As smartwatches become more common, some have gone down the specialisation route to stand out from the crowd. While we’ve seen more and more diving smartwatches, something more for boating is arguably a lot less common. Filling that space is the Garmin quatix 8, which the brand dubs “the ultimate nautical smartwatch purpose-built for life on and off the water”.
The Garmin quatix 8 has a 1.4-inch AMOLED display with a scratch resistant sapphire lens on top, and a titanium bezel around it. These are shared across its two sizes of 47mm and 51mm. What isn’t shared though is its battery life, with the smaller one lasting up to 16 days, while the larger one pushing it up to 29 days.
Features that make the Garmin quatix 8 the boating watch of choice are, according to the brand, features like chart plotting to waypoints for fishing spots, as well as a rang of preloaded sailing apps. These allow for constant updates to conditions like water depth, speed, heading and wind, as well as tracking time the water and anchor drag alerts. For those so inclined, there’s also a regatta timer for races.
Of course, features of the Garmin quatix 8 off the boat includes a 40m dive rating, an ambient light sensor to adjust screen brightness accordingly, and a built-in LED flash. Then there are a range of the usual smartwatch functions for dry land like Bluetooth connectivity, the ability to take calls and to respond to messages with the connected phone’s voice assistant.
The Garmin quatix 8 is priced at RM5,720 and RM6,240 for the 47mm and 51mm models respectively. it will be available in mid July, though the brand has not shared a specific date. For now, it is listed on the brand’s own e-store, but when it finally releases the company says that you’ll be able to get it via its official stores on Lazada and Shopee as well.
