The Garmin Instinct Crossover watch collection combines the strength and technology of the brand’s outdoors smartwatch, the Instinct, with a stylish hybrid display. It’s the first time the Garmin Instinct has been joined by analogue watch hands, and as such, it completely transforms the readability of the design. Let’s take a look at the display in more detail and what this means for the functionality hiding inside…
The Garmin Instinct 2 is one of our personal favourite smartwatch releases of the past few years. It’s tough, functional and relatively affordable compared to other smartwatches of the same quality. The Garmin Instinct Crossover is much of the same, using the Instinct 2 as its base and swapping out a few pieces of technology for the new analogue hands. The case stays at 45mm in diameter but with a slightly raised height of 16mm compared to the 14mm of the classic Instinct and is crafted from stainless steel and durable fibre-reinforced polymer. As always, there are several colourways to choose from. The core Garmin Instinct Crossover smartwatch is available in Black or Blue Granite while a duo of solar-powered designs can be found in Black or Tidal Blue. Then there’s a single Garmin Instinct Crossover Tactical watch which is solar-powered as standard and joined by an all-black aesthetic.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover Standard Edition watches are equipped with chemically strengthened glass while the Instinct Crossover Solar and Tactical Editions elect the brand’s innovative Power Glass for an increased battery life. As such, the core model boasts a battery life of up to 28 days in smartwatch mode while the solar designs increase that to 70 days. All three variations showcase the classic monochromatic sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel with a 176 x 176 pixel resolution, a 100 metre water resistant rating and silicone straps.
It’s the analogue display which is the novelty of the new Garmin Instinct Crossover smartwatch. The luminous hour and minute hands placed at the centre of the digital dial are powered by a new technology Garmin calls their ‘RevoDrive technology’. According to the smartwatch brand, this means that if the watch moves into a different time zone or encounters a large bump knocking the movement out of sync, Revodrive will automatically recalibrate the watch to be accurate using its satellite technology.
The inclusion of the hands does mean the Garmin Instinct Crossover watches have less screen space than before and in turn, Garmin have removed some features previously seen on the Garmin Instinct 2. There’s no training readiness and no onboard music, just music control, and there’s also no mapping of any kind. You will however still find tons of health and fitness features like activity tracking, step counter, distance travelled, health metrics, a wrist based heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, Pulse Ox and stress tracking. Since the Garmin Instinct Crossover is an outdoors watch, you can also expect ABC sensors, GPS coordinates, elevation information and the useful TracBack feature. The Garmin Instinct Crossover Tactical Edition adds to its long list of features with a few extras including a kill switch, stealth mode and night vision capability.
Due to the addition of the analogue hands, the price point of the Garmin Instinct Crossover has increased slightly, but it’s still a healthy price point for a durable outdoor smartwatch of this quality. The Garmin Instinct Crossover Standard Edition retails at £479.99 while the Garmin Instinct Crossover Solar is available for £529.99. Finally, the Garmin Instinct Crossover Tactical Edition retails at £569.99.
If you’d like to learn more about the new Garmin Instinct Crossover watch collection and shop the range for yourself, head over to the Jura Watches website here. Alternatively, get in touch with the team by calling 01335 453453 or send us a message at help@jurawatches.co.uk.
