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The Best for Most People
Garmin Vivomove Trend
A Basic Fitness Tracker
Garmin Vivosmart 5
Your Apple Watch Dupe
Garmin Venu 3
The Best for Running
Garmin Forerunner 255
In certain circles, the word “Garmin” is less a brand name than a category definer, like Q-Tip or Band-Aid. From casual hikers to nationally ranked professional athletes, anyone who loves outdoor sports can glean useful information from the bevy of sensors, safety features, and sophisticated software that come with every Garmin watch. A few other fitness trackers have come close to replicating Garmin’s durability, wearability, and reliability, but the company remains the industry standard. Unlike, say, an Apple Watch, Garmins also work with both iPhones and Android phones.
Many features that only recently debuted on other fitness trackers, like sleep tracking, blood oxygen measurements, and fall detection, have been on Garmin watches for years. Over the half-dozen years, the WIRED team has tested dozens of Garmin watches. Let us help decide which Garmin is best for you.
Once you’re set up with your Garmin, don’t forget to check out our buying guides to the Best Barefoot Shoes, the Best Wireless Workout Buds, or the Best Hiking Gear.
Updated October 2023: We added the Vivomove Trend, the Epix Pro (Gen 2), the Venu 3, the Vivosmart 5, the Edge 840 Solar, and the Garmin Forerunner 255. We also updated links and pricing throughout.
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Photograph: Garmin
The Best for Most People
Garmin Vivomove Trend
Are you just starting out on your Garmin journey? Then you probably want one of the entry-level watches from the Vivomove line, which pack most of the Garmin functionality into a stylish smartwatch. This year’s addition to the lineup was the Vivomove Trend (8/10, WIRED Recommends), which introduced wireless charging for the first time. No more rattling around your desk for your proprietary Garmin charger before you go on vacation!
With the notable exception of onboard GPS—you do have to take out your phone and open the app every time you want to GPS-track an activity—the Vivomove Trend has most of Garmin’s full suite of athletic and health functions. It has Body Battery, or the feature that takes into account your sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability, and activity data to gauge your energy levels throughout the day. It has a barometer, accelerometer, altimeter, and Move IQ to auto-detect activities that are as short as a three-minute dash to the doctor’s office. It can track sleep and measure your SpO2, or the level of oxygen in your blood, and it also has incident detection during activity tracking, which means that if you’re working out alone, it can alert your emergency contact if something happens to you.
★ An Affordable Alternative: Is $270 is a little too rich for your blood? You can still find the Vivomove Sport ($177) in stock in many places, which has the same good looks and most of the same functions. If you’re anywhere near as absent-minded as I am, though, you may be making up that price difference in replacing your Garmin charging cables when you travel.
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Photograph: Garmin
A Basic Fitness Tracker
Garmin Vivosmart 5
Would you prefer a Garmin that doesn’t look like a watch at all? The Vivosmart 5 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is Garmin’s basic fitness tracker whose direct competitor is probably Fitbit’s flagship Charge 6 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). Garmin updated it in 2022, four years after its last iteration. It’s now a much more capable tracker with a host of small but necessary improvements.
Probably the biggest change is that it now has connected GPS, with a roomier screen that makes it easier to manipulate the touchscreen display. Like the Vivomove Trend, it also shows you your Body Battery and your SpO2 and has Move IQ to auto-detect activities. Unlike the Charge 6, it also has incident detection.
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Photograph: Garmin
Your Apple Watch Dupe
Garmin Venu 3
The Venu line is very similar to the Vivoactive line in that it’s made to track holistic health stats, but it has a slightly nicer build quality with a fullscreen AMOLED, a stainless steel bezel, Corning Gorilla Glass for the lens, and a fantastic two weeks of battery life. You also get upgraded software features. I particularly like waking up to Morning Report, which gives you the day’s information—your Body Battery, the weather, et cetera—and a new sleep coach with nap detection.
