Garmin’s Marq collection has always represented luxury style in smartwatches, packing an exceptional build quality and the absolute latest health and fitness tracking from the brand, in exchange for a four-figure sum. The Garmin Marq athlete even made the cut on our list of the best Garmin watches ever.
Now, it is pushing the Marq line even further into luxury territory with the release of its Carbon collection. Available in three distinct editions - Athlete, Golfer and Commander - the line-up shares an ultra-bright touchscreen AMOLED, dome sapphire lens and a unique bezel. According to Garmin, each 46mm watch case and bezel is crafted from 130 layers of Fused Carbon Fiber. It is unique in so much that the manufacturing process painstakingly requires every single layer of carbon to be rotated to a unique angle to increase the strength of the initial block.
These bezels then undergo a combination of heat and pressure to align with the shape of their watch's housing. It takes several hours of machining, followed by precision diamond cutting to create the final spiral design pattern that is both rugged and lightweight. For all this, Garmin Marq Carbon watches are available now, starting at $2,950 in the US, £2,599 in the UK and AU$4,999 in Australia.
Garmin calls each special edition a “tool watch”, designed to perform different tasks. The Athlete Carbon Edition, for example, just like the standard Garmin Marq Athlete (Gen 2), is a training tool that comes pre-loaded with hundreds of sports and activity profiles, everything the latest Fenix 7 and second Gen Epix does in terms of athletic tracking.
Sleep quality, training recovery, and PacePro, which allows runners to prepare for a specific race, are all part and parcel of the ecosystem.
Marq Golfer Carbon Edition comes preloaded with more than 43,000 courses from around the world and borrows elements and features from Garmin’s best golf watches. These include the Virtual Caddie, which provides players with a club recommendation based on wind, elevation and their swing data. An active Garmin Golf app membership then opens up access to Green Contour data from the wrist, as well as detailed course maps that show things like trees and cart paths, so golfers don’t get lost.
Finally, Marq Commander Carbon Edition takes features from Garmin’s high-end Tactical watches, such as display views designed for use with night vision goggles, as well as a Stealth Mode that keeps the watch operational but stops storing and sharing the user’s GPS position and disables wireless connectivity and communication. There’s even a kill switch that completely wipes the device of all data should the wearer get captured.
All of the watches come with premium bracelets and straps, made from perforated FKM leather, jacquard-weave nylon, or silicone, depending on the model. Battery life is pegged at 16 days for all three, with a full charge taking just one hour.
All the usual handy lifestyle features such as smartphone notifications, Garmin Pay, onboard music storage and automatic incident detection and assistance are here, along with the full gamut of Garmin fitness, health, and wellness tracking functionality such as the Morning Report.
We should think so, too – considering the price, these watches should have nothing less than all of Garmin's best features.
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