OLATHE, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN), today announced vívoactive – a lightweight and ultra-thin GPS smartwatch with built-in sports and activity tracking apps. Helping users develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle, vívoactive captures more of their activities with GPS-enabled running, cycling, golfing, swimming and activity tracking apps. Vívoactive is comfortable for all day wear and smart notifications keep users connected with pressing work matters, family and friends. With the new Connect IQ store, users can easily customize vívoactive with free watch face designs, widgets and additional apps. Vívoactive features a sunlight-readable, high-resolution color touchscreen and can be accessorized with interchangeable bands to complement any outfit or occasion.
Vívoactive is being showcased with the wide-ranging line of purpose-built Garmin wearables in the Garmin booth (South Hall 4 #35811) at this year’s CES.
“Vívoactive combines signature Garmin fitness technology, such as built-in GPS, long battery life and a sunlight-readable display, in an ultra-thin smartwatch that lets users stay connected and achieve more,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. “Designed to be worn all day, vívoactive can be personalized in many ways - from interchangeable bands to watch faces, apps and widgets - making it versatile, stylish and functional for your life. ”
Play Harder
Whether hitting the pavement or the links, users can track stats even when out of range from a smartphone with vívoactive’s built-in GPS-enabled sports apps. Vívoactive also connects to a whole range of sensors and devices. Capture even more data by pairing vívoactive with a heart rate monitor1 or bike speed sensor, or use it as a remote for a Garmin VIRB® Elite action camera2.
The running app displays pace, time and distance using GPS and vívoactive’s built-in accelerometer tracks speed and distance when GPS is unavailable, such as when running indoors. Additional app features include Auto Lap®, Auto Pause®, and vibration alerts for heart rate, pace and run/walk intervals. The cycling app measures time, distance, speed and calories for training rides or a daily commute.
Golfers can download course maps from more than 38,000 courses worldwide, which stay up-to-date automatically, to vívoactive’s golf app. Using GPS vívoactive can measure layup and dogleg distances, as well as distances to the front, middle and back of the green, to improve usability over the entire hole. During a round, golfers can also keep individual stroke play scorecards and measure shot distance on favorite and new courses.
Water-resistant to 50 meters3, vívoactive uses sensor-based technology for its swimming app to compute the number of lengths, total and interval distances, paces by length, by interval, and for the full session, as well as calories burned. The app also counts the number of strokes and uses this to determine the SWOLF score, a measure of swimming efficiency.
Between workouts the activity tracking app monitors progress by tracking steps, calories and distance, setting a personalized daily step goal and sending a gentle reminder when users have been inactive too long by displaying a red move bar. Research shows prolonged periods of inactivity, such as sitting at a desk, decreases the body’s production of fat-burning enzymes. Walking for a few minutes will reset the move bar and can help reduce health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle.
Work Smarter
Ultra-thin and lightweight, vívoactive is comfortable for all day wear and features up to three weeks battery life in watch/activity tracking mode or up to 10 hours using GPS4. With a gentle vibration it alerts users of incoming smart notifications from a compatible Bluetooth®-enabled device4, keeping them connected with pressing work matters, family and friends. Its sunlight-readable, high-resolution color touchscreen displays all the same notifications as a smartphone including caller ID and missed call information for incoming calls, sender information and message for text messages, email messages with sender and subject, calendar reminders, and notifications from social media and other mobile apps. Vívoactive also lets users play, pause or skip a song on their smartphone’s music player, and can send an audible alert to help users locate their smartphone.
Live Better
Throughout the day vívoactive automatically syncs with paired mobile devices5 through the Garmin Connect™ Mobile app, so users can see a complete picture of daily activities. In Garmin Connect, a free online fitness/golf community, users can track workouts, sleep patterns and trends, join online challenges and earn virtual badges for extra motivation. For detailed calorie tracking, users can link their Garmin Connect account with MyFitnessPal® to compare calories burned to consumed and see their net count for the remainder of the day based on goals set in MyFitnessPal.
Users can personalize vívoactive to represent their interests and style with colorful interchangeable watchbands6 and free downloads from the Connect IQ store. Coordinate with casual or active wear by swapping vívoactive’s bands with colorful accessory bands, or dress it up with leather bands. Available in slate, red, blue, berry, purple, and black or white leather, vívoactive can be styled to complement any outfit and occasion.
With Connect IQ, the first-ever open platform for third-party developers to create apps for Garmin products, users can customize vívoactive’s watch face, add data fields and get additional apps and widgets that provide information at a glance. Garmin is working with several app developers that are creating vívoactive apps for the Connect IQ store. Tempo, for example, is building a smart calendar app that will let users see their upcoming events, and send an email from their watch if they are running late. LifeLine Response personal safety app is expanding to include Garmin devices with 24/7 Professional Safety. AccuWeather will offer an app to give users air quality and allergy information at a glance. iSKI is working on an app to provide the latest weather, snow, lift and slope information at a glance. Octane Fitness is building an app to bridge the gap between outdoor runs and indoor workouts on the Octane Zero Runner to seamlessly track all workout stats. Moxy, a muscle oxygen sensor, is creating an app that monitors the oxygenation of critical muscles during a workout, so users can have more insight on what is happening within their muscles.
Vívoactive will be available in black or white. It will begin shipping in Q1 and will have a suggested retail price of $249.99 and $299.99 (heart rate monitor bundle).
Vívoactive is the latest from Garmin’s expanding fitness segment, which focuses on developing technologies and innovations to enhance users’ lives and promotes healthy and active lifestyles. Whether it’s running, cycling, or other athletic pursuits, Garmin fitness devices are becoming essential tools for athletes both amateur and elite. For more about features, pricing and availability, as well as information about other Garmin fitness products and services, go to www.garmin.com/intosports, www.garmin.blogs.com and http://twitter.com/garmin.
1 Included with some models, sold separately on others.
2 Speed sensor and VIRB sold separately.
3 For more information, see Garmin.com/waterrating.
4 Battery life varies based on usage and smartphone model.
5 See Garmin.com/BLE for a list of compatible phones.
6 Accessory bands sold separately.
About Garmin
Garmin International Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN). Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in Switzerland, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Garmin, VIRB, Auto Lap and Auto Pause are registered trademarks, and vívoactive and Garmin Connect are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
Notice on Forward-Looking Statements:
This release includes forward-looking statements regarding Garmin Ltd. and its business. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release may not occur and actual results could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting Garmin, including, but not limited to, the risk factors listed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 28, 2013, filed by Garmin with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission file number 0-31983). A copy of such Form 10-K is available at http://www.garmin.com/aboutGarmin/invRelations/finReports.html. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and Garmin undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
