Water doesn't always play well with smartwatches, which is why the majority are focused on the land-based adventurer. But what if you prefer the sea and all its bounties, fishing with that hearty sea air to breathe in? Well, Garmin has you covered with the new Quatix 5 smartwatch, the flagship in its new line of marine smartwatches.
Built for life on the water, the Quatix 5 can let you download up-to-date tide data via your smartphone. There's also an anchor alarm that'll warn you about boat drift and an anchor calculator that lets you know what the proper length of anchor line you should use. If you're fishing, there's a fish log and competition timer. If you're sail racing, there's tack assist, race countdown timer, distance to start line and more.
Read this: The ultimate guide to Garmin Connect
The Quatix 5 is also built to seamlessly integrate with Garmin's chart plotters and other marine gadgets, so your watch can display speed, depth, temperature and wind as well as waypoint marking. Best of all, it can be used to set your autopilot if you have Garmin's GHC 20 autopilot unit on your sea-faring vehicle.
And because the Quatix 5 is built for marine life, its got a rugged 47mm stainless steel case that's water rated to 100m and crafted to withstand the harsh elements of the sea. That also means having a sunlight-readable color display with LED backlight. There's also high-sensitivity GPS with GLONASS support and an omni-directional EXO antenna. Garmin said it has 24 hours of battery life in GPS mode, 60 hours in UltraTrac mode and two weeks in smartwatch mode.
And oh, if you do want to use this on land, it's also got activity profiles for activities like running, cycling, swimming, rowing, smart notifications and support for Garmin's Elevate heart rate tracking.
The Quatix 5 will be available in June in two variations. There's the Wi-Fi enabled Quatix 5 Sapphire, which comes with a sapphire lens and stainless steel band for $849.99, and the regular non-sapphire Quatix 5, which has a silicone QuickFit band for $599.99.
How we test
By Husain Sumra
Husain joined Wareable in 2017 as a member of our San Fransisco based team. Husain is a movies expert, and runs his own blog, and contributes to MacRumors.
He has spent hours in the world of virtual reality, getting eyes on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR.
At Wareable, Husain's role is to investigate, report and write features and news about the wearable industry – from smartwatches and fitness trackers to health devices, virtual reality, augmented reality and more.
He writes buyers guides, how-to content, hardware reviews and more.