Garmin announce two new wearables at CES, the Venu 2 Plus GPS smartwatch and the vivomove Sport hybrid smartwatch

CES 2022 is well and truly underway with Garmin the latest to unveil new consumer electronics devices.  Their two new devices with one a “direct line to wellbeing” and the other a fully-fledged health and fitness smartwatch.

Garmin Venu 2 Plus

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus smartwatch adds a new dimension to Garmin smartwatches in its ability to take calls and use your phone’s digital assistant to send texts, ask questions and more.  This new voice functionality, with support for Siri, Google Assistant and Bixby, joins the usual Garmin functionality we expect including a full suite of health, wellness, and fitness features.

Fitness features on the Venu 2 Plus include sleep score with insights, stress tracking, energy monitoring, pulse oximeter, women’s health features along with the usual fitness and workout tracking feature set.  The fitness features can be tailored to your own workouts but does include over 75 preset animated workouts with proper form and technique demonstrated both in the Garmin Connect app but also on the Venu 2 Plus itself.

“Garmin has quite literally answered the call for adding on-device voice capabilities to the latest Venu smartwatch,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. “For the active lifestyle customer, multi-tasking is crucial, and now Garmin customers have the ability to answer a call or send a text without digging through their pocket or bag.”

The Garmin Venu 2 Plus is available in white, silver, and black colours with a 43mm case, stainless steel bezel with a 20mm quick release silicone band (also available in a brown leather band).  The AMOLED display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and is powered by a battery that will last for up to 9 days in smartwatch mode and up to 8 hours in GPS and music mode.

Australian pricing is yet to be announced but with US pricing at $449.99US expect it to land here around the $700 to $750AU mark.  It will be available to purchase in Australia in “3-5 weeks”.

Garmin vivomove Sport hybrid

The Garmin vivomove Sport hybrid smartwatch is a watch with real ticking hands that move aside to reveal a hidden touchscreen display underneath.  The smartwatch is designed to be fashionable while also staying connected and able to track your health and fitness metrics.

The vivomove Sport offers a full suite of health and wellness tools including energy monitoring, all-day stress tracking advanced sleep monitoring, built-in sports apps with connected GPS and more.  Other features include Pulse Ox, hydration logging, 24/7 heart rate. Women’s health features and stress relief/breathing guides.  

“The vívomove series is a unique product line within the Garmin wearable family and we’re excited to expand on it with the vívomove Sport,” said Susan Lyman, Garmin vice president of global consumer marketing. “A smartwatch is only useful if you wear it, and we know that many people still want the look of a traditional timepiece with real hands. With vívomove Sport, you can have the best of both worlds at an accessible price point.”

The Garmin vivomove Sport hybrid smartwatch will work with either Android or iOS and offer up to 5 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and an additional day in watch mode (hands only).  It includes smart notifications for incoming calls, texts, and social media alerts with only Android users able to respond to text messages via the watch.

Available in 3-5 weeks, the Garmin vivomove Sport will retail at $279AU from Garmin and your usual retailers.

EFTM’s coverage of CES 2022 is supported by Intel, Vodafone, LG, Samsung and Hisense.