The Swiss-made luxury smartwatch boasts brains and brawn

One of the standout men’s wearables at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month was Garmin’s sporty f?nix 3 Sapphire smartwatch—a rugged health tracker made expressly for sports and fitness enthusiasts. 

The f?nix has been around for a couple of years, but the latest iterations feature a slew of updates, including wrist-based heart-rate technology, additional activity profiles, and the choice of a thick, butterscotch-hued leather band that elevates its look to office-ready.

There are three new f?nix models set to debut this quarter, all with sapphire lenses—along with an ultra-luxe model that boasts a titanium bezel and band. The watch’s functionality now includes profiles for golf, stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), and rowing, as well as precise running dynamics and physiological measurements. 

The style is “definitely one of our best sellers,” said Garmin public relations executive Cesar Palacios at the brand’s CES booth. “So it makes sense that we keep updating the [software] and making it better.”

And, it’s a serious multitasker.

Users can now measure heart rate right at the wrist and can track so-called Intensity Minutes, which monitor aerobic progress compared to daily, national recommendations. It measures the length of a runner’s stride in real time and measures a runner’s ground contact symmetry, to pinpoint any strength imbalances. The watch also ?provides a “real-time fitness-level measurement relative to a runner’s average baseline, which indicates performance readiness for the day’s workout or race.” Heavy-duty functionality, right?

The masculine, slightly oversize wearable features 40 hours of battery life in UltraTrac (aka all systems firing) mode, 16 hours of life in GPS training mode, three weeks of life in watch mode, and two weeks of life in plain-old smartwatch mode.

The trio of new models will retail from $599.99 to $799.99. 

(Photo courtesy of Garmin)

 

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