My favourite Garmin running watch is £110 off for Prime Day
The Garmin Forerunner 245 can be had for just £139.99 this Prime Day
When it comes to running watches, Garmin is up there with the best of them. And having reviewed plenty over the years, I was happy to buy my own Forerunner 245 a couple of years ago — it’s been a reliable companion over hundreds of miles of parks and pavements in the intervening months.
Said miles already clocked in Garmin Connect make the fact that Amazon has slashed the price for Prime Day to levels well below what I paid slightly easier to swallow. It also means that I can give it my whole-throated endorsement to anyone who’s on the fence.
Before I go into why, here’s the deal information. It’s available in both black and ‘berry’ for £139.99, which is a saving of £110 or 44%. And while those colour choices may not inspire you too much, you should know that the straps are a pretty standard 20mm affair. I’ve subbed mine out for an olive green band, in fact:
Oh, and it’s the version without music, same as mine. I ultimately decided that I don’t mind carrying my phone with me on runs for music and podcasts — I just don’t want my wearable to lean on its patchy GPS.
Right, now that’s out of the way, why did I pick the Garmin Forerunner 245, and why do I think you should too? Well for me it was in the sweet spot of fully featured enough, without being overloaded with stuff I would never use.
I’m a big fan of Garmin Coach, for example, where you can put in the time you’re looking to complete 5K in, and the watch will set up a training plan to try and help you get there. When I lost significant fitness after catching Covid-19, it was Garmin Coach that helped me return to something approaching pre-Pandemic levels.
I’m also quite keen on the body battery metric, which will give you an assessment of your energy levels at any given moment to give you a ballpark figure of how much effort you should put into a workout. And I like that it gives you an assessment of your performance level after a kilometre of running — even if it’s been a bit dispiriting for me of late.
On top of this, I’ve found the GPS to be spot on, nearly always dead on 5K at the end of measured courses, which is more than I can say for plenty of other watches I’ve reviewed.
“It’s a brilliant all-round running watch, and runners who won’t be satisfied by its features will be few and far between,” wrote Nick Harris-Fry in our five-star Garmin Forerunner 245 review. “Not only does it help shape your training, providing useful insight into every run, but it also delivers excellent accuracy in terms of both GPS and heart rate, along with superb battery life.”
I agree with Nick. And at £139.99, it’s an absolute bargain.
Don’t forget to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership before you try to take advantage of these great discounts. You can sign up using the link below.