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Garmin smartwatches are some of the best in the business. Its offerings are known for advanced health and training features, durable build, and impressive battery life, among other worthwhile features and tools. With advanced models for serious athletes, versatilefitness trackersfor more casual fitness enthusiasts, and stylish fashion pieces that double as capablesmartwatches, theGarminline is as diverse as it is dependable. Indeed, with such a varied catalog, there’s a Garmin watch for everyone.
The only problem with the company’s wide-reaching portfolio is that it can be tricky to narrow down which Garmin is best for your needs and budget. That’s why our team decided to combine our expert knowledge and create this list of the best Garmin watches. Smart tech is our specialty here at Pocket-lint, and we’ve researched and reviewed just about every Garmin model on the market. Narrowing down the options wasn’t easy, but we’re confident that you’ll find the perfect pick below.
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We don’t do arm-chair research. We buy and test our own products, and we only publish buyer’s guides with products we’ve actually reviewed.
Best Garmin watch overall
Garmin Forerunner 965
Smart, stylish, and highly capable
The Garmin Forerunner 965 takes the excellent smarts from the Forerunner 955 and adds a superb AMOLED screen and a more refined look, all while delivering a solid battery life.
The big change in the Forerunner 965 over previous models is the move to an AMOLED display. This makes Garmin’s top-running watch much more vibrant and engaging than older Forerunner devices. You have to pay a premium for it, but it’s a better device as a result – and battery life hasn’t been sacrificed.
Garmin Forerunner 965: Raising the game
Garmin brings an AMOLED display to its excellent Forerunner line, so it looks better than ever – but how does it perform?
It offers more tracking than you may think of, making it the ideal partner for anyone training for just about anything.
Despite the fancy display, this is still a fully functioning Garmin watch. It offers more tracking than you may think of, making it the ideal partner for anyone training for just about anything. It’s a great companion for running, strength workouts, and even multi-sport events like triathlons. Plus, Garmin’s advanced platform provides daily suggested workouts along with a long list of guided workouts and the ability to import training plans, putting a coach right on your wrist.
The Forerunner 965 also provides plenty of smart features likemusic controlsand payments. It pairs with your phone to give you notifications, even allowing for some basic interaction with certain apps without getting your phone out. It’s the complete package, but as the flagship in Garmin’s portfolio, it’s also quite expensive. The advanced tools are more than many need, but if you’re serious about your fitness and training, the Forerunner 965 is one of the best Garmin watches available.
Best stylish Garmin watch
Garmin Lily 2
A stylish fitness tracker for small wrists
The Garmin Lily 2 is a compact and stylish alternative to Garmin’s sporty fitness watches. It’s ideal for small wrists and offers a unique patterned lens for a polished look while still providing plenty of fitness and health features.
Many of Garmin’s watches are on the larger side and have very fitness-focused styling. The Garmin Lily 2 is a more stylish alternative while maintaining useful fitness features. The glass lens uses a unique etched-glass design, with different patterns available depending on the color you choose. That design, combined with the aluminum case, results in a very polished-looking watch that’s ideal for wearing to work or to events you may want to look a bit nicer for.
Garmin’s Lily 2 smartwatch is a classy but capable fitness tracker
The Garmin Lily 2 is a stylish smartwatch designed for small wrists with plenty of fitness and health features.
Another advantage to the Lily 2 is that it is very compact, making it ideal for small wrists. The display is just 25.4 x 21.3 mm, which is large enough to see important information but still discreet and slim. It only weighs 21.4 grams, which is so lightweight that I barely notice it on my wrist. It’s available with or without Garmin Pay and comes with either a silicone, leather, or fabric strap, so you can personalize it even more.
Despite the fashion-focused design, the Lily 2 still functions as a capable fitness tracker. There is no built-in GPS, but Garmin’s tethered GPS is surprisingly accurate. you may track a range of activities, including walks, runs, indoor rowing, HIIT, and a variety of dance styles. The watch can measure your heart rate all day and track sleep, stress levels, and blood oxygen saturation. It also offers women’s health tracking right on your wrist and provides movement and meditation suggestions. Plus, it connects to your phone so you can receive notifications and control your music. It’s a surprisingly well-rounded device that blends into daily life more than Garmin’s other watches.
Best Garmin watch for hikers
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
An advanced watch for adventurous athletes
With a built-in flashlight, navigation tools, and advanced training metrics, the Fenix 7 Pro is for serious outdoor adventurers.
When most people set out for outdoor adventures, they usually don’t run extension cords along the trail to keep their devices charged. The Fenix 7 Pro Solar’s battery life is one of the best on the market. In our experience, a full charge will provide well over two weeks of battery life, and the small solar panel can extend that by up to another week in the right conditions. It all depends on how you use it and how much sunlight it receives, but even without sun it undeniably offers impressive battery life.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro: Light improvements
The Fenix 7 Pro serves up some minor but welcome upgrades for those that want the very best of Garmin’s Fenix range.
The long-lasting battery isn’t the only reason we recommend the Fenix 7 Pro Solar. This premium pick comes at a high price, but you get what you pay for. It has all the latest health-tracking features, including sleep monitoring and coaching, jet lag advisor, and plenty of health data gathered throughout the day. You also get Garmin’s comprehensive performance metrics, extensive sports apps for tracking your activities, HIIT workout routines, daily suggested workouts, and much more.
