Garmin makes some of the most popular sports-oriented wearables out there, from fitness bands and analog hybrids to GPS sports watches and endurance running watches. This time around, they’re going back to the analog-digital hybrid design, albeit with a stronger focus on sports watch features in the form of the Garmin Instinct Crossover.
Billed as “fully analog, fully smart, and full of adventure,” the device is aimed at individuals who want to enjoy modern sports watch features, but prefer the look of analog timepieces. As such, you get both a full-screen digital panel and old-school oscillator-based timekeeping, capably combining both new and old in a single wearable.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover can look like a standard analog watch with the digital display turned off, with its timekeeping luminescent hands and luminescent bar-style hour indicators both layered on top of the dial. Except, it also comes with a 0.9-inch digital MIP panel directly under those analog watch components, allowing it to display all sorts of information in real-time the way other smartwatches do. The idea is, you get to have always-on analog timekeeping, so you can use it to check time at a glance, all while being able to glean information about your runs, hikes, and other pursuits at the same time. Both analog and digital features are powered by the same battery, by the way, which is rated to last for up to 28 days in smartwatch mode and up to 110 hours in GPS mode.
It has a decidedly sports watch design, with a 45mm case fiber-reinforced polymer case and a bezel made with a mix of the same polymer and stainless steel. Naturally, it’s built to handle the outdoors, with military-grade durability and 10ATM of water resistance, so you should have no worries wearing this, whether you’re adventuring in the city or the backcountry.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover has all the standard GPS sports watch hardware found in the outfit’s lineup, including multi-GNSS radio, ABC sensors, and heart rate sensors. This allows it allows it to track your performance in all sorts of activities, from running and cycling to golf and strength training. It can even track more complex HIIT workouts, including AMRAP, EMOM, and Tabata, all while being able to calculate things like VO2 max, pulse Ox, fitness age, training effect, HRV status, and recovery time, so you get plenty of insights into your physical activity. You can also use it for backcountry adventures, with features like trackback routing, reference point marking, and point-to-point navigation, as well as all sorts of smartwatch features like sleep monitoring, body energy monitoring, smart notifications, contactless payment, and various safety assistance elements.
It comes in three variants: standard, tactical, and solar. The Tactical Edition adds dual-format GPS, night vision compatibility, stealth mode, and a kill switch, whiel the Solar Edition adds solar charging to the mix, allowing it to replenish enough to keep the timekeeping running feature at all times even without plugging in.
The Garmin Instinct Crossover is available now, priced starting at $499.99.
