New Wearable Tech from Garmin

GPS giants Garmin have today announced two new outdoorsy cycling-type products for all you outdoorsy cycling-type people.

First up is the Varia Vision which, according to Garmin, “helps enhance a cyclists’ road awareness by putting information directly in their line of site.” But we reckon it’d also work for all mountain biking Universal Soldiers too…

It’s the third Varia to be released by Garmin; following on from the  Varia Bike Radar and Varia Smart Bike Lights.

So essentially its a little screen widget thingy (who needs technical jargon anyway?) that attaches to the rider’s sunglasses and displays data – and every one loves data, do they not?

The piece of kit syncs with any compatible Garmin device through the magic of Bluetooth and will show the rider things such as performance data, directions, and incoming “smart notifications.” So texts to say if your husband or wife is making your tea, that sort of thing.

You can also pair the Varia Vision with the rearview radar system which will warn the user of traffic (or, in a MTB context, a faster rider. Or possibly an angry bull) approaching from behind.

The touch panel is glove and wet-weather friendly with eight hours battery life as standard, and for all you weight-weenies out there, the Varia Vision comes in at reasonable 29.7 grams.

Get your hands on this slice of cutting edge awesome will set you back a hefty £319.99, though. You could make comparisons to the failed Google Glass, but it could prove to be a useful tool for road cyclists or tech obsessed mountain bikers… but remember to at least keep one eye out for pot holes.

Here’s a video to show you more:

Next up: a trio of smart sports watches; the Garmin fēnix 3 Sapphire HR, fēnix 3 Sapphire NATO and fēnix 3 Sapphire Titanium. (believe me, “fēnix” is VERY annoying to type…)

Garmin boast both a functional and stylish design to the new fēnix models. I quite like the middle one. They’ve all got the ‘Garmin Elevate’ optical sensor that measures the heart rate through the users pulse located in the wrist.

But they’re not only for cycling or swimming nowadays – there’re additional activity profiles which include golf, stand up paddle boarding, rowing and even more running dynamics – but they still maintaining the cycling and swimming profiles from the older Garmin models.

The upgrade from the previous line of fēnix watches is not drastic, though. The new models still feature cadence (foot strike), vertical oscillation (bouncing an’ that) and ground contact time measurements, for all you running types, but there are now five new metrics added which include performance condition, stress score, lactate threshold and vertical ratio (there’s also stride length for those of you strange people who also use your legs to exercise).

And now (drumroll please) the price. The HR version is the joint cheapest with an RRP of £469.99, along with the leather/nylon strapped NATO. The titanium model is, of course, the costliest with an RRP of £629.99.

More details from Garmin