Should you take this device far off the grid, you’re able to rely on its compass and “multi-GNSS satellite systems” to find your way home. It also features an impressive built-in flashlight for after-dark adventures, which is equally useful in your daily life. Best of all, the Fenix 7 Pro Solar is noticeably slimmer compared to the Fenix line’s previous iterations, so you can keep wearing it when you return to civilization without attracting strange looks.
Best budget Garmin watch
Garmin Forerunner 55
Garmin’s comprehensive suite for less
A superb entry-level watch for runners, with a lot of intuitive features in a neat, compact design.
The Forerunner 55 may be an entry-level model, but it provides an extremely rich experience for beginners. For those who are just getting started with tracking their runs, it really is the best Garmin watch available. It’s definitely more limited outside of run tracking than the more premium models in the family, which are able to expand to advanced tracking for other sports and activities.
Garmin Forerunner 55: Bringing much more than the basics
The 55 nails the basics, then adds additional worthwhile features that were lacking in the earlier 45 models. It’s an ideal starter runners' watch.
Even though it’s a very beginner-friendly watch, features like suggested workouts, Garmin’s PacePro feature, cadence alerts, recovery advice, and the adaptive training plans available through Garmin Coach will help guide you toward that new personal best. It can also monitor your overall health with stress tracking and sleep tracking, giving you a more complete picture of your health and fitness.
It features a battery life that can last for 20 hours when tracking with GPS, so it is even up to your long runs. Plus, it lasts around two weeks in normal use. The Forerunner 55 also benefits from being much cheaper, so if you only want your Garmin for training – and not to wear it all the time – it is a solid choice.
Best Garmin watch for runners
Garmin Forerunner 255
A wearable that won’t slow you down
One of the attractive things about the Forerunner 255 is the option for a Music model to take tunes on the run.
The Garmin Forerunner 255 is Garmin’s mid-range runner’s watch, but it is still more than enough running watch for most people. It’s the best Garmin watch for those who want more than the Forerunner 55 but don’t want to pay for the Forerunner 965. Fortunately, it offers most of the tracking that the top-of-the-range does, only missing out on things like golf features, real-time stamina reporting, and live segment tracking.
Garmin Forerunner 255: A multi-sport marvel
Garmin’s mid-range option in its popular Forerunner lineup promises small but meaningful updates. Is it a top sports watch to consider?
Many also choose the Forerunner 255 because there’s a Music version, so you can connect via Bluetooth and take tunes on your runs without your phone. Or you can save some money and opt for the model without music. There’s no touchscreen here like the 955, but you do get Garmin Pay, so you can buy a coffee on the way back from your workout. There are also two sizes available – 41mm or 46mm – so you can choose what fits your wrist best.
The Forerunner 255 also tracks your sleep, providing HRV insights to help guide your workout and recovery plans. It lasts for 14 days in smartwatch mode or 30 hours in GPS mode, so you won’t have to charge it very often. If you like to compete in races, you’re able to even add race details to your Garmin account to get adaptive training plans. Despite the mid-range status, it’s a highly capable watch.
The bottom line: What is the best Garmin watch?
While all of Garmin’s devices are highly versatile, working well for athletes of every type, many are slightly geared towards specific activities, which can make choosing the best Garmin watch a challenge. That said, the Garmin Forerunner 965 offers the best range of features for most people in a relatively slim, lightweight package with a vibrant, easy-to-read display.
How did we choose the best Garmin watches?
Pocket-lint has tested most of Garmin’s extensive lineup. The selections on this list are all devices that we have personally used, enjoyed, and would recommend to others. Since Garmin makes so many watches, we narrowed down our selection to the categories that most are looking for. We also selected watches at various price points to suit the needs of just about everyone.
Q: Which type of Garmin watch is best for me?
Before you can really know which Garmin device is right for you, it’s important to understand who each range is aimed at.
Naturally, Garmin has plenty more devices for specific sports – such as its Approach golf wearables, the Swim and Descent series' or the Vivo fitness bands – but the above are the most common models we would recommend. If you are looking for something specific, the chances are strong that Garmin has a tracker for the job. Marq, Epix and Enduro also bolster the premium end of the market.
Q: What Garmin features do you need?
Garmin has a wide range of features, fully supported and accessed through the Garmin Connect app that runs on your smartphone. Fitness tracking is a given on all Garmin models, including steps, calories, GPS route tracking, heart rates, heart rate zones, coaching and sleep tracking for recovery. Some models offer color mapping, some will offer a touchscreen and some offer button controls only.
As you step up through the models, you’ll find more advanced features. While all offer smartphone notifications, you’ll getGarmin Payon many models, support for music on top devices – although on some mid-range devices, you’ll have to choose a ‘music’ edition of the watch. Beyond that, high-end models offer a wider range of dynamics for athletes – especially runners – so you can get more out of your workouts and recovery.
There’s also a wide ecosystem of devices supporting Garmin, including additional sensors such as a heart rate strap for greater accuracy, along with bike sensors for those in the saddle. While many watches will support these sensors and integrate the data into Garmin Connect, it’s again worth checking that your watch of choice will do everything you need it to.
