Garmin has released two new models into its popular Instinct 2 series of smartwatches.
The company says the Instinct 2X Solar and Instinct 2X Solar – Tactical Edition are designed to handle the most extreme environments with an easy-to-read display in a 50mm reinforced polymer case.
Garmin say the watches meet US military standards (MIL-STD-810) for thermal shock, impact shock, and water resistance up to 10 ATM (ability to withstand pressures equivalent to a depth of 100m) and feature a chemically strengthened, scratch-resistant ‘Power Glass’ lens.
The lens can also assist in extending battery life by producing 50% more energy than the standard Instinct 2 solar watch.
“Our latest addition to the Instinct 2 series is a bold, purpose-built GPS smartwatch ready to help you navigate tough conditions, but adaptable enough to help you pursue everyday health and wellness goals,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin Vice President of Global Consumer Sales.
“Its unique style fits your life, whether that includes outdoor adventures, time at the gym, a weekend barbecue with the family, or all three. With unlimited battery life and a built-in multi-purpose flashlight, you can stay focused on the task at hand without worrying about when to find your next charge.”
Introducing the Garmin LED flashlight
An addition that should appeal to outdoors enthusiasts, is the introduction of Garmin’s integrated LED flashlight with adjustable intensities. It also features a strobe mode that will match a stride cadence and alternate between white and red so users can be seen while running.
Further features of the Instinct 2X Solar include…
- Keep tabs on body metrics with 24/7 Health and Wellness Tracking, including wrist-based heart rate, advanced sleep monitoring, respiration tracking, Pulse Ox and more.
- Built-in sports apps to take on running, biking, swimming, strength training and more, plus VO2 max and other training features.
- Gain a deeper understanding of overall health, training and recovery through Heart Rate Variability during sleep, based on technology developed by Garmin’s Firstbeat Analytics™ team.
- New Multi-Band GNSS Support provides improved positional accuracy.
- Navigate the outdoors with built-in sensors for a 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter.
- Retrace the trail with TracBack® routing, helping users find the same route back to their starting point and reference point marks of a known spot relative to their location.
- Stay connected with smart notifications, Garmin Pay™ contactless payments and Connect IQ™ app integration.
Additionally, the Instinct 2X Solar also offers ‘Obstacle Course Racing’ as an activity, which includes running segments and obstacles of various types. This activity will allow athletes to manually record obstacle splits and once obstacles are marked for the first lap, they will be automatically tracked for the remaining laps.
The Obstacle Course activity will include the number of runs on a particular course, run times, number of obstacles, time spent on each obstacle, run metrics for run splits (distance, pace, cadence, stride length, etc.), elevation profile, heart rate and distance.
READ MORE: Clothing layers for cold weather
The Instinct 2X Solar – Tactical Edition comes with an array of features specific to tactical operations including Jumpmaster and tactical preloaded activities, projected waypoints, dual-position GPS formatting and night-vision compatibility.
Users can also enable Stealth Mode, which prevents sharing of GPS position and disables wireless communication.
When in stealth mode, GPS location is visible on the watch face but is not saved to the device memory or shared. This allows for training functionality in areas with location security concerns without revealing the location.
To lead the way during night operations, the multi-LED flashlight on the Tactical Edition illuminates in either white or a dedicated green – the green light is used to have less of an impact on a user’s natural night vision.
Available now, the Instinct 2X Solar is priced at £399.99, while the Instinct 2X Solar – Tactical Edition is available at £449.99 from the Garmin store.
