Best Garmin watch deals for December 2022 | Digital Trends
If you’re looking for the best Garmin watch deals, you’re not alone. Garmin is one of the top brands of best smartwatches for athletes, with loads of fans who love the great outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to find smartwatch deals. Garmin has loads of models, styles, and color combinations to choose from, which can make your search even more complicated. To make things easier, we do the search and can help you find the right Garmin watch for your needs at the right price. We regularly update this list with the best Garmin watch deals available right now.
Best cheap Garmin watch deals
Garmin Forerunner 35 — $99, was $132
If you just need a basic health tracker with a GPS in it, the Forerunner 35 from Garmin is a great option. It’s a no-frills smartwatch, but it leans into its basic functions and does them well. It tracks your heart rate during runs, as well as basic activity throughout the day like steps and calories burned. You can set up the watch to automatically upload all of that data to a Garmin profile, so you can break it all down day-by-day. You can also control basic operations on your phone, like music and notifications.
Garmin Forerunner 45 — $118, was $174
The step up from the Forerunner 35 is, naturally, the Forerunner 45. This smartwatch adds a few handy functions, while keeping the whole thing clean and simple. It uses its GPS ability to track your pace, total steps and more. If you get into an accident, it has automatic incident reporting, something the Apple Watch has become famous for. If it detects that you’ve been in an accident, it will send your location to paramedics. It has a seven-day battery life, so you can wear it while you’re sleeping for days at a time.
Garmin Forerunner 45S — $130, was $159
Garmin Vívoactive 4 — $176, was $199
If you want to track all aspects of your health throughout the day, not just when you’re running, you’ll want to upgrade to the Vivoactive 4. Besides the standard heart rate and steps, it has some fancy features like a pule oximeter. It can also track things like sleep cycles, respiration, menstrual cycles and stress levels. Aside from health tracking, it also allows you to control notifications and music. You can even pay for things by tapping your watch at checkout.
Garmin Instinct Solar — $220, was $250
How to choose a Garmin watch
Before jumping on the first cheap Garmin watch you find, first figure out the specific activity or activities you need a smartwatch for and how much you’re willing to spend. Once your budget is set and you’ve got a clear idea of what you’re going to use your watch for, it’s time to dive into specifics regarding which particular features you absolutely need, which ones you want but can live without, and which ones you don’t really care about. It’s not a bad idea to grab a pen and write this down so you’ve got a clear list you can refer to when you start shopping around for Garmin watch deals.
Even relatively cheap Garmin watches now feature things like GPS navigation and heart rate monitors today — things that were relegated to more expensive models when these wearables first hit the market just a few short years ago — so don’t think you need to shell out a fortune for a nice suite of fitness tracking and health-monitoring functions. What you’ll get with the more expensive models are things like improved build quality for less forgiving outdoor conditions, increased water resistance, longer battery life, better daylight-bright displays, advanced tracking features, and conveniences like onboard music storage and pre-loaded navigational maps.
The Garmin wearable line features an impressive array of smartwatches, so you’ve got plenty of options that cover a nice range of activity-tracking features and price points. If you’re after a relatively cheap Garmin watch, then entry-level wearables like the Garmin Forerunner 35 running watch or the last-gen Garmin Vivoactive 3 are great choices if you don’t need all the latest bells and whistles but just want a solid, affordable smartwatch. Deals for these Garmin models can often be found for $150 or considerably less (the Forerunner 35 frequently dips below $100).
Moving up in price from the cheap Garmin watches brings us to more full-featured models built for serious outdoor adventures and for those with more advanced health and fitness tracking needs. The Garmin Vivomove HR Sport, Garmin Forerunner 465, Garmin Vivoactive 4, Garmin Venu, and Garmin Instinct are a handful of examples that you can usually find in the $200-$400 range (or sometimes for less). These wearables will be more ruggedly built, feature higher-resolution displays, and offer a more advanced suite of fitness, health, and wellness tracking functions and/or one tailored to specific activities like hiking, biking, or swimming.
Moving up to the serious enthusiast-grade Garmin wearables brings us to models like the Garmin Quatix 6, Garmin Forerunner 945, Garmin Fenix 6S Pro. They are the priciest of the bunch at around $500-$750 and therefore offer the biggest savings potential, so keep your radar tuned for these when you’re on the hunt for Garmin watch deals (seasonal sales are easily the best chance to save big here). The high-end enthusiast smartwatches will naturally boast the most rugged housings, highest waterproof ratings, largest set of fitness- and health-tracking functions, and the best and most vibrant color OLED displays.
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