The perfect Garmin watch 2024
Selecting the most effective Garmin watch may be one of the crucial tough choices in tech. There are such a lot of nice Garmin smartwatches on the market that it may be tough to determine precisely what’s what. The excellent news is that there is a Garmin for each sort of health or outside pursuit, and one to go well with just about each funds, from the most affordable Forerunner to the premium Fenix vary.
Garmin’s are centered on nice multisport monitoring, coronary heart price monitoring, and athletic efficiency. They’re usually fairly rugged and boast the most effective battery life within the business. Crucially, they’re additionally platform agnostic, which implies they’re going to work simply as effectively with both iPhone or Android, making them an attractive different to the most effective Apple Watch or greatest Android smartwatch.
Our specialists have examined each Garmin in the marketplace, together with low cost choices just like the Vivoactive and Forerunner, all the way in which as much as the costliest fashions. A lot of them additionally function in our greatest operating watches and greatest health tracker guides, and a few may even be purchased at a reduction with Garmin promo codes.
So if you wish to take your 2025 health push to the subsequent stage, listed here are the most effective Garmins that can assist you.
Matt Evans
Matt is TechRadar’s Health, Wellbeing and Wearables Editor, which implies he is an skilled on exercises, smartwatches, and all issues health tech. Matt’s spent years overlaying the well being and health beat, is a daily Garmin person, and has personally examined lots of the watches beneath.
The fast checklist
Wish to get straight to the most effective Garmin watch to your wants? Use our fast round-up beneath to instantly discover a GPS watch that fits you – and you may learn extra about it by leaping to our full write-ups and explanations utilizing the hyperlinks.
The perfect Garmin Look ahead to most individuals
The Garmin Venu 3 tops our checklist as a result of it does every part so effectively for each way of life and health issues. Good for everybody from hardcore triathletes to informal health fanatics in search of an Apple Watch alternative.
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The perfect low cost Garmin Watch
The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is the most effective low cost Garmin Watch. It is not as low cost because the Vivosmart 5 band, nevertheless it packs a load of exercise profiles and a stunning AMOLED display screen. It can do a terrific job of recording your exercises.
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The perfect Premium Garmin in the marketplace
New for 2024, the Garmin Fenix 8 is an outstanding little bit of premium equipment. It is obtained a hefty price ticket, however that’ll internet you a sophisticated GPS, a brand new coronary heart price sensor, 16 days of battery life, and extra.
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The perfect Garmin look ahead to outside sports activities
The Garmin Intuition 2 is a tremendous, tough-as-nails path operating companion. Distinctive battery life, exercise options, restoration steering and a shockproof resin case are a couple of of its standout options.
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The largest, most superior Garmin outside watch
If the Garmin Intuition 2 is the most effective outside look ahead to most individuals, the Enduro 2 is the most effective outside look ahead to elite athletes. Designed for severe orienteers, triathletes, and endurance runners, this watch is a monster.
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The perfect Garmin Look ahead to runners
The Garmin Forerunner 265 is a tremendous look ahead to folks severe about their operating. With the Coaching Readiness rating, superior metrics, and beautiful AMOLED display screen, it is excellent no matter whether or not you’re keen on the tarmac or the path.
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7. Garmin Intuition Crossover
The perfect hybrid Garmin watch
The Garmin Intuition Crossover is a superb watch for those who love the aesthetics of Casio G-Shocks, however need a real smartwatch. With Garmin Intuition 2 innards and analog palms with Revodrive satellite tv for pc expertise, it is the right hybrid.
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The perfect for brand new runners
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is an effective watch for brand new runners: it is cheaper in comparison with different decisions, you continue to get GPS monitoring
and Garmin’s wonderful operating and restoration metrics, however sacrifices have been made to make sure the value stays decrease.
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9. Garmin MARQ Athlete (Gen 2)
The perfect for fashion
Garmin’s MARQ vary is designed to echo premium rotary watches, with rotating bezels and classic-looking dive watch-inspired faces. The MARQ Athlete (Gen 2) is the running-orientated mannequin.
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The perfect for golf
An ideal all-rounder golf watch, stuffed with options together with shot detection and full-color maps, for an excellent worth.
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The perfect Garmin watch general
The Garmin Venu 3 is the most effective on this era of smartwatch and sport watch mix. You continue to have all of the GPS and GLONASS monitoring smarts Garmin is known for, mixed with operating, biking, swimming and extra sports activities choices. But this additionally tracks way of life effectively with sleep, stress and the power to hyperlink with third-party fitness center tools. It will even allow you to see who’s at your Ring doorbell with a picture preview on the tremendous clear AMOLED display screen.
