Garmin Vívomove HR

The touch screen hides at the bottom of a simple and sleek watch face.

The face is made of glass and should be covered in a protector to keep it safe.

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By Brian Price

Garmin Vívomove HR Review Facts

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Looking for a fitness watch that can blend into the every day and not sure where to start? The world of fitness watches is growing quickly on the market, but more often than not they look like fitness watches. In other words, if you try wearing it out and acting like it is anything but will give you odd looks and a lot of questions. Garmin, of course, wanted to step up and be one of the first to blend old-school watch with fitness tracker to give you something a little less noticeable that could be worn all day, whether going to the office, a party or the gym, your watch can serve you without drawing constant attention because of bulkiness or obvious digital displays. The Vivomove HR is an old-school watch with a built-in micro smart screen at the bottom. Since it is rounded instead of a square it will not immediately draw attention with its smart fit technology, but there are a few things you will want to consider before deciding it is what you are looking for. So, as we say, on to the qualities that make this watch tick and move with you!

Editor's Pros & Cons

Pros

Looks like a normal everyday watch
Has all the fitness tracking of a normal Garmin
Sleek appearance
24/7 heart tracker
Auto-updates
Can play music tracks
Moves easily once in menu options

Cons

Smart display hard to see in bright light
Uses battery much faster when tracking
Double tap screen to turn on apps may lag

See How

What are buyers saying?

We have spent 4 hours analyzing a total of 245 reviews.

These reviews are then categoried into "Positive" and "Negative" feedback.

Below you will read a summary of them:

Positive

This watch looks really nice. It does a good job of tracking daily activity as it is supposed to. It is really comfortable and light, which is good. I feel like it is a bit overpriced though. You can get better. This is mid level at best.
This is a smart looking watch, I am able to get what i want out of it without looking techy. Goes good with my suits. It keeps time really well. The back-light isn't good for the sun. Also, it doesn't have a long range with the Bluetooth. It does do a lot better than my old Fitbit for sure.
Not a fan of the tiny screen. I didn't need all the smart watch items so this is a good smart watch for the basics. Notification and activity tracking. It also looks really slick.
I am enamored by this thing. It is so classy and discreet. It is way better than the old one. It is made better and is made with better material.
You cannot send anything with this watch but it will keep you updated and notified. It gives you a good layout of daily activity and it doesn't look like a smarty watch. It is sleek and looks really normal and classy. I am a fan of the movement reminder. Makes me mindful of what I am doing.
I am happy that it doesn't look like a computer. I had to go online and earn how to adjust the time since it was an hour behind. Also, the back-light sucks in the sun.
I wasn’t sure at first due to its size. I mean it did everything I wanted it too and looked great other than the size. I am glad I kept it as I have been able to lose some weight with it. It does tell me I am stressed when I am chilling though. I thought that was strange.
My old ne got blasted in a hot tub. I am glad I upgraded because this one looks fancy. The app does a great job of programming everything, which is really a convenient. The screen doesn't work well in bright light and the phone call is a bit hard to answer, its me I am sure of it.
It sucks at counting stairs. I really have to get my arms involved when I do. I am really happy with it and it keeps me moving throughout the day. The sleep tracker works when it wants.
The stress logger is really nice. I like the style. It isn't like others, doesn't looks so gaudy and techie. I smashed it with a protector on it and the protector cracked but not the watch.
I love the mix of analog and smart watch. IT looks really good as everyone keeps stating. It is a great multi sport watch with a nice size and color to it. It really tracks well and goes good with everything I wear.
Great smart watch. It is super basic and looks good. It keeps me moving and motivates me to exercise. It has a cool challenge app you can create with friends. I wish more people used it, it is neat.
I like that it reads my text messages. It tracks a lot more than I was expecting. Keeps my stress levels in check, which I find really neat. It looks nice too.
It doesn't work well with my Pandora. I like this for all it offers. It syncs well and looks super cool.
I love this thing. It is super light and comfortable on the wrist. It is a very subtle design and doesn't flash around like one of those big square arm computers. Perfect for fitness and basic notification.
This thing last a while on a charge and doesn't have any glitches so far. It looks really nice and the customer service reps are great.
II have been using this for a while and it is spot on and tracks so well. It looks really great and I love that I can listen to my music through it. The face is also really easy to read.

