Garmin Forerunner 55, GPS Running Watch with Daily Suggested Workouts, Up to 2 Weeks of Battery Life, Aqua

This watch really has all you need. I was a Polar lover before my switch to Garmin and it's certainly an upgrade, even at what they're calling an 'entry level' running watch. Here's what I love about it: 1. 24/7 wrist based heart rate monitoring. Very accurate during inactive and active periods. 2. 1 week battery life with all systems on GO. I haven't stress tested it with multiple runs but so far I'm reasonably happy with the battery. It's connected to my phone so I'm receiving notifications often and my heart rate is constantly monitored. 3. Accurate GPS tracking, with 3 options depending on your situation and demands on accuracy. 4. Great sleep tracking. You get a lot of great insights that can be used to make adjustments, improve sleep and optimize recovery. 5. Body battery is an interesting feature that allows you to identify when you're fully charged and ready to go and when you're drained and need to rest. 6. VO2 max and race predictor are great features that allow you to see when you are with your fitness and at your current levels of fitness the expected race times you'd likely hit. 7. Fitness age is an eye opening feature that determines your age based on your fitness and body weight. Gave me a harsh reality check! 8. Lightweight and extremely comfortable to wear! You won't even remember it's on your wrist. The watch has more features, but for me all the above is what I depend on and thoroughly enjoy! For it's price point I say it's absolute value for me. I'm very happy with my purchase.

I bought this watch to replace my Forerunner 35 (we had 6 great years together). It took a little time & a few youtube videos to get the settings how I wanted them. Overall, I am really happy with functionality and information available with this watch.

nothing fancy. Good solid watch with all the info your average runner needs. Distance, mileage, speed, steps, heart rate, altitude climbed/dropped, and other info. you can keep a log of each of your activities; running, walking, biking, trails etc. etc. As an added bonus my watch displays phone calls and texts. I'm sure the activity display can be customized but I've not felt the need to change what's there. The watch face display can be changed to meet your likes. I get about two weeks battery life while using the gps for an hour or so each morning and maybe another hour or two on the weekends,

*** I've been using this watch for 3-years (& 1-month) now. It still works great and I still have zero regrets! I even got one of my sons to buy the same model. *** ------------------------------- Original 11-month review: Thanks to this watch, I was able to drop the 20+ pounds I put on during my post-covid depression. It got me moving again and whereas the original daunting number of 10k steps in a day made me nervous, I now walk around 23k steps daily without even thinking about it. The challenges on the app have helped me move from my former weight loss goals to my present toning ones and suffice it to say, all of this has helped tremendously with my mental health as well. As for the watch features, I was looking at all sorts of brands and all kinds of models and settled on this one and never looked back. I needed a time teller, a pedometer and a heart rate monitor, in no specific order. I received all of those and more with this wrist decor. Not only does the watch look nice and feel weightless on my skin when adjusted correctly, but it works so well at everything it was made to. The heart rate monitor is very accurate when compared with other heart rate monitoring devices. The watch is simple to clean although I was afraid of damaging something whilst attempting to clear out the 'gunk' around the plug-in site. I didn't purchase the watch for the sleep related feature but it is an interesting bonus. After roughly 9-10 months of continuous 24-hour use, I finally started noticing it act up during my treadmill workouts. My heart rate would drop to 0 and at one point I saw it jump to 248. Since I wasn't dead or dying during any of these times, I thought I'd start turning it off at night and I haven't noticed the issue since. It could have just been an error that required an update but like I said, I didn't buy for the sleep feature anyhow. The battery life is pretty good I'd say. When I told my husband one day that I should 'charge my watch tonight because it's been a couple weeks' he was really surprised. I keep track on my exercise calendar whenever I feel the need to plug in, which I do during the night so it doesn't interrupt my steps during the day. I normally charge once it hits somewhere in the 10-19 percentile. This takes (me specifically) about two weeks to accomplish, with roughly an hour and a half, minimum, of recorded activities at least five days a week and the watch otherwise just being turned on consistently. Of course, there are extra outings that warrant using the start button once in a while and yet I still find my charge schedule to remain the same. You can choose from a variety of watch faces that come standard but I definitely have enjoyed looking through the Garmin store at other options. The background I've used for quite some time now shows the moon in its current phase and as a lifetime star gazer, this is a face I was more than happy to throw money at. I spent just a few dollars and received something around 10 different looks, several animated such as plants or flowers that grow or open as you complete your steps for the day- amazing, if you like that sort of thing, turns out I do. Overall, I love my watch and I hope it lasts me a good, long time but if and when it finally dies from time cancer, I'll be sure to replace it with another Garmin!

