The best Garmin watches in 2025, tested over thousands of miles

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 165 review

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.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 55 review

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. While it's a few years old now, 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 or notifications. But for beginners, this covers the basics at an affordable price.

As the name suggests, the Forerunner has long been a much-loved companion for runners. The new Forerunner 570 marks the start of the 500s era and the end of Garmin’s 200s series, delivering pretty much everything you’d want in a running watch without the premium price tag of Garmin’s more premium brands. There’s a wide range of features, a decent battery life (up to 10 days in smartwatch mode), accurate tracking and customisable workouts.

If you’re someone who can feel dwarfed by some of the chunkier running watches on the market, the Forerunner 570 is available in two sizes: 47mm and a smaller 42mm. Both watches have Garmin’s brightest and sharpest AMOLED touchscreen display yet, which is easily bright enough to work for outdoor runs on sunny days. It’s pretty hardcore when it comes to features, too. It’s got the usual GPS (including multi-band), 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. It’s involved to become a go-to training tool for triathletes as well, with the Garmin Triathlon Coach feature offering personalised training plans and suggested workouts that cover running, swimming and cycling in one swoop. And it’s even equipped with Garmin’s latest Elevate Gen 5 heart rate sensor for more accurate heart rate and health data.

New to the 570 (and Garmin in general) is auto-lap, a feature which records miles or kilometres in line with the mile or kilometre markers of known races – like the London Marathon – in Garmin’s race library. As a result, your watch will neatly tell you that you’ve run 10K when you actually pass the 10K marker, giving you a clearer sense of your projected finish time. Smart assist has also been added so you can control watch functions or respond to text messages.

So what’s missing? Well, it’s lacking maps (you’ll have to go higher up the food chain with the Forerunner 970 for that) and you can’t take an ECG reading either, but that’s about it. All in all, the 570 really is an excellent all-rounder.

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 review

The Fenix 8 is arguably the most comprehensive multi-sport watch 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.

Read our full Garmin Instinct 3 review

If you want a running watch that can handle more extreme excursions, the Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED is worth considering. It’s waterproof to 100m, built to military standards for thermal and shock resistance, 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.

The Instinct 3 AMOLED 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 Reports, Menstrual Cycle Tracking and Stress Tracking. You’re only really missing Hill Score and Endurance Score from the pricier Garmin watches.

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.

The latest Instinct comes with a stunning AMOLED display which is easy to read in direct sunlight. There’s no touchscreen, which is surprising considering all of Garmin's other AMOLED devices have one. But it’s not a huge loss.

The lack of offline maps is also surprising on a watch that’s built for outdoor adventures, 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.

Ultimately, if you spend a lot of time on the trails, you might want to look elsewhere for more thorough mapping. If you can handle breadcrumb navigation, though, there’s a lot to love here.

Read our full Garmin Venu X1 review

While Garmin has long led the way on running features, it’s often lagged behind Apple in smartwatch smarts – particularly when it comes to blending those features into a sleeker, more lifestyle-friendly design. The Venu 3 (below) which rivals the mm, 1.4 47mm/AMOLED, comes close. However, on the more adventure-ready side of things, even the feature-packed Fenix 8 – complete with Garmin’s full kitchen sink – isn’t really playing in the same style league. The Venu X1, then, is an exciting addition to Garmin’s line-up.

First up, it's got a stunning 2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, protected by a scratch-resistant sapphire lens and framed in a titanium case. It’s just 8mm thick and 34g (without a strap), borrowing the rectangular shape and rounded corners of the older Venu 2, but with a much sleeker, premium finish. For context, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 measures 14.4mm thick, weighs 61.4g and boasts a 1.92-inch display, so the Venu X1 feels much lighter on the wrist.

It packs some serious running smarts that the Ultra 2 still hasn’t mastered. That includes full-colour, built-in mapping, with an altimeter, barometer and 3-axis electronic compass providing precise navigation. It’s also pre-loaded with 100+ sports apps, including running, golf, strength training and more. You can access Garmin Coach plans for running, strength and cycling, alongside Garmin’s advanced training insights, including Training Readiness, Training Status, Endurance Score, Hill Score, Running Power and a plethora of running metrics, from cadence to ground contact time. It even packs in Garmin’s Pacepro tool, with GPS-based pace guidance for selected courses or distances, and Climbpro for real-time information on upcoming climbs.

When it comes to health, you get Garmin’s 24/7 suite of health monitoring features. That includes Body Battery, Sleep Coach, Morning Report, HRV status and heart rate monitoring, stress tracking, a blood oxygen sensor, altitude and heat acclimation, and even jet lag advisor — pretty neat.

The only slight limitation is the battery life. While it’s far superior to the Apple Watch Ultra 2 (up to 8 days in smartwatch mode versus 3 days for the Ultra 2), we got around 13 hours run-time using multi-band GPS. While this will satisfy urban runners, hardcore adventurers or ultrarunners will want to venture further up the food chain to the likes of the Fenix, Enduro or Epix Pro for a watch that can go the distance.

Read our full Garmin Venu 3 review

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.

Shop the Venu 3S

Read our full Garmin Vivoactive 6 review

A jack of all trades and master of none, the Vivoactive 6 isn't going to turn the heads of hardcore data nerds or high mileage athletes, but if you’re after a do-it-all watch that blends Garmin’s fitness smarts with everyday wearability, it’s a very solid shout.

It's not quite got the chops of the Forerunner 265 when it comes to serious run tracking, but it’s far more smartwatch-y than either of those, and not as costly as the sleek Venu 3.

For the £279.99 price tag, you're also getting a good-looking AMOLED screen, solid fitness tracking, breadcrumb navigation and a huge suite of wellness tools – all wrapped up in a lightweight, wrist-friendly package. When it comes to those wellness tools, you get wrist-based heart rate, Body Battery, all-day stress, relaxation and movement reminders, meditation, breathwork, sleep coach and even nap detection.

Plenty of health tracking features cadence, stride length, ground contact time and running power analytics. However, there's no multi-band GPS or a barometric altimeter, which determines changes in elevation, limiting the watch’s use for hiking and trail running pursuits. Battery life is also a little shorter than billed, with our tests finding you can get around a week on a full charge, with 14 hours GPS.

Still, this is decent compared with the likes of the Apple Watch SE. And for everyday runners, gym goers and those who want a Garmin that can do a bit of everything – and look good doing it – the Vivoactive 6 is a strong, versatile pick that offers great bang for your buck.