Health-wise, it has Pulse Ox blood oxygen monitoring. You can opt for either spot-checking or continuous checks. It also has Garmin’s FDA-cleared and clinically validated ECG app, which is one of the few ECG wearable apps that actually works on me. (I am fine! No atrial fibrillation here!) Workout-wise, it has GPS, Glonass, and Galileo satellite capabilities, a barometric altimeter, a gyroscope, and an accelerometer for finely tuned workout tracking. You can also now take calls with an onboard speaker and microphone, which is just OK. It sounds low and tinny and, on the other side, my spouse says it sounds like I’m sitting inside a can. However, it works! This is the watch to get if you have an Android phone and want better battery life and a slightly more extensive set of health features than a Pixel Watch 2 (7/10, WIRED Recommends). It still doesn’t have built-in body temperature sensing, though. (You’ll need the optional $40 Tempe sensor for that.)
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Photograph: Garmin
Garmin Forerunner 255
Senior writer Scott Gilbertson notes that at $350, the Forerunner 255 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of the best values-to-features propositions in Garmin’s lineup. The Forerunner line is made for runners. In addition to all the hardware—multiband dual-frequency GPS support, an altimeter, accelerometer—it has a lot of running-specific software. It measures your stride length and cadence. You can make training plans and race-specific plans.
It’s a little cheaper than the Venu 3 because it looks like what it is—a sports watch rather than a daily accessory. It has Garmin’s traditional five-button setup, with three on the right side, two on the left, and no touchscreen. But it also has many of the Venu 3’s holistic health features, like Body Battery, Morning Report, and your health snapshot. Depending on what you want to spend, you can also go up or down the Forerunner lineup for more or fewer features.
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Photograph: Garmin
The Best Outdoor Watch
Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2)
Every year, Garmin releases updates to its excellent outdoor sports watch lineups, the Epix series and the Fenix series. We have historically loved the Fenix series, but as their price points converge and the Epix’s battery life has improved, I’ve decided that for your money, you might as well get the Epix’s nicer screen.
We tested the Epix Pro (Gen 2) (8/10, WIRED Recommends), which has a huge AMOLED screen and a titanium bezel, which I still managed to bang up while rock climbing. Even powering this enormous screen, looking up offline maps, finding the nearest coffee shops, paying for my coffee with Garmin Pay, and tracking activities, I still got a whopping two weeks of battery life—a huge improvement over last year’s barely three days. (The Fenix has a solar charging edition, which would extend the battery life even more.) There’s also new software for outdoor sports, including a hill score for showing you how fit you are to tackle hills and an endurance score, which takes into account your running and hiking workouts to see how good you are at covering long distances.
Finally, there’s also a one-button flashlight, which I liked more than I meant to; the angle and placement is just much more convenient than the usual wrist wearable flashlight that makes you awkwardly angle your wrist to see anything to see anything in a dark tent.
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Photograph: Garmin
My Favorite Garmin Watch
Garmin Instinct 2 Solar
When Garmin first debuted the Instinct, I thought no one would want it. I was wrong; it’s now one of Garmin’s most popular trackers because it has excellent backcountry functionality at a much more reasonable price point than the high-end Fenix line. The Instinct has your basic necessary outdoor sensors—the ABC, or an internal altimeter, barometer, and compass with automatic calibration—but it is cheaper, mainly because instead of a gorgeous AMOLED with mapping capabilities, it has a much more basic-looking MIP (memory-in-pixel) display.
This is the watch I would wear if my job did not force me to keep switching my watch. I love its compact size and advanced functionality that belies its chunky, Tron-like looks. The latest Instinct 2 (9/10, WIRED Recommends), is updated with more colors, a smaller 40-mm bezel, and an updated high-resolution display. If you’re an outdoorsperson, the main reason to get the Instinct is the battery life. Unlike almost every other high-end Garmin, the solar charging panel increases the battery life by about 50 percent. When I tested it, I didn’t have to charge it for three weeks. I was also able to keep myself oriented while snorkeling and not drift off to sea, Open Water-style, so that was nice.
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Photograph: Garmin
The Best Bike Computer
Garmin Edge 840 Solar
The Edge 840 Solar (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of the most powerful cycling computers around—in a package that’s about the size of a deck of cards. It has multiband GNSS support for accurate wayfinding and 32 GB of internal memory for your cycling routes. It also has Garmin’s Power Glass, which extends the battery life up to 60 hours with battery saver on.
