Garmin has revealed a new multi-sport smartwatch targeting boat lovers with active marine lives. The new Garmin Quatix 5 runs on Garmin’s in-house operating system rather than the common Android Wear OS. The absence of Android Wear means that the new watch can’t run many third-party apps available on Android Wear’s marketplace on Google Play. A potential buyer might, therefore, believe that they’ll miss out on a lot of cool stuff. However, most functions and features that the vast majority of users utilise on a regular basis have been integrated into the smartwatch. For example, a few of the available features are:

• send out of notifications
• calendar events
• built-in activity tracker

Furthermore, the Garmin Quatix 5 watch is compatible with a lot of marine electronics and software. It connects with Garmin Chartplotter and other devices that stream important information at sea like wind direction and force, speed and temperature. This implies that Quatix 5 can be used to monitor and control a wide range of marine devices, which is handy both at sea and at the marina.

Pricing

There are two models with different types of wristbands to choose from:

• The stainless steel watch with a blue band costs US$599.99, which converts to about NZ$1,000 inclusive of GST.
• The stainless steel sapphire with a metal band costs US$849.99.