Which Garmin watch should I buy?
Garmin offers an overwhelming number of models, which can make it hard to settle on the right watch for your needs. Generally, they can be divided up into the following ranges:
- Forerunner: Designed specifically for runners (rather than multi-sports), the Forerunner family ranges from the basic to the advanced. Historically, its ethos has been ‘running watch first, smartwatch second’.
- Fenix: Geared towards recreational and elite athletes, as well as multi-sports. The Fenix offers a comprehensive suited of training, recovery and race features.
- Instinct: Built for adventurers, these watches are rugged in appearance and perfect for the trails.
- Venu: Style and design meets health and wellness. Think of it as Garmin’s take on the Apple Watch. Unlike the Forerunner, this is more ‘smartwatch first, running watch second’.
- Vivosmart: More in the fitness tracker realm, this range is designed for people who want to stay healthy and active and who probably aren’t running more than once or twice a week.
It’s worth considering what type of running you’ll be doing (e.g. on or off road – or a mixture of both) and how much feedback you’re after. If you’re someone who sticks mostly to roads, a Forerunner will probably fit the bill, with a few different models on offer depending on how nerdy you like to get about stats.
Spend a lot of time on the trails? The Instinct is designed for you. Or perhaps you’re training for a triathlon, in which case the Fenix can handle multisports like a pro.
How to choose a Garmin watch
Battery life
Garmin watches come with a wide range of battery lives, and the more you have to spend, the longer you can go between charges. Ideally, you’ll want your watch to survive a week’s worth of training, but you’ll also want to consider the distances and races you’ll be doing – especially if it’s a longer distance like a marathon or an ultra-marathon…the last thing you want is your watch cutting out!
Activities/training features
The majority of Garmin watches will be able to track your distance, pace, calories and heart rate data. Higher-end models like the Forerunner 265 and Fenix 7 have more advanced training features such as training status, training readiness and performance condition, which can provide additional feedback to help you improve as a runner.
Smartwatch features
Most Garmin watches come with additional health tracking features including sleep and stress monitoring, but the more ‘smartwatch’ style ones, like the Venu 3, go seriously more in-depth.
Even the more basic models can let you see notifications for texts and calls, however you’ll usually have to pay for a more premium model if you want things like Garmin pay, weather alerts and phone-free music storage.
Style
Garmin’s line-up spans rugged, adventure-style watches to everyday, smarter-looking watches that wouldn’t look out of place in an office. Consider how often you’ll be wearing your watch (all day or just for workouts?) and where – the likes of the Venu might look sleek and stylish, but it’ll be prone to wear and tear if you’re more of a hardcore adventurer.
“/>
We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.
The Forerunner 265 delivers pretty much everything you’d want in a running watch without the price tag of Garmin’s more premium brands. There’s a wide range of features, a decent battery life (up to 13 days in smartwatch mode), accurate tracking and customisable workouts.
When it comes to display, the 265 has had a serious revamp from its previous iteration, with a sharp, colourful AMOLED touchscreen display that’s easily bright enough to work for outdoor runs on sunny days. The display alone puts the Forerunner 265 on par with smartwatch competitors, rather than simply being a dedicated athletic watch.
It’s pretty hardcore when it comes to features, too. It’s got the usual GPS, sleep tracking and fitness modes, but there’s also training status, training readiness and performance condition, which makes this feel like a real athlete’s watch. If you want to switch it up with cross training, you can also choose from over 30 activity profiles, including triathlons, cycling, swimming and more. On board-music has been standardised too, unlike previous models offline music is now included.
So what’s missing? Well, it’s lacking maps and smart assistant, but that’s about it. And if you can live without these features (which most people can), it really is an excellent all-rounder.
Key specs
| Screen size | 32.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 13 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | Up to 20 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
If you’ve lusted after the bright, crisp display on the Garmin Forerunner 265 but the price tag is over your budget, the Garmin Forerunner 165 is here for you.
The Garmin Forerunner 165 drops into Garmin’s line up in between the entry-level Forerunner 55 and the Forerunner 265 and it’s now the cheapest Garmin Forerunner with a bright smartwatch-style AMOLED touchscreen.
