Salvador Alcover (Garmin): “The premium concept is based on product quality and data accuracy”

Garmin launched the new fenix 9 and fenix 9 Pro series at the end of August in which it debuted the new Garmin Epic experience, improved stamina metrics and several new hardware features, such as the titanium case in the Pro model.

Within the framework of the Garmin Epic Week experience in Mallorca, the general director of Garmin Iberia, Salvador Alcover, has outlined the keys to the new fenix 9 series – now available in Spain -, has reviewed the brand’s technological innovations, as well as the corporate philosophy before Artificial Intelligence (AI) and some economic results.

“We have been working on the premium concept for many years and it is based on two things: the quality of the product and the precision of the data,” says Alcover in an interview with Europa Press. These are the two pillars that the manager highlights when asked why he would tell the user that he has not tried a Garmin watch before, to which he adds that the design, performance or monitoring come behind. Of course, remember that there is a range for each user: “When someone starts driving, you don’t give them a Ferrari.and if you want a Ferrari you don’t sell a Kia.”

The quality of Garmin’s product is highlighted in some of the new features of the fenix 9 and fenix 9 Pro sports watches, not only because they include a brighter screen, more RAM or a better chip, but because the fenix 9 Pro model includes a material that Garmin has reserved for the most exclusive versions and the highest price in the range: the titanium case.

“Before we had versions with other types of components, and the premium version was the one with titanium and sapphire crystal,” explains the manager, who points out that the volume of watches they manufacture means that the price of raw materials adjusts according to demand. “Now manufacturing the titanium watch does not cost what it did seven or eight years ago. Sapphire crystals do not cost the same as before,” says the manager, which has allowed Garmin to make them more resistant and better and “the price does not skyrocket.”

Likewise, the fenix 9 and fenix 9 Pro have a new design that preserves the characteristic visual identity of the fenix series, since “it always maintains that aura of fenix design so that it is easily identifiable,” emphasizes the general director of Garmin Iberia regarding the renewal of a series whose aesthetics were consolidated with the fenix 5 and fenix 6, and that this time it integrates larger screens and advanced technologies.

Garmin’s new sports watches include three sizes (43mm, 47mm and 51mm). The 43 mm one is aimed directly at the majority of women who consume this type of wearables, although, as Alcover clarifies about the variety of choices they have with the series this year, “there are many men with very narrow wrists who choose the small one.”

THE GARMIN SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE

Likewise, the renewal of the series incorporates hardware improvements that translate into the new map enginewhich speeds up movement by up to 30 percent, the new perspective view and the 64 GB of storage, which offer the option of doubling the capacity of maps that can be carried on the routes.

“Before, when zooming, there were cuts in the vision from one scale to the next. Now we are almost in a continuous scale change, without cuts, and that helps a lot,” details Alcover in reference to one of the experiences for which Garmin has always been noted, and which has now been improved.

Along these lines, the new watches incorporate new ‘stamina’ functions (evolution of resistance), improvements for ‘rucking’ – walking carrying a weighted backpack on your back -, ‘coaching’ functions or Garmin Epic, which allows you to record several days of activities with health and performance statistics, as a kind of story to which you can even upload up to ten photos to illustrate the weekend spent in the mountains.

“It is a very good feature in terms of software, that is, being able to bring together different activities so that you know what the evolution has been, your data and the monitoring that the watch has carried out. Before you had to separate whether you did swimming, cycling or hiking on the same day,” explains Alcover.

The manager also focuses on the flashlight for its practical usefulness. According to him, Garmin was the first brand to introduce this element in watches, “not because it is a whim, but because it is very useful.” “If you go out for a run in low light, you can program it so that, depending on the movement of your arm, it emits white or red light and warns whoever is behind you that there is someone running,” explains the manager.

FROM GPS NAVIGATION TO INREACH

Garmin was born as a manufacturer of GPS navigation equipment and their watches have always navigated autonomously. The inReach satellite connectivity, present for the first time in the 43mm, 47mm and 51mm versions of the Fenix ​​9 Pro – and not only in the two largest as in the previous generation – allows the user to make two-way messaging, LiveTrack notifications and use Garmin Locate, which allows authorized contacts to see the location with the Garmin Messenger ‘app’.

“In nautical there are radio beacons: the boat sinks, it sends a signal, but there is no two-way communication. In inReach you send a distress message, they ask you what type of emergency it is, you answer and they inform you how the rescue team is doing,” Alcover points out, to remember that whoever answers the distress call is a Garmin company.

“This company of ours contacts the emergency services of each country and communicates the emergency. It’s not just that they rescue you, but the peace of mind of knowing that there is a team behind“Adds Alcover, to drop another detail: “InReach provides your exact position, so whoever comes looking for you knows how to get to your point as quickly as possible.”

This care for the experience, currently the focus of Garmin, is transferred to the AI ​​available in its watches through the Connect+ subscription and to which the American company presents a position based on privacy and prudence.

“We have our artificial intelligence, but inside the house: it is called Active Intelligence. With it we use the data to offer the customer more information, so that they improve their performance, enjoy their activity more and have more precise data,” says Alcover, and then makes clear Garmin’s position regarding third-party AI.

“What we are not going to do is take that data and use an external AI so that someone outside the company can draw conclusions. We take great care of the information and we do not want it to be manipulated by something that Garmin does not control,” says Alcover.

LOCAL SALES

Garmin boasts local sales that are advancing very favorably in line with the company’s global trend, and the Iberia division (Spain, Portugal and Andorra) is among the top five regions in the EMEA block (Europe, the Middle East and Africa).

“In Spain we are doing very well in sales. Local sales are evolving very well, in line with what is happening in the United States. This year we have broken records in the first two quarters,” says the general director of Garmin Iberia, to contrast that, being number one in Spain in nautical, “Spain’s global weight is very small because there are 270,000 boats here, while in the United States there are 17 million.”

Finally, Alcover highlights some of the categories with the greatest sales momentum: ‘outdoor’, ‘running’ and the ‘wellness’ range (active life/daily use), and shares the commitment to allocate 15% annually to R&D with a workforce that currently exceeds 25,000 workers.