Garmin Forerunner 255 GPS 46mm Running Smartwatch, Lightweight, Advanced Training & Insights, Safety & Tracking Features, up to 14 days Battery Life, Slate Grey

Excellent watch. Very pleased with my purchase. You need to know that Amazon will send you a "one time password" and you need to give this to the delivery driver. They will not simply leave it in a safe place; they have to give it to you personally. Plan accordingly! This is my first sports watch, but I was familiar with the Garmin buttons because family members own different models. Set up was far easier than I expected. Using an Android phone I was able to download the app and get the watch up and running in about 5 minutes. Not difficult at all. Quite a relief. Setting the watch up exactly how you want it in terms of display, putting preferred activities in the right order, and so on, is quite intuitive, but best approached a bit at a time over the first few days as you get used to it. Many of these watches are shown in advertisements with all the information on the screen. However, it is easy to choose a simple, uncluttered, watch face that is easy to read at a glance when you are just using it as a watch. A nice touch is that a quick flick of the wrist is enough to light up the watch face for a few seconds. This means the light is off most of the time (to save battery) but comes on when you need it without having to press any buttons. My preferred activity is running. Press one button once to bring up the running screen. A few seconds later, it buzzes to confirm it has locked onto the GPS satellites. Press one button to start recording the run. Press the same button to stop recording. It's that simple. While you're running, it shows the information you need in simple clear format. I have mine set on metric, which means it pings and gives a "lap time" every 1 km. If I have my phone with me and the app open, it also gives me a voice update. The app on my phone gives me more information than I could ever need, but the basics are very easy to interpret. One slight irritation: you can set it on kilometres, or you can set it on miles. Like a lot of British people, I run in km, and cycle in miles, and there appears to be no way of getting the watch to do some activities in metric and some in "imperial". A work around is to have the watch set in metric, and the app on the phone in imperial. The same activity will then show in km on the watch and miles on the phone. Another work around is to do the simple arithmetic after the activity. However, I would have preferred the option to set different units for the different activities. A quick look at Garmin users' forums shows I am not the only one. Another slight irritation: although the steps counter is very accurate indeed when I am walking outside, it seems to record a small number of extra steps randomly when I am driving or on the motorbike. Over the course of a day, this may add 1,000 steps to the actual number I have walked. Also, working on the ground floor of a tall building, I find that it doesn't always record the steps I take indoors. The overall feel of the watch is good quality. The display is attractive, clear and easy to read, and the strap is simple, smart, and comfortable and very adjustable. Battery life so far has been excellent. I give it a few minutes' charge while I'm in the shower, and so far the display has never dipped below 13 days of battery life. That's when used as a watch. Battery life when recording an activity is of course less because it's doing more work. I am not a gadget person, and it took me a long time to decide to buy this. All I really wanted was a smart-looking watch with a clear analogue display, and the ability to record runs and cycle rides accurately. This does so much more, but I have very quickly come to appreciate it as an excellent bit of kit.

I upgraded from the Forerunner 245 and have been very happy. The 255 has more features that I’ve been enjoying, such as tracking HRV and a sleep score. The battery life is a drastic improvement and have run several 50km trail races with no problems. It is very sturdy and is showing zero signs of damage after 10 months of wearing it 24/7. I only have two negative things to say about this watch. It is massive and doesn’t look the best on my small wrist. Also, the Training Preparedness feature isn’t available on this watch, which is a shame.

