I tried the Garmin Vívomove Style – and it changed the game for me. Here’s why…
Did you see that meme that said something along the lines of: “When you’re wearing formal clothes, please take off your fitness tracker – you look like you’re in a Spy Kids movie”? I felt that meme (deeply) because, come rain or shine, gym class or Saturday-night out, I’m wearing my fitness watch. Yes, it tells me the time, but it also monitors my heart rate and tracks my steps and, some weeks, when I haven’t made it to gym as often as I would have liked, I rely on those 100 Vitality points I get from walking 10 000 steps to get me to my rewards goal.
But this doesn’t mean that some days I don’t feel a bit skaam about wearing my bulky black watch with a more refined outfit. So, I was very excited to try out the Vívomove Style, Garmin‘s new hybrid smartwatch.
Hybrid, you ask? At first glance, the Vívomove looks like a simple analog watch with ticking hands and elegant dial details, but tilt your arm and you’ll see that it also has a touchscreen that lets you scroll through a variety of functions. “The Vívomove watches are designed for those who want the connected and health features of a smartwatch with a more fashion-forward look better suited for the office or dressing up,” says Susan Lyman, Garmin vice-president of global consumer marketing. “With an extensive selection of bands and metal finishes, it’s a stylish accessory that also keeps tabs on your text messages, energy, stress, sleep and more.”
To try it out, I wore the Vívomove Style hybrid smartwatch for a week to see if it could handle my day-to-day activities, including a few intense workouts. This is what I learnt…
The design
First off, the Vívomove Style is absolutely beautiful. It’s minimalist and elegant and the rose-gold and white option, which I tried, goes with any outfit, no matter how formal. But, if those colours aren’t your style, there are a number to choose from and you can choose between a woven nylon strap or a silicone one. I had a silicone strap and it’s super comfortable and durable. The smartwatch has a 42mm aluminium bezel and it features a domed Corning® Gorilla® glass lens and the same interactive dual AMOLED displays as the Vívomove Luxe.
The functionality
This hybrid smartwatch comes with a wide array of cool features, including Garmin Pay (set up your card on the watch and swipe your watch at any tap-enabled card machine – no bank card or phone necessary), Body BatteryTM energy monitoring, which lets you see your body’s energy levels throughout the day so you can find the best times for activity and rest, and connected GPS, which means you can go for a run with nothing but your watch (and with Garmin Pay, you can get a coffee on the way home as well!). It also has stress tracking, a wrist-based heart rate monitor, hydration tracking, advanced sleep monitoring and menstrual cycle tracking.
Most importantly for me (I’m obsessed with meeting my Vitality goal each week), the Vívomove Style also tracks activity, with Walk, Run, Cardio, Strength, Yoga and Other options. I wore it to a few SWEAT 1000 classes, which combine a mixture of intense cardio with weight training, and this smartwatch handled them like a pro. I set it to a cardio workout and it tracked my hour-long workout and gave me all the stats I needed at the end via the Garmin Connect app. I’m a bit clumsy when it comes to using a touchscreen, but this watch is simple to understand and once you get the hang of the basics, it’s easy to use.
So, would I buy one?
Definitely! I’ve been raving about this watch to anyone who so much as glances at it. It’s the perfect smartwatch for someone who is pretty active, but who isn’t using it to train for a hectic sporting event, like a marathon or an Ironman, and for someone who doesn’t want to wear a bulky fitness tracker that clashes with their outfit.
It has a water rating of 5 ATM, which means that it’s suitable for diving into water, swimming and snorkelling, so no fear if it gets wet, and its battery lasts for up to five days on smart mode, and for more than a week on watch mode. The Garmin Vívomove Style hybrid smartwatch has everything you need in a smartwatch and more and it’s beautiful to boot.
Learn more about the Garmin Vívomove series here.
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