The best Garmin watches tested in real, sweaty conditions

(Image credit: tomsguide)

The best Garmin watches on the market will give you unrivaled health and fitness tracking for sports and exercise. Whether you are blazing a trail in the wilderness, playing football, swimming, running, or sleeping, a good Garmin will offer you insight to improve your overall fitness and well-being.

Often more specialized than some all-rounders, Garmins excel when it comes to running and cycling, but are handy in pretty much every other discipline too.

Garmin has recently started adopting higher-tech features to compete with the Apple Watch Ultra, notably new OLED displays in the Forerunner 965 and its Marq range, as well as the new Fenix 8 for 2024.

There are many different Garmin watches available, ranging in price from inexpensive models to more specialised items that we’ve included in our list of the best running watches. With Garmin coupon codes, you can potentially save even more money.

Therefore, Garmin has you covered whether you’re looking for an affordable fitness partner for your couch to 5K or an all-singing, all-dancing fitness tracker for a triathlon. These are the best Garmin watches we believe will be available in 2024.

1. Garmin Venu 3

The greatest hybrid sport watch and smartwatch this generation is the Garmin Venu 3. You still get access to all of Garmin’s renowned GPS and GLONASS tracking capabilities, along with additional sports options including options for cycling, swimming, and running. However, this also tracks lifestyle factors like stress, sleep, and the capacity to connect to outside fitness equipment. On the incredibly clear AMOLED screen, you can even watch a visual preview of the person ringing your doorbell.

Regarding smartwatches, offline Spotify enables you to synchronise all of your music for straight listening on Bluetooth headphones without the need for a smartphone. You can glance at your day’s itinerary, monitor your stress level, water consumption, heart rate, and period symptoms, log period symptoms, get smartphone notifications, respond,

The extremely high-resolution 1.4-inch AMOLED display, which has three brightness levels and an optional always-on mode that lets you view a tonne of data at a glance without taking out your phone, makes all of this possible.

In addition, this third-generation device has a speaker and microphone that let you accept calls from a linked smartphone. Additionally helpful for onboard yoga sessions and audio guided meditations that can be accessed without a smartphone.

2. Garmin Vivoactive 5

The Vivoactive 5 is the Garmin watch for you if you want to gather as much information about your fitness and health as possible but don’t need a full-featured running watch as the Forerunner 265 does. It’s incredibly thin—just under 12 mm—lightweight, packed with 30 training profiles, excellent swimming and golf monitoring, and an amazing stream of data that you can peruse.

In our testing, we discovered that its GPS accuracy was on par with that of its larger, more robust sibling, the Garmin Forerunner 965. The designers have also done an incredibly amazing job of utilising the modular layout to fit in an abundance of data without making the device appear crowded.

It’s really practical, even though it’s not quite as premiun-feeling or functional for committed triathletes as a Forerunner. It is competitively priced when compared to Fitbit, and unlike the Google brand, no features are locked behind a paywall. You may obtain detailed insights into historical data and patterns without having to pay to a premium service by using the Garmin Connect app, which offers everything for free.

3. Garmin Fenix 8 (47mm)

The Garmin Fenix 8 lived up to the hype, being one of the company’s most eagerly awaited releases in recent memory. The Fenix 8, which is an improvement over the Fenix 7, which was once considered one of Garmin’s greatest models, has amazing hardware, such as an AMOLED display, a speaker and microphone for phone conversations, and an LED torch.

The Fenix 8 has improved waterproofing, and it can even be used as a diving watch similar to the Apple Watch Ultra 2. It is rated for diving to a depth of 40 meters, but Garmin believes it can go far further.

Better GPS onboard technology powers a new “dynamic routing” feature that, when you’re out jogging or cycling, automatically determines the best path home and modifies it if you make a wrong turn. There are three overall size options: 43mm, 47mm, and 51mm. Our excellent evaluation is based on the amazing 47mm variant. There’s also a Solar variant with a MIP display and commensurately big battery life.

Even if it doesn’t stray too far from classic Fenix designs, it still looks great and is among the nicest Garmins we’ve ever used.

4. Garmin Instinct 2

Although we loved the original Garmin Instinct, it was always an extremely sombre and utilitarian-looking watch. The Instinct 2 has all the advantages of its predecessor, such as an incredible battery life and a shockproof fiber-reinforced resin shell, but it does so in a sleeker package that comes in two sizes: 40mm for smaller wrists and 45mm for larger wrists.

