Garmin is rumored to be working on a new Timing Gates feature for smartwatches. This report arrived shortly after new walking and swimming workouts were rumored. Plus, Garmin has recently released several new features with the Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 smartwatches, such as Running tolerance, Running economy and Evening Report.
According to a report by the5krunner, a new Garmin Timing Gates feature is in development. It is said to be designed primarily for mountain biking, allowing users to save up to 10 GPS positions. It appears the Timing Gates are treated more like a course than a route. This could be accompanied by 5Hz data recording to make GPS more accurate at higher speeds.
It has been speculated that Timing Gates could also be used for snow sports, water sports or multisports like triathlon. It is worth noting that Garmin smartwatches have had an Autolap by position feature for some time. The recently released Forerunner 970 premium running watch, designed for triathletes, has an Auto Lap by Timing Gates. This feature is said to automatically log a lap when users are following a run, cross mile or kilometer course, triggered by miles or kilometers as determined by GPS.
It is unclear which Garmin smartwatches will be compatible with the Timing Gates feature. As for a release timeframe, it has been suggested that the tool could launch in the next few months. The5krunner credits their trusty source @Johnw for providing the information behind this rumor.