The health and fitness wearable maker Garmin unveiled its latest smartwatch Wednesday, called Lily, which the company is pitching as a product “designed by women, for women.”
Lily is Garmin’s smallest watch yet, with a 34mm watch face and 14mm band meant to “enhance the overall feminine aesthetic,” Garmin said in the announcement.
Despite its smaller frame, the watch contains the same health and wellness features found in Garmin’s other models.
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It monitors respiration, stress, hydration, sleep, activity and heart rate, and can be configured to alert the user if metrics fall above or below baseline levels. The watch also contains a Body Battery that keeps track of user energy levels to help with scheduling workouts, rest times and sleep.
As a “smartwatch for women,” Lily also has health metric tools like menstrual cycle tracking and pregnancy tracking.
Beyond the health and fitness components, the new smartwatch can be paired with a compatible smartphone to receive on-wrist notifications. It also comes with LiveTrack, which allows users to share their location and activity with their contacts in case of an emergency.
Consumers can choose between two versions of the new watch, the Classic or Sport, which are priced at $249.99 and $199.99, respectively.
As with other Garmin smartwatches, Lily can be used with the Garmin Connect app to view and share health data.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Garmin has been adapting its product line for a female consumer base for the past few years.
In 2019, it added menstrual tracking features to its line, which allow users to record their cycle type, symptoms and notes about their personal health. Further, this service begins to predict when their next period will occur or outline windows of increased fertility. In addition, the app surfaces fitness and nutrition educational content that is tailored to the user’s current phase of their cycle.
Then last year, Garmin released a pregnancy app for expecting parents. It lets users track their pregnancy timeline, get updates on their baby’s size and movements, log their symptoms and mood, receive educational material on pregnancy health, and update their training routine with tips for pregnancy-related bodily changes.
THE LARGER TREND
Historically, it’s fairly common for companies to take the “pink it and shrink it” method of adapting a product to target a female market, according to Psychology and Marketing. The research found that products with a slim proportion, round shape, curvy lines and lighter color tones tend to be viewed as a female product.
Back in 2012, the pen-maker Bic infamously released a retractable ball pen named “For Her” that boasted features such as a “sleek pen silhouette” and “jeweled accents.” It was met with a slew of snarky Amazon reviews of women sarcastically rejoicing that a pen was designed just for them.
This marketing strategy differs from that of femtech companies that develop technology specifically for women’s health needs.
For example, Ava has a smart bracelet that can track menstrual cycles and tell users when their fertility window is. Bellabeat, the maker of the Leaf activity tracker, now has a smartwatch that tracks sleep, activity, stress and hormonal cycles.
Besides its female-centric launches, Garmin recently released the Forerunner 745 smartwatch for athletes, as well as a scale that can sync to the Garmin Connect app.
ON THE RECORD
“Lily is truly a first-of-its-kind smartwatch: feminine, sophisticated and rooted in fashion with important health and fitness features,” said Susan Lyman, the vice president of global consumer marketing at Garmin, in a statement. “Garmin remains committed to creating products that fit the needs of our female customer and in this case, it’s a small, on-trend smartwatch with features designed for today’s active woman.”