The Garmin Forerunner 945 is the ultimate fitness watch and it's cheaper than you think

Selling a fitness watch at a premium is not an easy task nowadays thanks to the dominance of Apple Watch and the huge amount of choice. In an overly saturated market, putting a premium price tag on a product is a bold move and to justify it, brands really have go the extra mile and provide features that will make people who take their sporting efforts seriously want to buy such an accessory. But for our money – and yours – Garmin's flagship sports watch the Forerunner 945 justifies it.

• Buy Garmin Forerunner 945 for £499 at Wiggle

Sure that’s pricier than a Fitbit but this is a watch that will help you get really fit, not just count steps and track a few light workouts. Built for triathletes, the 945 is in fact suitable for anyone who's serious about fitness but wants something slim and stylish enough to wear with a suit. The London Triathlon 2019 is happening this Saturday; here's why you should buy one to get in shape for next year's…

What makes the Garmin forerunner 945 the best GPS multisport watch?

From the outside, the Forerunner looks eerily similar to the Garmin Forerunner 935, which it will be compared to in most cases. Dig under the bonnet and you'll start to notice improvements that make the 945 better than its predecessor. 

Probably the most notable upgrade of the Garmin Forerunner 945 is the increased battery life. Thanks to the new Sony GPS chip and firmware updates, the Forerunner 945 lasts for 60 hours in UltraTrac mode, which switches off the GPS when not is use. If you want the GPS on all the time or are doing an ultra-marathon or Iron Man, you will get 10 hours out of the battery. Put it in smartwatch mode, with GPS off, and it's good for up to two weeks.

If you like listening to music during exercising but don't want to take your phone, the Spotify support of the Forerunner 945 will make your heart skip a beat. You can store up to 1000 songs (synced Spotify playlists or uploaded MP3s) on this sport watch. Just dump the phone, connect your running headphones and you're good to go.

Th Forerunner 945 also boasts full-colour maps which makes navigation in both urban and trail environments way easier. 

The optical sensors on the back of the watch can detect heart rate and pulse more precisely than before, helping the Forerunner 945 to track VO2Max metrics even better. More interesting still, the 'Training Load Focus' function sorts your recent training history into different categories based on activity structure and intensity – this could be a genuine step forward for training for races.

The 945 was designed for triathletes. It's compatible with Garmin's smart heart-rate strap for runners, and its waterproof one for swimmers, and can also pair with Garmin power meters to function as a surprisingly sophisticated, wrist-mounted bike computer.

However, it's also able to track dozens of activities away from the track, road and pool. It's great for weight training, interval tracking, treadmill running and anything else you can do at the gym. It really is the ultimate fitness watch with pro features that Apple Watch can't currently match.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 comes with other handy perks too. Once connected to your smartphone, its incident detection feature will sense if you fall during a run or crash on your bike, and send a distress message to your preset next of kin. That won't be very nice for them, but it could save your life.

You can also pay for all your protein bars and sport drinks with the Forerunner 945 using NFC contactless payment, so long as you have a compatible credit card (the list is not long, but it is growing). You never have to miss an Instagram post either since the 945 supports social media push notifications too. 

Watch this space, a Garmin Forerunner 945 review is coming soon, but until then, please see the best prices for this sports watch below.

Further reading

• Best running watch: watches and wearables for runners, gym, cycling and workouts
• Best smartwatch: T3's guide to the best intelligent timepieces
• Best fitness tracker: the simpler end of the fitness wearable market