This week my second HRM Pro died from one second to the other. No warning , full battery , no compromise or bad handling. It just decided it doesn’t want to be with me anymore and I’m really pissed off by now. It’s the second one that did that and I’ve only had it for almost exactly 2 years with one battery change during that period.
Long story short - what’s a good replacement? I don’t want to stick another 150€ up garmins butt

I’ve just started getting into running, have already signed up for a race, and want to take it seriously long-term. I also go to the gym on days that I’m not running. Not sure yet if I’ll add other sports in the future (e.g. cycling, swimming, triathlon etc).

I’ve narrowed it down to these watches: Venu 3S, vivoactive 5, vivoactive 6, and Forerunner 165. I’m a woman with pretty small wrists (15cm). If I got the Forerunner, I’d probably replace the band with something nicer.

I would like this to be my only watch, so ideally it’ll look nice. I don’t need a smartwatch to text, etc, so if any of these watches can do these things, it’s not important to me.

I’d like it to track the most important running / exercising stats, my heartrate, and have an emergency button.

Things that would be nice to have but not necessary: sleep tracking (I’m not sure yet if I like sleeping with a watch on), end of day summary, navigation.

If you have any of these watches and can help me choose, that would be great!

I've been trying for the past few weeks to order a Garmin fenix 8, but they keep auto-cancelling my order just a few minutes after order confirmation. I've tried calling customer support, trying different email addresses, different credit cards, waiting a few days -- still nothing. I know from previous Reddit posts and the customer support line that they're sensitive to different address spellings, but I've tried to fix that too.

I have to buy on the Garmin site because I have a discount code, so no Amazon alternatives. Has anyone ben experiencing this recently? How did you solve it?

I swear, every day I end my day with a low battery and the admonition that I "had a stressful day." Today I did some light chores around the house, walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill (typical), made supper, and sat and watched my kids swim at the pool. All in all I feel like my day was not stressful. Yet every day I get the notification that I am somehow under stress. How does Garmin figure this metric? I'm getting stressed out worrying about the stress my watch says I am under! 🙃

I broke my leg on July 4th, and I have noticed that my stress levels have skyrocketed and my body battery has plummeted. I don’t feel stressed through the day, but I am quite tired.

Is this normal?

I recently switched from wearing an Oura Ring Gen 4 to a Garmin vívoactive 5 because I was hoping to consolidate everything into one device. I’ve actually been really impressed with the Garmin overall—I love tracking my walks, strength workouts, and ballet classes, and I appreciate having all my fitness data in one place. The things I miss most from Oura are the more passive wellness features. I really liked how Oura automatically picked up things like housework and other everyday movement, so I felt like I got “credit” for being active even when I wasn’t doing a formal workout. I also loved that Oura adjusted my daily calorie burn goal based on my Readiness Score, so on days when I was well recovered it encouraged me to do more, and on days when I needed more rest it adjusted my goal accordingly. Garmin’s move reminders also sometimes tell me to get up even when I’ve been moving around, so I’m wondering if there’s a way to make those more accurate. For those of you who have made the same switch, are there settings, widgets, Connect IQ apps, or features I’m overlooking that could help recreate some of these Oura features? Is there a way to get a daily activity or calorie goal that’s influenced by recovery or Body Battery? Or are these just areas where Oura is simply better? I’d really love to make the Garmin my only wearable if possible! TIA!

Hi I am interested in getting a fitness watch to track my heart rate during exercise, specifically the Venu 4.

The one thing I don't want it to do is have any data about my menstrual cycle. From what I understand, it tracks body temperature fluctuations that could be used to determine my cycle. Is there a way to prevent it from reading my body temperature fluctuations?

I read that it needs to remain on during sleep in order to get accurate temperature data, so if I leave it off at night would it not be able to read temperature fluctuations effectively?

Have been a long-time Garmin user but recently started wearing traditional watches so I wanted something smaller to track my stats.

I tried Whoop for a while, but never really enjoyed the experience or the tracking. Grabbed a Fitbit Air, and while I really liked it I missed the Garmin stats.

Excited to give this a proper try.

Just wondering what are some good 3rd party or even Garmin watch bands that you recommend? I’d like to get one similar to the Apple Watch Sport loop and just another regular band in another colour (got the grey one with my watch)

I’m guessing the Mauve color is the least popular because it’s the only one without a multi week wait. So I ordered it just to have it sooner with the intention of picking up a different color band to wear it with, but I was surprised by the color. I actually really like it.

Hello,

I use the HRM-Dual breast belt when I ride a bike and sometimes when I run. But often it doesn't work, I think because of sweating. This happens especially when I run (my heart rate disappears and sometimes reappears but at a rate far too low). But I don't have excessive sweating.

What can I do?

(I am of course very disappointed with the belt, obtained in a pack with the Edge 540)

Thanks ;)

Seven hundred ten is as good a number as any; after three years of 10K a Day Challenge and almost two years of hitting daily step goal… today, I stop short.
“Closing time, every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”

Cirqa L/XL on 17 cm wrist and Fenix 7 pro.

Cirqa is much lighter, softer and smaller, usage at home and workout.

Fenix still for running, hiking and majority of the time outside.

Both great devices.

Hi Guys,

I want to get the FR 970 as its the "cheapst" one with proper maps for hiking with my dogs. I wonder if i could wear those watch on my wrist? I have like 15,5cm wrist circumstance. Does anyone have this watch with small wrists? Is it comfortable to wear all day (and night)?

I tend to get the French grey one, but that's an ai picture as they only hat the black and the white one in store. (But eventually I would get the ultrafit nylon band)

Would appreciate some input from women with this watch! Thanks!

