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Garmin Fenix 7 & Epix 2 are set for a likely January 18th reveal

Garmin Israel and Garmin Norway have teased a product launch event in the US on January 18th. It is extremely likely that this is when we will see the official reveal of Fenix 7, Epix 2 and perhaps Instinct 2.

Many of us have been waiting impatiently for the release of the latest Garmin Fenix watch. It is all but confirmed that this will come in a few days time.

The official instagram account for Garmin Israel has teased a large live broadcast launch event from the company’s headquarters in the US on January 18th. The post has since been removed but you can see a screenshot on this Reddit thread.

16:30 Israel time is the equivalent to 9:30 EST (14:30 GMT). The actual live stream starts half an hour later. Garmin typically has launches on Tuesdays so all of this fits nicely with the rumours of an impending launch of the Garmin Fenix 7, Epix 2 and Instinct 2. The imagery of the outdoor hike on the poster also lines up with these types of watches. For info, Runway is the official Garmin importer in Israel.

Below the Instagram post the text specifies that there will be an “international announcement and launch event” at that date. And that it will feature “senior people from Garmin USA”.

“We can’t tell too many details, but promise that it will be especially interesting (and of course fun) and we will instead broadcast the live broadcast from the company headquarters in the USA” the post states.

But that’s not where it ends. Garmin Norway has posted the same invitation, with the same image, for the same date. The media invitation is for a Garmin Webinar on January 18th “revealing the latest innovations from Garmin outdoor”.


What to expect

Lots of rumours have been circulating on the upcoming Garmin watches. A few weeks ago winfuture.de posted what they claim are actual images of Fenix 7, Epix 2 and Instinct 2. This has received widespread media coverage since the original posting.

The German site followed that up a few days ago with detailed technical specs of the upcoming devices. What was surprising was that this shows Fenix 7 and Epix 2 will reportedly have to ability take ECG. We are still sceptical whether this will really be the case.

Having said that we do know Garmin has been testing for a while now this type of functionality. A Clinical Trial conducted earlier this year clearly states that the single-lead ECG device that was used for the study is a Garmin “wrist-worn, consumer device”. Single lead data is what is typically derived from smartwatches with ECG technology. But you’d expect ECG to launch on an all-purpose device such as Garmin Venu or Vivoactive rather than Fenix.

Essential reading: Best fitness trackers and health gadgets

In all of this, the only thing that is definite is the fact that Garmin has just launched Venu 2 Plus. Announced at CES 2022 it comes with the addition of a third physical button, microphone and speaker. This is used to ask questions, control smart devices, all hands-free. Users can summon Siri, Google Assistant or Bixby, but only when their smartphone is in Bluetooth range. Plus they can reply to messages with voice, answer and make phone calls.

If the new watches do see an official reveal on the 18th actual availability might not start until a week or so later. This was the case for Venu 2 Plus.

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Ivan Jovin

Ivan has been a tech journalist for over 7 years now, covering all kinds of technology issues. He is the guy who gets to dive deep into the latest wearable tech news.

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