The Garmin Instinct is a rugged smartwatch for outdoor activities

Garmin just announced a new GPS watch called Instinct, built for endurance when worn during outdoor activities like running or mountain biking.

Instinct comes with a 3-axis compass, barometric altimeter, and multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo). Support for multiple navigation systems allows you to track your user's location. It also uses Garmin's TracBack feature, which sets "digital breadcrumbs" as you go to your starting point.

The instinct also includes calorie burned, sleep, and stress (measured through heart rate variability). There's also a variety of built-in sports apps.

Garmin says the Instinct is built to military standards for thermal, shock, and water resistance (the latter rated to 100 meters). It comes with a fiber reinforced polymer case, a silicon band, and a display the company says is "chemically strengthened". It has a battery mode, up to 16 hours in GPS mode, and up to 40 hours in UltraTrac mode, which periodically turns off GPS to save battery power.

The watch has smart connectivity and when paired with a compatible phone, can receive notifications for texts, emails, and more. It's also compatible with other Garmin devices like the company's VIRB cameras, so you can do things like control at VIRB's start and stop function right from the Instinct.

The Garmin Instinct watch is available in Graphite, Tundra, and Flame Red. It's priced at $ 299.99 and is already available from some online fitness and outdoors vendors.