We're in the midst of IFA 2019, and Garmin decided to show up to the event with a slew of new wearables in hand. In all, Garmin is launching eight different smartwatches today, many of them with a number of variants to boot. These watches all seem to have the same core feature set centered around fitness, with one or two major differences to make them stand out in the lineup.
Today Garmin pulled the veil back on its fenix 6 series of smartwatches. The watches in the fenix 6 line come with all of the improvements you'd expect in a refresh, with Garmin touting the series' larger displays, improved performance, and increased battery life in its announcement today. That's all well and good of course, but Garmin also has quite the marquee feature up its sleeve: A solar-powered watch.
Smartwatches are a dime a dozen but the majority of them seem to be targeted as a specific class of users that prefer casual or classy looking timepieces. Even those designed for active users wouldn't really look out of place in a board meeting or gala. Athletes and fitness buffs, however, need more than just a handsome smartwatch. They need one that caters to their specific lifestyle and uses cases as well. Navigation expert Garmin might deliver exactly that in the upcoming Fenix 6 series of smartwatches headed to IFA next month.
If you're an Amazon Prime subscriber and you happen to have a Garmin smartwatch on your wrist, then here's some good news: Amazon Music is landing on Garmin's smartwatch lineup today. In its announcement today, Garmin boasts that it's the "first wearable company to offer Amazon Music," so if you've been looking for a way to access your library on a smartwatch, then it sounds like Garmin is the pick.
Garmin is no longer just about GPS navigation in cars. It isn't even about golf watches. An almost unlikely player in the wearable market, Garmin has started making smartwatches and fitness wearables to jump on that still unstable industry. Despite the uncertainty and the number of players already in the market, Garmin is showing no hints of slowing down. In fact, it might have as many as six such wearable devices coming next week, and four of them have already been leaked.
When Amazon first announced the Amazon Echo smart speaker and its Alexa assistant, there were some jokes about putting it inside cars somehow. With the Echo Dot and third-party batteries, that almost became possible. Now they won't have to resort to hacks and workarounds thanks to the new Garmin DriveSmart 65 that not only gets drivers and their passengers to their destination, they can also make their shopping list on the go, all hands-free.
Garmin has a new GPS navigation device, and while smartphones may have taken over in-car directions, the Garmin Overlander aims to prove that standalone still has its place. Targeting the overlanding community, the eponymous all-in-one navigator includes not only road mapping and directions but topographical mapping, too.
Garmin today refreshed its Forerunner line of fitness tracking smartwatches from top to bottom, launching five new devices in the series at a range of different price points. There seems to be a bit of something for everyone here, whether you're looking for a relatively straightforward device that offers typical fitness tracking capabilities or you're looking for a top-end smartwatch that has a more densely packed feature list.
There is a wide variety of smartwatches in the market today but most of them fall into two categories only. One is designed to keep up with sports-minded users while the other can be worn with pride at a gala. Few smartwatches try to break out of those molds to appeal to very specific users. Garmin's new MARQ "smart tool watches" dare to be different and, in doing so, have some rather unique features to offer people with unique jobs and hobbies.
Garmin has rolled out its Spotify app its vivoactive 3 Music smartwatch, bringing the music service directly to the wrist. The new app was announced back in October 2018, as a way for owners of select Garmin wearables to leave their phone at home, but still be able to take their music with them. Now, it's available to install for Garmin's most affordable music-compatible model.
Garmin is a name mostly associated with car navigation systems but some might also know that the company makes all sorts of devices that are empowered by GPS technology. Even before it was making smartwatches and trackers, however, Garmin was already making Golf watches and handhelds to help players improve their game. With the new Garmin Golf Approach G80 does not only that, thanks to some new monitoring hardware, it also tries to make practicing and playing golf even more fun for both beginners and veterans alike.
Mercedes-Benz and Garmin have teamed up on a new smartwatch, capable of feeding health data to the dashboard and figuring out less stressful routes, among other features. The Mercedes-Benz branded Garmin vivoactive 3 GPS smartwatch was revealed alongside the 2020 CLA Coupe at CES 2019 today, and while it may be much smaller than the car, it's just as tech-packed.