Best Garmin Watches 2025: Top picks for every adventurer
The Garmin Forerunner comes in, at last count, over 80 different iterations, catering to all comers from the low-level user with shallow pockets in their Lycra leggings, right up to those with no need for pockets at all because they keep all cash digitalised and ready to be accessed over Garmin Pay. And it's in this latter camp that the latest Forerunner, the 965, lingers, waiting to be let off the leash.
At a relatively small 35.4mm (1.4-inches) in size, the 965 features a clear, bright AMOLED display with a 454 x 454-pixel count, a whopping 32GB of memory, and a big ol' battery that'll see you good to go for up to 23 days, dependent on usage, obviously.
Built from titanium for strength and lightness, Corning Gorilla Glass DX takes good care of the display, while the bundled silicone strap will fit all but the most elephantine of wrist sizes (135-205mm) and the colour options run from the subtle to the, well, not so.
Inside, meanwhile, is an exercise-obsessed Aladdin's Cave of cutting-edge tech, including an absolute array of sensors for pinpoint GPS tracking and monitoring of your heart rate, respiration rate, stress and blood oxygen saturation, alongside a barometric altimeter, gyroscope, compass, thermometer, accelerometer and ambient light sensor. These all work in glorious union to unerringly measure your metrics and track every step, swing, stroke of any of the seemingly endless number of sports it can cover, whether that's a triathlon, indoor rowing, cycling, swimming, motocross, ice skating, martial arts, or cricket. In fact, the only sport it appears not to work with is Octopush, but I may have simply missed that in the option settings.
Naturally, all the usual suspects relevant to all those exercise options are present and correct, too, such as step counter, calories burned, swim speed, distance travelled, reps achieved, etc., tracking and recording every inch you travel on your journey to Olympian-like status.
With various safety features also in place, such as Incident Detection and Group Live Track available to keep an eye on you in case anything goes Pete Tong while you're out pushing your boundaries in the wild, you can run, ride and race secure in the knowledge that a snapped ankle or bad fall won't see you simply become another victim of Britain's bear population.
And as this is king of the Forerunners, it also comes rammed to the rafters with day-today dynamics, like Bluetooth for connectivity with your Android or iOS smartphone, thereby allowing for notifications, text response, call rejection (Android only), calendar access, smartphone/memory-based music control, Vibe camera remote, and more besides.
A truly great watch for those keen to achieve their own greatness, the Forerunner 965 is all things to all athletes.
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