- 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 $300 / AU$410). The Forerunner 170, meanwhile, will start at £259.99 (around $350 / AU$485). The 170 Music, which allows you to download music and connect headphones and which comes with 4GB of memory, costs £299.99 (around $400 / AU$560).
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.
A well-timed replacement
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.
