With such limited real estate inside of the case, smartwatch manufacturers have to find clever ways of shoehorning ultra-compact components into a watch’s construction, and with all the necessary tech and hardware needed, there’s typically minimal space left to house a battery. And while traditionally this has meant smartwatches that have had to sacrifice on battery life performance, Garmin is seeking to rectify this shortcoming via the implementation of solar-charging tech into the brand’s Instinct, Fenix, and Tactix series model.
On top of adding the new solar tech to these existing watches, Garmin is also introducing two new activity-specific models of the instinct with the Tactical and Surf Edition variants. Gaining additional supplementary features like Pulse Ox2 sensors, the new solar charging allows for an additional 36 hours of battery life per charge on the Fenix models (based on three hours of exposed sunlight), while the Instinct Solar can operate indefinitely (on battery saver mode) with adequate sunlight, or offers 24 hours of use sans solar-intervention. All models are available now, with pricing set at $400 for Instinct Solar, $850 for Fenix 6 Series – Solar Editions, and $1,100 for the Tactix Delta – Solar Edition.
