Garmin Forerunner 55
See yourself as an athlete—and show up for your workout with the right tool for the job. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is a sleek GPS running watch that goes beyond pace and heart rate stats.
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- Monitors heart rate at the wrist and uses GPS to track how far, how fast and where you've run
- Run your best with helpful training tools, including race time predictions and finish time estimates
- Provides personalized guidance and daily suggested workouts based on your training history, fitness level and recovery time
- PacePro™ feature offers GPS-based pace guidance for a selected course or distance, helping you plan your race day strategy; not compatible with on-device courses
- Track all the ways you move with built-in activity profiles for running, cycling, track run, virtual run, pool swim, Pilates, HIIT, breath work and more
- Tune in to your body with advanced wellness features, such as intensity minutes, fitness age, all-day respiration and more
- Battery life: up to 2 weeks in smartwatch mode; up to 20 hrs. in GPS mode
- Make it your own by downloading watch faces, apps and more from the Connect IQ™ Store (requires Garmin Connect™ app and Connect IQ™ app loaded on a compatible smartphone)
Imported.
View the Garmin Forerunner Product LineView all Garmin GPS Sports Watches| Best Use | Running |
|---|---|
| Average Battery Life | Smartwatch mode: up to 2 weeks; GPS mode: up to 20 hrs. |
| Battery Type | Lithium Ion |
| Display Size | 1.04 inches |
| Illumination | Backlight |
| Altimeter | No |
| GPS/Satellite Detectable | Yes |
| HRM Included/Integrated | Yes |
| Heart Rate Sensor Type | Wrist-based |
| Average Heart Rate | Yes |
| Heart Rate Target Zone(s) | Yes |
| VO2 Max Estimate | Yes |
| Recovery Advising | Yes |
| Tracks Steps | Yes |
| Pedometer Type | Digital 3-axis Accelerometer |
| Pace Alert | Yes |
| Interval Training | Yes |
| Tracks Calories Burned | Yes |
| Water-Resistant Depth | 50 meters |
| Pool Lap Recognition | Yes |
| Stroke Recognition | Yes |
| Sleep Tracking | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Time Display | Yes |
| Stopwatch | Yes |
| Customization | Apps Widgets Data Fields Watch Faces |
| Smart Device Notifications | Yes |
| Data Exchange | ANT+ Bluetooth |
| Compatible Fitness Accessories | Heart Rate Monitor Cadence Sensor |
| Gender | Unisex |
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Tough watch
Alright so I wasn’t gonna write a review ever but I just washed and dried my watch in the washer and drier machine and it still works. Although that’s nuff said, I’ve worn it through two years working at FedEx, and almost a year as an auto mechanic. It’s been dropped, scratched, dipped in oil, has gotten coolant on it and countless other happenings that most watches would never endure. Battery life is fantastic, never had an issue with charging, buttons or functions. 10/10 watch
A real life changer! No matter what age!
Knowledgeable REI employee extremely helpful in selection. Learning curve challenging for someone naive to electronics. Info that comes with product is brief and not always helpful to someone who is not familiar with terminology. Which is the only reason for 4 stars rather than 5. But Garmin online help resources are excellent. The watch was purchased as a motivator for steps and movement for an older person, myself (in 70's). But I am discovering many other positive impacts on life-style, such as hydration reminders, etc. I still have a lot to understand about using watch to full potential. But am enthusiastic and extremely pleased with purchase!
Liked it for the first week
It worked really well for the first week I had it. Now I'm having heart rate and calorie burn ratio inaccurate for a couple weeks wasting chunks of time and leading to overexercise to get stats. Can't seem to fix it. Still having to wear a Fitbit on other wrist for back up. Missing the amoled display. I can barely see the screen on this unless I put bright ness on 100. Kinda mad at it cuz I was hoping it would solve the heart rate issues I've had with my other Garmin watches. They all seem to think that while jumping around like and idiot and despite the fact that I take medicine for ADHD my heart rate is 42. Um nooooo.
Good, but battery could be better
GPS quickly connects, accurate GPS, and simple menu options (very easy to learn and a very good app). But battery does not last for more that 3-5 days, even if you disconnect it with the phone, turn off heart rate and GPS.
I loved this watch but it died in less than a year
I really liked this watch. The garmin trainer mode was flexible and fun to use. The battery life was so fantastic; really liberating after having to charge my apple watch every day. I was able to use it running, swimming, sailing, skiing and at the gym. The auto sync with Strava was straight forward. Cons: When using the garmin coaching you have to press a series of buttons during the workouts to progress to the next items. This wasn't consistent across workouts however and it cut some workouts short sometimes which was super frustrating because I was motivated by completing each task well. The watch is now turning off randomly and has an unresolved error message so I have to return it.
