The Garmin Forerunner 165, showing an HRV reading.
Mark Jansen / Digital Trends

Update 10/7/24: We’re one day away from the official launch of Prime Big Deal Days, but the early deals we’ve been spotlighting over the week seem to be holding strong.

Even though Prime Day is tomorrow, we’re happy to see that there are already a lot of early Prime Day deals on Garmin watches, pretty much across the board. So, if you’re into fitness, camping, hiking, or even extreme sports, now is a great opportunity to get your hands on one of the best brands in the fitness space. To give you an extra hand in finding the best smartwatch deals on Garmin, we’ve gone out and scoured all the big retailers for the best Garmin deals we can find and listed them below. That said, if you haven’t quite found what you’re looking for below, be sure to also check out these Prime Day smartwatch deals.

Garmin Vivoactive 5 — $250 $300 16% off

Garmin VivoActive 3 Music
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends / Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

The Vivoactive 5 is a great budget-oriented health watch, which our reviewer Mark Jensen found to be great “if you’re someone who likes to keep an eye on their heart health and stress levels while also getting in some casual runs.”It has a full sensor suite and sports apps to keep track of things, and it even has a 10-day battery life without an always-on display; plus, you get a $50 discount.

Garmin Instinct 2S (renewed) — $230 $249 8% off

The Garmin Instinct 2X Solar on a person's wrist.
Garmin

With a battery life of up to 21 days without the GPS, the Garming Instinct S2 is an excellent fitness tracker that’s rugged and includes sensors for things like Pulse Ox and Respiration. It’s a great update to the original Garmin Instinct, and while this is renewed, the $230 is pretty good, given that a new watch would run you at least $300.

Garmin Instinct Solar — $300 $400 25% off

The Garmin Instinct 2X Solar on a person's wrist.
Garmin / Garmin

What’s unique about the Garmin Instinct Solar is that it can get a bit of extra charge from the sun, which can be quite handy if you’re out in the wilderness. Not only that, but it also has waypoint projection, a full sensor suite, a Jumpmaster mode, and a stealth mode that stops any signals being sent out. Being almost military-grade, it’s well worth it for the $100 discount.

Garmin Forerunner 255 Music — $305 $400 24% off

Garmin Forerunner 255
Garmin

If you’re big into jogging and running, this 24% discount on the Garmin Forerunner 255 is really the watch for you. It’s specifically made for runners and includes some nice features like an overall fitness evaluation and a month-long performance analysis, which is handy. Even better, you can load 500 songs from various streaming services, so you don’t need to take your phone.

Garmin Forerunner 265 — $324 $450 6% off

Garmin Forerunner 265 with its display on.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

If you want to take it another step, then you’ll find our reviewer Joe Marin’s take on the Forerunner 265 quite interesting, in that “the Garmin Forerunner 265 may be one of the very best you can buy in 2023.” While it’s not quite at the level of an Apple Watch Ultra 2, it has a gorgeous AMOLED display and a very thorough sensor suite and analysis, and it even has a nice 6% discount on it.

Garmin Venu 3S — $400 $450 11% off

New Body Battery details on the Garmin Venu 3.
Garmin

If you like Garmin but want more of a smartwatch experience, the Venu 3S manages to do a pretty good job of balancing between a fitness tracker and a smartwatch. It also has a lovely AMOLED display, sleep coaching, a microphone and speaker for making calls, and a few other bells and whistles. It also has a very solid $50 discount.

Garmin Forerunner 965 — $565 $600 6% off

Garmin Forerunner smartwatch lifestyle photo
Garmin

The Garmin Forerunner 965 really takes the running experience to the next level, with a more rugged body, a 23-day battery life, and a larger screen with a 454 x 454 resolution, so it’s great to use overall. In fact, you can check our Garmin Forerunner 265 vs. 965 comparison to see if it’s worth it for you, especially with this deal that knocks $50 off.

Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar — $900, was $1,000

The Garmin Fenix 7X smartwatch with stats on the screen.
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If you want the best of the best that Garmin has to offer, that’s probably the Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar, and it is perfect for those who want an alternative to the Apple Watch Ultra. It has a very large 1.4-inch display that’s great for reading maps, and it can track things like running strength during ascents and descents, plus a ton more, and it even has a $100 discount bringing it down to $900.

How to Choose a Garmin Watch on Prime Day

When it comes to picking Garmin watches, it’s a lot easier if you already have a good sense of what sort of watch you want. For example, if you’re looking for something that’s close to a traditional smartwatch, something like the Garming Venu 3S or the Garmin Vivoactive 5 are solid options. Not only are they made with all the fitness tracking tech you’d expect from Garmin, but they also have all the phone integrations you’d like to see as well.

Alternatively, if you’re into running, then one of the best options is one of the Garmin Forerunner series, wich are specifically made for it. Then, of course, there are things like the Garmin Instinct lineup which is targeted more towards outside lifestyles and activities like hiking and camping. Then there is the really high end stuff like the Garmin Fenix which is about equivalent to an Apple Watch Ultra.

All that said one thing you should absolutely keep in mind is that Garmin has its own OS that isn’t based on Android, so there is a bit of a learning curve if this is your first time with Garmin.

How We Chose These Garmin Watch Prime Day deals

The truth is that Garmin watches are quite expensive, and for those who aren’t familiar with the brand’s fitness focus, they can sometimes be hard to justify as smartwatches. That said, pretty much all Garmin watches are great across the board, so whenever we suggest one, we generally feel comfortable that it’s going to be a good pick for what it’s made for. Of course, we also try to compare it to watches in a similar price range and feature set to make sure you’re getting the best return for your money.

When it comes down to it, though, our focus is mainly to scour the internet for the best Gamin deals to help save you a little bit extra, which is why we use our own experience and tools to look at things like historical data and compare them to what the watches are going for now. Sometimes, we’ll even include a renewed option if we feel it’s a steep enough discount and worth grabbing.

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