Garmin lifts the veil on Instinct, a GPS watch built for the outdoors
Garmin has lifted the veil on its latest smartwatch creation. Instinct is a military-grade GPS device that is built for the outdoorsy type.
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While the look may not be to everyone’s liking, the price certainly will. Garmin Instinct takes across features of the company’s popular Fenix range and packages them into a wearable that is priced for the masses. At $300 on Garmin’s website, Instinct offers quite a bit for the money.
Manufactured to military-grade standards 810G, the rugged watch can cope easily with challenging environments. It comes with a fiber reinforced polymer case that provides thermal, shock and 10 ATM water resistance (down do depths of 100 metres). The display is chemically strengthened and scratch-resistant and Garmin says its easier to read in direct sunlight.
Under the hood, Instinct comes with a built-in 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter and wrist-based heart rate. There is also support for multiple global navigation satellite systems including GPS, GLONASS and Galileo.
“We are thrilled to add Instinct to our adventure watch lineup, an approachable smartwatch that is rugged and reliable,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales.
“Instinct is perfect for those who spend their time outdoors and demand a device built tough to stand up in the elements.”
Garmin’s new timepiece allows you to keep tabs on your activity 24/7. It also comes with preloaded activity profiles including hiking, running, biking, swimming, kayaking and skiing to name a few. Users can tap into the TracBack feature to navigate back to their starting point and they can plan their trips in advance via the Garmin Explore website and app.
The watch comes with some smart features, too. When paired with a smartphone users can check on texts, emails and more right on the wrist. There’s no NFC for payments, though, or offline storage for music. But there are controls for music on your phone.
As you’d expect, battery life is pretty good. Between charges Garmin Instinct will keep going for up to two weeks in smartwatch mode, 16 hours in GPS mode, and 40 hours in UltraTra battery saver mode.
The watch is certainly not built for everyone. But if you are an adventurer or perhaps a first-responder, the device comes in Graphite, Tundra and Flame Red. You can pick it up on garmin.com for immediate delivery.
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All of the GPS watches I can review tell about all the different features of health, etc but I am looking for a gps watch that not only has golf courses available but can tell me the correct time when I travel and cross time zones. ( like cell phone) I would think cross country truck drivers and pilots would be interested in an affordable GPS time piece that knew where it was and what time it was at that place. Any comment back would be appreciated. ChuckR
Doesn’t every watch tell the correct time when you travel? Each time you syncs it to the smartphone it will update the time-zone.