Here's the latest on the Withings and Fossil rival
Garmin has grown its wearable family by unveiling the Vivomove, a fitness tracker that looks nothing like the Vivosmart HR+ or Vivofit bands.
More smart analogue watch than Fitbit Alta rival, the Vivomove is more likely to be competing with the Withings Activité and Fossil’s legion of fitness tracking watches for a place around your wrist.
Read this: Garmin Vivomove review
If you want a snapshot of what to expect, here’s all that we know about the latest addition to the Garmin wearable family.
Garmin Vivomove: Design
As we’ve already mentioned, the Vivomove is a departure from the wearables we’ve seen Garmin serve up over the past few years.
When we spoke to Garmin earlier this year it indicated that it was taking a more stylish approach to its wearable business after unveiling the Vivofit 3 in partnership with designer Jonathan Adler.
Taking a leaf out of Withings and Mondaine’s book of making smart analogue watches, the Vivomove keeps its tracking skills minimal with the emphasis on packaging it inside a nice looking watch.
It’s available in three different models starting with the Sport at the bottom, with the Classic up next and the Premium, which offers the tracker with the option of stainless steel or a gold-tone steel finishes.
Essential reading: The best smart analogue watches
There’s a 42mm watch case and all models are slapped with a 5ATM water resistance rating so you can take it for a dip in the pool at up to 50 metres depth. Just don’t do it with the leather straps on. The good news is that the 20mm watch bands are interchangeable letting you pick up additional sport ones for or pay for the leather options.
Garmin Vivomove: Activity tracking
As far as tracking goes, the Vivomove can count steps, estimate calorie burn and monitor sleep patterns. The built-in accelerometer can also track distance for indoor workouts. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of a heart rate sensor, which is a slight disappointment but perhaps not all that surprising if it means keeping the design sleek.
It does though include Garmin’s Move bar, which is built into the watch face and will let you see how long you’ve been inactive for. There’s also a step count progress bar on the opposite side.
Data is of course synced to the Garmin Connect Mobile where you can view progress in more detail as well as get tips and meaningful insights on how to stick to those healthy habits. That’s about as far as the smartphone and fitness tracker relationship goes as notification support does not make the cut.
Garmin Vivomove: Notifications
The Vivomove is an analogue watch so there’s no touchscreen here and there’s a distinct lack of smartphone notification support. You won’t be able to view messages or Twitter updates. You’ll miss out on the smart notification support you do get with other Garmin trackers like the Vivosmart HR and Vivoactive HR smartwatch. It also means there’s no vibration alerts or the ability to control your music either.
Garmin Vivomove: Battery Life
In terms of battery life, it’s good news. That’s because the Vivomove is powered by a pretty standard coin cell battery that most analogue watches use. It’ll give you one year of tracking before you need to replace it.
Garmin Vivomove: Price and release date
Garmin Vivomove prices start at for the Sport moving up to for the Classic and then for the Premium.