Negative

This thing fails really hard in tracking. It is so off and I have tried to calibrate it without any luck. I woke up one day to the sleeper saying that in the middle of the night I had made breakfast and other activities. It was ridiculous. Only thing is its looks. Also, the range is not far at all, pocket range.
I got an outdated watch and I had to go through hell to get it upgraded and then it was super glitchy and kept disconnecting. I mean it is silly for the price. All I have been able to do is track my steps and that is questionable.
After a couple months of wear, the whole watch is off, even the time. It gives me stress issues in my sleep and calculates the time and activities wrong I am so disappointed. I feel like I got robbed.
It will not connect with my phone no matter what I do. The watch is poorly made and the strap will not stay on securely. I would never buy this again. I wish I could return it. I tried to give it a chance.
Nothing on this thing stays accurate. One part will work for a bit then another will and that one will go haywire. It is so annoying. Also it has started to lose time. I am 10 minutes behind now.
There is no solid calibration with this. It will be on time then a week later I'm 30 minutes in the past. I a confused. It seems to be an issue. When the time starts to go bad so does the tracking. For what it is worth, the time should at least stay on. I hate I have to correct it every other day. Not worth it I do not recommend it to anyone.
Garmin needs to check up on quality control. Just like others have said, around 2 months nothing is working properly. The time hands keep going off. Such a waste of technology and money.
It looked great. Unfortunately, I could not get it to sync or track or even tell the time right. I am so underwhelmed. It is going back!
This thing lacks in so many ways. It is super basic basic and it doesn't even function properly with the little it offers. I have to keep manually adjusting the time every 4 or 5 days. It is dumb.
The time is lagging a lot now. I wasn't able to track my sleep properly. Sometimes it just resets at night. I traded it for a new one and this one just stopped working on the screen. I am done with this watch.
This thing cannot handle any sweat. Once you perspire it gives up. If you are using your arms it won’t track properly. It definitely won't keep up with an accurate heart rate. So, what is it good for? Not the time, it always goes off.
It has so much space on the face but you cannot rad what’s on it. Go figure! These are as basic as a Fitbit. I wanted more and I am so disappointed.

6.5

Activities

This particular design has all the usual activities you can find in your normal Garmin fitness tracking watch. It can track your heart rate, distance, calorie intake, and even control your music track list. The design is sleek, but there is at least one drawback- the double tap to get into the apps. While it can do everything, the watch seems to have a lag in the touch screen when trying to activate the menu to turn on. This has not been enough to get many to turn away though since the rest of the activities are exactly as one would expect in a much higher priced Garmin fitness tracker.

Basic Features

The basic design for this watch was built around being able to wear it comfortably for day to day activities. Many people do not enjoy the way a digital fitness tracker looks. They are often bulky and are obviously more than just a timepiece. For those looking to track on a sometimes basis and have a watch the majority of the time this particular one is perfect. It has the look and feel of an old-school gear watch, with the rounded sleek face, while keeping a nigh hidden micro smart screen for all its extra features at the bottom. So, you can look and feel good at the same time!

Advanced Features

The Vivomove HR has all the advanced features of a smartwatch without being overwhelmingly ‘smart’ in appearance. What this means is its smart screen is given a double tap (which can be admittingly hard to get used to) and it opens to its LED menu where you can then slide through to whichever app you want to use. It boasts of a heart monitor, a calorie tracker, tracks your distance, cadence, can control your music tracks wirelessly, and even has a way to set up your schedule so you get reminders throughout your day of things you wanted to get done.

Connectivity

This watches connectivity to online apps and phone messages are phenomenal. So far no one who has gotten this model for its simple design has been disappointed with its ability to stay connected when you need it to. The downside to the way it was made however is in the fact that staying connected means you drain the battery a great deal faster while connected then while you just leave it to the base watch. So, if what you need is a basic watch that can connect when you want, but do not intend to use it constantly for that particular feature, this is perfect and will not fail you.

Apps

This watch may look basic and may only be able to handle a short amount of text at a time, but it is not lacking in the apps needed to both stay connected and to watch your fitness levels. Garmin continues to break borders by designing a simple look that still runs everything you need perfectly. Keep up with your phones text messages, alerts, music and even have Whatsapp running to keep yourself on the go- all with just your watch. This one will not drag eyes, but then that is exactly why it was designed the way it was- for people who want to have the option to just go about their day and not have to constantly feel as if their watch will draw every set of eyes around them.

Comfort

With the old-school feeling of your basic watch, comfort comes in many different definitions. If it is the comfort of a watch that will not feel like a mini computer on your arm, and will not look like one either, then this is definitely going to give you what you are seeking. It is thinner and smaller than most fitness watches since the goal was to not stand out. This was built for the comfort of those who do want to track things but not religiously so. If your comfort comes from standing out and looking expensive, then you may want to move on. This watch definitely will not draw eyes unless you want it to, but also will not leave you feeling like you have a mini-weight attached to your arm either.

