New Luxury Garmin Smart Watches Do It All: Workouts, Travel, Golf And More

For as long as there have been portable GPS devices, wearables, and fitness trackers, Garmin has been a leader in the field, making professional quality devices for the aviation and maritime industries and the highest quality recreational devices for cycling, hiking, golf and other sports.

Today Garmin takes a leap forward with the release of its second-generation line of high-end of luxury smartwatches, or what the company describes as “tool watches,” the MARQ (Gen 2) Collection. The lineup features five models for specific usage audiences, but they also share numerous cutting-edge features across the entire collection. The watches include the MARQ Athlete, MARQ Adventurer, MARQ Golfer, MARQ Captain, and MARQ Aviator.

All have a 46mm watch case made of grade-5 titanium and a vibrant AMOLED touchscreen display and domed sapphire crystal lens, the same kind of scratchproof and virtually unbreakable crystal that adorns most fine Swiss luxury watches. This makes the watches stronger and brighter than previous Garmin offerings, and all have an impressive battery life of up to 16 days (with one hour charging time). All support multi-band GNSS, multi-frequency GPS (L1 + L5) and Garmin SatIQ technology, providing superior positioning accuracy while optimizing battery life at the same time. A notable new addition cross the series that is of special interest to frequent travelers – business or leisure – is the Jet Lag Adviser, which uses the wearer’s sleep history and other metrics to recommend and track the ideal amount of light exposure and exercise, suggest a sleep schedule to minimize the effects of jet lag and help users feel their best mentally and physically. The app works for single or multi-destination trips.

All models include Garmin’s suite of 24/7 health and wellness features, including wrist-based heart rate, respiration and stress tracking, advanced sleep insights, and BodyBattery™ energy monitoring. They also have basic smartwatch functions such as music storage and Garmin Pay contactless payment. The MARQ (Gen 2) collection is expected to be available this month, and models range from $1,900 to $2,400. The five models are:

MARQ Adventurer: Exploration and wilderness focused, the Adventurer has a compass bezel with cardinal directions and 360-degree markings to help keep users on track, in conjunction with the included Orienteering feature to navigate even where there are no road maps. It comes preloaded with TopoActive maps to put a way finder right on your wrist, making it easier than ever to access and navigate to points of interest. The NextFork™ gives the distance to the next trail intersection as well as the name of the upcoming trail, to avoid wrong turns, and maps include elevation profiles and more.

MARQ Athlete: With a lightweight vented silicone rubber strap for secure fit and accurate sensor readings, the Athlete will allow users to track all aspects of their performance, training and recovery with advanced metrics like Training Readiness, which gives a score based on sleep quality, recovery, training load and more, so they can determine whether it’s a good day to push the limits or take it easy. For runners, it includes training features like PacePro™, which keeps your pacing strategy on track with grade-adjusted guidance, and Real-Time Stamina to track and manage exertion throughout an activity to avoid burnout. The MARQ Athlete comes preloaded with sport-specific tracking and apps for many other athletic pursuits like cycling, swimming, skiing, golf, gym workouts, surfing, tennis, and even the latest craze, pickleball. In addition to daily activity tracking, it offers easy-to-follow animated cardio, strength, yoga and Pilates workouts, perfect for exercising on the road at hotel gyms.

MARQ Aviator: Packed with pro feature for pilots, this one will also appeal to aviation enthusiasts. It can navigate to a location or waypoint in the worldwide aeronautical database or use the Nearest function to activate a path to a nearby airport. With aviation alerts, pilots can set a minimum crosswind and flight condition they’re comfortable with and be notified when it’s a good time to go flying. For world travelers, it takes the new Jet Lag Adviser that is included on all MARQ watches and puts it on the watch face, displaying the user’s home time zone, “feels like” time and, once fully acclimated, will automatically update to show 24/7 guidance on light, sleep and exercise. For ultimate situational awareness, pilots can pan across the moving map with a touch, see NEXRAD radar overlaid on the route and access aviation weather, including METARs, TAFs and MOS1, to see winds, visibility, barometric pressure and more.

MARQ Golfer: Garmin has been the industry leader in GPS golf watches for years, and I have long used an existing golf model that knows what course you are playing when you arrive (preloaded with over 42,000 courses worldwide), has a great touchscreen display that shows the hole and length, layup and carry distances to bunkers and other hazards, green view and accurate yardage to front, center, and back of the green from whatever angle you are approaching. The new MARQ Golfer is the next gen of the already excellent golf technology, with a golf course-inspired color scheme, green ceramic inlay, custom etched bezel, and tritone green jacquard-weave nylon strap. It gives slope plus direction with Green Contours (Active Garmin Golf™ app membership required) and includes Garmin’s most advanced set of golf features, Virtual Caddie, Hazard View, Wind Data, PinPointer and includes three Approach CT10 golf club sensors for automatic club tracking.

MARQ Captain: Aimed at sailors, nautical details include a navy ceramic bezel with regatta timer and race-inspired striped jacquard weave nylon strap. A built-in Regatta Timer helps racers cross the starting point at precisely the right time, utilizing GPS to calculate the ideal position with a countdown timer that shows time to the gun. For better situational awareness on the water, Alerts and Alarms will signal imminent tide changes and anchor drag. You can access the autopilot right from your wrist to change headings, engage pattern steering or follow a route. The MARQ Captain also includes profiles for other watersports activities like kayaking, standup paddleboarding, windsurfing, kitesurfing and kiteboarding.