Garmin Quatix 7 series introduced with features aimed at mariners

Garmin has unveiled the Quatix 7 series, marine GPS smartwatches that feature always-on touchscreen displays and the company's 'marine electronics'. Styled as the quatix 7, the series consists of the regular Quatix 7, along with the Quatix 7 Sapphire and the Quatix 7X Solar. While the trio contain many similarities, only the Quatix 7 Sapphire has an AMOLED display. In comparison, the Quatix 7 and Quatix 7 Solar rely on Garmin's trusted transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display type instead.

Also, the Quatix 7 Solar is the largest of the three smartwatches with a 51 mm case size and 26 mm watch bands. By contrast, both the Quatix 7 and Quatix 7 Sapphire have 47 mm case sizes, along with 22 mm watch bands. Other differences exist between the three smartwatches too, but all have the following features:

• Anchor drag alarm for sending alerts to the watch when the anchor is dragging
• Integrated tide data and alerts, which are viewable on a dedicated watch face
• MFD control for accessing backlight adjustment, chart zoom, and layout shortcuts
• Multi-band GPS: Sapphire and Solar models have more accurate positioning than the regular Quatix 7
• Multi continent Topo Maps provide detailed contour mapping that can be updated over Wi-Fi

At launch, Garmin charges US$699.99 for the Quatix 7, which rises to US$999.99 for the Sapphire Edition and US$1,199.99 for the Solar Edition. Currently, Garmin estimates that the Quatix 7 series will be orderable within 3-5 weeks. For reference, each model only comes in one colour, unlike recent Garmin smartwatch releases.

Purchase the Garmin Quatix 6 on Amazon