On the smartwatch entrance, there’s offline Spotify permitting you to sync all of your tracks to hear instantly on bluetooth headphones, no smartphone required. You’ll be able to view your day’s schedule at a look, test your coronary heart price, water consumption and stress stage, log interval signs, obtain smartphone notifications, reply, and extra.
That is all made attainable by the tremendous high-resolution 1.4-inch AMOLED show, with three brightness settings and an non-compulsory always-on mode that means that you can see an enormous quantity of knowledge at a look, with out digging out your telephone.
This third gen mannequin additionally incorporates a microphone and speaker permitting you to take calls from a linked smartphone. Additionally helpful for audio guided meditations and yoga courses which can be saved onboard to be used and not using a smartphone.
Learn our full Garmin Venu 3 evaluate
The perfect low cost Garmin watch
For those who do not want a fully-fledged operating watch just like the Forerunner 265, however nonetheless need to get as a lot knowledge as attainable in your well being and health, the Vivoactive 5 is the Garmin look ahead to you. It is tremendous small and light-weight, and simply shy of 12mm thick, however comprises 30 exercise profiles, spectacular swimming and golf monitoring, and nonetheless gives a powerful stream of stats so that you can pore over.
In our checks, we discovered its GPS accuracy akin to its greater, beefier sibling, the Garmin Forerunner 965, and the designers have carried out a really spectacular job of cramming in a wealth of knowledge with the modular format with out issues ever trying cramped.
Positive, it isn’t fairly as premiun-feeling or as useful for devoted triathletes as a Forerunner, nevertheless it’s extraordinarily sensible. It compares favorably to Fitbit, and in contrast to the Google model, there aren’t any options hidden behind a paywall. The whole lot within the Garmin Join app is free to entry, without having to subscribe to a premium service to get deep insights into historic knowledge and tendencies.
Learn our full Garmin Vivoactive 5 evaluate
The perfect premium Garmin Watch
The Garmin Fenix 8 was one of the crucial hotly-anticipated launches from the corporate in years, and it definitely lives as much as the billing. Iterating on the Fenix 7, traditionally certainly one of Garmin’s greatest choices, the Fenix 8 options good {hardware} together with an AMOLED show, speaker and microphone for calls, an LED torch.
There’s new waterproofing and you may even use the Fenix 8 as a dive watch a-la Apple Watch Extremely 2. In truth, it is rated for diving as much as 40 meters, though Garmin reckons it’s going to handle means deeper than that.
There’s improved GPS onboard powering a brand new “dynamic routing” function that routinely generates instructions to take you residence if you’re out biking or operating, in addition to route alterations for those who take a flawed flip. Our stellar evaluate relies on the smashing 47mm model, however there are three complete measurement choices 43mm, 47mm, and 51mm. There’s additionally a Photo voltaic model with a MIP show and commensurately big battery life.
Whereas it would not deviate an excessive amount of from historic Fenix designs, it nonetheless seems to be completely unbelievable and ranks as one of many perfect Garmin’s we have ever used.
Learn our full Garmin Fenix 8 evaluate
The perfect outside Garmin watch
We had been huge followers of the unique Garmin Intuition, nevertheless it was all the time a really useful trying watch – chunky and stoic. The Intuition 2 retains all of the options of its predecessor (together with a shockproof fiber-reinforced resin case and distinctive battery life) and tucks all of it right into a slimmer package deal that is now out there in two sizes: 45mm or 40mm for smaller wrists.
It is a full multi-sports watch, with fastidiously designed monitoring modes for a variety of actions, and runners, cyclists and swimmers are significantly effectively served. You get the superior coaching instruments you’d anticipate from a contemporary Garmin watch, together with exercise options, restoration time steering, and cargo monitoring so you possibly can strike the correct steadiness between effort and relaxation
The usual Intuition 2 gives spectacular battery life, however Whereas the first-gen Intuition Photo voltaic might hypothetically preserve operating indefinitely on a single cost, the corporate says that it is now a sensible risk for those who spend sufficient time outdoor. We had been definitely impressed by its efficiency in our checks; even with common exercises, the facility meter barely budged once we obtained sufficient solar.
The one draw back is the truth that its monochrome memory-in-pixel show is not nice for maps, and you will get far much less element than you’d with a watch just like the Fenix 7 or Epix (Gen 2). The Intuition 2’s mid-range worth makes it very tempting although, and it comes extremely really useful. If you’d like a less expensive model, the Garmin Intuition Photo voltaic, a model of the unique watch, could be purchased for lots lower than the up to date mannequin.
Learn our full Garmin Intuition 2 evaluate
Probably the most superior Garmin look ahead to athletes
The Garmin Enduro 2 is an enormous beast, and it isn’t for individuals who simply often practice, even when they could run one marathon a yr. If you are going to spend this sum of money on an outside watch ($1,099.99 / £929.99 / AU$1,749) you are most certainly a triathlete, long-distance or an ultrarunner.
