This Watch Will Transform Your Fitness Routine: A Comprehensive Review of the Garmin Forerunner 965

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I’ve been running in Garmin watches for about 15 years. They’re consistently my favorite running watches for accuracy, features, comfort, and fit. After wearing the Garmin Forerunner 965 for several months now, it’s proven to be a solid watch and running companion. It’s a premium device, with a bright and beautiful AMOLED display protected by hard-to-kill Gorilla Glass, well over 30 sports programmed into the device, and a lightweight, low-profile form factor that feels good on your wrist.

The watch has an accurate multi-band GPS tracking system and is chock a block with fitness and health metrics, performance tracking, and lifestyle upgrades that turn this from just a running watch into something truly special for serious runners.

Garmin Forerunner 965

$499.99

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It has its limitations, though. For example: While I generally love its bright display, you can’t keep it in the “always on” mode for more than roughly 24 hours, which is highly problematic for ultramarathoners , at the very least. But if your preferred marathon is something short of “my brain is just wired differently,” you will love this watch.

Features At a Glance

• Five-button configuration
• Turn-by-turn mapping and built-in routes
• Race route downloading
• ClimbPro
• Easy interval tracking
• Touchscreen that can be disabled
• GarminPay
• Music storage
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
• Vertical Oscillation tracking
• Multi-sport functionality
• Triathlon mode
• Race predictor
• Course weather predictor
• Garmin proprietary charger

The Experience

Straight out of the box, the Forerunner 965 is a thing to behold. You immediately notice its slimmer size compared to previous versions, and the bright screen is undeniably cool. Strapping it on, the watch is light and easy to wear, but the large screen may feel a bit too big for folks with small wrists or hands. As someone with petite wrists and giant hands, though, I think it looks pretty great on me. If I had my druthers, the strap would be a little less prone to stretching out, and the watch would come with a spare. For $600, this should not be too much to ask.

The battery life is sizable in smartwatch mode, with Garmin claiming you can get up to 23 days of use under ideal conditions. With regular runs and workouts, I averaged just over a week between charges. In smartwatch mode alone, it is able to keep tracking the background metrics like your heart rate, oxygen, and heart rate variability (HRV), all while providing the details on the screen and in the app.

Workouts drain the battery especially hard, because of GPS, and the always-on display that shows your major metrics at all times. Given that the battery life is still very strong, I think the display feature's a great addition: It’s easy to toggle between workouts, and the interface makes mid-run actions like pausing, setting intervals, and changing modes quick and easy.

Performance and Accuracy

The Garmin Forerunner 965 is the most-accurate GPS watch I’ve tested this year. To test the distance and pace, I chose pre-measured routes in a variety of areas with various levels of potential GPS disruption. The multi-channel GPS of the 965 outperformed other models handily, coming in nearly dead accurate on multiple trails and routes. The only time it was off by a noticeable amount was when my run and walk workout took me below ground in Manhattan during a particularly nasty bit of weather. (There are areas underground in New York City where not even cell phones work, so this is completely unsurprising).

To measure heart rate and blood oxygen saturation (Sp02) tracking, I ran on the treadmill wearing both the 965 and a hospital-grade pulse oximeter with a built-in heart rate monitor, similar to what they'd strap to you at the cardiologist's office. My heart rate fell within three beats per minute and the pulse oximeter was within two percentage points. That's far more precise than the Suunto Race I tested it against, which was off by between two and six beats per minute.

Having a more accurate heart rate measurement has a cascading impact on all of your training data and Garmin's data analysis features, which help optimize your variability, recovery, and your performance on the whole. When this watch tells you to take it easy, you should listen.

The up-ahead turn-by-turn navigational system is also responsive and easy to follow. As someone who falls into a sort of directional fugue when I run, often forgetting my plan, this is a huge help. Haptic and audible notifications effectively alert you of upcoming turns, so you don't need to check your watch to follow its directions. That's especially helpful and comforting when you're running a new and/or unfamiliar route.