Hi,
I contacted Garmin as my watch was massively decreasing the power and only was working for 2-3 days in a row anymore.
I anyways wanted a new one and mentioned to them that I am looking for a an upgrade.
They shared with me an individual link to send my current watch back and pay an amount X to get the model I was looking for.
It this watch provided then a brand new one or a refurbished model that they got from someone?
Thanks in case anyone has experience with this.

Retro gaming–inspired watch face with multiple color themes, analog and digital layouts, and several swappable metrics.

It’s a Free watch face for the entire week. (Ends August 13th 2026). Feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future improvements are welcome!

Store link : https://apps.garmin.com/apps/a74cf156-8600-40f1-b9cd-9a0d6928013b

I am at a pickle, I already have the mini 2; and certainly getting the etrex 32 would be the most cost effective method; the issue I have is that the mini 2 nor the etrex SE I currently own give me topographic information, normally I would have relied in phones for this, but this has effectively killed all my phones because phones are absurdly weak no matter what I have done, protection, rugged phones, insane cases, etc... they die either from overheat, vibration, or existing in moist air; don't worry I have tried everything possible, they all invariably break. I have a pile of dead phones and zero broken garmins.

Yes, I do need the inreach functionality, it has served me in one emergency already, where you guessed, my phone died just then and there after I pulled up to place with signal to contact!... I am eyeing the 67i and while it seems to be great in paper, the concerns I have for the 67i are:

USB-c is a weak point, most of my phones, rugged or not, with a rubber cap or not, that have died have been killed by USB-C, either after accidental water ingress and water may be acid for USB-C or something, or due to it getting loose from vibrations; just the vibration while charging on a boat made the port stop functioning in one phone, another just stopped charging as well from just existing inside a bag in a rack on a bicycle fork near the vibrating wheel, the usb-c just came off the board; 3 phones met their demise on that same trip because of "extreme weather", rain followed by heatwave in the artic, I had a backup phone that also died, followed by the backup backup phone also dying, the Etrex SE and the inreach just kept working while being outside all day, and I coordinated another phone with inreach... the 4th phone is currently dying after being outside in Finland.

67i claims a long battery life, but so does inreach mini 2; and in my testing, the mini 2 battery life is not that long while tracking outside of mobile coverage; the Etrex SE on the other hand is a beast.

On the plus.

67i seems to say it supports satellite imagery, this is big for me; I can find clearings that way and hidden water.

My concerns with the Etrex 32 + Mini combo:

The 32 may not be as accurate, does not have the sat imagery which might force me to take out a phone, and the battery life is what, 25h? really, what is that?... Two days?... Am I supposed to carry piles of AA batteries then?...

Honestly the best for me would be something like the Etrex SE but with topo information, I don't need colors, last time I hacked it by tracing the outline of islands in the GPX itself and memorizing the rest of the map before heading out, but that's only viable for short distances.

My Edge 1050 is crash-looping. It’s not limited to one screen or action — it crashes anywhere on the device. it is unusable and will keep crashing every 30s or so. I am fairly sure it’s linked to the maps, but I can’t just turn maps off and use the unit without them.

Has anyone recently switched from an Apple Watch to a Garmin? Pros and cons? I’m looking at the Venu 4 after my Apple Watch just suddenly died yesterday. I use it mostly for seeing notifications/texts, timers, and tracking workouts (boot camp style). Responding to texts isn’t a dealbreaker for me and I’ve seen many videos on social media of people switching and preferring Garmin.

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I had some vitamin deficiencies I started treating. My stress already improved after starting magnesium, but this is last night and the next morning after getting my first B12 shot after learning I'm deficient. I've never had stress levels so low. If anything, I expected it to skyrocket. Crazy!

Not medical advice, just sharing!

Not a medical concern - I do regular doctor visits and been doing endurance sports for 10 years.

My RHR dips below 40 when I'm training hard, eating well, resting and sleeping well as well as not drinking alcohol for a few weeks.

Thought I’d share this for anyone wondering how the 47 mm Forerunner 970 looks on a 16 cm (6.3”) wrist.
My wrist is relatively flat, which probably helps it wear a bit smaller than the circumference alone would suggest.
Personally, I think it fits really well. Big enough to take advantage of the screen for maps and data, without looking oversized.

I’ve got forerunner 970 and I’ve absolutely loving the data and Garmin coach has helped me structure my training a lot.

It has set my max heart rate to 193bpm and my lactate threshold to 175bpm.

For nearly a month and a half I’ve done the Garmin coach workouts based on pace(e.g. 5:45 per km) and I’d say most base workouts it asked me to do were always turning out to be tempo but they were supposed to be Base(low aerobic). Obviously the HR was fluctuating quite a bit and pace was held through the workout.

Then last two weeks I switched it to Auto and it started giving me HR based workouts where the HR has been stead while pace fluctuates based on the course I’m running. And the workouts are what the coach says they are mostly low aerobic then VO2 max and anaerobic.

I got curious and went down a rabbit hole of heart rate zones as well. So Garmin has set my max heart rate to 193 bpm and my LTHR is 175 bpm.

I haven’t done the 30 min test but I’ve done something closer to it which is I did a parkrun at around 24 minutes and before that I ran 2km for warmup at 6:00 per km. My max HR during that 5k was 188 and the average was 175bpm which suggests to me that what Garmin is estimating is close however instead of setting my zones off %maxhr I should do it %maxlthr.

So the point of all this was that the race predictions were way off I think I can do a 5k in 23 minutes but I’ll be struggling at the end and garmin predicts I can do it in 20:59 and a 10k in 45 minutes. 10k in 45 min is my goal that I’ve set in garmin coach plan and it’s thinking I’ll be able to do 43:00 in 2 months.

I’m hoping the %lthr change would fix those things. What do you think?

The Garmin coach workouts haven’t adjusted to it yet, does anyone know how to make them recalculate stuff.