Before you question the odd headline for the new Garmin Tactix Delta, know that Stuff’s publisher and editor-in-chief actually owns camouflage running gear — sprinkled through with bright orange, because you don’t actually want to be run over by a driver who can’t see you. Anyway, Garmin’s newest wearable won’t look out of place on your wrist — especially if you’re fond of the military look.
War is hell, but the clothes are cool
Garmin’s Tactix range has been around for a while and the Delta is the fourth version in the range. The so-called tactical device might not turn you into Rambo but it might make you feel like Stallone in the Expendables era — a little washed-up, maybe, but still badass. Unless you’re actually a soldier, in which case it might be pretty handy.
And that’s because it’s a military-spec device, capable of all sorts of things. There’s a night-vision mode, multi-GNSS support for tracking, and a mode that shows you “…high-altitude release points according to military guidelines and helps to navigate you to your objective once you’ve jumped” for the odd weekend HALO jump. Then there are a couple of all-new items — a Stealth Mode, which stops all GPS tracking and connectivity on the device and a kill switch that wipes its user-created data — perfect for when you’re caught behind enemy lines while on that black-ops mission.
Conventions of war
It’s not all soldier-of-fortune features you’ll probably never use, though. It’ll do all the things you’d expect from a Garmin smartwatch, like showing you around a golf course or adventure race, tracking sporting activities, heart-rate, sleep or exercises, and a raft of things besides. Garmin claims fifteen hours of battery if you’re running the GPS and music at the same time, 21 days if you’re just doing smartwatch things, and 80 days if you’re using the battery saver profile. And that last is probably the one you’ll use while roaming hostile territory — right up until you call for extraction and need to get to the LZ, anyways.
The Garmin Tactix Delta is available now overseas for $900 (R13,100). Since South Africa’s already got the Tactix Bravo and Charlie, we reckon it’ll turn up on out shores soon enough. It may cost a bit more than R13k , though.
