Garmin Lily smartwatch for women may be confused over what they actually want

Garmin today announced a small smartwatch aimed primarily at women. Dubbed the Garmin Lily, the company says that it's the "smallest smartwatch" it's ever made, outfitted with a 34mm watch case, 14mm band, and designed in a way that's "rooted in fashion" according to Susan Lyman, who is Garmin's vice president of global consumer marketing. Beyond the design, the Lily also comes with a feature set that's geared toward women.

From a design standpoint, the Lily has some features we don't often see on other smartwatches. For starters, it has a monochromatic touchscreen display, which is indeed a rarity in this world of full color smartwatch displays we're used to. That display is also packed behind a patterned lens, which is another (very) rare sight in the world of smartwatches – Garmin says that there's a different patterned lens for each of the six different Lily styles that are available.

Speaking of styles, Lily will ship in two models: Classic and Sport. The Classic style features an Italian leather band with a stainless steel bezel and comes in three colors with lens patterns "inspired by high-end fashion but made subtle for everyday wear." The Sport, on the other hand, has a silicone band and aluminum bezel. Just like the Classic, the Sport comes in three colors as well, with "organic lens patterns that allude to nature, health and wellness."

As expected, the Lily comes outfitted with many of the health tracking features we've seen on other Garmin smartwatches throughout the years, including Pulse Ox, stress, hydration, respiration, heart rate, and sleep tracking. There's also menstrual cycle tracking and pregnancy tracking, breathwork guides, a collection of sports apps, and of course, standard fitness tracking like step counting and calorie tracking.

Garmin says that the watch can last for up to five days on a full battery, and we might have Lily's smaller size to thank for that. In fact, that monochromatic display could be a solution to what would have otherwise been poor battery life, as a color display is going to require more power when it's on. Lily seems like an interesting smartwatch to say the least, because at first blush, you wouldn't necessarily think that putting a patterned lens on a smartwatch display is a good idea.

Then again, if those patterns don't impede usage in any noticeable way, then it could certainly work as a way of making Garmin's smartwatch stand out in a sea of others. We'll see how the Lily performs for Garmin soon enough, as the watch is available today from its website, priced at $199.99 for Sport models and $249.99 for Classic models.