Garmin Vivomove HR integrates a hidden screen into its analogue watch face, and it got the concept right. Unlike any other analogue smartwatch, it features a touchscreen display on the analogue watch face. The smartwatch was unveiled at IFA 2017 in Berlin, Germany with a unique hybrid design, Garmin’s fitness tech features and touchscreen control, but you won’t notice at first.
The smartwatch is one of its kind because it looks like an analogue watch on the outside but has a hidden touchscreen and other fitness tracking functions. There are two different designs for the Vivomove HR, its either you have the Sports version with a plastic design and a metallic bezel around the edge or the full metal aluminium body referred to as the premium version.
Although, the premium with the full aluminium body is the more expensive of the two version and comes with a leather strap while the plastic version has a silicone strap. The plastic version, however, appeals more to the female sense compared to the more expensive premium version.The watch faces also differ when it comes to the indices around the edge of the dials, dots, and lines.
The Vivomove HR watch has three options consisting of a green face with a brushed steel and a tan leather strap, a silver bezel and a brown leather strap, both available in the Premium models. While the Sports model features a rose gold bezel and a texture silicon white strap. Both the Premium and Sports model has a buckle fastening system in place emphasising the smartwatch’s appeal as a traditional watch.
The touchscreen remains hidden and only comes up only when you want to check for your info. The touchscreen is present in the bottom half of the watch face and comes when you gently tap the screen a little and then you can navigate through by scrolling to see features like step climbed, step count, resting heart rate and stress scores. The hidden display genuinely blends into the watch face and highly responsive as well as legible.
It has a nice combination of minimalist icons and text that utilises most of the space and is visible, unlike most complex setups. The watch hands do not get in the way of the screen but automatically moves up freeing the space below. The screen display will disappear after a few seconds when not in use or when you have stopped swiping and assumes its normal watch face with the analogue display.
The Garmin Vivomove HR has the feature like calories burnt, track sleep patterns, count steps and as a built-in accelerometer to track your indoor exercises. It also includes other functionalities like VO2Max measurement, Garmin’s Virb action camera, and some other sports modes.
There is also a heart rate monitoring feature as well as smart notifications with vibration for calls, emails, social media and app alerts and fitness age. There are also pre-installed profiles for running, strength and cardio training. It also waterproof up to 50m and is okay for swimming and shower and alert to locate misplaced smartphone. In battery life, it offers up to two weeks in watch mode and five days n smart mode.
The Vivomove HR will be available for a suggested retail price of $200 for the Vivomove HR Sport, while the steel-body, leather-strap Vivomove HR Premium is $300.
