Soon Garmin will expand its selection of
smartwatches with several new models and we got an early look at all of them.
Among them is a new product line, the Venu, and a premium version of the
Vivomove watches.
The Garmin Venu itself looks quite upscale with an
interesting pattern on the bezel. It measures 43mm in diameter and offers a mix
of Garmin’s usual functionality. It features music playback (Spotify and
Deezer) and Garmin Pay, plus showing notifications from your phone on the
watch’s color screen.
The fitness tracking functionality includes modes
for cycling and swimming, along with step and push up counters. The new Garmin Vivoactive 4 and
Vivoactive 4s measure 44mm and 40mm in diameter, respectively. They have the
same skills as the Venu with the addition of a GPS receiver (it’s not clear if
the Venu will have one).
The Garmin Vivomove Style has physical watch hands
over a color screen to give it the appearance of a classic watch. It’s smarter
than that, however, with fitness tracking functionality (including a heart rate
monitor).
The larger, high resolution color screen will be
much better at showing notifications than the regular Vivomove watches, which
have small monochrome LCDs behind the watch face. If that more basic functionality
satisfies your needs, there are two new models incoming – the Garmin Vivomove 3
Sport and 3s. They feature a heart rate monitor and step counter, they can
display notifications too.
The current Vivomove models have a “watch only”
mode, which extends the 5-day battery life by two weeks – a perk enabled by
their watch hands. Note that all these watches run proprietary Garmin software
(rather than Google Wear OS), so the style isn’t quite a competitor to the LG
Watch W7.
Garmin will likely unveil these new watches ahead of
IFA, perhaps with some smart bands in tow.
