The new Garmin Instinct Crossover is a rugged hybrid smartwatch with analog hands

Garmin has a line of hybrid smartwatches called Vivomove. “Hybrid” means that there are analog watch hands like classic watch (well, not quite – they are electronically controlled) as well as a digital display. The Vivomove series has a stylish design and is not particularly rugged. The more adventurous types should look at the new model instead – the Garmin Instinct Crossover.

It based on the new Instinct 2 series, making it pretty rugged – the watch is rated for 10 ATM water resistance and is built to a MIL-STD-810 standard for thermal and shock resistance. Unlike its siblings, the Crossover has analog hands controlled by the new RevoDrive technology. It can automatically calibrate itself if the hands go out of alignment after the watch suffers a hefty whack.

The analog hands give it a classic look (we get G-Shock vibes from those chunky bezels) and serve as an always-on display – you can always tell the time, even in the dark thanks to the Super-LumiNova coating on the hands and chapter ring.

Like other Instinct watches, the Crossover has a solar charging option – in battery save mode the watch has practically infinite battery life (assuming it spends at least 3 hours out in the sun each day). You will be using it in smartwatch mode most of the time, then battery life is up to 70 days and GPS tracking time is up to 31 hours. This is with frequent tracking, the solar-powered watches in Expedition GPS mode can last nearly a year!

Even without solar charging (which costs a bit extra) the battery life can make other smartwatches jealous – up to 28 days in smartwatch mode (up to 71 hours in power saver mode) and up to 25 hours of GPS tracking.

The Garmin Instinct Crossover (solar)

The Instinct Crossover brings the typical smartwatch and health tracking features. It can measure your VO2 Max, calculate your “fitness age”, report training status/load/effect and calculate a recovery time. It also features Advanced Sleep Monitoring with a Sleep Score and Body Battery.

It supports Garmin Pay as well as the Connect IQ app store. It has multi-GNSS tracking and TracBack routing (which can guide you to your starting location). The watch has the so-called ABC sensors – Altimeter, Barometer and Compass. It can also connect to additional sensors and other hardware over Bluetooth and ANT+.

The Garmin Instinct Crossover starts at $500 for the base version, solar costs $50 on top of that (for comparison, the Instinct 2 line starts at $350). You can find the new model over on Garmin.com.

There is also a Tactical edition, which is compatible with night vision goggles, has a stealth mode, a dual-format GPS readout and a kill switch (Garmin sells watches to the military and is popular with hunters).

Source | Via