Garmin Forerunner 45 GPS Running Watch with Garmin Coach
Garmin Forerunner 45 GPS Running Watch with Garmin Coach Training Plan Support – Black, Large
Forerunner 45S39.5 x 39.5 x 11.4 mm Fits wrists with a circumerence of 124-185 mm
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| Dimensions: | 10 x 4.2 x 1 cm; 36 Grams |
| Model: | 010-02156-15 |
| Batteries Included: | 1 CR123A batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | Garmin |
| Department: | unisex |
| Dimensions: | 10 x 4.2 x 1 cm; 36 Grams |
I bought this to replace the 235 which died on me. This has been great with easy to use and see screen. Quick to upload runs to Garmin app. Brilliant watch
This is amazing and so great for what i need it for and matches what is says and you can change the screen to what you like with a app
I bought this to use mainly for walking, with the occasional run. The watch is light and no trouble to wear, with a soft rubbery strap that has plenty of adjustment to suit most wrists. It has its own special charger lead, which is short and with a connection I’ve never seen before. It charges pretty quickly, and lasts 10 hours or so with GPS on (I haven’t timed it exactly). There is a battery indicator available on the watch. When switched on, you can start and select from a number of activities (activities can be added or removed in the app). It finds GPS pretty quickly. I only use the time elapsed/distance covered/pace functions, which all clearly show on the face when running. The session can be paused, and is remembered if the watch is switched off. If you have the app, when a session is saved, it will transfer the data to your phone over Bluetooth. The app has a bewildering array of information that I don’t really use (I just like to know how far I’ve gone and my pace). There are many functions that I haven’t used, but for my requirements, it’s pretty good and easy to use. I’ve only given 4 stars as I would have liked the battery to last a bit longe
Love how it looks very stylish
Still learning new things about it. Seems to have loads of features.
Does everything I need, not too big on the wrist, very functional
Not disappointed at all with this purchase. Wish I had bought a Garmin sooner rather than waste money on cheaper fit watches.
Very happy with my Forerunner 45
There are a wide variety of watch faces available, but I find a watch with physical hands is much clearer and more attractive. I only wear the Garmin for sports activities turning it off most of the time, which means less frequent charging is necessary.
The Connect app and website is ok for basic information but is a bit limited. GoldenCheetah or the Python SDK might be better if you are serious.
I needed a watch so I could keep an eye on my pace and time and distance without keep getting my phone out and looking at Strava so I bought a Garmin 45.
My aim concern being I need reading glasses, was being able to see the numbers on the go. I can confirm they are nice a big on the always on display.
The best thing is the App. So much data is available. The sleep tracker seems accurate, heart rate also. The GPS is more accurate than Strava in my opinion.
There are many features that I haven’t even begun to use yet.
The only question is why do people pay 200+ more for a more expensive Garmin?
Update: The answer perhaps is the battery is rubbish. On a 3 hour run it drained 80% from full charge.
It even drains 20% syncing with the phone app!
One thing for sure, it would never last 7 days as claimed!
Mainly use it to help me keep a steady pace and HR during runs tho, was key in the half marathon i did back in 2021, couldnt have done it without this for sure. And timing my daily 3-5k runs.
Also at work i use the timer for my lunch breaks and stuff, its really handy tbh. Good watch, good price. When it dies i will probably buy a more expensive Garmin watch, as they have proven themselves quality.
The only thing that I don’t like is the strap is VERY stretchy, so I often over tighten it. Apart from this, it’s an awesome product, definitely buy one.
Battery life could be better, whilst it works as a pedometer, after a run / walk, the number of steps taken don’t appear to be saved.
It would be good if the gpx of a route could be downloaded.
Garmin user manuals are clear as mud.
Great basic watch for tracking fitness and sleep.
Bought this as i wanted to get back into running. This does it and more. Has great training plans for 10k, half marathon etc. Started the half marathon training and ive stuck to it. Found it to be quite accurate on the step count. Sleep tracker and running distance also. Highly recommend if you want a good reliable watch. I find the battery life will last a week. Maybe 5 days with tracked activities thrown in. Customised watch faces when you download the store to go with it.
HOWEVER, my Garmin Forerunner 45 is now two years old (I wear it all the time) but the strap mounting points at the top of the watch have now both broken off. One broke off first and predictably due to the extra load, the other shortly afterward. These are integral parts of the watch (cannot be replaced). I have had to glue the strap on with superglue, which seems to have worked fairly well, but it’s a bit of a poor show on a two year old watch. I am not a super athlete by any means – just slow, gentle running, so it’s not like it’s had a particularly tough life. From what I have read this seems to be a known issue with the watch, unfortunately…Just watch out for that.
