Crossbeats Armour Dive review: Rugged smartwatch with basic fitness tracking

Neat design, military-standard construction, and swim-proof body

We like the design and build of the Crossbeats Armour Dive more than the Fire-Boltt Sphere. Though this feels equally sturdy, there is more finesse in the aesthetics. It feels relatively less bulky too. The two words in the name are there for a reason. Armour because of the rugged build that is also military standard 810H certified and Dive because the watch is 3ATM (30m) water resistant, so you can dive in the pool wearing it. The aluminum alloy metallic gray frame makes it look classy, and it goes well with a black as well as a military green strap, both of which were present in the package. You get a few more color options for this watch to choose from, and bundling an extra strap is always a good idea. The locking mechanism is pretty standard and you can replace the strap on your own quite easily. The Crossbeats Armour Dive weighs about 66.5 grams, which is on the heavier side, but it doesn't feel that heavy once you wear it. Though this watch is meant for those with beefier arms, it doesn't look bad on leaner wrists either. The watch has a circular display that is protected against scratches by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass. There wasn't a single scratch on the screen after weeks of use. The bundled silicone straps feel comfortable around the wrist and do not cause skin irritation even after prolonged use. I wish they were just a tad softer though. It is not too comfortable to wear overnight, and anyway, the sleep tracking is elementary here to bother wearing it to bed. The SpO2 and heart rate sensors can be found at the back, along with the charging points.

High-res AMOLED display, solitary watch-face slot, simple user interface

The Crossbeats Armour Dive has a decent-sized 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466x466 pixels. The screen is quite sharp and the color reproduction is pretty good. The maximum brightness is rated at 1,000-nits and you get five levels of brightness, of which three is good enough indoors. One needs to push it higher outdoors if it's sunny. Though there is no mention of an oleophobic coating on the screen, smudge marks were barely visible on it. You get a decent collection of watch-faces that can be downloaded and transferred from the companion app, but there's a catch. You get five slots on the watch of which you can have just one for the face of your choice; the other four watch-faces cannot be removed or replaced. Also, each watch-face takes well over a minute to transfer from the app to the watch, which is quite slow. You can either press a physical button or flick your wrist to wake up the watch screen; both work well. There are two physical buttons along the right edge of the watch. The lower button can be used to turn the screen on and off or as a 'Home' button from any screen. The top physical button brings up the menu when pressed, and can also be used to pause or end a workout. The user interface is simple and lag-free. One can swipe down on the screen for settings, swipe up to check notifications, swipe right for the apps drawer and swipe left to cycle through widgets like daily activity, heart rate, sleep data, weather etc. Within a menu, swiping right takes you to the previous screen. The watch offers you three styles for the apps drawer from a simple vertical list to a circular presentation.

Distance tracking is accurate but overall fitness tracking is basic

To begin with, you need to install the FitCloudPro app and sync the watch with it. The app is basic with limited data analysis. While it isn't too complex, it isn't the most intuitive either, and you will need to be patient to find certain options like fitness reports or the watch-face collection, which is called Dial Library here. In fact, I still haven't managed to figure out how to find my activity data details for earlier days; workout data for certain days seems missing too. The app lets you add personal info and goals and shows you daily activity progress, weekly and monthly overview, heart rate chart, sleep data and SpO2 level. Basic sleep monitoring works well when it comes to the duration of sleep. The watch tracks the quantum of deep sleep, light sleep and awake time; there is no REM sleep information available here. The breakup of deep and light sleep for the previous night is available on the watch itself. The app messes up the calculations for average weekly or monthly sleep if you do not measure it daily. Rather than dividing it by the number of days it was tracked in a week, it divides the total sleep figures by seven and reports absurdly low figures and an even lower monthly average by the same logic or the lack of it. Another thing we noticed is that the heart rate figures are consistently lower than the actual, something a firmware update may be able to fix. The Crossbeats Armour Dive can monitor various fitness activities ranging from walking, running, cycling, free training and swimming. But tracking and analysis of workouts is very basic, which is pretty much the case with most fitness watches in this price bracket. The pedometer and distance tracking is surprisingly accurate though for a budget fitness watch without GPS with a perfectly acceptable margin of error of about 5%.

Bluetooth calling, blood pressure and SpO2 sensors, impressive battery backup

The watch can also measure your blood pressure, but it is best to use a clinical instrument for that. The same goes for an oximeter, however, the SpO2 sensor here does a good job and returns a reading in well under 30 seconds. The reading is often a point lower than an over-the-counter oximeter, which is fine as it is meant to be indicative. Beyond fitness, you get the usual set of features like music controls, weather, notifications, camera shutter etc. The messages are perfectly legible on the watch's large display, but you cannot reply back. Like most watches in this segment, the Crossbeats Armour Dive also supports Bluetooth calling functionality. You can make and receive calls directly from this watch. It has a built-in mic and speaker, and they just about get the job done. The watch needs to be closer to your mouth for the other person to hear you clearly, and it also needs to be synced with your phone to route the call. The battery backup of the Armour Dive is quite impressive courtesy of its 400mAh battery. The company quotes an estimate of 15 days under typical use. It is not far from reality, as it managed to last close to two weeks with no calling and standard load comprising screen brightness level of three, notifications limited to SMS and email, eight hours of cumulative fitness activity, two oximeter readings per day, and three nights of sleep tracking during that period. With half an hour of daily calling, the battery backup drops to a week.

A rugged and fairly stylish watch for basic fitness tracking

The Crossbeats Armour Dive is priced at Rs. 3,999 with a one-year warranty and can often be spotted for Rs. 500 lower. The price is pretty neat for a good-looking watch with military-grade ruggedness, a large round AMOLED display and Bluetooth calling. Add to that solid battery backup and a swim-proof body. It is one of the few budget watches without GPS to get the distance measurement reasonably accurate. The heart rate monitor can do with a bit of tweak and the fitness tracking can use some depth though. All things considered, for its selling price, the Armour Dive is a more than decent package overall. As for competition, the Fire-Boltt Sphere is an obvious choice and there are a lot of similarities between the two. Another option that comes to mind is the Boat Watch Primia that we reviewed last year with an equally good round AMOLED display and similar features, but more slim and stylish. The Boat and the Fire-Boltt aren't swim-proof though, if that is one of your key requirements.