Garmin wants to charge your watch to be all but obsolete. The hybrid watch, the Instinct Crossover, from the fitness watch manufacturer was unveiled on Tuesday. If you buy the solar-powered version, it will have a battery life of up to 70 days. That’s a lot longer than the typical smartwatch’s one- to two-day battery life and the roughly one-month battery life of comparable hybrid watches.
The solar-powered Garmin Instinct Crossover costs $550 and goes on sale this Tuesday for a starting price of $500. Although international pricing was not immediately available, the standard model’s US price is roughly equivalent to £435 and AU$770, while the solar model’s price is roughly equivalent to £477 and AU$848.
As a hybrid smartwatch, the Instinct Crossover combines some of the best features of both smartwatches and conventional analogue timepieces. Since hybrid watches give up some functions, they often have a longer battery life than traditional smartwatches like the Apple Watch. For instance, although the Instinct Crossover lacks a colour display, it can show notifications and accepts Garmin Pay for online payments. The new Crossover was primarily created for outdoor enthusiasts looking for a tough fitness-tracking device, much like Garmin’s existing Instinct watches. It comes at a time when Garmin is up against more competition from conventional smartwatch manufacturers like Apple and Samsung, who, according to Counterpoint Research, account for 29% and 9% of the entire wearable market, respectively.
The Instinct Crossover contains all of the health-tracking features you’d anticipate from a Garmin watch, including readings for VO2 Max, blood-oxygen levels, heart-rate variability, and sleep tracking with a sleep score. Along with satisfying the MIL-STD-810 durability requirement, it is also shock and thermal-resistant. Similar to the Apple Watch Ultra, it has a 10 ATM water resistance rating, meaning it can endure forces at a depth of 100 metres.
But one of the Instinct Crossover’s standout qualities appears to be its battery life. Thanks to solar charging, the Solar Edition should operate in smartwatch mode for 70 days, according to Garmin. The solar-powered Instinct Crossover, according to Garmin, has “unlimited” battery life in battery saver mode, which keeps analogue functionality like the time, date, and stopwatch. To attain that kind of battery life, though, you’ll need to make sure you’re complying with the advised solar charging specifications, which according to Garmin are three hours per day in 50,000 lux settings.
According to Garmin, the nonsolar basic model’s smartwatch battery life is likewise about a month, which puts it roughly on par with the Instinct 2’s 28-day battery life. When GPS is activated, that decreases to 110 hours, but that is still a significant amount of time for it to be in use. For individuals who want a watch, they can use for daily exercise and sleep tracking without having to charge it in between, the Garmin Instinct Crossover might be tempting.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover includes long battery life, health features, and navigation capabilities like GPS, TracBack for navigating back to a starting point, and Reference Point for tracking a place in relation to one’s position. The watch also comes in a Tactical Edition that has a kill switch, dual-format GPS, a stealth mode, and compatibility with night vision devices.
Another indication that manufacturers of smartwatches are paying more attention to battery life is the Garmin Instinct Crossover, especially in more expensive models meant for athletic training. In the area of fitness and running watches, Garmin has long been a popular name, but Apple and Samsung have only recently started paying closer attention to this industry. In September, Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Ultra, which is now its largest rival to performance wristbands like those made by Garmin. One of the greatest features that distinguish the Ultra from the Series 8 is its anticipated 36-hour battery life, which is in addition to its larger screen, titanium construction, dual-frequency GPS, and depth gauge. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a similar case but differs from the ordinary Galaxy Watch 5 in that it is made of titanium and has an 80-hour battery life estimate.