For severe athletes with cash to burn, the Garmin Enduro 2 is ideal. It comes laden with a powerful quantity of options. It is obtained excellent battery life for one factor, even in battery-sucking GPS mode whereas viewing full-color topographical maps on the massive AMOLED display screen.
It has tons of premium options: Coaching Readiness rating we have talked about, however one standout is NextFork which alerts you to approaching splits within the trial, and grade-adjusted tempo, which tells you ways your gradient tempo (i.e. hill climbing) interprets to operating on a flat floor, to present you some standardized health data. Automated relaxation time calculates the time you spend at race support stations. Plus, all the standard options from just about all the opposite Garmin watches launched earlier than it.
For it is worth, it is onerous to justify for informal exercisers. However as a efficiency instrument for ultra-competitors, the Enduro 2 is ideal.
Learn our full Garmin Enduro 2 evaluate
The perfect Garmin look ahead to runners
The Garmin Forerunner 265 was launched as an replace to the 255 sequence, which was lower than a yr previous. The very fact it is a pretty iterative replace, altering too little about its predecessor, and it loses some battery (little question rerouted into energy for that new AMOLED display screen) is the one factor stopping it from getting our elusive 5 stars. It is the explanation the 265 has supplanted our earlier greatest look ahead to runners, the Forerunner 955 from our checklist.
It is a superb operating watch by any metric, and would do effectively on the wrist of any runner. It packs numerous options right into a compact package deal, with a powerful vary of exercise modes, devoted suggestions in your coaching load together with the brand new Coaching Readiness rating function, which debuted on the 955. Onboard storage comes as commonplace, so you possibly can obtain music onto your telephone or simply use it to regulate Spotify.
For those who’re primarily a runner and want to improve your entry-level watch to one thing extra superior, the 265 is effectively value your consideration. Even for those who’re a daily marathon runner, it will see you proper. It is light-weight and unobtrusive sufficient for on a regular basis put on and is hard sufficient to shrug off tough remedy. With a stunning new display screen, it’s going to stand as much as trendy typical smartwatches too, and will not look misplaced within the workplace.
Learn our full Garmin Forerunner 265 evaluate
The perfect hybrid Garmin watch
The Garmin Intuition Crossover is a Garmin smartwatch with all of the intelligence of an upgraded Garmin Intuition 2, however with analog palms supported by satellite tv for pc expertise to make sure pinpoint-accurate timekeeping. Whenever you’re utilizing the good elements, the palms rotate to get out of the way in which, and the watch connects to satellites when it is time to rotate the palms again to the correct time.
It is a unbelievable concept and a terrific combine between a severe outdoorsy analog watch comparable to G-Shock Mudmaster with satellite tv for pc and good tech. The Garmin Intuition 2 the Crossover relies on permits the watch to do issues your common G-Shock by no means might, with restoration metrics comparable to Garmin’s Physique Battery making certain you may get prepared to your subsequent race.
It shines on trails with navigational tech comparable to TracBack, compass, stride size throughout operating, and stroke counting throughout swimming. Because of its analog palms and sacrifices made to its display screen, it would not have any topographical maps, which implies attributable to its larger worth level, it is powerful to suggest for those who’re in search of a watch to information you thru tough terrain a lot simpler.
Nevertheless, if you would like one thing extra traditional-looking and feeling, which might nonetheless provide superior well being and health metrics, that is the look ahead to you. It will take any knocks you possibly can throw at it and final for weeks, particularly for those who spring for the photo voltaic mannequin.
Learn our full Garmin Intuition Crossover evaluate
The perfect Garmin watch for brand new runners
The Garmin Forerunner 165 is Garmin’s new beginner-friendly operating watch, and is just like the 265 and 965 era of Forerunners in design, sharing the redesigned Run button and beautiful AMOLED touchscreen.
As soon as it is in your wrist, newcomers will uncover an array of fantastic coaching instruments inside that’ll aid you monitor your health and optimize your coaching. These embody new steered exercises based mostly in your previous actions, which assist give your coaching some construction even for those who’re not following a devoted plan, and Garmin’s Physique Battery performance. After a exercise, you will additionally see recommendation on how lengthy to relaxation and recuperate earlier than your subsequent effort.
Garmin’s signature GPS accuracy makes it a terrific entry level for anybody upgrading from a Fitbit to a devoted sports activities watch. It is a bit dearer than a Fitbit Cost 6, and it’s important to pay additional for the model with onboard music storage, however you possibly can management music in your telephone simply fantastic with both model.
