The Making of MARQ Carbon

Boasting 130 layers of carbon fiber, the Garmin MARQ Carbon collection luxury tool watch is now 62% lighter and built for high performance.

Just over four years ago, we introduced the world to our most prestigious, elegant and luxurious set of watches, unveiling the original MARQ® collection. Combining premium design with an authentic feature set, MARQ has been the perfect fit for people looking for a luxury smartwatch that specialises in their passion. We recently revitalised this collection with three distinct timepieces that highlight one of our latest innovations, Fused Carbon Fiber™.

Built from 130 individual layers and machined from a solid block of Fused Carbon Fiber™, the MARQ Carbon collection luxury tool watch (MARQ® Athlete, MARQ® Golfer and MARQ® Commander) also features an AMOLED touchscreen display and a domed sapphire lens with unique features for each watch as well as up to 16 days of battery life.

But it’s the innovative carbon fiber structure that makes them the lightest MARQ timepieces ever created. For many high-performance designs, such as golf clubs, bike frames, tennis racquets and hockey sticks, carbon fiber has become the material of choice. Because it’s 62% lighter than titanium, designers often opt for it over titanium and steel because of its high strength-to-weight ratio as well as its adaptability.

To create the watch’s body, 130 sheets of this carbon fiber are manually rotated into place to maximise strength in certain areas of the watch that need it most. The stack of sheets is then placed in a special press that uses heat and pressure to fuse them together into a solid block of carbon fiber. This process makes the watch’s outer layer extremely tough and resilient to the impact of not only everyday wear but also outdoor elements associated with usage. The watch housing treatment can take up to eight hours to form into its final shape.

Transforming the Fused Carbon Fiber™ block into a finished product is a multistep process that involves precise cutting, shaping and machining. After that, the watch is submerged into an enclosure of beads that perfect the surface and finish.

One of the biggest challenges in working with carbon is that it naturally absorbs wireless energy and can alter or block GPS, BLUETOOTH® or Wi-Fi® signals in some instances. Years of Garmin ingenuity and innovation went into creating an antenna that could work with a carbon fiber watch structure. These antennas are tested relentlessly before and after production, including after placement into the watch.

Each MARQ tool watch goes through several rounds of testing to ensure flawless operation in difficult conditions, such as ocean saltwater, exposed mountain terrain and extreme weather, including rain, wind and snow, as well as bright sunlight.

The differences between the three watches are subtle yet substantial.

The MARQ Athlete is designed for the competitor in all of us, blending cutting-edge training, performance and recovery metrics. In addition to daily activity tracking, users have a multitude of preloaded sports profiles to choose from, as well as animated workouts for cardio, strength, yoga and Pilates.

The MARQ Golfer helps users maximise their time on and off the links. It comes preloaded with profiles of more than 43,000 courses worldwide and provides players with club suggestions based on wind, elevation and their swing data through the Virtual Caddie feature. It also utilises enhanced PlaysLike distance to let golfers know how far each shot is playing with yardage adjusted for playing conditions.

The MARQ Commander is your co-pilot in tactical operations, allowing you to toggle between a regular and stealth mode where your GPS position and wireless communication are neither stored nor shared. If security becomes an issue, the Commander has a kill switch that clears your device of all user memory. It also features a dual-position format that displays two sets of coordinate systems on one screen and Jumpmaster, a preloaded tactical activity and projected waypoints.

Shop the MARQ Carbon collection here.

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