I absolutely love this watch. Prior to buying it I was wearing both a Forerunner 45 and a Whoop Band to get far less information combined than I now get from the Forerunner 255. It has allowed me to cancel my Whoop subscription so after about 8 months it will have paid for itself. The primary benefit of the watch is for running. It gives a ton of data I wanted it for - heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), sleep metrics, oxygen levels, running pace, stride length and cadence (steps per minute) as well as a lot more data I didnt even expect such as vertical osciliation, ground contact time, respiration rate, stress level, advised recovery rates/times, training load analysis. For someone who loves analyzing data like I do its amazing and it's surprising that you dont have to pay a monthly fee to access everything on the app like you do with other brands like Whoop and Fitbit. Another great running feature is that it allows you to input your upcoming races and it will plan your running workouts out leading up to the event, reacting in real time to your running and health data and intelligently building up your training volume and then tapering off before a race. Like earlier Forerunners, it also has the Garmin Coach program where you can set parameters and do a full coaching plan from a selection of three professionals. I'd like to see them introduce a bit more variety on those as its the same line up as when I got my last Forerunner a few years ago, but its still a good feature. One unexpected feature that as a gym rat absolutely blew my mind was that it is fantastic for tracking weight training workouts. It tracks sets and reps, allows you to enter the weights used and is semi-reasonable at even guessing what exercise you are doing (maybe 40% accuracy on that but its easy to edit to the correct exercise). At the end of the workout it shows you the muscle areas worked, the total 'work time' (duration of the sets excluding rest time), the total amount of weight lifted as well as a load more data. I had no idea the watch did this and am really impressed. It's also very useful if you are trying to stick to a certain rest time between sets as it displays this very clearly. Another function I like is that it gives you a report every morning directly on the watch about the prior day (including sleep details and recommended training for the day). There's a suprising amount of data accessible directly on the watch compared to other similar devices I've used. I cant really be specific on how accurate the data is but it generally matches up to what I'd expect and have seen on prior devices. Probably the weakest area is the sleep recording as there's some nights where I know I'm awake more than it is registering and also it doesnt seem to register if you wake up and then go back to sleep in the morning (or track naps like Whoop does) but that's a minor grumble and sleep metrics are not a main reason why I use the watch. There's even more features than I've listed but these are the highlights for me. Its a really great watch that I dont hesitate to recommend, especially if you can pick one up when they are on offer like I did. The level of features included may be daunting to new users but its actually really easy to pick up as you go along and quite intuitive.

If I could give more than 5 stars I would. I am amazed. There is so much functionality within the Forerunner 255. It connects instantly to my phone and app. The quality is rugged but looks very stylish and the watch straps are easy to snap on and off. I hike a lot and love the built in route features with GPS tracking and navigation. Screen brightness is great especially in the sun. I actually prefer that it is not touch screen. Something about still being able to have clickable, tactile and good quality buttons in this day and age is comforting. I think for a sports smart watch especially, having a touch screen can be a negative as water, sweat, mud or dust can often cause unintentional actions within the interface. This is my first Garmin watch and I am now hooked for life.

I love the functionality of this watch, it's user friendly and great to measure triathlons as well as open water swimming distances. It's a really good price for such a versatile watch

This watch is excellent value. The daily running plan is very good and mixes the effort required on a daily basis and will indicate when to have a rest day based on your fitness levels. I also use the swimming tracker too, this is very accurate. Watch looks ok but the strap is a bit tacky, could be better. Connects easily to your iPhone.

I bought this to replace my ancient Forerunner 35. I'm really pleased with it. My old watch was great for basic exercise (walk/run etc.) but now I do a variety of different exercises including Strength, circuit training, yoga and swimming, this watch does it all. You can also add a custom exercise if it doesn't cover it (although there are so many to choose from!) The battery is decent, I charge it about once a week and I exercise every day for min 1-2 hours. I also like the 'Sleep Score' and body battery, which I didn't think I would use. Is this a gimmick? I'm not sure, but when I was feeling poorly and slept badly it certainly showed on my sleep score and body battery. The screen isn't too large (I chose the Forerunner 255s) as I don't have very big wrists, so a good size for a lady to wear. It also links to My Fitness Pal and various other apps. Yes it's a little pricey but I'm very pleased with it and it's taken my exercise and nutrition to another level.

Bought this as my first smart watch to help with training. Did everything I expected and more! Integrated brilliantly with Strava and other fitness apps. The Garmin app is also very helpful with its suggested training plans and data following a session. So far its held up running, biking and swimming without fault. Overall it’s a great watch and well worth the money.