Garmin has been the industry leader for innovation and performance when it comes to running watches. As demand has grown, so has the number of watches that they offer, which sometimes makes choosing just the right one for you a bit challenging. If you are a beginner runner, you could easily find yourself overspending by purchasing a watch designed with high-performance triathletes in mind.
If you’re a beginning to intermediate runner, it’ll be much easier for you to decide which Garmin running watch is right for you, start by deciding what your specific fitness goals are, and look for a watch that closely matches those goals. Choose a watch that will track the right statistics to help you achieve your goals. This brief guideline for some of the more popular models will help you narrow your options.
Best Beginner Watches
These Garmin watches are perfect for pairing with those people who’ve been walking or running enough to justify tracking their exercise with a phone-based app, but who’d like to be able to track a few more statistics. They are economically priced for even the most challenging of budgets and they’re among the most user friendly of running watches.
Two of the options that fall into this category are the Forerunner 10 and the Forerunner 35. The Forerunner 10 is the most economical choice. This basic watch tracks pace, distance, and calories burned. The Forerunner 35 is among the most costly of the beginners watches, for good reason. It is ideal for tracking all the essentials, including pace, distance, time, splits, calories, and can be paired with an optional heart rate tracker.
Best Intermediate Watches
Runners that have moved beyond recreational running and are considering participating in their first 10K, or even a marathon, need a watch that can keep up with them. An intermediate running watch is going to give you the ability to track a wider range of statistics than a beginner’s running watch, and allow more coaching and control over your training regimen. They are in the mid-range for running watches, but still quite affordable.
Two of your best options are the Forerunner 235 and the Forerunner 630. The Forerunner 235 features Garmin’s Elevate technology, which allows you to track your heart rate from your wrist. It also tracks a number of running stats, and provides music controls and smart notifications for messages and calls. The Forerunner 630 tracks an even wider range of running statistics, including lactate threshold ratings, stride length, vertical ratio, and performance condition. These are useful for improving your running efficiency.
These are only a few of the many Garmin running watches that you have to choose from, but they are a great place to start. As you get more serious about walking or running, you’re going to also get more serious about the amount of statistics that you’ll want the ability to track. These Garmin watches track the right number of statistics for each participation level, to enable your performance to continue to advance.
