Garmin has become the latest company to launch a smartwatch, with the hope that its approach will catch the attention of style-conscious consumers. The Garmin Vivomove is a little different to most other smartwatches that are available today in that it is a tradition analogue watch, with the addition of some largely-unseen tech enhancements.

For a lot of people, a watch is an important fashion accessory. Many smartwatches, with their OLED screens and chunky appearance, simply do not appeal aesthetically to a section of the population.

The designers of the Garmin Vivomove have not faced the challenge of producing a product that looks as close to a traditional watch as possible. Instead, an analogue watch has been produced, which also has the ability to collect fitness data, which can be viewed on a mobile app.

A significant advantage for Garmin is that they are not starting from scratch. The company already has a range of vivo-branded devices, developed to track activity.

The Garmin Vivomove therefore fits neatly within the company’s existing line-up of fitness products.

As a result of the approach that Garmin has taken, their new smartwatch is able to tackle the thorny issue of power consumption, by offering one-year battery life.

Given the Garmin Vivomove is unable to support the – relatively – large range of apps that are associated with smartwatches, this is a difficult product to place. But whilst it is arguably not really a smartwatch, its functionality as an analogue watch means that it offers more than a traditional activity tracker.

[via Ars Technica UK]