Our writer Steph Pearson noted that this year, the Edge 840 Solar came with a new series of software training features that (with a power meter and a heart rate monitor) basically make it a coach that you can take with you anywhere. Real-Time Stamina gauges your output before you bonk. Cycling Ability maps your output to the course you’re riding. Garmin’s navigation features let you map out routes to and from nearby coffee shops, all without interfering with your ride data. Adaptive Training will even give you personalized custom workouts for the day. In fact, Pearson says the only downside is that it’s so compact it’s sometimes a little hard to see all your maps and data.
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Photograph: Garmin
The Best Messenger for Backpacking
Garmin inReach Mini 2
No, this isn’t a watch, but it may be handy. Not everyone needs a satellite messenger—and having one does not mean you can call Search and Rescue if you’re scared you won’t make it back before dark. However, if you’re an experienced backpacker or mountaineer, or you frequently hike alone, you probably have an inReach Mini dangling from your backpack. I tested the inReach Mini several years ago and am excited to see an update.
The inReach Mini 2 is still tiny and light, weighing only 3.5 ounces. It does all the same things the old one did, like two-way text messaging off the grid; calling emergency services; and storing waypoints and maps. However, it now tracks your route automatically, so you can engage TracBack at any time to find your way back to the trailhead. It now utilizes four satellite systems, instead of just three, to find your position even faster than before. As with any satellite messenger, you will have to subscribe to a safety plan to initiate an SOS call, in addition to buying the device itself.
★ Alternative: Do you want to be able to send texts and initiate an SOS rescue, but you don’t necessarily need a device small enough to carry for miles? In that case, consider the inReach satellite messenger ($300), which does most of the same things, but is cheaper and a little larger (but not by much!) for your #vanlife. You will still need an inReach subscription plan. If you only go on one or two big trips a year, you might want to consider a personal locator beacon (PLB) instead.
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Photograph: Garmin
Can’t Find a Watch for Your Sport?
Other Garmins We Like
The best part about Garmin sports watches is that they are iterative, they all look basically the same, and they last forever. I have an Instinct from 2018 that still works; slightly older Forerunners and Fenixes are also great. There are also a ton of sports that I haven’t covered. We have a dearth of fly fishermen and divers on staff, but here are a few other options.
- The Instinct 2 Solar Surf Edition for $400: One of Garmin’s most popular models, the Instinct comes in several sports-specific versions. The surf edition—there’s also a tactical and an esports version—is compatible with the hugely popular surf forecasting company Surfline. You can see tide data and track your surfing (it also has the best colors.)
- The Approach S62 for $500: Garmin also has a golf-specific line that I haven’t tested.
- The Vívofit Jr. 3 for $90: They also offer a kid-specific line that I haven’t been able to convince my now 8-year-old to wear. (She prefers an Apple Watch instead.)
- HRM-Pro Strap for $130: A heart rate monitor that you strap around your chest will always be more accurate than a wrist-based one that jiggles around as you run, bike, climb, and fall. This one syncs via ANT+ and Bluetooth to whichever Garmin device you choose.
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Photograph: Garmin
How to Use a GPS Watch
Or, Why Is My Run 0.1 Miles Shorter?
People buy Garmin watches because they want accuracy in their exercise tracking and get very disappointed when it looks like their data is off. However, I give satellite-enabled watches a little leeway for a few reasons. Before you chuck your watch out the window, keep a few things in mind:
- Is there a lot of tree cover? As counterintuitive as it may sound, watches that pinpoint your location by pinging the location off a satellites (which, may I remind you, are in space) have trouble when there’s stuff in the way. That includes everything from tall buildings in a city, to trails with lots of trees. This is also a reason why your watch might have trouble connecting when you start an activity—step out from under your porch or out from under the power lines.
- Does the watch have an altimeter? The hypotenuse on a triangle is longer than the bottom side. If your watch does not have an altimeter (for example, the entry-level Forerunner 245 does not), your distance measurements may be slightly off.
- Did you pause? You might have different distance measurements than someone you were running with because no person runs the exact same way or stands in the exact same spot. Did you pee in the bushes? Did someone walk out farther to check out the view? Unless you paused your route in the exact same place at the exact same time, the reading won’t be exactly alike.