Coros Adds Vertix Watch For Extreme Adventures

A few years back we told you about Coros Apex connected helmet that we saw at Interbike. It was the company’s first entry into the cycling world and added wireless, bone conduction speakers to the straps of an aero helmet that resembled the original Specialized Evade. Along with some other features, there was also a built-in microphone, which is still one of the best I have used while riding when compared to many different headphones. Since then, the brand has branched out to other helmets, and just about a year ago, their first sports watch. After adding a second model almost 5 months later, Coros just released their new Vertix watch, which builds on an already impressive performance from the Pace and Apex lines.

Watches tend to be more for triathletes and runners, but many cyclists use them with or in place of dedicated cycling computers. Many prefer the simplicity of a single device to use for all of their athletic activities and daily activity tracking, not to mention as a fashion piece. The Vertix checks off all of these boxes and will handle any epic adventure you take it along for.

When Coros decide they wanted to get into the sports watch market, they looked at the top watches on the market, saw what people didn’t like about them, and worked to improve on them. For me, accuracy and battery life can be the biggest challenges. Both the Pace and the Apex, the brand’s current watches, improve in both areas, but again, the Vertix takes things a step further. Seeing a trend here?

To give you some background…

Along with using the top of the line GPS chipsets, Coros has designed the antenna and algorithms to provide better accuracy than many of the top brands on the market.  During the live stream of the Vertix presentation, a map was shown of a trail run that was done with both a Coros and a leading brand watch. The Coros watch followed the trail pretty accurately, while the leading brand watch was all over the place.

When it comes to battery, Coros doesn’t give you “up to” numbers, which are determined using optimal conditions and possibly a reduced number of active sensors. Instead, they give you real-world numbers for full GPS mode that the watches often exceed. The Pace is rated at 25 hours in full GPS mode and 30 days of regular use. The Apex comes in at 35 hours for the 46mm version, and also 30 days of regular use.

Let’s get more into the Vertix. The idea was to take everything a step further for their extreme sports athletes (mountain climbers, ultra runners, alpine skiers, etc.). The battery life needed to be longer, it needed to be more durable, easy to use with other gear, and their athletes wanted some additional biodata. They were able to do all of that, while still keeping it at a paltry 76g with straps, which is lighter than many other watches on the market. It only comes in one size, which is 48.74×48.74×16.75mm.

Starting with the case of the watch, the regular versions are made from titanium, while the Ice Breaker edition is made of a translucent fiber material that is said to be just as strong. Titanium helps keep the weight down, while also making it friendly for those who have skin reactions to steel and improves the accuracy of the GPS antenna. It is waterproof to 15 ATM, or 150 meters, which will be more than enough for most users.

The screen is made from sapphire glass, which is also treated with a diamond-like coating (DLC for short, KMC also does a similar treatment on their top of the line chains). This makes an already extremely scratch resistant material even stronger. They also use the sapphire glass on the back of the watch for the sensors. We’ll talk more about the sensors below, but the 1.2″ color LCD screen has a resolution of 240×240.

The strap is silicone, and can easily be swapped. The bands clip on and off, and will be available in different colors and materials to customize the look of the watch.

Instead of relying solely on buttons, the Vertix uses Coros’ Digital Knob, a.k.a., the crown. With thick gloves on, buttons aren’t the easiest to use, so they increased the size of the Digital Knob by 50% over the Apex, allowing you to scroll through menus and settings, or zooming in and out on navigation tracks with ease. They also added a shockproof layer to protect it from direct hits when dropped from a height of 25 feet. The great thing is, the Vertix can be worn with the Digital Knob facing your wrist, or away, as the screen settings can be changed so it is in the correct orientation for viewing. There are still some buttons, but the majority of controls are handled by the Digital Knob.

Getting into the inside, there are a whole host of sensors to track everything, including something new for Coros. On the GPS side, it will use GPS/GLONASS at the time of launch, and Galileo/Beidou will be added for even more accuracy through a future firmware update. Additionally, the Vertix features a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, and thermometer to help track different aspects of your activities. It is also ANT+ compatible to link to other sensors.

The back side of the watch has a built-in optical heart rate monitor and pulse oximeter. The heart rate monitor is pretty standard these days, but the pulse oximeter is something new for Coros. For mountain climbers, the Vertix has Altitude Mode, which uses the pulse oximeter and heart rate monitor to provide feedback on elevation acclimatization, which tells them when their body is ready to climb to higher elevations. Altitude Mode might not be useful for cyclists, but pulse oximeter info could be interesting to include in your training, along with the heart rate info we have been using for decades.

Battery life is where the Vertix shines. For everyday use, you are looking at 45 days, a 50% increase over their Pace and Apex watches. In full GPS mode, it is rated for 60 hours, or 150 hours in UltraMax mode with GPS tracking. In extreme conditions, (-4f/-20c), there is less than 30% depreciation in battery performance. In even more demanding conditions (-22f/-30c), it has been tested to 21 hours in full GPS mode.

The Vertix will be able to track many different kinds of workouts, including run, bike, swim, hiking, trail running, mountain climbing, indoor cardio, GPS cardio, skiing, ski touring, with more coming in the future. After your workout, it downloads your workout through Bluetooth BLE. Even on epically long adventures, download times are seconds, not minutes. Once on your phone, the companion app provides many different metrics to review your data. I haven’t had a chance to try the app myself, but from the presentation, it looks just as comprehensive as other brands, if not more. While not mentioned, I would assume that there will be notifications from your smartphone as they had with the Pace and Apex.

As you probably have guessed, the Vertix is not going to be cheap. At $599.99 for the standard edition and $699.99 for the Ice Breaker, it is clearly in the upper end of sports watches with performance to match. It’s available in three standard colors of Dark Rock (Black on Black), Fire Dragon (silver bezel with orange band), and Mountain Hunter (bronze with a green strap). Ice Breaker is trimmed in blue with a blue strap. The preorder is open now, with watches expected to ship in early June. If you preorder by 5/31, you’ll get a Coros Value Pack for free.

If you are looking for one of the best watches on the market, the Coros looks like it should be at the top of your list. It already has the longest battery on the market, is extremely accurate, and incredibly durable, and that is before any future software updates to add new features.

http://www.coros.com