Description
- Built with an always-on, full-color display that’s light on the wrist and easy to read even in direct sunlight.Special Feature:Waterproof.
- Battery life: up to 15 days of battery life in smartwatch mode for a full picture of your health — from sleep to training; plus, get up to 42 hours in GPS mode and up to 80 hours in UltraTrac mode
- Click or swipe through maps and stats with traditional button controls or a new, responsive touchscreen
- Whether you’re running on city streets or riding densely covered trails, Forerunner 955 provides full-color, built-in mapping to keep you on track
- Access multiple global navigation satellite systems, and get access to multiple frequencies sent by navigation satellites for improved accuracy in areas where GNSS signals are reflected, weak or typically don’t penetrate — giving you superior accuracy for how far and how fast you’ve run — even in challenging environments
- From the moment you wake up, get a training readiness score based on your sleep quality, recovery, training and more, so you can determine whether it’s a good day to go hard — or take it easy
- Get ready for your next race with race widget — which provides training tips, personalized daily suggested workouts and completion time predictions based on course details, weather and performance
- Using new indicators such as HRV status, your recent exercise history and performance, get an easy insight into your overall effort with training status — and know whether you’re training productively, peaking or strained
- Receive an overview of your sleep, recovery and training outlook as soon as you wake up with morning report — alongside HRV status, training readiness and weather; you can even customize your report to show what you want to see (This device is intended to give an estimate of your activity and metrics)
- With HRV status, gain a deeper understanding of your overall health, recovery and training performance through HRV while you sleep, based on technology developed by our Firstbeat Analytics team (This device is intended to give an estimate of your activity and metrics)
Andy –
Everything works like a dream
Estefanía –
There are some deep dives discussing the Garmin 955 Forerunner on the internet, so I will not reinvent the wheel. This is just an overview by an average non-competitive runner. I’m 69 and have been running for 50 years. While I get slower yearly, I run 3000K a year.
I replaced my aging Fenix 5X with the Garmin 955. I debated staying with the Fenix line, but I am glad I moved to the Forerunner series of sports watches. My last Forerunner was a big orange 910 back in 2011, and believe me, the 955 isn’t your Grampa’s Forerunner!
The Forerunner 955 is a light watch and fits on my thin wrist. The large screen is quite legible indoors and outdoors. I covered the screen with a screen protector (reviewed elsewhere on Amazon), and the screen is still easy to read in all situations.
The 955 has excellent maps, and the touchscreen makes navigating very smooth. The on-the-fly routing leads the field. (See what I did there?) The 955 works with Komoot and provides turn-by-turn navigation. While I prefer Suunto’s mapping software to Garmin’s, the 955 is a close second for designing a course.
One of my favourite features of the 955 is the daily morning report. Your watch analyzes sleep, recovery and training, mixes it up with weather and heart rate variability and gives you a suggested training plan for the day. If you are like me and subscribe to a coached running plan, you can load a week’s schedule into the watch.
The Body Battery feature is Garmin’s answer to the Whoop, and I will be curious how the two stack up. I’ll update this review in a few months.
The 955 has a built-in power meter, which reads higher than my Stryd unit. There is no standard for power so that each company will generate different numbers based on proprietary algorithms. What is essential is that the numbers are consistent, and the 955 and Stryd graphs parallel each other for the most part. The Stryd reacts slightly quicker to intervals than the Garmin.
The 955 will also provide running dynamics. While I know some folks swear by these metrics, I’ve only been concerned with cadence.
There are too many metrics to discuss in a short review, but I will mention my two favourites: ClimbPro and PacePro. Seeing a visual chart of a hill with the gradients is handy for long trail races, and PacePro, with grade-adjusted pacing, helps you pace a long race.
While I don’t listen to music when I run, I did test the 955 with Amazon and Spotify. Both platforms loaded and played music easily. Remember that you will need these services’ premium (paid) versions to load music on your watch. (For some reason, I seem to need three paid streaming services.) I tried pairing several Bluetooth headphones, and all worked. I’m assuming playing music from your watch would be very detrimental to battery life.
Garmin’s software is complex, and there is a learning curve to getting the most out of the data the watch collects. The Connect software is being redesigned for Spring 2024, and I hope the UI will be updated and more organized. That noted it is simple to track the metrics that are important to you and ignore the rest.
I’m not a triathlete, but I understand that Garmin will significantly improve the Automatic transition mode for the triathlon feature on the next update to Connect. Also slated for an update is track mode, making it more in tune with Apple’s excellent track database. I’m a track rat and love that feature on my Apple Watch.
Garmin is the big player in the room, so most third-party software is written to work with Garmin. I use Training Peaks, and the integration is seamless. I don’t use Strava, but my running buddies tell me the “Orange App” imports Garmin’s data.
The 955 works with all Garmin hardware. I weigh myself on my Garmin scale each morning, and all the weight-based metrics are imported to Connect instantly. I’ve not had good luck with wrist-based heart rate in any watch, and I use the HRM Pro strap, which integrates fluidly with the 955.
There is an App Store for Garmin, and you can buy widgets, watch faces and apps. I’ve never bothered, as the watch does all want, with one exception. I miss Suunto’s excellent Backyard Ultra widget. It is an immaculate and elegant way to track a 100-miler. I keep my Suunto P9P just for Backyard Ultras.
The 955 will run for 40-plus hours on a charge, so I top it up midweek. The 955 uses a proprietary charging cable. I usually ding any company using a proprietary charging cable, but the Garmin cable is so ubiquitous that you can find one to borrow at any race you attend.
In conclusion, I’m happy with the Garmin 955. My only quibble is I wish Garmin had included a quick-release watch strap with the 955 as they do with the Fenix line.
