Garmin has announced a pair of new higher-end Forerunner watches including a new flagship for the range – the Garmin Forerunner 970 – and a new mid-range runner, the Forerunner 570.
Both new watches include a built-in speaker and microphone for chatting on the phone while you’re out smashing a PB. It’ll also connect with your phone’s voice assistant to respond to messages. That’s a trickle-down feature from the Fenix 8 device.
Both of the watches include a brand new evening report metric that lets you know how much sleep is advisable for your workout, a reminder of said planned workout, as well as the weather you can expect.
Garmin says both watches offer the brightest OLED display yet, while you’ll also get a new skin temperature metric. There’s a new breathing variation figure that leverages pulse ox to enable wearers to understand how their breathing changes while they get some shut-eye.
Both watches also include a new suggested finish line feature that’ll atone for those times when you cross the line but forget to hit stop to pause the workout.
There are also some really fancy new designs that include translucent bands for the first time.
But there’s plenty more to chat through, so lets take a closer look at the devices that are sure to give the best running watches of 2025 a run for their money.
Garmin Forerunner 970
This watch replaces the Forerunner 965 at the top of the tree for Garmin’s run-focused devices. It’s available in one size, 47mm, and it costs £629.99/$749.99 from May 21.
it has a built-in flashlight and is made with a scratch resistant sapphire lens and a titanium bezel. It’s also the first device in the range to support the Garmin ECG app for detecting afib.
Metrics like running tolerance, running economy and step speed loss – which shows how much you slow down when your foot strikes the ground – are included, although the latter two metrics require the new HRM 600 heart rate monitor.
The Forerunner 970 also has built-in colour maps. “Whether running on city streets or riding through densely covered trails, Forerunner 970 includes full-colour built-in mapping to help athletes stay on track,” the company said. You’ll need to create the routes in Garmin Connect app and then sync them to the watch.
Battery life is up to 15 days in smartwatch mode.
This watch is available in carbon grey DLC titanium with a black/translucent whitestone band, titanium with a whitestone/translucent amp yellow band and soft gold titanium with a french gray/translucent indigo band.
Garmin Forerunner 570
The Garmin Forerunner 570 (main image) watch will sit about the excellent Forerunner 265 in the range and is available in 42mm and 47mm designs that have an aluminium bezel. It’ll cost £459.99/$549.99 from May 21. Battery life is rated at 11 days in smartwatch mode.
Features like Vo2 Max, Body Battery, HRV, wrist-based running power and running dynamics, acute load, training effect, performance condition, and training readiness are carried over too. You’ll also be able to access the Garmin Coach training plans. PacePro is around to help you execute the race day plan.
Garmin is also pushing funkier designs with this watch with watches in: raspberry with a translucent bone/mango band, amp yellow with a translucent whitestone/turquoise band and indigo with a translucent imperial purple/indigo band.
