Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'm absolutely thrilled with my Garmin Forerunner 245! This watch has been a game-changer for my fitness journey. The accuracy of its tracking is impressive, and I love how it syncs seamlessly with my phone. It's comfortable to wear, even during long runs, and the battery life is fantastic. The customizable data screens are a great feature, allowing me to focus on the metrics that matter most to me. Overall, it's a reliable and stylish companion for anyone looking to elevate their fitness goals!

I have tried a variety of running watches and I always find myself coming back to Garmin. The Forerunner 245 is the perfect balance between smart technology and simplicity. The Garmin app allows for me to be able to see more in-depth statistics and data from my exercise and daily habits and the watch even evaluates your fitness and tells you how long you should rest before doing another similar exercise. There is also the ability to customize your watch face and download a watch face that is pleasing to you and shows the data you want to see. The battery is great as well. I usually go 5-8 days between charges and it charges rather fast too, usually being full charge for me after an hour or so. My only gripe with the watch is that sometimes if I do not sync the watch to my phone often enough it will stop sending notifications to the watch, but this is only a minor inconvenience as syncing the app to the watch is a quick process and it is my own forgetfulness that causes that to happen. Overall I am extremely pleased with this watch and recommend it to anyone who wants to exercise casually or compete in amateur competitions. Garmin does have more advanced watches for more high-level competition or for people who want more data when they exercise.

For the past 5 years I have been a Fitbit user. I had the Alta HR for the last 3 years. When its battery began to die, I looked for something a little smarter and in a more traditional watch format. After looking at Fitbit, Samsung, and Apple's offerings, I settled on Garmin and the Forerunner 245 GPS, specifically. It had just enough smart features without things like a microphone, which I didn't need. For the first couple of days I wore it in parallel with the Fitbit. I averaged around 12,000 steps each day and the Garmin was about 500 steps behind the Fitbit. I used the default strides on both devices, so that could account for the differences. The sleep tracking on the Garmin is way off. The Fitbit was not always accurate, but it did seem to align with how I felt when waking up each morning. The Garmin rarely shows the times I'm awake in the middle of the night even when I specifically recall being awake for a few minutes. Even in the mornings, if I lay in bed for 15 or 20 minutes after waking up, the Garmin shows that extra time as sleep. I don't find the watch interface or app intuitive. Trying to do something as simple as setting an alarm requires going through multiple menus. It also took multiple attempts to get a display I liked with all of the pertinent info I wanted on the main watch screen to show up and in a large enough font for me to see. Those are all of the knocks. Here's the good news... The band feels like it is of a much higher quality than the Fitbit bands. In the 3 years I had the Alta HR, I went through three Fitbit bands and then 3 or 4 knock-off bands. The watch face is very easy to see in daylight. The notification screens are easy to scroll through and I like that it has canned responses you can select for replies from the watch. The GPS works well and is one of the simpler apps to use on the watch. I used the GPS for walking twice at an hour for each walk. I charged the watch after 5 days, but I still had more than 25% battery, which probably would have lasted me at least 2 more days. Having the weather app on there is also convenient. I haven't tried to tweak it, but it appears to update just once each morning. Having more up to date weather information would be nice, but it works for me as is. The big question is if this is worth it for the price of $299. There are certainly other watches that are easier to use and have more functions at that price range. The sturdiness of this watch leads me to believe it will probably last longer than those other watches. It's also possible one of the lower priced Garmins watches would have sufficed. For me, though, I'm happy enough with this watch.

Works well for tracking running and viewing iPhone notifications. Screen is very configurable. Menus can be a little confusing. Battery lasts longer than specified.

Garmin watch is very useful in my work out. Easy to sync with my airpods

Really like this watch. I was turned off at first given my 2 year run with a Fitbit Versa 2. I had grown accustomed to the very brilliant and user friendly touch screen. After spending some time with the 245, I really do like the watch for a few reasons. First the GPS is accurate. Syncing with Strava is seamless. And the always on screen during the workouts is so easy to see in the sunlight. Additionally you can show 4 stats on the screen at one time. And you can easily customize multiple workout screens. Second, the battery life is amazing. If you don't use the GPS, I think this thing will go over a week without needing charged. Using the GPS an hour a day is looking like a 5-6 day battery life. Third, I like the always on display. It is somewhat faint but it is readable in daylight and is a very attractive watch and display. One complaint is the display is not as brilliant as many of the smart watches on the market. And the 245 does not have a brightness adjustment. The Garmin software is quite configurable and a little tricky at first. It is not as plug and play as the Fitbit, but I am appreciating the configurability the more I explore. I have had to spend time with it to really figure it out. Bottom line is it is a great running, walking, biking watch with an accurate GPS and long battery life.

battery life is very good, and comfortable to use.

This watch does exactly what I need it to: it tracks runs, it tells the time. What more could you want? User interface isn't the most user friendly (It seriously took me a week to figure out how to set the stopwatch) but now that I've got it figured out, I like it.

Great watch and it has a lot of features that anybody will love. One thing is that the band was small so I'm giving it 4 starts because of this but overall the design and UI are easy to use and it's a good looking watch

I had the Vivoactive line of watches and loved them, but couldn't get the 4 because of my work and the including of Spotify, etc. So, I went for this model and have to say that I really enjoy it! At first I thought it was touch operated like the Vivoactive, but that was my fault for not realizing. However, I enjoy the button operation better as the touch operation can be pretty finicky. My only complaint is that the battery, if you use the GPS tracking on it, does not last but more than maybe 3 days. So, I've gotten used to charging it more regularly. Overall, I'd recommend this watch.

This watch has a bit of a learning curve just compared to ofher products I am used to, but once I figured it out it has been great.

Great precision, comfortable to wear, good battery life, very light

Wasn’t a big fan. Outside of running, I don’t like it.

Purchased the 245 as an upgrade to the 45s. Love the additional features like respiration, pulse-ox and training impact. In comparison for wearability and style I preferred the band and size of the 45s. The band on the 245 does not integrate into the watch face like on the 45s and the band material feels lower quality. I wear my garmin all day/night and I found the 45s a bit more comfortable for smaller wrists but as a novice runner I'm sacrificing the style preference for the added features. If Garmin ever decides to offer an "s" version of their 245 series it would be a perfect fit.

Has everything you need for new runners. Battery life is ok

Great product would give five stars but the battery life requires a little more charging. More Bells and whistles with up grade but this watch does what a long distance runner needs.

Watch is nice. Trying to learn all the features. Personnel at Best Buy were useless as far as helping me with the watch. All they said was I have no idea how this works.

It does its work, but make sure you read all the specs on the device. It is not touch and you have to rely on buttons only. If you don't want the touchscreen option, I will recommend this item for sure.

Everything you would expect! The only thing that would make this a better device is if it had a touchscreen. But overall, it is a great device.

Was bought as a gift and the receiver loved it. Exactly what he needed for running. Lots of features