Kevin Loomis –
I’m a very late adopter to the smartwatch field so everything thing is very new to me. After one week, I can’t be happier with this watch. The battery is terrific from what I was expecting. Granted the more you workout and are pinging the gps the quicker the battery will go. The coach or whatever seems like a great tool that is actually helpful. I like adding Spotify and syncing some Bluetooth headphones. The metronome really helps my pacing. Traditionally I am not a watch wearer but thankfully It’s very lightweight, though it sticks up a hair more than I wish it would. Sleep report and body battery are neat, I really am very happy and hoping for a very long time with this watch.
It’s very satisfying tracking all my biking, running, pilates yoga, and weight training, I will try swimming soon as we get a clear day.
Amazon shipped it very fast and it was in brand new mint condition. Setup was very easy especially if you already set up a Garmin account. There are hundreds of features I couldn’t begin to review them all.
Evan Humphreys –
I was tired of having to charge my watch every few days when I did my research on the 955 Solar. I should’ve bought this watch years ago. I’m active every single day, I average 6-7 mile walks 5x a week and I go hiking on the weekend. I don’t have to charge this watch until day 9 or day 10, depending on how much sun exposure the watch gets.
If you’re a current Garmin user, I don’t need to sell you on the watch features, you already know what you’re getting.
Fantastic watch with all the Garmin features you already know about with excellent battery life.
Thelbot –
Where to begin… I bought this watch on some kind of super sale. I am not a watch guy, and always thought people with smart watches were just in the craze. Decided to take the leap since I already have a garmin bike computer, and I recently started running and swimming. I’ll try to keep it short. There
Are a million how to videos that show this watches features so I’ll skip that
This watch, is jammed pack with features. I don’t even use them all there is so many. I love the ease of use, great tracking for running and swimming. Easy to start, pause and stop workouts. The touch screen works deceptively well under water? Its weird I’ve never seen a touch screen work when wet.
The screen is plenty bright with sunglasses on outside, and I’ve been getting almost 2 weeks of battery with 7ish hours of logged activity a week.
I love the morning report (I sleep with it on)
The best part, hands down, is it works with the dexcom g7. For all you diabetic folks. There is dexcom and freestyle apps and watch faces to get your blood sugars right on there in a slightly delayed display.
Love this watch, if you’re in the fense like me, buy it. If you’re friends have lower versions, talk smack
Mantou –
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Por lo pronto todo bien, vino en buen estado, si funciona, es ligero y fácil de usar.
Mantou –
Funciona excelente! Tal vez pensaba que la batería duraría más por ser solar. Gasté más por un producto que supuestamente rinde más por ser solar y resulta ser una pérdida de dinero. Aún así le pongo 5 estrellas porque cumple perfecto con su función y estoy contento con el precio. Muy buen producto
Evan Humphreys –
I was a little worried initially if this would look a bit small on my wrist. Something about a big bold watch on my wrist I was really drawn to. This watch fits just that and is a little more elegant than the Fenix line, in my opinion.
My first Garmin watch was the Venu Sq Music, which I still currently use for work. Work is a bit physical, and I want to keep this watch for just my workouts, mainly running. The Venu Sq Music is a little small for my liking, but I really like the look and feel of this watch.
I would personally recommend to get the solar option, but as others have said, if you never go outside it’s probably not needed. I ordered this watch mid Oct 2022, so not as many opportunities in WI to gauge the charging/maintaining abilities- I will have to wait for summer or a vacation for that. I did have a nice sunny day in late October here, and sitting for roughly 1hr in the sun charged a percent. Pretty decent in my opinion. I do not use any of the music, txt alert, or other Bluetooth options other than to sync to my phone every few days. Battery life is amazing. To a point that I actually have to think hard when my last charge was when it finally needs to be plugged in. I’m sure not using the Bluetooth alerts help a lot. I run just about everyday and use the GPS on run mode, so I still do challenge the battery a bit.
Tons of features that I am still learning. The watch does take a few weeks to “learn you”. I take the training suggestions with a grain of salt, but have noticed suggestions are not all that far off from my pre-planned training program.
I like the quick morning report each morning. Kinda fun to wake up and look at phone for this info.
Sure it’s expensive but GPS tracking, battery life, and overall software/options on this watch are very expensive.
I was on the fence at first, but very glad I pulled the trigger.
A. Donald –
Excelente precio y tiene todas las funciones que necesito
Thelbot –
I got this refurbished watch on Black Friday for my daughter at an AMAZING price! She is a triathlete and wanted this for Christmas. It tracks EVERYTHING. In the first few days, her watch was telling her she was not working out hard enough. Yesterday, it said she needed to rest more, It tracks her sleep, O2, pace, recovery everything. Plus the batter lasts forever (unlike my Samsung Galaxy watch). If I had not just purchased my Samsung this year, I’d also get this watch.
OR should i say wrist CLOCK! It’s HUGE! More a wrist clock vs wrist watch. 🙂 Highly recommend for athletes who track everything.
Andy –
I generally like this 955 watch. It tracks almost everything of my daily activities, including my meetings, phone calls, music, sleep, and exercise etc.
Comfortable to wear – much easier than Apple Watch Ultra. Not only because it is lighter but also because its simplistic band design. Just easy to wear and taken off.
But – I’m so not a fan of 955’s screen. Overall it is Ok indoor but as soon as it hits outdoor with bright sunlight, the screen is almost unreadable to me. Yes it is too dark. Dimmer screen is great for battery conservation, but I’d appreciate if is is more readable. This is important to me. So I decided to return it and add a few dollars for a AMOLED 965 series.
Great product –
Ideal para personas que están de lleno en el deporte, mide absolutamente todo. Hecho específicamente para triatlón y multisport