Even though Prime Day is still a few days away, we’re happy to see that there are already a lot of early Prime Day deals on Garmin watches, pretty much across the board. So, if you’re into fitness, camping, hiking, or even extreme sports, now is a great opportunity to get your hands on one of the best brands in the fitness space. To give you an extra hand in finding the best smartwatch deals on Garmin, we’ve gone out and scoured all the big retailers for the best Garmin deals we can find and listed them below. That said, if you haven’t quite found what you’re looking for below, be sure to also check out these Prime Day smartwatch deals.
Garmin Vivoactive 5 — $250, was $300
One of the cheapest and best options for a fitness watch from Garmin is this deal on the Vivoactive 5, which our reviewer Mark Jensen found to be great “if you’re someone who likes to keep an eye on their heart health and stress levels while also getting in some casual runs.” A lot of that is due to its sports apps and sensor suite, which will let you know a significant amount of information from Pulse Ox to heart rate. The AMOLED display is also pretty gorgeous to look at, and while using it is generally easy, there is a learning curve the first time due to the fact that Garmin uses its own OS. Battery life is also excellent, with around ten days of usage, which gets knocked down to five days if you have the always-on display, although that’s still quite a significant amount of time.
Garmin Instinct 2S — $280, was $300
The Garmin Instinct 2S is a great upgrade from the original Garmin Instinct and is a great smaller fitness tracker for those who don’t want something with a massive smart screen. It is very rugged, which is rather obvious given its overall looks, and can run for up to 21 days with the GPS switched off, which is impressive. On the other hand, if you switch GPS on, you only get about 22 hours, but that does mean you at least get some time at night where you can charge it while sleeping. Of course, it also has the full suite of sensors like Pulse Ox, respiration, and heart rate monitoring, so it’s an excellent tool to use if you want to keep track of any sports or activities you do, especially with the “body battery” metric it provides.
Garmin Instinct Solar — $300, was $400
The Garmin Instinct Solar is a great alternative for those who want a watch with a slightly longer battery life because, as the name suggests, the watch can actually be charged through solar power, which is impressive. It is, of course, also loaded with things like GPS, a full sensor suite, and some more interesting features like Jumpmaster mode and waypoint projection. Interestingly, it also comes with a stealth mode to stop any sort of tracking or signals being sent out, as well as a nighttime mode that’s meant to be readable by night vision goggles.
Garmin Forerunner 255 Music — $305, was $400
On the other hand, if you don’t plan to be part of a military contingent and want something that’s specifically made for runners, then the Garmin Forerunner 255 is probably the best watch for you. Made specifically for runners, as the name suggests, it can evaluate your state of overall fitness as a runner using various sensors and statistics, including week and month-long analysis of your overall performance. Also, since it is targeted to music, you can download up to 500 songs from Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer so that you can connect a pair of headphones to your watch and leave your smartphone back home.
Garmin Forerunner 265 — $350, was $450
The next iteration of the Forerunner, the Garmin Forerunner 265, offers a slightly more traditional smartwatch experience while still being one of the best of its time up to the end of 2023. At the time, our reviewer Joe Marin said that ” the Garmin Forerunner 265 may be one of the very best you can buy in 2023,” and for those who don’t want to spend nearly a thousand dollars on something like the Apple Watch Ultra 2, the Forerunner 265 is an excellent option. The AMOLED touch display is gorgeous, the sensor suite is very thorough, and it even has some great safety features like accident detection, which only the latest Apple and Samsung smartwatches have for a higher cost.
Garmin Venu 3S — $400, was $450
The Garmin Venu 3S is made to offer the best middle ground between a smartwatch and a more focused fitness tracker, and you can see that by the fact that it makes a few more compromises to get it closer to a smartwatch. It comes with an AMOLED display, which is no surprise, but it also offers things such as sleep coaching and a microphone and speaker, so you can answer and make calls directly from the watch. Of course, it’s still a Garmin watch, so you can find Garmin Coaching, fitness and workout tracking, a great sensor suite, and a rather rare wheelchair mode that tracks hand pushes instead of steps, so you can still get your workout tracked.