Learn our full Garmin Forerunner 165 evaluate
The perfect Garmin look ahead to fashion
Some Garmin watches are fairly utilitarian in design, however the Garmin MARQ vary is designed to appear to be it would not really feel too misplaced below a shirt cuff, with an ultra-premium, fashionable end. The MARQ Athlete (gen 2) gives a rotating bezel designed that can assist you mark goal operating occasions, a stunning AMOLED display screen with sapphire crystal lens, and a grade 5 titanium metallic casing.
A classy, super-premium different to the Fenix and Epix fashions, that is the athletic watch to get if you wish to look the enterprise and cash is not any object. Just like the Garmin Intuition Crossover above, it is a good marriage of conventional dive watch and smartwatch. Besides as an alternative of a G-Shock hybrid, the Marq is extra like a Patek Phillipe.
Learn the total Garmin MARQ Athlete (Gen 2) evaluate
The perfect Garmin Look ahead to golf
The Garmin Method S42 was rated our greatest golf watch general as a result of it is fairly low cost now, and nonetheless actually good. That is all there’s too it.
Throughout our checks, our reviewer did sorely miss the Digital Caddie function, however cherished numerous this watch, together with nice battery life, an AutoShot mode that makes life simpler on the course, and Inexperienced View. Inexperienced View means that you can place the pin manually utilizing the big colour touchscreen, and exhibits you the inexperienced’s contours: important for those who’re planning a birdie and need a, effectively, a chicken’s eye view of the inexperienced to higher decide your angle of assault.
Now it has been lowered in worth to £249.99, it strikes a superb steadiness between worth and performance. Undoubtedly the golf watch to get, except you’ve the funds for its super-premium options.
Learn our full evaluate
How to decide on the most effective Garmin look ahead to you
When selecting a Garmin watch, there are three key factors to contemplate: what sport are you interested by, what stage are you at, and what’s your funds?
For those who’re beginning your health journey and need a watch that can assist enhance your habits, that is unbelievable – a watch within the Venu line will go well with you completely. They’re fairly small and discrete, making them nice for all-day put on, and provide a great vary of normal health monitoring instruments. In case your funds runs to it, the Venu 2 and Venu 2 Plus are our high picks, because of their onboard GPS and unbelievable shows.
Suppose you are a newbie or intermediate runner. In that case, the Forerunner 165 or 245 will work very properly for you. For those who additionally take pleasure in biking, swimming or each, the Forerunner 265 or 965 are excellent triathlon watches that can serve you effectively. Nervous about scuffs and scratches? Check out the Intuition 2; it is constructed like a tank and has unbelievable battery life.
For those who’re significantly into your coaching and need essentially the most profound insights into your well being and health, the Fenix 7, Epix Gen 2 and their newer Professional variations are wonderful decisions. The latter is ideal if you wish to discover new routes, as its high-res OLED show is good for mapping. It does come at a value although, and the Fenix 7 (though not low cost) is a extra budget-friendly choice.
Finest Garmin watches for girls vs males: Is there a distinction?
Functionally, there is no distinction between Garmin watches for men and women: they’re usually unisex. Measurement, weight and elegance is a consideration for everybody, and the place Garmin watches have a number of measurement choices, we have outlined these choices in our full evaluations. Usually talking, smaller sizes and lighter watches are typically most well-liked by people with slimmer wrists, particularly in the event that they’re operating watches.
One other side to contemplate are the options out there, together with girls’s well being monitoring if it is one thing you are occupied with. Most Garmin watches have the power to trace menstrual cycles utilizing coronary heart price, pores and skin temperature and different metrics it collects, however even when the watch options these choices, you possibly can select to decide out or flip off the function in Settings.
How we take a look at
When testing a Garmin watch, we put on it night time and day for at the least two weeks so it will probably construct up a full image of our well being and health and guarantee battery scores reside as much as specs. We slept, exercised, and recovered with all of the Garmin watches on this checklist to find out which is greatest for what function. We weighed up the accuracy of their GPS monitoring, the responsiveness of their coronary heart price screens, and the standard of their coaching instruments. We have even evaluated their battery life, show high quality, and general design.
We allow SpO2 monitoring if out there and observe at the least 5 exercises throughout these two weeks to present us an concept of how lengthy the watch’s battery will final in typical use. If the watch helps app downloads from Garmin Join, we are able to additionally use a battery monitor app to test how rapidly it drains.
To check the accuracy of the watch’s GPS, we take it for a number of runs on pre-measured programs and examine the outcomes to related route-mapping software program from our telephones and a competitor watch, normally an Apple Watch Extremely. If it has mapping functionality, we create a brand new route utilizing Garmin Join, sync it to the watch, and use it to navigate the route.
We’ll take a look at the watch in quite a lot of conditions, from operating to indoor biking, trying on the particulars of metrics comparable to coronary heart price variability and sleep scores. Does the wealth of knowledge out there match as much as related watches in its worth vary? Is the presentation dense or useful? Take a look at our how we take a look at part for extra particulars.