Replaced my Vivoactive HR as water damaged after swimming ! New 45 seems in the main to be a Good replacement with some extra features and a better display. One issue is the battery indicator display isn’t very accurate. I run most days, 45 mins to 1 hours using gps. Heart monitor is always on. From fully charged the indicator drops to around 30% after just 24 hours. It then says at that level for 4 or so day’s and then I get the low warning. Ok, 5 days is about right when you include my GPS runs for the overall battery life between charges. The indicated battery level is however poor/ not accurate. note I contact the Gemini chat line to report this and basically got told to report it to “have an idea”. No option to replace or acknowledgment of the issue I raised. Poor service Garmi
Some of the reviews here will bemoan missing features compared to premium smartwatches, but if you’re looking for something to track your walking, running or cycling with GPS support, this will cover exactly what you need without breaking the bank.
From a lot of use it seems to be fairly accurate in what it says, and the Garmin app is good for tracking how things are going.
In terms of sizing, I went for the 45s as my wrists are quite small, and it’s by far the most comfortable lightweight smartwatch I’ve tried. If you’re looking at the 45 range due to similar concerns on comfort, you could be on to a winner here.
On the downside, I’d say the sleep tracking is quite poor when compared to fitbit’s equivalent, however I think it does everything else better!
I noticed Garmin have since released thj Forerunner 55, which may be worth a look as a similarly priced model with a few extra features bundled in.
This is my first expensive sports watch. My previous ones were 20 jobs which had a chest strap. I’ve always been a bit dubious about the HRM accuracy of wrist watches but this one seems ok. Its the HRM I’m mainly interested in, so that’s a tick. GPS will be used occassionally, sleep monitor also occassionally and on exercise days I’ll be using it as a watch. As a watch the screen is quite dark when inside – the attached picture is a good example. OK, so there’s a light but you don’t want to use a light just to read the time. Size. This is supposed to be LARGE but I wouldn’t call it large. Diameter is 40mm and live display is 26mm. This is not large. So I’m a bit dissappointed. Controls are a bit fidly but ok once remembered. Straps have always been a weak point with me (the rubber ones have never lasted very long) so it will be interesting to see how long this one lasts. Is this good value for money? Ask me in 6 months time.
I really like it. On a 12h run I turned everything off except GPS (so no heart monitoring or blue tooth) and battery lasted OK.
The default watch screens have info which is a little too small for me to see clearly without glasses, which is annoying, the main issue being the battery level indicator.
Overall, a great piece of equipment that has motivated me to do a bit more than I would normally.
I’ve linked up to Strava and use a PC screen to review data and occasionally look at results on the phone – not during activity though.
I will look out for what comes next after the Forerunner 45; I’d only upgrade if the price was reasonable, the default display slightly bigger and the battery life a bit longer.
It’s great to wear on a daily basis and to keep track of everything: steps, vo2 max but also for workouts specifically. You can tailor which activities you use a lot to your watch, but also alter them on the app afterwards if you recorded it as something different (gym workouts are available on the watch to record but I record it as cardio and then switch it on the app).
I charge mine everyday whilst I’m in the shower for like 10mins which means I never run out of battery, but fine if I’ve done a long run/walk which uses a lot of battery for the gps, then I do have to charge it for longer. Generally the battery is really great though.
The gps is the only slight issue. If I’m running, I run with both my strava on my phone and my watch and there is a difference in the distances. If I go under a bridge it occasionally stops for a period of time and then restarts itself and generally, on a 10km, it will be around 500m behind my phone strava. Not a huge issue as I’m aware of the differences, but something just to note.
I’d say it’s more tailored to running but to be fair, I haven’t completely explored everything that’s available so I may be wrong with that!
First the only negative.. If you’re expecting the screen to look as vibrant as the ones in the promotional images then you’re in for a bitter disappointment as the colours are dull and extremely washed out in comparison.
I contacted Garmin support regarding the first watch received and was advised to send it back get a replacement, which I did, but the screen on the replacement is exactly the same.. dull and washed out!
On the upside.. the watch is extremely comfortable to wear and works well. Heartbeat monitor is accurate as is the steps monitor and the GPS connects without much delay. I wanted the watch to track my bike rides, which it does flawlessly and connects to my Strava account seamlessly.
Initial setup to my phone & Garmin connect app was painless. The app itself is brilliant. It contains a wealth of information regarding your activities, sleep patterns etc.. and allows you to tweak your general watch settings and customize downloaded watch face settings.. It’s much better than the fitbit app and a damn site more reliable.
