Sports tech company Amazfit has launched a premium GPS watch, the Amazfit Falcon. The Falcon comes hot on the heels of Garmin's new premium Marq watches, and uses many of the same materials.
The Falcon has a titanium unibody design, which is unusual, as even high-end GPS watches often have a resin case and only use titanium for the bezel. Its high-res AMOLED display is topped with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal lens.
The watch is rated water-resistant to 20AMT (compared to 5-10ATM for most GPS watches) making it suitable for swimming, scuba diving, and high-impact watersports.
It includes dual-band GPS for more accurate location tracking, and there's internal storage for music (which you can listen to via a pair of Bluetooth running headphones). You can also connect the Falcon to external sensors such as chest strap heart rate monitors and cycling power.
Amazfit's GPS watches (including the T-Rex 2 adventure watch I tested earlier this year) usually deliver far more than you'd expect for the price. When I asked an Amazfit spokesperson about this last year, they explained that the company builds most of its components in-house rather than buying them from suppliers, which allows it to to make savings that it can then pass on to customers.
Although the Falcon certainly isn't cheap, it costs much less than most similarly specced watches, and is available now direct from Amazfit for $499.99. For context, that's half the price of the Garmin Epix (Gen 2).
Smart coaching
Like other Amazfit watches, the Falcon runs Zepp OS (which takes its name from Amazfit's parent company). However, there's a new feature that might tempt Garmin users: an adaptive coaching tool called Zepp Coach, which offers workout guidance based on your physical characteristics and fitness. Much like Garmin's suggested workouts feature, it will also adapt its recommendations if you have bee overtraining, reducing intensity or suggesting a rest day.
We're hoping to test the Amazfit Falcon soon to see how it compares to other devices from the likes of Garmin and Coros, and even the Apple Watch Ultra.
- The best Garmin watches: find your next training partner