Behind the impressive, snappy, responsive display, the Forerunner 165 serves up a pretty comprehensive array of Garmin’s regular run-tracking tools, with plenty to cater for training and racing. In fact, it offers the majority of core features you’ll find on the Forerunner 265 – including Suggested Workouts, adaptive Garmin Coach training plans tied to a target race and all the usual race time predictions, race pace tools and fitness benchmarking like VO2 Max estimates.
There are a handful of key omissions, though. There’s no accuracy-boosting dual band GPS and triathlon sports mode is missing. You’ll also have to forego some of Garmin’s training insights: training status, training load and training readiness readouts are all left out.
Even with those features taken out, when it comes to run-tracking the Forerunner 165 is more than a serious rival for pricier watches on performance and accuracy.
In tests, the Forerunner 165 held its own in tests against the Forerunner 265, Forerunner 965 and the Enduro 2 – all of which offer the accuracy-boosting dual-frequency GPS. The optical heart rate performance was relatively reliable, too.
You will pay a price for that punchy screen. The battery comes in at 19-hours of GPS runtime – that’s shorter than the Forerunner 55 (20 hrs), Forerunner 265 (20 hrs) and the Forerunner 255 (26 hrs).
We got between 5-8 days general training usage, with around 5-6 hours GPS run time. Without music a 1:25 half-marathon burned 11%, while a 4-hour marathon burned 21%. The juice drains faster if you use the music on the Forerunner 165 Music. But there’s still enough to cover most single-session distances.
Garmin still leads the way with additional smarts like contactless payments, WiFi syncing and offline music. All welcome extras at this cheaper end of the running watch spectrum. And if you want a happily reliable, largely fully featured run tracker, in a compact, comfortable package, this is a good value option.
Key specs
| Battery life (GPS): | Up to 19 hours |
|---|---|
| Battery life (Smartwatch mode): | Up to 11 days |
| Display size: | 1.2″ / 30.4mm |
| Weight: | 39g |
| Waterproof rating: | 5ATM |
If you’re new to running, there’s no point paying out for an entire suite of training features you’re not going to use. In this case, we’d recommend the Forerunner 55 as a great starting point. It comes with built-in (and accurate) GPS, optical heart rate monitoring, 20 hours’ GPS run time on a single charge and a general usage battery life that’ll get most runners through at least a week’s training.
There’s plenty of tools to cater for a wide range of running needs, with features geared towards the less experienced. This includes five running modes with track running and a virtual running mode for use with platforms like Zwift. There’s also Garmin Coach adaptive training plans, daily suggested workouts based on your recovery, handy pace guidance for a selected course, cadence alerts to help with improvements in form and recovery advisor for advice on managing your rest between training efforts.
Beyond the run, you also get fitness, stress and body battery energy level tracking.
Sure, the screen is a little more low-quality than watches further up the Forerunner food chain, and there’s no offline music, notifications or Garmin Pay. But for beginners, this is an affordable entry-level option.
Key specs
| Screen size | 1.04″/26.3mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 2 weeks |
| Battery life (GPS) | Up to 20 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
Cons
- Hiked up price tag
- Bulky for smaller wrists
The Fenix 8 is arguably the most comprehensive multi-sport watches on the market. If Garmin has a tool for it, it’s on this watch. You get the full suite of Garmin’s run tracking, training, recovery, navigation and health tools, including everything from training effect, training load and performance condition, to HRV, Body Battery, recovery time, VO2 Max and race time predictor estimates. Plus, it has progress-charting readouts like Hill Score (how good you are on the ups) and Endurance Score (how good you are at going long).
There’s military-style multi-band GPS, designed to improve GPS accuracy in areas where regular signals can struggle. Though it’s impressive, our tester found it’s not totally infallible. It locks routes as well as any watch we’ve tested, though it suffered a few wobbles under heavy tree cover. Overall, though, total distances landed well within the margin for error.
The headline updates from the Garmin Fenix 7 range include a stunning smartwatch-style AMOLED display, bigger screens on the smallest watches, plus increased battery life (in most settings).It’s also packed with all the features you’d expect from a smartwatch – including smart notifications delivered right on the wrist, contactless payment, wrist-based heart rate, sleep and stress tracking. The con? It’ll cost you.