Style

This is another quality that is truly touched on by what you want. Instead of going for a posh or overly techy look, the design was to give it more of a casual and almost looked-over appearance. For those of us who are not looking to wow with a watch, this is exactly the style we want. It puts everything a fitness watch would give at our fingertips but lets us just as easily avoid eyes on our wrists. This is a ‘blend in’ watch, so if you dislike looking like you belong on the front cover of a fashion magazine, the Vivomove HR has you completely covered. At the same time, it will not draw eyes for looking hideous either, so the style is in the area of ‘just a nice watch’ which is perfect for us. With quite a few color combinations, it even gives us a way to match our favorite outfits seamlessly!

Durability

This is not a quality that is covered greatly in the descriptions and even with a bit of research, we did not find much mention of the physical aspect of it either way. The closest we came was commenting on the fact that since the face is made of glass and nothing really all that special, it can get scratched up over time through the use of the touchscreen. With that in mind, finding a good screen cover that does not prevent the touch face from sensing you might be good planning. This watch is water resistant up to 50 meters, so it can handle getting wet, and works well for swimmers. Once again, we just did not find mention of anything else on this topic, so we can’t say exactly how much it can take of falls and the like- though considering it is a glass top we would not suggest rock climbing, and it likely can’t take a lot of pressure or drops.

Face

This is partially covered in the quality description of durability, but we can go over it a little deeper here. The face is a simple piece of glass, so it is not really anything particularly fancy. What lies beneath looks like a normal gear watch with a pretty basic but sleek design and at the bottom an LED touch screen for scrolling the apps and checking your trackers. Unfortunately, because the faceplate is glass, it can get scratched up with a lot of use. As suggested above, we would advise looking into a touch screen cover to help protect your face against unintentional wear and tear.

Band

The bands come in three different material types for best fit, comfort, and style. You can either get it in silicone, leather or suede depending on what you are looking for. The band also comes in five colors to go with the different combinations of the watch itself. The colors are black, white, grey, brown or gold. Again, though, like the watch itself, it does not make the watch flashy, just at that moderate level of appearance where you can wear it comfortably and not draw either bad or overtly extreme attention/excitement to yourself.

Ease of Use

Overall this watch is very simple to understand and use. As a watch, it is a constant. It is not digital in the actual timepiece part of it. So, there is no having to set it up to tell you the time or find the perfect appearance like many fitness watches tends to have. Instead, you set it like you would a traditional watch, and the digital aspects are completely separate. The only difficult part about the digital aspects of this watch is in learning exactly how and where to tap the face to trigger the menu. Once it is up everyone agrees that the menus are smooth and easily read so long as you aren’t in bright lights.

Battery

The battery has a typical lifespan, except if you choose to use it consistently as a tracker. When using the digital side of this watch, the battery drains a lot faster and requires a recharge every 3 to 4 days. The way this watch recharges, however, has a unique take. Instead of setting it on some sort of recharge station, or plugging it in via USB, it uses a charger that has two clamps that attach on the back of the watch. Charging it doesn’t take long, and for the lifespan, it does outdo several competitors. For a fitness watch, in all truth, it is a great fit for those who are looking more for an occasional tracker over being in tracking mode all the time because of the drain on the battery. But even for a fitness guru though, a 3-4 day charge may still be more than enough to want to switch to the Vivomove just because it does appear to last longer than its challengers without needing to get overly fancy about it- and it will not be falling off its charger either.

Price

This is what draws the most attention. Most fitness watches can cost upwards of three to four hundred dollars. The Vivomove is under two hundred in most cases. You can even find a lot of great deals on it when searching online for it, and it is definitely worth just as much as the other trackers in its genre. Well worth every penny when you consider that between its features and its effectiveness, it can be ranked up there with the fancier models without looking or costing it.

Accessories

There really are not a lot of accessories for this particular watch directly. It can work somewhat with your phone but is not even designed to respond to your texts- just receive them. If you were hoping for a watch that works to answer calls or texts, or that has a lot of extra accessories, this is not the one. Then again, from the beginning, we stated this was built to be a fitness watch that gets back to the basics, so the lack of extra accessories is not all that surprising. Simple and effective- that is what this watch is all about.

Key Features

-Smart text apps track fitness
-Changes music tracks via apps
-Not flashy
-Great price
-Good battery life
-Simple design and appearance

Bottom Line

If you are looking for flash and to inspire shock and awe, this into the watch you are looking for, but if you like being a ninja with your fitness it is perfect! Everything you need to keep track of your health is here, and yet it blends in with other watches that are not anything but a watch. You can enjoy switching between ‘just a watch’ and ‘a watch to track my day’ easily and comfortable. It is simple to charge, and it keeps going long after a lot of the rest of its competition needs a recharge and it does not cost you your life savings either. For those with simple tastes who want to stay fit, this is the buy of the year!