid case.
All of these watches do their
best to disguise their fitness and smartwatch features behind a dressy,
formal style. The Vivomove Style, especially with that Milanese band, is
extraordinarily stylish, although all of the models would look great in
formalwear. I have to admit a soft spot for the rose gold Style, which
just looks damn fine on any wrist that I've seen them on.
You can
expect battery life of up to five days on all of the new models, plus an
additional seven days in analog-only mode when power levels drop.
Thanks to the PPG / optical heart-rate sensor mounted on the back of all
of the models offers continuous heart-rate, menstrual cycle,
respiration and pulse ox tracking.
All of the devices are going to
be available towards the end of September or the start of October.
Prices for the Vivoactive start at $350, with the Vivomove running
between $250 through to $550.
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