Key specs
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 29 days |
|---|---|
| Battery life (GPS) | 62-145 hours |
| Display | 454 x 454 pixel AMOLED |
| Display size | 1.4-inch / 35.5mm |
| Weight | 92g |
| Waterproof rating | 10ATM/Dive 40m |
Pros
- Impressive suit of training features
- Great safety features, including incident detection
Cons
- Lacks on-screen maps
If you want a running watch that can handle more extreme excursions, the Garmin Instinct Solar 2 is worth considering. It’s waterproof to 100m, thermal and shock resistant and has a scratch-resistant display and polymer-toughened case. And the best bit? It’s much more affordable than other Garmin models with similar specs.
It boasts an impressive suit of run-specific tracking, training and recovery tools, including VO2 Max estimates, training status, training load, post-run training effect readings and recovery time recommendations. For health and wellness, there’s Body Battery, Sleep Score, Advanced Sleep Monitoring, Menstrual Cycle Tracking and Stress Tracking.
It ticks all the boxes for safety too, including incident detection and live location sharing, making it well-suited to off-road ultras, plus urban running.
It’s also the cheapest watch to feature Garmin’s breakthrough solar-charging skills which garners energy from the sun. If you wear it in direct sunlight for three hours a day (or in 50,000 lux of light) it essentially never needs charging. Our office-dwelling tester couldn’t quite hit that daily quota of sunlight, so it lasted for around two weeks – still pretty impressive compared with an Apple Watch that doesn’t always last a day.
The lack of maps is surprising on a watch like this but the navigation skills are still strong. You get turn-by-turn breadcrumb and back-to-start navigation, along with distance to destination and future elevation for routes you load onto the watch. That’s particularly useful for trail runs and races.
Key specs
| Screen size | 0.9″ x 0.9″ (23 x 23 mm) |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 28 days/Unlimited with solar |
| Battery life (GPS) | Up to 30 hours/48 hours with solar |
| Waterproof rating | 10ATM |
Looking for something that bridges the gap between a running watch and a smartwatch? Enter the Venu 3. We’re not saying the likes of the Fenix and Instinct can’t be worn all day, but the Venu looks a lot more at home whether you’re exercising or not, and it’s smart enough for most occasions.
GPS is quick to triangulate, battery life is decent (just over an hour of running knocked off around 5% battery), and there are pre-loaded workouts available. Alternatively, you can create your own in the Garmin Connect app, much like with the Apple Watch. You can also configure alerts for heart rate, pace, time, distance, cadence and calories.
There are a few features missing that we’ve come to expect from some of the more ‘running focused’ Garmin watches – the Venu 3 doesn’t have a training readiness score or training status score, and there aren’t really any training-specific features on the Venu watches – you don’t get daily suggested workouts which adapt after every run or ride, recovery recommendations based on your latest training, or race predictions.
But just because the Venu 3 lacks some running-specific measurements, doesn’t mean it’s not a great watch for runners. In fact, if you’re the type of runner who also likes going to a weekly yoga class, dipping your toe into Reformer Pilates and conquering a strength workout, then you’ll probably love how versatile, smart – and pretty – the Venu 3 is.
From the wellness side of things, it’s got all the usual features you’d expect: heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, stress tracking and more. In fact, sleep has had a real overhaul. Not only does the Venu 3 give you a sleep score, but it also offers personalised tips on how much sleep you need and how you can improve. Another major improvement from the Venu 2 is the body battery feature which provides more information so you can understand exactly how the body battery is affected by what you do during the day.
Keys specs
| Screen size | 35.4 mm (1.4″) diameter |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 10 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | 26 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
Cons
- No AMOLED screen
- No voice tools
- May be too bulky for some
> Read our full Garmin Enduro 3 review
A world-class multisport watch, there’s not much the Enduro 3 can’t do. This hard-wearing hulk is built to handle off-road and ultrarunning adventures, packing the same range of training, performance, recovery/health insights and navigation tools as Garmin’s top-tier Fenix 8, without a few bells and whistles like the shiny screen and microphone.
The Garmin Enduro 3 has the best battery life in the business, too. If you want a watch that’ll handle single-stint 24-hour ultras, multi-stage endurance events or you simply don’t want to charge your watch more than once a month, it has you covered. On paper, even without the solar smarts, it offers between 60 and 210 hours of GPS tracking. In the right light conditions, that jumps to 60 hours in accuracy-boosting multi-band mode and 320 hours in standard GPS mode. In testing, it lived up to billing, too. When you’re not running, it’s stingy. The average overnight burn was just 1%. Over 24 hours without any workouts, the Enduro 3 shed just 3%.
