Garmin Forerunner 945 Review

Building on the Garmin Forerunner 935, the new Forerunner 945 has been redesigned with longer battery life, Pulse Ox monitoring, full-colour onboard maps, and a load of new performance metrics from the brand — oh, and music too!

If you are seeking maximum performance from a watch, the Garmin Forerunner 945 will work as hard as you do. Its thin, sleek body is packed with features designed to help endurance runners and triathletes get the most out of their workouts. Using an optical heart rate monitor and blood oximeter, Garmin is able to provide the best training metrics to predict your performance, analyse training, estimate VO2 max, improve running form, recommend recovery time, and much more.

To minimise what you bring with you on a run, the Forerunner 945 includes Garmin Pay for contactless payments and music storage so you can get into the rhythm as you go. Music can be easily downloaded through Garmin Express or using the Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer apps, and with the watch's Bluetooth connectivity, it easily connects to your favourite wireless headphones. The battery lasts up to an impressive 10 hours while using music in GPS mode, so you don't have to sacrifice your tunes during a long run or race.

For safety during your run, the Garmin Forerunner 945 includes built-in colour topo maps and turn-by-turn navigation. In the case of an accident, a new incident detection feature sends your location to pre-selected emergency contacts.

Our testers spent a month wearing the Garmin Forerunner 945. Read our in-depth look below to find out what they thought of this feature-packed GPS watch.

Tyler: "The materials are lightweight but substantial. When I press the buttons, I can feel the quality. I have even been a little rough on the watch, and it has yet to show any signs of scratching."

Kyle: "Materials and build quality are top-notch. I was 100% convinced I had scratched it when I rubbed up against metal shelving, but there's not a mark on it. My other watches probably would not have fared as well."

Tyler: "The technology in this watch is amazing. It has premium software, syncs fast to GPS, and features a long battery life. Really, the only issue I have is with Garmin's phone app. I notice all my watches have issues staying connected to my phone."

Kyle: "I felt like I just scratched the surface of the capabilities of the 945. Every day I found a new feature or new way of doing something that would have had a positive effect on my workout and day. Also, the optical heart rate monitor was always accurate when compared to my chest-mounted heart rate monitor on another GPS unit."

Tyler: "Garmin is one of the easiest watch brands to use. Whether it is navigating the features or downloading and syncing data, the whole system is very intuitive."

Kyle: "It was incredibly easy to use all the features of this watch. I had no issues navigating menus and changing settings. The Bluetooth was quick to set up and had all of my phone notifications instantly reporting to the watch. I could even answer a call without touching my phone — pretty handy if you have headphones or just can't afford to miss a call."

Tyler: "Coming from the fenix line, this Forerunner 945 is significantly lighter and less bulky on my wrist. It fit my wrists perfectly, and I would even forget that I was wearing it at times. People with smaller wrists might find this watch to be too big, as it is slightly larger than the Garmin 245 series."

Kyle: "Amazingly comfortable, this watch didn't move or shift at all during activity. The silicone band had a lot of adjustability and was easy to dial in comfortably. Honestly, I forgot I was wearing a GPS watch and missed out on a couple of opportunities to record an activity. My only wish was that it had more style for the money."

Tyler: "For most runners, it may be hard to justify the $989 price tag, but if you are looking for a multisport watch that has all the bells and whistles, it is definitely worth the money. However, if you are a casual runner who doesn't need maps, then you would probably be fine with the less pricey Forerunner 245 or 645 (if you need the altimeter)."

Kyle: "Amazing value. Garmin kills it with all the features and metrics that come with this watch. Music storage, mapping, Spotify, activity training analysis, multisport features, find-my-phone, accurate optical HRM data, great battery life — the list is endless."