I still have my quibbles with the accuracy of the sleep tracking features, though. I wear an Oura ring regularly and generally feel that I have a good idea of my sleep patterns , so I feel comfortable saying that the 965 felt off. I am not sure if it is the movement of my wrist that is affecting the measurement, or some other factor, but the watch's results could differ quite a bit from my experience.

Getting Technical With Advanced Metrics

Beyond the core running metrics, the Forerunner 965 tracks some very specific things that can be very useful for competitive runners in training looking to optimize their performance. I was particularly interested in seeing the effects of measuring vertical oscillation and cadence tracking.

Vertical oscillation measures the bounce in your stride, helping you identify if you're wasting energy by moving excessively up and down. Once you have a baseline in hand, you can theoretically work to minimize your bounciness and improve running efficiency.

Cadence tracking, which counts the number of steps you take per minute so you can calculate your stride rate. This can help prevent you overstriding , which can reduce impact and improve overall running form.

Though digging into the nitty gritty of my performance these was pretty cool in a nerdy kind of way, I am not sure if they were all that useful for me. I can see why top athletes would like this data, but if they have a dedicated running coach, they likely already have it, and it wouldn’t be AI-based.

Lastly, knowing other runners may run at altitude, I took this watch to the Catskill mountains to try out the trail maps and utilized Garmin’s ClimbPro feature. Garmin's Forerunner 965's trail maps and ClimbPro feature proved useful, providing accurate course navigation. The detailed (and very nice looking) mapping and ClimbPro functionality make the trail running experience more predictable. These features make the watch a neat little tool for runners exploring new and challenging terrains.

A Coach On Your Wrist

As I don’t have a fancy running coach, I decided to give Garmin’s suggested workouts on the Garmin Forerunner 965 a go. And you know what? They were quite helpful. I found myself getting a much better feel for how my body was responding to things, and it did a fine job of keeping me from going out too fast or too slow.

The 965 also has a feature called race pace predictor , which uses a variety of metrics to calculate your ideal race time for specific distances. To test that out, I strapped it on and embarked on a series of local 5k fun runs. Initially, it was all in the name of science, (and for you, dear reader.) But something shifted as I the watch started giving me feedback: It predicted slower finish times slower than I thought it should—rude—which lit a fire under my butt.

Each race became a personal vendetta against the digital projections, and fueled by sheer stubbornness (and caffeine), I beat those times. I crossed those finish lines with an almost comical level of smugness, silently thinking, "Who's the machine now?" as I glanced down at my defeated, yet undeniably helpful, watch-coach.

Garmin Connect Is Still Far From Perfect

Let’s talk about what I don’t love. On paper, the Garmin Connect app offers a lot of convenience in managing certain aspects of the Forerunner 965 from your phone. That said, I find the app's organizational structure to be a bit of a hot mess. Finding specific features, and especially creating routes, is a bit of a slog.

Fortunately, the 965's ability to download maps from secondary apps and store music on the device largely mitigates your need to interact with Garmin Connect. This independence is a major advantage: Outside of actively testing it, I largely bypassed the app's shenanigans and streamlined my experience using third-party integrations.

Beyond that, Garmin also needs a more intuitive way to figure out how to silence certain notifications while allowing others to come through. Do not disturb mode is not useful for everything.

The Verdict

All in all, the Garmin Forerunner 965 has won me over. It’s a cute and sporty assistant always keeping me in check and trying to keep me humble. If you're someone who geeks out over metrics, loves having a plethora of features at your fingertips, and your runs are shorter than a full day's worth of GPS tracking, this watch is a fantastic choice. It’s not just a running watch; it's an all-in-one lifestyle powerhouse.

With GarminPay, the ability to take calls, store your favorite tunes, and even sneak a peek at your messages, it seamlessly integrates into your day-to-day. For those who utilize a continuous glucose monitor, it has the ability to show your sugar right on your watch as well, which is a feature few know about. This watch is ready to be your go-to companion for workouts and beyond. If you need something more rugged, or you want something that can last a little longer, you may want to consider a Garmin Fenix 8 instead.