The best Garmin watches of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed

For a couple of years, Garmin carried the Epix line with an AMOLED display that stood apart from the Fenix series. In August 2024, that changed with the Fenix 8 now appearing with both AMOLED and solar MIP display options. Given that the Enduro 3 offers a solar MIP display, has longer battery life, and is less expensive, the AMOLED Fenix 8 models are a top choice for mapping and communications.

The Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED connects seamlessly to Android and iOS smartphones, in addition to golf club sensors, bike sensors, and more. Just about every sport is covered, including pickleball, with an updated smartphone experience so you can customize the watch settings on your phone and sync them over to the watch.

Also: This Garmin beat my Apple Watch Ultra in almost every way (and it’s just as rugged)

New communications features for the Fenix series include an integrated speaker and microphone that supports phone calls from the wrist, access to your connected phone’s assistant, onboard voice commands, and voice recordings. These features, along with an updated user interface for notifications, bring the Fenix 8 closer to serving as your primary smartwatch.

Touchscreen capability is available, while the traditional Garmin five-button interface is also present to give you access to all options for navigating the watch. The buttons now use haptic sensors, with the watch supporting deeper dive activities, so the physical response when you press buttons on the Fenix 8 is different from other Garmin watches. No solar options are available since the AMOLED display consumes too much battery power for solar to make much impact. There is solar available on the MIP display option of the Fenix 8 if you prefer that option for longer battery life.

You can buy the watch in 43mm, 47mm and 51mm sizes with a variety of watch case and band color options too.

Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED (51mm) tech specs: Display: 1.4-inch 454×454 pixels | Battery Life (GPS tracking mode): 84 hours | Dimensions: 51x51x14.7 mm | Weight: 92 grams (with band) | Water/Dust Resistance: 10 ATM | Band Size: 26mm 

In the early days, Garmin watches were popular primarily with runners. Today, there are dozens of Garmin watches to choose from, many priced at $400 or more. But the new Garmin Forerunner 165 gets back to the basics with an affordable, $250 watch focused on providing what most recreational runners need to track their performance.

Even at this affordable price, Garmin’s Forerunner 165 includes a brilliant AMOLED touchscreen display for that elegant smartwatch visual experience found in Apple and Samsung smartwatches. It’s also a perfect watch for those with smaller wrists, especially in a market full of big, bulky watches.

Of all the sports and fitness plans, the Forerunner 165 is most focused on supporting runners, with features like adaptive training plans, wrist-based running power and dynamics tracking, training effect, course support, and more. You’ll also find 25 activity profiles for activities like swimming, pickleball, yoga, and pilates.

A feature I particularly enjoyed using was “Morning report,” which summarizes my previous day and evening’s tracking, along with the training plan for the day of. Sleep monitoring with sleep scores and nap detection were also welcome features. 

Review: Garmin Forerunner 165 Music

Garmin Forerunner 165 features: Battery life (GPS): 19 hours | Display technology: AMOLED | Unique feature: Affordable with advanced running metrics | Size: 43 mm 

The Instinct 2X Solar is a GPS Garmin watch with features tailored to outdoor pursuits. Its ABC sensors help users better navigate trails, and the trackback routing feature makes it easy for hikers and runners to get back to their starting points. Multi-band and multi-frequency support is provided too. It is built to withstand the elements, and its rugged design isn’t just for looks.

With solar charging built-in, the Instinct 2X has the potential to run near-limitless on outdoor adventures without needing to constantly top off and charge. Garmin has significantly improved the software on the Instinct 2X, even including support for activities like golf, surfing, and obstacle course racing. The more I used it while testing it out, the more I enjoyed it, particularly the small secondary display in the top right corner that provides clear at-a-glance information.

If you spend time outdoors in the fall and winter months, whether it is for hunting, skiing, or enjoying the snow in other forms then the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar may be the watch for you. It even supports the ability to track your dog if you are out bird hunting with your favorite companion. 

Additionally, this mid-range price model includes many health monitoring features, such as sleep and stress tracking and women’s health capabilities. It also supports the Garmin Connect store, so you can load it up with the Starbucks app and many more third-party options.

Review: Instinct 2X Solar

Garmin Instinct 2X Solar features: Battery life (GPS): 60 hours, 145 with solar | Display technology: Memory-in-pixel monochrome | Unique feature: LED flashlight, 2nd window | Size: 50 mm 

Garmin’s watches are typically GPS sports watches focused on helping you improve your health, fitness, and performance. While they offer some features that rival other smartwatches, the Venu 3/3S is clearly the best Garmin to take on the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch. I tested the Venu 3S for several days, as did my daughter, and it convinced her to switch from her Fitbit thanks to its longer battery life and sleek look. 

The Venu 3/3S is extremely well built, has a brilliant AMOLED display, lasts for more than a week, lets you accept and make calls from the wrist, and supports voice assistants via a connected smartphone.

In addition to its smartwatch functions, the Venu 3/3S supports all of the amazing Garmin functions and vast ecosystem. This includes subscription music support, Garmin Pay, Connect IQ app support, and the superb Garmin Connect smartphone application.

If you are looking for a health and wellness watch that lasts longer than one or two days, the Garmin Venu 3S is tough to beat.

Review: Garmin Venu 3S

Garmin Venu 3S features: Battery life (GPS): 21 hours | Display technology: AMOLED | Unique feature: Calls and voice assistant | Size: 41 mm 

Garmin’s Vívomove line is known for blending the natural mechanics of a traditional analog watch with its latest digital features. This makes models like the Vívomove Trend ideal for users who prefer a subtle and timeless smartwatch design. 