One Year Review
I got this watch after using a Fitbit to track my runs for a while as I began training seriously for the first time. As someone who did not have much experience with smartwatches, I found learning the controls surprisingly intuitive. I was initially hesitant about beating on the watch because I was concerned about it getting damaged. However, I've put a full year of hard use into this watch, and it shows no indications of slowing down. I'm talking about regular swims, hiking, weightlifting, running, and banging it against everything in my vicinity. Falling on it, dropping it on cement, submerged in mud, etc... Whatever you can imagine you can do with this thing, I've done it (accidentally or not). I've been beyond impressed with its durability, and have no concerns about continuing to thrash on it. The display does accumulate some tiny scratches, but nothing very noticeable or detrimental to its performance. Battery life is fantastic, and I usually go 10-12 days between charges, depending on how much of the GPS I use, My wife has an Apple Watch, and I'm thankful I don't have to charge my watch daily as she does. For beginner (or even intermediate) runners, I think you'll be more than satisfied with this watch. It does everything you need it to do. I only have a few small complaints. Sometimes the charging cable doesn't connect very well, and you have to fiddle around with the connection to the watch for a bit before it will register as charging. Occasionally the Garmin app will be a little glitchy, or lag. But 90% of the time it's fine. Just something to be aware of. I may upgrade to the Forerunner 255 just because of some of the added features, but I don't really need to. This watch does everything I could really ask for.
Not fancy, but works well
Works great. I've been getting about 10 days of battery life with moderate usage (a few short runs/exercise sessions during the week and text/call notifications throughout the day). HR monitor is a little slow to show quick changes, but works well enough for casual readings. Best of all is the always-on reflective screen. I had to return a Fitbit Versa in the past because flipping my wrist or pressing a button to get the screen to turn on was annoying and didn't always work because I wear my watch facing inwards on my wrist. Don't have to worry about that with this display!
Simple and accurate
I was looking for a watch to replace my Garmin Vivoactive which was no longer tracking accurately or holding a charge after a few years. I don’t really care much for the features of higher end watches, but I still wanted something that tracks runs and hikes accurately, has a great battery life, and wasn’t too bulky since I have small wrists. This watch checks all of those boxes! I find the features to be pretty intuitive as well and actually like that it’s not a touch screen since I find that touch screen watches can be too sensitive.
This watch is amazing
I got this watch a few weeks ago, and it works super well. It has cool features so you can see your average mile pace if you didn’t even run one. There is also many preloaded workouts to choose from. I totally recommend this watch, it is quality for the price.
All the features you need for road running
I'm a marathon pacer -- one of the people who runs at a set pace holding a sign for a specific goal time. Pacers don't rely solely on their watches, but we do like lots of accurate data to help us do our work. I've been using Garmins for a long time and I used to have to buy their 4-series watches -- the 405 and the 410. But features make their way down and I'd been using a couple 230s for several years. After my daughter got a 45 a few years back I was impressed that now the "0 series" was getting almost feature-rich enough to meet my pacing needs. With the 55, the "0 series" finally has enough features for a pacer. Since I got this a month ago I've paced three half marathons and a marathon, wearing my old 230 on my right arm and the 55 on my left. I haven't noticed any issues with the watch, other than its GPS getting confused in a deep woods section of a half marathon and thinking I'd run 1.1 miles when both my 230 and the course indicated I'd run a mile, but that kind of GPS error happens occasionally on any watch and it was abundantly obvious it had happened. Wrist-based HR monitoring seems to have come a long way in the last couple generations - while it's still not as responsive as a chest strap, so far it's always reported accurately after just a short lag as compared to my chest strap with the 230. Of course, pacing doesn't involve a lot of rapidly-changing HR, or very-high readings, so I'll need to see how it does on an intense track workout before I can say it's good enough for HR training, but it seems to be fine for pacing a marathon. The most amazing thing about this watch is its battery life. Back in the days of the 405 and 410, a fully charged watch could barely make it through a 4 hour marathon; my 230, when fully charged, is at about 60% by the end of a 4 hour marathon. But this 55 was still reading 100% at the end of a 4:05 pacing job, and evidence indicates that it really didn't drop much -- four days and four runs later, wearing 24 hours a day and without charging, it's still at 60%. So far I'm also impressed with the "lifestyle health" software on the watch, as it seems to have adapted pretty quickly to my specific HR, sleep, and activity patterns to give me reasonable estimates of my training state. Obviously this is all algorithmically driven so I wouldn't trust it to really know what's going on, but it's a useful indicator. I have yet to try its "track mode". I had seriously considered a Coros because Garmins have always been mediocre on the track and my friends with Coros watches have been really impressed with their track mode. Supposedly Garmin has acted quickly to get their "track mode" into the same range of accuracy as Coros, so I'm excited to try it out once I'm back to that part of my training cycle again. This watch obviously isn't appropriate for a triathlete, and some of the more expensive Fenix type watches may be better for trail runners and hikers who intend their watch to be their primary device. But for runners who train and race primarily on the roads I think the 55 represents a turning point where the "0 series" watches are finally good enough for anything.