Garmin announces new Forerunners with incident detection, music, and menstrual cycle tracking

As the running season progresses and people get outside to run in northern states, Garmin announced some great improvements in the Forerunner line with five new GPS sports watches. These include the Forerunner 45, Forerunner 45S, Forerunner 245, Forerunner 245 Music and Forerunner 945.

Each new Forerunner has the traditional five button design so you can navigate each watch with the buttons and not have to worry about errant touches on the display while you run in any condition. Always-on, sunlight-readable displays are provided with integrated GPS. Garmin Coach provides free training plans for 5K, 10K, and half-marathon races and is supported by each new Forerunner.

The Forerunner 45 and 45S are both priced at $199.99 and offer wrist-based heart rate monitoring and GPS tracking functionality. The 45S has a 39mm diameter case while the 45 is slightly larger at 42mm. Smartphone notifications are also supported on the 45 and 45S.

The Forerunner 45 devices are rated for up to seven days of battery life in smartwatch mode and 13 hours in GPS mode.

The Forerunner 245 and 245 Music offer an upgrade to the popular Forerunner 235 with more data and advanced features for runners. The Forerunner 245 Music can sync to Deezer or Spotify and hold up to 500 songs for you to enjoy without a connected phone.

We’ve been running with the Forerunner 245 Music for the past couple of weeks, see our full review, and it’s a compelling capable sports watch that is sure to be enjoyed by runners of all shapes and sizes. The 245 is priced at $299.99 and the 245 Music at $349.99.

Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales, stated

We are excited to refresh our Forerunner line and bring sought-after advancements to some of our most popular GPS running smartwatches. Each new Forerunner takes what its predecessor has done very well, and enhances it with even more features, making it easier for you to simply focus on your workoutwhile your watch does the thinking.

The Forerunner 245 and 245 Music offer performance monitoring tools, training status, wrist-based Pulse Ox sensor, and helpful tools such as body battery. These two watches are rated to last seven days in smartwatch mode, 24 hours in GPS mode, and six hours in GPS with music playback (for the Forerunner 245 Music).

The Garmin Forerunner 945 is the successor to the much-loved Garmin Forerunner 935. Music is one major new feature and this watch can carry up to 1,000 downloaded songs to cover even the longest workout. Garmin Pay is also supported with the 945.

Onboard color maps will help you navigate around new areas to help you find your way. An extensive number of activities are supported as the Forerunner 945 serves up much more than support for running. Other activities include skiing, hiking, golfing, and more. Advanced sleep tracking, with Pulse OX support, is also provided.

The Forerunner 945 is priced at $599.99 with an optional $749.99 bundle that include blue and black bands, HRM-Tri and HRM-Swim monitors, and a quick release kit. Battery life is rated at two weeks for smartwatch use, 36 hours in GPS mode, and 10 hours in GPS with music.

All of these new Forerunner watches also now support menstrual cycle tracking so that women can track their cycle, log their symptoms, and receive helpful fitness tips based on the phase of their cycle. This will be especially useful for female athletes who can now track their cycle in the same place that they tracked their last run. We saw Fitbit add similar functionality last year so it is great to see Garmin rolling out this functionality and integrating it into Garmin Connect.