New GPS Smartwatches Coming in 2017

This year’s CES saw some tasty new GPS smartwatches being unveiled. Here’s what’s coming in 2017

Garmin Fenix 5 Watches

The Garmin Fenix 5S is the smallest of the bunch with a 42mm case designed to live on the wrist of ladies. The Fenix 5 is the middleweight, with a case size of 47mm. The Garmin Fenix 5X is the troop mammoth, with a case size of 51mm.

The new Fenix watches offer a sharper more vibrant display than their predecessor, the Fenix 3 HR. They offer GPS tracking, built-in heart rate monitor with resting heart rate, music control, smart notifications, and more activity and sports tracking features than one of Scooby Doo’s hotdogs. The Garmin Fenix 5 crew are water-resistant up to 100 meters – with swim tracking.

The Fenix 5 watches will be available in the first quarter of 2017 ranging from $599 – $849 USD.

Casio WSD-F20

Casio, the pioneer of digital watches will soon be releasing the WSD-F20 GPS smartwatch. It’s not too different in terms of design to its predecessor, the WSD-10, and although slightly slimmer, it’s still a friggin hulk with a case size of 56.4mm.

The significant addition to the Casio WSD-F20 is the built-in GPS. The watch runs Android Wear which means tons of apps, it offers full-color maps, a dual-mode touchscreen display, and is water-resistant up to 50 meters; although if you wear it swimming you might find the metal mammoth makes you sink to the bottom.

The Casio WSD-F20 will be available in April 2017 with a price tag of $500 USD.

Misfit Vapour

After releasing their first hybrid watch a few months ago, Fossil-owned Misfit used CES 2017 as a stage to announce their first full-blown smartwatch, the Misfit Vapour.

The Vapour runs Misfit’s own OS. It has a 44mm case, AMOLED touchscreen, optical heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking, virtual bezel for quick navigation, standalone Wireless Music Player, 4GB of storage (2GB for music), Wi-Fi, built-in microphone, 50 meters water resistance, and more activity tracking features than Hasselhoff’s hairspray cabinet.

Basically, it doesn’t come up short, especially with the standalone music player which can be hooked up wirelessly with some Bluetooth headphones.

The Misfit Vapour has an attractive price tag of $199 USD, and will be released sometime later in 2017. Can’t be any more specific, just yet.

New Balance announced the RunIQ

Almost two million years after it was first announced (exaggeration) the avant-garde sportswear firm, New Balance have finally shed light on their Android Wear smartwatch. It’s called the New Balance RunIQ.

The GPS-enabled smartwatch is optimized for runners. It offers an AMOLED touchscreen with one of the highest resolutions of all the Android Wear bunch. It features a built-in heart rate monitor, apps galore with Android Wear, and the company has partnered with hearables makers Jabra who are releasing a pair of sports headphones called PaceIQ designed to work with the RunIQ smartwatch. The RunIQ is water-resistant up to 50 meters, so it should survive a Bushido endurance session under your local waterfall.

The New Balance RunIQ is available to pre-order now with a price tag of $299.99. Shipping begins at the start of February 2017.

Apple Watch Series 3

Some tasty rumors have been floating around regarding the release of the Apple Watch Series 3. The Series 2 was only released back in September 2016, and now we’re already talking about number 3! That might even further p*ss off a few of those folks who forked out $18k + for the original Apple Watch Edition.

The Apple Watch Series 2 was equipped with a second-gen AMOLED touchscreen display with Force Touch and twice the brightness of the original, plus a built-in GPS and water-resistance; both missing from the first Watch.

Rumors suggest that the Apple Watch Series 3 will sport a thinner design, a new Micro-LED display, 8GB of storage, cellular calls, and a FaceTime camera. There’s even a chance it might be circular.

Speculators are reckoning on a September 2017 release date. How much it will cost is anybody’s guess, right now.