The Vivomove Sport stands out in Garmin’s lineup due to its departure from the typical Garmin design, making it a refreshing hybrid smartwatch. This means it retains the appearance of a regular watch while still offering fitness tracking and notification capabilities. One of the unique features of Garmin’s hybrid watches is their hidden OLED display, which remains discreet until needed.
This watch is best suited for casually active individuals who value style and functionality in a lightweight package, prioritizing wellness over intense fitness tracking. It provides continuous heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen level monitoring, and even abnormal heart rate alerts. Moreover, the Vivomove Sport offers in-depth metrics like respiration rate, fitness age, stress levels, and Body Battery, a tool by Garmin that visualizes your restfulness. Smart features include basic functions like notifications, alarms, and timers.
Although not as fully featured as other Garmin models, the Vivomove Sport offers a budget-friendly option with some sacrifices. For instance, it lacks built-in GPS, relying on tethered GPS through your phone. It also doesn’t support contactless payments, and there’s no microphone or speaker for taking calls on the watch. However, considering its entry-level status, the Vivomove Sport provides a considerable range of functionalities and has a stylish appearance that could easily be mistaken for a Swatch.
One downside is its relatively short battery life for a hybrid watch, lasting around three to four days. Nevertheless, this is still significantly better than what you’d typically get from an Apple Watch or Wear OS 3 device. For those willing to invest around $100 more, the Vivomove Trend priced at $269.99 offers chic materials, a larger screen, and wireless Qi charging. Otherwise, the Vivomove Sport remains an excellent lifestyle wearable, serving as a classier alternative to conventional fitness bands.
Number 4. Garmin Venu Sq 2
At first glance, the Venu Sq 2 bears a striking resemblance to an Apple Watch. However, when worn, its plastic construction becomes evident, yet it maintains a chic appearance and boasts an incredibly lightweight feel. The screen is bright, easily readable, and surpasses the quality of any Versa or Sense smartwatch.
For its price, the Venu Sq 2 offers an impressive array of features, including built-in GPS, a wide selection of watch faces, emergency safety capabilities, and contactless payments. Although the Music Edition, priced $50 higher, provides around 500 songs of storage, we wouldn’t recommend it since this watch lacks cellular connectivity and isn’t entirely standalone. Most users will likely carry their phones with them, rendering the added cost unnecessary.
Regarding health features, the Venu Sq 2 includes everything you’d find on a Versa or Sense smartwatch, complemented by Garmin’s treasure trove of metrics. This encompasses heart rate tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, intensity minutes to measure moderate exercise in a week, stress tracking, hydration tracking, respiratory rate, period tracking, and Garmin’s recovery feature, Body Battery. In terms of fitness, the watch offers access to Garmin Coach, providing free 5K, 10K, and half marathon training plans—a fantastic addition for fitness enthusiasts.
