Garmin Lily 2 Active

The Garmin Lily 2 Active is a small, fashion-minded smartwatch that adds something its sibling lacked: built-in GPS. Announced on 2 October 2024 at a suggested retail price of $299.99, it keeps the Lily family's most distinctive trick, a display hidden behind a patterned lens that lights up only when you tap the watch or turn your wrist, and wraps it in a 38 mm aluminum case with two side buttons. Garmin calls it its smallest smartwatch with GPS. This review is based on the published specifications and Garmin's own product material, and it is careful to separate what the company claims from what a buyer should verify in daily use.

Where it sits in the lineup

Garmin's wearable range spreads from slim fashion watches at one end to rugged multisport computers at the other. The Lily 2 Active sits at the style-first end, but it borrows enough from the sporty side, including GPS, new sport apps for tennis, pickleball, indoor cycling and golf, and Garmin Coach running plans, to count as a genuine fitness companion. Buyers who prefer a different style of smartwatch should look at the Garmin Vivoactive 6 or the larger Garmin Venu X1. For a closer look at how it differs from the Vivoactive 6, the Garmin Lily 2 Active vs Garmin Vivoactive 6 page lists the figures side by side.

Design and display

The case measures 38 x 38 x 11 mm and weighs 29 g. Garmin uses anodized aluminum for both the case and the bezel, a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 lens and a silicone band with a quick-release mechanism, so changing straps is simple. The band is specified for wrists with a circumference of 110 to 175 mm, which is a good range for smaller wrists. The water rating is 5 ATM, which Garmin explains as pressure equivalent to a depth of 50 metres, suitable for swimming and showers. At launch the colour options were Lunar Gold with a Bone band and Silver with a Purple Jasmine band; Garmin's current product listings also show a Jasper Green version, so availability depends on the region and the time of purchase.

The display is the most unusual part. It is a touchscreen LCD measuring 1.00 by 0.84 inches with 240 x 201 pixels, and it is not a colour panel: Garmin lists it as 16-level grayscale. The screen sits behind a patterned lens that disguises it as a piece of jewellery when it is idle. A tap or a wrist turn reveals a bright image. This design delivers elegance and good battery life, but it comes with trade-offs. A small greyscale screen shows less information at once than a larger colour display, so detailed charts or long messages are harder to read. Because Garmin describes the display as revealing itself on a tap or wrist turn, it is not an always-on watch face.

Sports and GPS

Built-in GPS, supported by GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou, lets the watch record outdoor walks, runs and rides without carrying a phone. Garmin says it can track outdoor activities such as walks and runs accurately, but as with all wrist-worn GPS, accuracy will vary with environment and satellite visibility. The watch stores seven timed activities and 14 days of activity-tracking data between syncs. Beyond GPS, the sports library adds tennis, pickleball, indoor cycling and golf apps, and users can download on-screen workouts for strength, HIIT and yoga to follow right on the wrist. Garmin Coach provides free adaptive training plans for running events. There is no mention of maps, music storage or multi-band GNSS, so this is a simple GPS tracker rather than a navigation instrument.

Health and daily features

Garmin's wrist-based Elevate heart-rate sensor and a Pulse Ox blood-oxygen sensor handle the physiological tracking. The watch offers Body Battery energy monitoring, sleep scores and stages, heart-rate variability, stress and respiration tracking, women's health tracking including menstrual cycle and pregnancy features, a Health Snapshot that records a two-minute session of key stats, plus meditation and breathwork activities. A morning report summarises sleep, a calendar and weather when you wake up. As Garmin itself notes, these are not medical devices and are not intended for diagnosing or monitoring any condition; Pulse Ox is not available in all countries, and activity-tracking accuracy depends on use. Everyday smart features include smartphone notifications, Garmin Pay contactless payments with participating providers, phone music controls and Find My Phone. Assistance and Incident Detection can send a live location message to chosen contacts when paired with a compatible phone. It works with both iPhone and Android, and connects over Bluetooth and ANT+.

Mix-and-match styling is part of the pitch. Garmin's product page notes that cases and bands can be combined, and the quick-release band makes that practical, so the same watch can move from a gym session to a dinner by changing the strap. The two buttons on the side are a welcome addition for a watch this small, because starting and stopping a workout or flipping between screens by touch alone is fiddly with wet or sweaty fingers.

Battery life and charging

Garmin quotes up to 9 days in smartwatch mode and up to 9 hours in GPS mode, with the usual note that the estimate depends on usage assumptions. In practice nine hours of GPS is enough for most runs, tennis matches or day hikes but it does not suit marathon-length efforts or ultra-distance events. Two things to remember: GPS-heavy use will drain the battery quickly, and the smartwatch-mode figure assumes typical use. Charging is by a Garmin cable; the product page lists a proprietary plug charger while the box contents mention a USB-C charging cable, so check the connector in the box when you buy.

Who it is for

The Lily 2 Active is best for people who want a watch that looks like jewellery, tracks their health and occasional workouts, and does not draw attention. It suits smaller wrists especially well, and its light weight makes overnight sleep tracking more comfortable. It makes sense for walkers, casual runners and racket-sport players who like GPS but do not need advanced training metrics. Serious runners who want colour maps, on-wrist music or detailed performance analytics will find the Lily 2 Active too limited and should look at the performance-oriented models such as the Garmin Forerunner 970. To see where it fits among other wearables, check the rankings.

Compromises to weigh

• Small greyscale display: elegant, but less informative and less vivid than colour panels.
• Limited GPS endurance: up to 9 hours is fine for most sessions, not for long endurance events.
• No maps or music storage: navigation and offline media are not part of the specification.
• Price: $299.99 is substantial for a watch with a modest display, and shoppers should compare it with other options.
• Charger detail: Garmin's own listing is inconsistent about the connector type.

Set against those limits, the Lily 2 Active does something few rivals manage: it pairs genuine health and fitness tracking, built-in GPS and about a week and a half of battery life in a case smaller and lighter than most smartwatches. For users who have written off smartwatches as too bulky or too aggressive in appearance, that combination is exactly the point.