[News] Garmin introduces the Vivoactive HR and Vivofit 3 Fitness Trackers
Garmin New Zealand today announced two new fitness products, the vívoactive HR, a GPS smartwatch with Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate technology and the vívofit 3, a daily activity tracker with one-year battery life and Garmin Move IQ.
“The vívoactive HR builds on the incredible versatility and multi-functionality of its predecessor by adding wrist-based heart rate and a barometric altimeter – allowing it to track even more data essential to workouts and day-to-day activity. All your efforts to stay active are accounted for from taking the stairs at the office to going on a run or ride,” said Matt DeMoss, General Manager for Garmin Australasia.
The vivoactive HR
The vívoactive HR helps keep track of active moments throughout the day, such as counting steps, floors climbed, intensity minutes and sleep monitoring. It features built-in GPS-enabled sports apps for walking, running, biking, swimming, golfing, paddle boarding, rowing, skiing and snowboarding. The vívoactive HR uses 24/7 wrist-based heart rate data to calculate calories burned, as well as the intensity of fitness activities, providing proper credit for users’ array of workouts. With the Connect IQ store, users can easily personalise their vívoactive HR with free apps, widgets, watch faces and data fields.
Measures Daily Activity
Featuring Elevate wrist heart rate technology, the vívoactive HR provides 24/7 heart rate monitoring and eliminates the need for a chest strap. Using the heart rate data the vívoactive HR quantifies the intensity of fitness activities and allows users to monitor their progress against aerobic activity goals recommended by leading health organisations.
The vívoactive HR’s always-on, touchscreen, sunlight-readable Garmin Chroma Display lets users track activity and stay connected anytime, anywhere. Its built-in GPS-enabled sports apps include:
- Running – Using a built-in accelerometer and GPS users can track runs either indoors or out. Additional features include Auto Lap, Auto Pause, and vibration alerts for heart rate, pace, run/walk intervals, and more. Post-run summaries include stats such as total mileage, calories, average pace and overall time
- Cycling – The cycling app measures time, distance, speed and calories. It is compatible with speed and cadence sensors, and the Varia lights and radar (sensors and radar are sold separately)
- Pool Swimming – In addition to tracking total and interval time, distance, pace, stroke count and stroke type, the swimming app also features easy pausing for rests, complete with rest timers, and can calculate swolf, a measure of swimming efficiency
- Golfing – Users can view a simplified view of the green, measure shot distance and be pointed in the right direction with PinPointer while golfing on one of the 40,000 course maps worldwide available for download from the Garmin golf course database
- Stand Up Paddleboarding and Rowing – Users can easily track and view pace, time, distance, stroke count, stroke rate and distance per stroke. When using an indoor rowing machine, users can track time, stroke count and stroke rate
- Skiing and Snowboarding – The skiing and snowboarding app measures 3-D speed by calculating the speed and distance on an incline versus latitude and longitude. It also provides splits automatically and features Auto Pause, which freezes the timer automatically when users stop or ride the lift.
The vívoactive HR also includes Garmin Move IQ, a new feature that continuously monitors for periods of sustained activity. With Move IQ, the vívoactive HR automatically recognises walking, running, biking, swimming and elliptical training. Users can easily track their exercise throughout the day without needing to start a timed activity. Once synced with Garmin Connect, users can review their full day of activity in a convenient Timeline view.
Stay Connected
With up to eight days’ battery life in watch/activity tracking mode (with 24/7 heart rate monitoring, no GPS) or up to 13 hours using GPS, the vívoactive HR keeps up with users’ active lifestyles and keeps them connected.
The vívoactive HR will send any notification from a compatible smartphone, including incoming calls, texts, emails, calendar reminders, social media alerts and more, to the device with a vibration alert so users don’t miss a beat. Additional on-device smart capabilities allow users to check weather information, control music on their smartphone, control a VIRB action camera, locate their smartphone, and allow friends and family to track activities in real time with LiveTrack.
Throughout the day the vívoactive HR automatically syncs with paired mobile devices 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 to compete against friends and earn virtual badges. They can also view Garmin Connect Insights, smart wellness insights that provide cues to help them reach goals, shout-outs when milestones have been met and relevant healthy tips from experts. Insights also show users how they are doing in comparison to people like them for extra motivation. The vívoactive HR is also compatible with corporate wellness offerings from Garmin.
Availability
The vívoactive HR will begin shipping to New Zealand in April for a suggested retail price of NZ$449. It will be available in regular and extra-large fit black bands. Accessory bands will be available in black, white, force yellow and lava red for a suggested retail price of NZ$55 each.
The vivofit 3
Garmin’s vívofit 3 is a daily activity tracker with one-year battery life and Garmin Move IQ. Building on the company’s popular activity tracker, the vívofit 3 adds new features including Move IQ auto activity detection and intensity minutes. Capturing activities such as walking, running, biking, swimming and elliptical training, the vívofit 3 keeps up with users throughout the entire day.
Designed for 24/7 wearability, it is water resistant to 50 metres and has one-year battery life. The vivofit 3 can also be personalised with an array of colourful interchangeable accessory bands, with designs from the Garmin Style Collection and new styles from the Jonathan Adler + Garmin line.
More about Move IQ…
With Move IQ, a new feature that continuously monitors for periods of sustained activity, the vívofit 3 automatically recognises walking, running, biking, swimming and elliptical training. By accessing Garmin Connect, a free online fitness community that the vívofit 3 automatically syncs to throughout the day, users will be able to analyse a complete picture of daily activities in a convenient Timeline view. They can also track sleep patterns and trends, join online challenges to compete against friends and earn virtual badges.
Garmin Connect gets to know users and delivers meaningful insights based off their data to help them reach health and wellness goals. Smart wellness insights provide cues to help users reach personalised daily goals set by vívofit 3 based on their current activity levels, shout-outs when milestones have been met and relevant healthy tips from experts. Insights also show users how they are doing in comparison to people like them for extra motivation.
Getting motivated…
The vívofit 3 features a backlit display that shows steps, calories, distance, intensity minutes and time of day. Its move bar with audible alert reminds users when they have been inactive too long. A couple minutes of activity will reset the move bar, keeping users motivated to stay continuously active during their day which can help counter the health risks associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Water resistant to 50 metres and featuring a user replaceable battery that lasts up to one year, users rarely ever have to take off their vívofit 3.
Availability
The vívofit 3 will begin shipping to New Zealand in March/April. It will be available bundled with a regular or extra large sized black band and white band for NZ$179.