Garmin Forerunner 965 — $500, was $600
If you really want to take your running as seriously as possible, then you’ll want the best of the best when it comes to fitness trackers made specifically for runners, and one of those is certainly the Garmin Forerunner 965. When Digital Trends compared the Garmin Forerunner 265 vs. 965 we found that, if you’re willing to put money aside, the Forerunner 965 was the clear winner with several worthy improvements. For example, the Forerunner 965 had a more rugged titanium body, a longer 23 day battery life with navigation off, and more advanced training features, like more complex map routes and Load Ratio. The Forerunner 965 also has a slightly larger screen and a more substantial 454 x 454 resolution, compared to the 416 x 416 resolution of the Forerunner 265.
Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar — $900, was $1,000
While a lot of folks who take part in extreme sports may go for something like the Apple Watch Ultra, another great option is the Garmin Fenix 7X Pro Sapphire Solar, even though it can be a little bit on the pricey side. It has a pretty large 1.4-inch display where you can more easily read any maps you have loaded in. Not only that, but it can tell you things like your running strength during ascents and descents, an overall endurance score based on your various activities, and a morning readiness report that gives you a sense of whether you should push yourself or take a rest. Interestingly, it even includes a flashlight with several levels of strength, so on the off chance you find yourself somewhere dark, you at least have a backup light.
How to choose a Garmin Watch on Prime Day
Unlike some other smartwatch makers like Samsung and Apple, Garmin watches don’t have the sort of scaling and upgrade path that you might be familiar with. That means that “more expensive” doesn’t necessarily mean better, with each Garmin watch made for a specific purpose rather than being a catch-all device with easily identifiable direct upgrades. As such, the first and most important thing to consider before buying something from Garmin is what sort of usage you’re going for.
The first and most important thing to realize is that most Garmin watches are more fitness trackers than smartwatches, so you won’t get the same sort of smartwatch experience as you might find from the other big brands. That said, there are some models that do get pretty close to a more traditional smartwatch experience, such as the Garmin Venu 3S, which straddles the line between smartwatch and fitness tracker, although even the Forerunner series, which ostensibly looks and acts like a smartwatch, is still more about fitness tracking. Then, of course, there are models like the Instinct series that don’t even have a traditional smartwatch screen, so you have to see if you’re ok with that.
Once you’re aware of the fact that Garmin doesn’t offer a traditional smartwatch experience, the only thing left to do is get a sense of what sort of activity or bit of fitness you want to track. The Forerunner series is perfectly made for those who want to run competitively, whereas if you want something basic to track stress and overall health, then the Garmin Vivoactive series is the way to go. Then, of course, you have the higher-end watches like the Garmin Fenix, which is made to be an incredibly rugged watch for those who want to go out camping or hiking on trails away from civilization. In a sense, it’s akin to something like the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which is made for intense sports and activities.
Otherwise, Garmin watches are just all-around well-built and have similar great features, such as substantial battery life when not using navigation tools like GPS, which tends to cut that down substantially. It’s also worth noting that there are some Solar versions that can charge through sunlight, but it’s not going to be the same as plugging in, and is more meant for backup and some additional charging. Also worth noting is that Garmin uses its own OS, so don’t expect a similar experience to Android or iOS, but once you get over that learning curve, it’s actually pretty intuitive.
How we chose these Garmin Watch Prime Day deals
As folks working at Digital Trends on commerce content for a long time, we’re familiar with the uncomfortable truth that Garmin watches are, as a whole, rather pricey. This can be especially problematic when suggesting a Garmin watch to those who are possibly more interested in leaving the Android and iOS ecosystems rather than the fitness aspects of Garmin watches. As such, the prices we often see on Garmin gear can be hard to justify for most, which makes picking the best Garmin Watch deals a tricky balancing act.
Even so, we do our best to not only consider the various features and offers of any single Garmin watch but also to look at historical prices and pricing within the context of other watches before suggesting anything. To that end, we do our best to bring you the cheapest Garmin watch deals that will provide you with the best return on your investment, which hopefully gives you the confidence to buy anything you see on this list. We also do our best to include Garmin watches that we have tested, either as part of a review process or personally, and we aim to include picks that show up on our “best of” lists whenever we get the chance.
