Garmin reveals its Garmin Forerunner 70 and Garmin Forerunner 170 'easy-to-use' running watches — just after its predecessor was used to break the 2-hour marathon world record | Tech Radar
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Garmin reveals its Garmin Forerunner 70 and Garmin Forerunner 170 'easy-to-use' running watches — just after its predecessor was used to break the 2-hour marathon world record
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Garmin just dropped three new watches: the Garmin Forerunner 70, 170 and 170 Music
Designed to be 'easy to use', the watches are equipped 'with everything a runner needs to start their running journey'
Some of Garmin's software from more expensive Forerunners makes the cut here, such as wrist-based running power and running dynamics
Our best Garmin watches list has been overdue getting a new budget entry for a while, and we're now spoiled for choice: Garmin just dropped three 'easy-to-use' running watches.
The three models — the Garmin Forerunner 70, Forerunner 170 and 170 Music — are equipped with "everything a runner needs to start their running journey," according to Susan Lyman, Garmin Vice President of Consumer Sales and Marketing.
The Garmin Forerunner 70 is the successor to Garmin's long-serving Garmin Forerunner 55 running watch, and will cost £219.99 (around
Where to pick up a bargain Garmin Forerunner 55 just like Sebastian Sawe's
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All three watches come with a 1.2-inch AMOLED screen and Garmin's standard Forerunner five-button configuration.
The Garmin Forerunner 70 offers up to 13 days of battery life, while the more feature-rich Forerunner 170 series both get up to 10 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. The Forerunner 170 series also adds more smartwatch features, such as Garmin Pay.
In a press release, Lyman said the "Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 include premium running and training features pulled in from our more advanced Forerunners, plus popular health and wellness metrics."
Those tools include Training Readiness scores, wrist-based Running Power (a popular metric to base your performance on, a measure of total effort rather than heart rate), and Running Dynamics features, which calculate stride, cadence and more. It's not clear yet whether the watches are packing the older, less accurate Elevate V4 heart rate sensors common in cheaper watches, or Garmin's newer Elevate V5 series.
The Garmin Forerunner 70 and 170 series are available to pre-order now, releasing on May 15.
While there's plenty of entry-level and beginner-friendly language used when describing these watches, Garmin's simpler, cheaper Forerunners are still used by the best runners in the world.
As recently as April this year, the five-year-old, still-cheap Garmin Forerunner 55 was used by marathon runner Sebastian Sawe to break the two-hour time barrier at London 2026.
So, even though these watches are ideal for beginners, serious runners should be looking at them very closely too. Stay tuned for our full reviews.
➡️ Read our full guide to the best Garmin watches
- Best overall: Garmin Venu 4
- Best premium: Garmin Fenix 8
- Best budget: Garmin Vivoactive 6
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Matt is Tech Radar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech.
A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, Live Science and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.
Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.
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