I’ve Sorted Out the Garmin Forerunner Models so You Don’t Have To
Garmin’s Forerunner lineup contains some of my favorite watches – the 265, which is still arguably the best of the bunch ; the 570, which recently came along and has some nifty new features ; and the 955, which is a heck of a deal for something so feature-rich despite its age. If those numbers don’t mean anything to you, keep reading – they’re actually pretty easy to understand once you learn the two rules Garmin uses to decide which number goes with which watch.
The last two digits describe his generation.
Both watches released this year end in -70. Watches released in 2023-2024 end in -65. There was a generation before them that ended in -55, and before that it was -45, and so on. Could Garmin have simply made the last two digits refer to the year, like 23 or 24? Sure, but at least there seems to be some internal logic here. (Go back too far and the naming scheme becomes a little less predictable, but this rule will help you understand pretty much everything that’s been released in this line in the last 10 years or so.)
Here’s another important rule: everything from -65 and up (so far -65 and -70) has an AMOLED screen, which lights up like your smartwatch. Older models, up to and including -55, have MIP screens, which are reflective and always “on,” but not as crisp or bright. I have a rundown of MIP vs. AMOLED here .
The first number tells you how fashionable (or expensive) the watch is.
Look at the first number in the watch name and imagine it on a scale from 0 to 9. The higher the number, the better the watch. This means the 965 has more features and a higher price tag than the 265; similarly, the 970 has more features than the 570. The exact feature set varies from generation to generation, but here’s an important fact to remember: the 9xx watches are the ones with maps. The 570, 265, and so on have breadcrumb navigation, but no maps.
With that in mind, we can now see why the latest Forerunner line includes the 570. The previous line had the 165, 265, and 965, with nothing in between the “2” and “9” levels. Meanwhile, the 165 and 265 were quite different in features, with the 265 boasting dual-band GPS and power meter compatibility, to name a few. Garmin apparently wanted to make it clear that its mid-range watches were truly in the middle of the range, so it added a few extra features that the 265 didn’t have – like heat acclimation, which was previously exclusive to the 9xx series – and bumped it up to a “5” instead of a “2” – with an updated price to match .