Dedicated fitness trackers appear to be falling out of fashion, according to market analysts, with multi-function watches with wellness at their core rising in popularity.
The trend is led by Apple Watch, but increasingly standardised hardware running the latest Wear OS by Google is driving down the price of feature-rich connected watches.
Casio has just unveiled a £399 Pro Trek Smart series, the WSD-F21HR, designed to keep track of fitness training, mountain climbing and trekking.
Its package of functions brings it into direct competition with Garmin’s 2019 Marq collection, which is rapidly gaining traction with the brand’s athletic customer base.
Along with fitness tracking, including heart rate monitoring, customers want the option of keeping track of their activity without needed to take tethered mobile phones with them.
Casio’s Pro Trek Smart scores on both fronts with built in GPS technology and offline maps allowing people to check their location even if there is no mobile phone coverage.
Running and trail running menus have been added to the Activity app, which displays measurement data in real time and can be overlaid with heart rate information.
It comes with a new heart rate watch face that automatically activates when the watch detects motion.
As with other Pro Trek Smart models, the new WSD-F21HR can use Google App services, the trekking app ViewRanger, the cycling app BIKEMAP, the running app STRAVA, and other outdoor sports apps compatible with Wear OS by Google.
It has a 1.32 inch dual layer display using colour TFT LCD and monochrome LCD to show information and is water resistant to 50 metres so can be worn while swimming.
The battery will last more than a day even in constant use.
