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Garmin Unveils GPS Smart Watch for Pilots

D2 includes WAAS GPS and much more.

Suddenly “smart watches” are cool — so you knew it was only a matter of time before somebody introduced a cool and smart pilot watch.

Think of Garmin’s new D2 watch as a powerful aviation GPS receiver that you wear on your wrist. Stylish and lightweight, it incorporates direct-to and nearest navigation functions, as well as a built-in altimeter with adjustable baro setting, altitude alerting capability, and the ability to integrate with the Garmin Pilot app, Garmin’s VIRB HD camera and more.

Priced at $449, the D2 incorporates a WAAS GPS receiver and a worldwide aviation database, allowing pilots to press and hold dedicated buttons for accessing direct-to, nearest functions, as well as to create fly-over waypoints of their current locations.

Wearers can also load flight plans and create waypoints, similar to the capability found in Garmin’s portable GPS units. Other features include the option to assign customized data fields to display GPS ground speed, GPS track, distance, estimated time enroute, bearing, glide ratio and more. The D2 features altitude alerting which notifies pilots when they reach or leave a preselected altitude, helping to ensure the desired altitude is maintained in-flight.

In addition to a high-precision GPS receiver, the D2 also incorporates a highly sensitive altimeter with adjustable barometric setting, compass with an HSI, and moving map page. And of course it’s also a watch, with the ability to display local and Zulu time, and options to set up vibrating alerts to remind pilots of critical operations such as when to switch fuel tanks in flight.

The D2 will also remotely control Garmin’s VIRB HD camera. When connected to the VIRB through its Bluetooth link, the D2 has the ability to remotely start and stop video, view elapsed time for active video recording, as well as capture high quality still photos while video recording is active.

Garmin says the D2 goes on sale next month.

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