Bright AMOLED touchscreen display with button controls, a lightweight titanium bezel and sapphire lens, plus a built-in LED flashlight for greater awareness in the dark during early morning or late-night runs
Up to 15 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 26 hours in GPS mode
Train for an event, achieve a milestone, or improve your fitness with Garmin Coach training plans; these running and triathlon plans are personalized to you and adapt based on your performance and recovery
Built-in microphone and speaker let you make and take phone calls from your wrist when your watch is paired to your smartphone
Confidently run any route by using full-color, built-in maps and multi-band GPS; with dynamic round-trip routing, you can break off the path, and your watch will develop a new route that will get you the same mileage
Training readiness score is based on sleep quality, recovery, training load and HRV status
Our research indicates that this offer is $35 lower (5% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant with prices starting from $684.99.
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Bright AMOLED touchscreen display with button controls, a lightweight titanium bezel and sapphire lens, plus a built-in LED flashlight for greater awareness in the dark during early morning or late-night runs
Up to 15 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 26 hours in GPS mode
Train for an event, achieve a milestone, or improve your fitness with Garmin Coach training plans; these running and triathlon plans are personalized to you and adapt based on your performance and recovery
Built-in microphone and speaker let you make and take phone calls from your wrist when your watch is paired to your smartphone
Confidently run any route by using full-color, built-in maps and multi-band GPS; with dynamic round-trip routing, you can break off the path, and your watch will develop a new route that will get you the same mileage
Training readiness score is based on sleep quality, recovery, training load and HRV status
Our research indicates that this offer is $35 lower (5% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant with prices starting from $684.99.
Don't have Amazon Prime? Students can get a free 6-Month Amazon Prime trial with free 2-day shipping, unlimited video streaming & more.
Model: Garmin® Forerunner® 970, Premium GPS Running and Triathlon Smartwatch, AMOLED Display, Built-in LED Flashlight, Carbon Gray DLC Titanium with Black Case and Black/Translucent Whitestone Band
Deal History
Deal History includes data from multiple reputable stores, such as Best Buy, Target, and Walmart. The lowest price among stores for a given day is selected as the "Sale Price".
Sale Price does not include sale prices at Amazon unless a deal was posted by a community member.
I know someone who works at Garmin, so I can get stuff with his 40% employee discount. I upgraded from a FR255 in March because he might be changing jobs soon.
I get 7-8 days between charges (charging around 25% battery) with always-on screen and 5-6 hours of GPS activity a week.
Full-power screen visibility is good in direct sunlight, always-on is bordering on worthless.
The flashlight is more useful than I thought it would be.
Training Readiness is a neat improvement on Body Battery.
Build quality is good, as expected on mid and high FR models.
All the stuff that worked well on my 255 also works well on this.
It's honestly overkill for me (field/court sports, weight training, road biking with a computer), but I strongly prefer buttons over touchscreen, so that essentially locks me into the Forerunner line, and the battery life on the lower models isn't good enough now that they've gotten rid of MIP screens. I could have happily kept my 255 for a while longer, but I wanted to upgrade one last time while I had access to the discount.
I've been using Garmin watches for over nine years and have never had any sort of port irritation, but I also wear it at the recommended tension (according to their docs) and make a point to take it off to wipe down the back with my towel after every shower.
google 'garmin charging port irritation' 'garmin charing pin rash' the metal port is exposed in garmin watches and it can irritate skin for some people. garmin cs does not care.
I have the previous gen Forerunner 9xx. I'm allergic to the silicon band that it (and most) Garmin watches come with - but the bands are easily replaceable. I rotate between nylon, magnetic metal, and (cheap) leather, depending on the occasion. (Nylon is my favorite during runs.)
I run every single day, and I sweat a lot. I've never had issues with skin irritation from the charging port, but I've had issues with corrosion on the charging pins preventing recharging. For that, every month or two, I dip an old, retired toothbrush in rubbing alcohol and then give the charging pins a quick once-over. It's worked for me, consistently, for nearly a year.
Last edited by FormidableMulk May 1, 2026 at 11:16 AM.
It's a little off topic but has anyone found a good way to do audiobooks on these? I've found the Runcast app in the Garmin store works pretty well for podcasts but I'm not sure what to do for an audiobook.
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I know someone who works at Garmin, so I can get stuff with his 40% employee discount. I upgraded from a FR255 in March because he might be changing jobs soon.
- I get 7-8 days between charges (charging around 25% battery) with always-on screen and 5-6 hours of GPS activity a week.
- Full-power screen visibility is good in direct sunlight, always-on is bordering on worthless.
- The flashlight is more useful than I thought it would be.
- Training Readiness is a neat improvement on Body Battery.
- Build quality is good, as expected on mid and high FR models.
- All the stuff that worked well on my 255 also works well on this.
- My favorite watch face is Fenix8 V3 [garmin.com] from GB.
It's honestly overkill for me (field/court sports, weight training, road biking with a computer), but I strongly prefer buttons over touchscreen, so that essentially locks me into the Forerunner line, and the battery life on the lower models isn't good enough now that they've gotten rid of MIP screens. I could have happily kept my 255 for a while longer, but I wanted to upgrade one last time while I had access to the discount.I've been using Garmin watches for over nine years and have never had any sort of port irritation, but I also wear it at the recommended tension (according to their docs) and make a point to take it off to wipe down the back with my towel after every shower.
I run every single day, and I sweat a lot. I've never had issues with skin irritation from the charging port, but I've had issues with corrosion on the charging pins preventing recharging. For that, every month or two, I dip an old, retired toothbrush in rubbing alcohol and then give the charging pins a quick once-over. It's worked for me, consistently, for nearly a year.
Leave a Comment