Garmin just unveiled a new smartwatch, heart rate monitor and serious changes to the Connect app in a big CES announcement
Garmin has unveiled the Garmin Lily 2 smartwatch and Garmin HRM-Fit heart rate monitor at CES 2024, along with a refresh of the popular Garmin Connect app.
The Garmin Lily 2 and Lily 2 Classic (a variant model with different colorways and Garmin Pay NFC payments possible) are “small, fashionable” slim watches weighing 20.6 grams and with a fabric or leather strap, designed to look as sleek, traditional women's watches. They feature a 'hidden' screen, where the 240 x 201 px screen shows a simple background-like pattern until tapped.
This is very different from the Forerunners, Fenix and the rest of the best Garmin watches, which tend to have always-on screens. The Lily 2 seems to have moved away from that in a conscious decision to create a less connected, hybrid aesthetic, like the Instinct Crossover or Nowatch.
The Lily 2 differs from its predecessor, the original Garmin Lily, in that it (fortunately) has GPS on the watch, so much better for runners and cyclists.
The Lily 2 has up to five days of battery life and plenty of features common to Garmin's cheaper watches, including women's health and cycle tracking, sleep scores, body battery (but not the more advanced Training Readiness score) and a pulse oximeter to check your condition oxygen level in the blood.
The Lily 2 is now available at Garmin websitepriced at $249.99 / £249.99 for the Lily 2 and $299.99 / £249.99 for the Lily 2 Classic, with Australian pricing TBD.
HRM-Fit heart rate monitor
Garmin's HRM-Fit is the latest addition to its best heart rate monitor line, said to be “made for women” with a clip-on design tailored for medium and high support sports bras.
Like other Garmin heart rate monitors, it is designed to connect to Garmin smartwatches and Edge cycling computers to transmit accurate real-time training information. The battery is said to offer “up to a year of battery life” and will cost $149.99 / £139.99, with AU prices to be determined.
Garmin Connect
This is exciting. Garmin Connect is making major changes to its app, available to beta users starting today. Garmin vice president of fitness Joe Shrick calls this change “a simplified design” that “provides more relevant insights to each customer to inform and inspire them.”
New categories include Today's Activity, In Pictures, At a Glance, Events, Training Plans and Challenges. It's currently unknown how the layout will differ from the existing list of My Day, Challenges, Calendar, News Feed and More, but the concept of a simpler app sounds interesting – Garmin Connect is often praised for its granularity and statistical depth . While a more streamlined design can help attract new users, it can draw criticism from established users if it takes away too much of that depth.
Fitbit recently had a similar problem, criticizing the new design drawings for getting rid of some outdated community features, and introducing five much-needed fixes shortly after.
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