ZDNET’s reviews editor June Wan tested the latest Vívomove Trend and found it to strike a good balance of in-app health and fitness features, battery life, and charging tech. Speaking of which, the Trend is the first Garmin watch to support wireless charging in general. That means you can plop the wearable on any Qi-enabled charging pad and it’ll power up nicely. (There’s also a wired option included in the box if that’s more your cup of tea.)

Also: Garmin’s Vívomove Trend fixes my biggest issue with its smartwatches

With a hybrid design, the Vívomove Trend’s motorized hands will adaptively rotate around the watch face as you interact with it, from swiping through fitness metrics to changing sound and vibration settings to starting a workout. Auto workout detection is still a thing, as is Garmin Pay and the slew of data the companion app provides for any other model, so you won’t miss out on every Garmin feature by going with more style here.

“In ways, I appreciated the focus on digital well-being here, with the lack of bright, distracting, and colorful screen animations, alongside my daily health metrics,” Wan wrote about the watch.

Garmin Vivomove Trend features: Battery life (Smartwatch): Five days | Display technology: OLED | Unique feature: Minute hands and wireless charging | Size: 40 mm 

Garmin’s Vivoactive 5 joins other modern smartwatches with a brilliant high-resolution AMOLED display, replacing the memory-in-pixel displays of all past Vivoactive models. It’s comparable in design to the new Venu 3 series with the Venu, focused on challenging smartphones with phone call and voice assistant support. The Vivoactive 5 is much more affordable than the Venu 3/3S with its focus on casual athletes.

The Vivoactive 5 is a lovely watch available now for $300 in four color options and one size for all users. Garmin also included significant software upgrades with support for Body Battery personalized insights, Sleep Coach, workout benefits, recovery time, and more. 

More than 30 sports modes, support for wheelchair activities, nap tracking, and more make the Vivoactive 5 a fantastic GPS sports watch option for the masses.

Garmin Vivoactive 5 features: Battery life (GPS): 21 hours | Display technology: AMOLED | Unique feature: Animated workouts | Size: 42 mm 

The Instinct Crossover provides long battery life and rugged features with a classy, iconic design. If you like wearing a watch primarily to always provide you with glanceable time and want a watch that tracks all of your health and activity data, then the Instinct Crossover may be just what you are looking for. It also helps that Garmin incorporated a new GPS chipset with much more accurate performance than the Instinct 2 series.

The nice thing about a watch like the Garmin Instinct Crossover is that it functions primarily as a watch and then captures your health and activity data passively as you work out and live. Open up the Garmin Connect smartphone application and then you will find all of your data in full color with extensive capability to create reports and analyze your data. This includes blood pressure data from the new .

Review: The Garmin Instinct Crossover grew on me. I just wish it had this one killer feature

It takes a few days to fully appreciate the Garmin Instinct Crossover and for me it took viewing the watch in low light conditions where the hands and hour marks were always crystal clear, watching the hands dynamically switch whenever the content needed to be viewed, and the complete lack of thought about battery life. I continue to fall back on watches that last for weeks and will never fully embrace a watch that only lasts for one to three days again.

Garmin Instinct Crossover features: Battery life (GPS): 25 hours | Display technology: Memory-in-pixel monochrome | Unique feature: Minute hands and center display | Size: 45 mm 

The Garmin Approach S70 improves on the previous S62 with an AMOLED display, 42 and 47mm size options (people with smaller wrists can now enjoy this complete golf experience), improved PlaysLike features (temperature and barometric pressure accounted for), green contours with Garmin Golf subscription, and improvements in other health and fitness aspects of the Garmin ecosystem outside of golf. 

Some of the golf features found on the Approach S70 that are not available on other Garmin watches include custom targets, PinPointer, PlaysLike distance, Swing Tempo, green contours, and shot dispersion. Shot dispersion may be one of my favorite new features as it displays a box on the watch to show where your selected club shot may end up, based on your golfing history. 

Review: This Garmin golf watch has one key feature that makes it indispensable for my game

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the course with the Garmin Approach S70 and have yet to find another golf watch that offers as much as it does. If you’re passionate about golf, and you want a watch that can help you with other fitness activities just as much, then this is the watch to consider.

Garmin Approach S70 features: Battery life (GPS): 20 hours | Display technology: AMOLED | Unique feature: 18-hole status indicator | Size: 47 mm 

The latest in its triathlete-tailored Forerunner series, the Garmin Forerunner 965 builds on the extensive training features from its predecessor. Aside from the impressive performance metrics like outlining your running routes, showing training effects, and measuring VO2 Max, the 965 has a brilliant AMOLED display that is sure to turn heads.

Improved GNSS tracking with multi-band and multi-frequency support, managed via SatIQ, ensures your exact location is always accurately tracked. Bold color mapping is available for turn-by-turn navigation, trail running, and more.

While the Forerunner 965 is focused on the runner, there is also extensive support for golf so you don’t need a separate watch to recover from your running on a local course. However, Garmin’s unique product lineup strategy leaves CT-10 golf club sensors off the list for compatibility with this watch.

Garmin Forerunner 965 features: Battery life (GPS): 31 hours | Display technology: AMOLED | Unique feature: Advanced training metrics | Size: 47 mm