Our tester also found the Garmin Enduro 3’s GPS performance solid across the GPS modes. Not only that, it’s a highly competent navigator with mapping upgrades that add terrain contours on your TopoActive map, dynamic round trip, and route guidance that can update mid-run to hit a specified distance if you go off-course. Our tester plugged the 5 Valleys Ultra race route into the Enduro 3 and the off-course alerts saved them a couple of times on race day.
So what can’t it do? Well, there’s no AMOLED screen, it’s certainly not for daintier wrists, and if smartwatch skills are your top priority, it’s no rival for the likes of the Apple Watch Ultra 2. But for top-tier staying power, training and recovery features, accuracy and durability, it’s one of the best there is.
Key specs
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 36 days |
|---|---|
| Battery life (GPS Mode/Solar) | 120/320 hours |
| Display | 280 x 280 pixel MIP |
| Display size | 1.4-inch / 35.5mm |
| Weight | 63g |
| Waterproof rating | 10ATM |
If you’re used to a more mid-range Garmin on your wrist, the Garmin epix Pro will definitely feels like a step up in comparison. This is a running watch for front-of-the-pack runners – those who prefer more of a rugged build but don’t want to compromise on a super sharp display.
It’s got a crystal-clear AMOLED touchscreen display and a whole host of advanced training features on top of Garmin’s usual 24/7 health and wellness monitoring. There’s also a built-in LED flashlight for training in the dark, 30 new preloaded sport activities, and new training features including ‘hill score’ – which measures your capability for running uphill and assesses your progress based on your VO2 Max estimate – and ‘endurance score’, which looks at your ability to sustain prolonged efforts.
There’s no beating around the bush here – this is an expensive watch. But the epix Pro does feature a whole load of impressive features – including an optimised heart rate sensor and new weather map overlays. So if you’re currently thinking about upgrading from an older Forerunner (or, indeed Venu), this really is an excellent smartwatch.
Key specs
| Screen size | 1.3″/33mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 16 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | Up to 42 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 10ATM |
Garmin’s Vivoactive 5 is the perfect hyrbid of exercise tracker and standard smartwatch, and a more affordable alternative to the Venu 3.
With a clear, high-quality and customisable AMOLED display, it can easily be worn as a classic watch for everyday wear, with a few added bonuses like step and calorie counting.
When it comes to running, the Vivoactive 5 has built-in GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring and HRV status data. However, this isn’t the optical heart rate sensor found on more premium Garmin watches, so it is less accurate. There’s also no barometric altimeter, unlike on the Venu 3, so elevation stats, while tracked during runs, will be less accurate. Like the affordable Forerunner 55, the Vivoactive does boast Garmin coach, though, which recommends a weekly running schedule based on your availability and current running pace. This is a handy feature if you’re looking to train for a specific event, pace, or time, and aren’t following a plan already.
It’s good for other sports, too, with 30 preloaded GPS and indoor sports, including walking, running, cycling and pool swimming, plus activities for wheelchair users and more. There’s no Track Run mode, though.
Running aside, the Vivoactive 5 has plenty of health tracking features. There’s Sleep Coach, which tracks your sleep, gives you a sleep score out of 100 every night, and recommends how much sleep you need based on your current stress levels, physical activity, and previous sleep scores. That said, the accuracy of the sleep tracking wasn’t the best in our tests; it tended to overestimate the amount of hours sleep we were getting each night.
The wrist strap is soft and comfortable, and the watch itself is very light, especially compared with an Apple Watch. The battery life is also decent, lasting around a week in smartwatch mode. When it does finally need plugging in, it takes only a short while to become fully charged again.
Keys specs
| Screen size | 30.4mm/1.2″ |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | Up to 11 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | 17-21 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
A 53-time marathon finisher, 14-time ultramarathoner (including a top 100 position in the Marathon des Sables) and cofounder of The Run Testers, a YouTube running gear reviews channel, Kieran has been testing the latest running gear for more than a decade. A sub-3 marathon runner, you’ll find him covering everything from virtual reality and smart scales to the latest health trackers. Kieran is also passionate about using the latest technology to hack his health in search of marginal gains and you’ll always find him with a running watch on either wrist.
Watch Next
Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
Advertisement – Continue Reading Below
