THE TIMELESS design of the latest high-tech watch to hit the market makes the Garmin vivomove look far more like a fashionable analogue timepiece that a fitness gizmo. But there’s more underneath those good looks than meets the eye. This is an intelligent activity tracker that will encourage you to move every hour to burn excess calories.
The watch uses a normal replaceable CR2025 coin cell battery with a life of one year and is available in three versions – vivomove sport, classic and premium.
The sport version has a black silicone band and a dial in a choice of black or white. The classic version is available in black with a leather band or in rose gold-tones, also with a leather strap. For its part, the premium version is available both in stainless steel and gold-tone steel. Thai Garmin fans will have to wait a while for the premium version though: right now only the classic and sports watches are on sale.
The vivomove really does look like an analogue watch with hour, minute and second hands. But the dial is cut, revealing two LCD bars underneath. The bar on the right is called the move bar and it alerts you after a period of inactivity. The one on the left is the step bar and displays your progress in step taking as a percentage of your daily goal. Each bar has tiny marks or segments that light up as your steps progress or your inactivity continues.
Vivomove and other Garmin activity trackers are designed to encourage you to walk for a few minutes of walk every hour so that your body will go on producing the enzymes that burn unnecessary calories. After one hour of inactivity, the move bar appears. Additional segments appear after every 15 minutes of inactivity and after two hours of inactivity, the move bar goes solid red, warning you to walk now!
The step bar has numbers 0, 50, and 100 printed next to it to show the progress of your goal in percentage terms. If it goes solid, your goal has been achieved.
Before you start using the vivomove, you must pair it with your Android or iOS smartpone or tablet computer, using the Garmin Connect app and Bluetooth. It’s easy to do: just press the crown of the watch for three seconds until the step bar starts flashing.
You also need to register for an account with Garmin Connect to keep a record or your progress. The auto goal function of vivomove will keep adjusting the goal to your lifestyle. Just enter gender, height, weight, and birth date and the app will calculate the number of calories burned during the day.
The Garmin Connect app provides detailed information about your activity including time, distance and calories burned. You can also use the app to share your progress with your social media friends.
The vivomove will automatically record your activity with its Auto-Activity Detection function. You do however have the option of turning this off. When turned on, it will record an activity after you have moved for at least 15 consecutive minutes.
Apart from using the auto-goal function, you can also use the app to manually set your daily goal. If you want to allow vivomove to more accurately calculate the distance travelled, use the Custom Step Length function. Here, you enter a known distance and the number of steps it takes to cover the distance and the Garmin Connect app will calculate your step length.
The vivomove has a water rating of 5 ATM meaning you can wear it in the shower or the pool. You can also find out how long you have slept, your sleep levels and movement just by wearing it all night.
The vivomove supports 2.4 GHz ANT+ wireless communications protocol. If you buy an optional USB ANT Stick, you can pair the vivomove with your computer without having to use a smartphone and Garmin Connect app. The recorded data can then be studied from your Garmin Connect.com web page.
The sport vivomove retails for Bt5,990 and the classic version for Bt8,390.
Physical dimensions: 42 mm diameter x 12 mm thick (20 mm wide watch bands)
Weight: Sport: 51.0 g; Classic: 48.0 g; Premium: 67.0 g
Battery: Replaceable CR2025 coin cell
Battery life: Up to 1 year
Water rating: 5 ATM
This source first appeared on The Nation Life.