It’s a great and very good watch for the price, long lasting battery life, and very easy to use, has many features which makes it versatile, overall great awesome purchase.

My second Forerunner 55. First one lived a long, full, life and finally succumbed to battery failure. Great watch! Learning curve is a little steep but Garmin support techs are very helpful. I use it for walking, running, cycling, and swimming.

I have used the forerunner 55 watch for over a year now and I have been very pleased. It’s got most of the features that you would want and nothing too flashy or useless. The big selling point for me was the 2 week battery life and I’m happy to say that it has held up pretty well. I use this to track my sleep, mountain biking, gym workouts, and any other random I activity I get into. I went down the rabbit hole of all the fancier watches they have and realized I don’t need them. Sure it would be nice to have a touch screen, but do I really need it? Having a touch screen instead of 2 week battery life is not something I would swap out. And I prefer the buttons over a touchscreen because it just works better for me anyway. I like the size of it cause it’s on the smaller side and the buttons are placed well and useful. Overall, this watch has been great and I probably will stick to the forerunner series when I need a new watch in a couple more years. If you are getting a watch for a specific activity, maybe look at one of the more niche watches but if you just need a good all around watch for a moderately active lifestyle, this might be just what you need.

I bought this watch a month ago and I am really impressed with the stats and charts. It is easy to operate, and I have to admit I find it better and less risky while exercising with the buttons. It is lightweight and the battery lasts for about two weeks. A few problems are bothering me and I am debating whether I should return the watch or keep it (I have a 2 months window for return). 1. Sleep monitor- as other reviewers stated, is highly unreliable, making the body battery unreliable as well. If I watch tv or read for a few hours it will show as if I was asleep. One morning I woke up at 5:00 am, got out of bed, made a few phone calls and texts and went back to bed where I stayed awake for another hour, and the watch showed that I was asleep the entire time! 2. I can’t choose which notifications to show and which not. I only want to see calls, texts and WhatsApp messages, but it keeps showing me news notifications and other notifications I have on my iPhone. 3. It tells me to move, but it doesn’t detect if I exercise and forget to turn it on. I wish it would have.

My first smart watch was Huawei. Then comes this. For the price I'm paying it doesn't have touch screen. Button toggling needs time to learn. Gave it up.

Very happy with this watch. Looks good, easy to use, syncs nicely with app, helps track all the essentials.

Good service

I had a sports watch and polar chest strap monitor 25 years ago for Concept 2 rower training. Technology has improved enormously since then. I chose the Garmin Forerunner 55 because I wanted simplicity as well as multi-functionality. It fulfils both needs. Above all the Garmin sports watch is accurate. I am now 71 and have just started training prep for another C25K with my daughter - hence the need for an accurate heart rate monitor. The things I like about the watch and app follow plus some suggested tweaks. On the positive side customisable heart rate zones are useful, and it is easy to develop warm up, walk, run, repeat x8 workouts, which can then be modified in subsequent weeks. However, I had to use AI to pose a dozen or so technical questions about how to set up specific procedures and to analyse and interpret some of the performance data that the Garmin produces. The written Garmin instructions in multiple languages don’t touch the sides of what the app can do hence using Google Gemini to pose detailed questions. Another user tip - the Garmin app can be integrated with the Chronometer app which monitors food and exercise expenditure. This combination of apps is a really sophisticated tool to record data, if you are of a scientific disposition. For example, if your Adjusted Baseline Activity hits zero, it indicates that your Garmin has accounted for every metabolic "tick" above your resting BMR. The wider screen of an Apple Mac is much more accessible to see all the post exercise Garmin data. The IPAD version of the Garmin app is actually a scaled mobile app and it is difficult to escape from a page as the menus are obscured. A workaround is to reset your IPad display to ‘more space’, but I would recommend using a laptop and the Garmin website which have no technical issues.

As expected from the Garmin, pretty good especially the battery backup, i haven't charged yet, it came out of the box with 90%, i have been walking and running and other activities like breath, HIIT(high-intensity interval training), past 4 days i have not take it off this watch from my wrist, still battery 49%. i do own apple watch series 6 Nike Edition but need to charge every day for sure and if i ran more than 6K or 7K in day, it will drain pretty soon, thats why i took this and heart rate also very good, which similar to polar heart strap. finally it's a Sport watch not completely smart watch but it has some of the smart watch features, like getting notifications but in one way you can't give reply from the watch, just you can see.