It’s a comprehensive multi-sports watch, with carefully built monitoring modes for a wide range of activities, and runners, cyclists and swimmers are particularly well serviced. You receive all the cutting-edge training features you would anticipate from a contemporary Garmin watch, such as exercise recommendations, advice on recovery times, and load monitoring to help you find the ideal ratio of effort to rest.

Although the first-generation Instinct Solar might theoretically run for eternity on a single charge, the company claims that it’s now a realistic possibility if you spend enough time outside. The basic Instinct 2 delivers amazing battery life. Its performance in our tests astonished us greatly; even with frequent exercises, the power meter scarcely moved when we had ample sunlight.

Its monochrome memory-in-pixel display isn’t the best for maps, and you’ll receive far less detail than with a watch like the Fenix 7 or Epix (Gen 2). That’s the main drawback. Nonetheless, the Instinct 2 is highly recommended and is very appealing due to its mid-range price. If you’re looking for a less expensive model, the Garmin Instinct Solar, a The revised model is far more expensive to purchase than the original watch.

5. Garmin Enduro 2

The Garmin Enduro 2 is a large beast, and it’s not for folks who only regularly train, even if they might run one marathon a year. If you’re willing to shell out $1,099.99 (£929.99 / AU$1,749) for an outdoor watch, you’re probably an ultrarunner, long-distance runner, or triathlete.

For dedicated athletes with ample finances, the Garmin Enduro 2 is an ideal choice. It has an astounding number of features included. One notable feature is its exceptional battery life, especially when using the energy-draining GPS mode and seeing full-color topographical maps on the large AMOLED screen.

It offers numerous high-end features. We’ve already discussed the Training Readiness score, but two features that really stand out are NextFork, which notifies you when splits in the trial are about to occur, and grade-adjusted pace, which provides you with some standardised fitness data by indicating how your gradient pace—that is, hill climbing—translates to running on a level surface. The amount of time you spend at race aid stations is calculated by automatic rest time. In addition, it has every standard function included in almost every other Garmin watch that has been produced to date.

For casual exercisers, its price is difficult to justify. However, the Enduro 2 is ideal for use as a performance tool by fierce competitors.

How to choose the best Garmin watch for you

When purchasing a Garmin watch, there are three crucial elements to consider: what sport are you interested in, what level are you at, and what is your budget?

It’s great that you’re beginning your fitness adventure and looking for a watch that will help you develop better habits. A Venu line watch will be the ideal choice for you. They provide a decent range of general fitness tracking features and are quite compact and inconspicuous, making them ideal for all-day wear. The Venu 2 and Venu 2 Plus are our preferred choices if your budget allows it because of their excellent displays and inbuilt GPS.

Let’s say you are an intermediate or beginning runner. The Forerunner 165 or 245 will be ideal for you in that situation. In addition, the Forerunner 265 or 965 are excellent triathlon watches that will serve you well if you also like to swim, cycle, or both. Concerned about scrapes and scuffs? Take a look at the Instinct 2; it’s constructed like a tank and has excellent battery life.

For those who are dedicated to their training and seek the deepest understanding of their physical and mental well-being, the Fenix 7, Epix Gen 2, and its more recent Pro models are fantastic options. The latter is ideal for exploring new routes because it has an excellent high-resolution OLED display for mapping. It does have a price, though, as the Fenix 7 is a more affordable option while not being as good.

How we test

We wear a Garmin watch every day for at least two weeks during the testing process to give it a complete picture of our fitness and health and to make sure the battery life meets expectations. We slept, exercised, and recovered with all the Garmin watches on this list to discover which is ideal for what reason. We considered how responsive their heart rate monitors were, how accurate their GPS tracking was, and how well-made their training materials were. We have also assessed their general design, display quality, and battery life.

We enable SpO2 tracking if available and track at least five workouts during those two weeks to give us an estimate of how long the watch’s battery will survive in regular use. If the watch allows software downloads from Garmin Connect, we can also utilise a battery monitor app to check how quickly it drains.

To verify the accuracy of the watch’s GPS, we take it for numerous runs on pre-measured courses and compare the findings to similar route-mapping software from our phones and a competing watch, generally an Apple Watch Ultra. If it can map, we utilise Garmin Connect to generate a new route, transfer it to the watch, and use it to navigate.

We’ll put the watch through its paces in a range of activities, from indoor cycling to running, and we’ll examine specific measures like heart rate variability and sleep ratings. Does the wealth of information available match up to similar watches in its price range? Is the presentation clear and informative? For additional information, see our section on how we test.