This is my first tracker and apart from the dull screen it does everything I need and has good battery life so overall I’m pretty pleased with the purchase. However I would advise that anyone purchasing the Forerunner 45 to also purchase a screen protector at the same time as the glass doesn’t look like it would take much to damage it.
Generally all seemed ok.
But if you search the web, you come across hiccups, I came across those too.
Sometimes it would not be connected to my phone, but appears it is. Wouldn’t sync.
Started to not or sometimes wouldn’t connect with my cadence sensor. Changed that and the battery.
No better
Turn watch off and on, all ok.
This became the norm turn watch off then on would connect with cadence and phone.
Sometimes move away from phone, wouldn’t then reconnect. I put up with this sketchy performance for a few months thinking it was just a thing.
Then it seemed to get worse
Sometimes watch just refused to turn on.
Finally contacted amazon and they did exchange the watch.
Wanted to upgrade but they couldn’t do that.
New watch arrived. Set up as required.
If you are using iOS do not use the phone to connect, only use the app.
This watch does behave differently, very differently to my other
But it works totally, I don’t have to turn it off
It always reconnects with my phone and when I go out of range it tells me
It tells me when I’m back in range.
It always connects to my cadence sensor
It always uploads my ride.
So I’m pleased with this watch now, I was annoyed with the other.
For its price it delivers decent amount of features enough for advanced amateur runner. The most important to me were:
* large digits
* bright backlight with hand gesture activation
* Garmin Connect synchronization (great app!)
Extra features I found useful but was not relying on them initially:
* phone notifications
* find my phone (within the range of BT connection, obviously)
* fully customizable data screens (data you see during an activity)
Cons so far:
* had 2-3 software updates which resets most of the settings to defaults (e.g. units default to miles, time to 12h format)
* one of the GPS software updates broke the fix acquisition, took 2-3 minutes (normally 10-20 seconds) – that was resolved by another update a week later.
* realistic battery life with 1-2 activities during the day is around 5 days
Surprisingly easy to use and navigate the menus once you’ve worked out what the buttons do. Becomes intuitive fairly quickly, especially given I’ve not had a smart watch before. Thought it would be complicated or clunky but was pleasantly surprised how user friendly it is!
The watch face is easy to read and the watch is comfortable to wear – I have slim wrists and the 45s is ideal in terms of the face diameter and the length of the strap – which is quite soft and flexible, not hard plastic.
Very customisable menus – you can choose which ‘widgets’ are displayed and in what order. There are quite a few watch faces to choose from on the Garmin app and you can easily make your own from a picture and upload it.
The app is great for tracking patterns in terms of sleep and exercise, planning workouts and using the Garmin coach – would definitely recommend. I didn’t realise my phone calendar could sync to my watch, which is surprisingly useful and easy to view.
I tend to leave the Bluetooth switched on on my phone to receive alerts for calls and notifications during the day, but don’t take my phone out running or in the gym, and just sync the watch when I’m done exercising, which works well, especially with the app to track things.
I found the step counter to be somewhat variable in terms of accuracy – but for running there are three different GPS options, so the accuracy there doesn’t seem to be any problem at all.
Given the watch cannot store music, it’s handy that you can control your music from the watch. I use Bluetooth headphones and Spotify on my phone and can use the basic music control functions from my watch at the same time, and also answer or ignore calls. I imagine having control from the watch is brilliant if you do take your phone out running.
I didn’t want to have a watch that stored music or could do contactless payments, so for an exercise oriented smart watch this is brilliant. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that wants a lower end / starter one – but it packs many more features than I expected for the price and certainly feels like a high end item.
Few odd observations that will hopefully be fixed in future software releases:
– Syncing to Strava has resulted in the elevation value being significantly over estimated (seems okay in Garmin Connect). Not sure if this is a Strava issue or a problem with the GPX data (Strava can correct the elevation if you choose it to).
– If you set Workout interval repetition to 0 then it looks if if the watch doesn’t deal with the datatype properly and displays a very large negative number on the second interval. Still works, but need fixing (see final image).
– A few of the custom watch faces are extremely cramped, and even the default Garmin ones aren’t very polished around the edge of the screen (some show a few rogue white space pixels around the circumference). See second image.
Overall though really happy with my purchase. The Garmin Connect app syncs everything seamlessly and (elevation issue aside) it syncs to Strava (and MapMyRun) without any problems.
UPDATE: Excessive elevation issue syncing to Strava appears to be fixed (01/06/2019)