10 Best Garmin Heart Rate Monitor Watches 2025 in the United States

The Garmin Forerunner® 965 is designed for runners and multisport athletes who want detailed training feedback and reliable tracking. It features a bright 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen alongside traditional buttons, making it easy to view and control even on the move. Its heart rate monitoring is wrist-based and pairs well with other training metrics like cadence, stride length, and running power, helping you understand your performance better. GPS tracking is very accurate thanks to multi-band GNSS with SatIQ technology, which also helps save battery. Speaking of battery, it offers an impressive 23 days in smartwatch mode and 31 hours with GPS active, so it can easily keep up with long training cycles or races.

The watch is water-resistant and supports swim profiles, making it versatile for triathlon training. Smart features like daily suggested workouts, recovery insights, sleep tracking, and race planning add extra value for serious athletes wanting to optimize their training. It also supports multiple sports with customizable profiles and stores a large amount of data with 32 GB of memory.

While it has many advanced features, some of the training readiness and recovery metrics are estimations and might not be perfect for beginners who want simple, straightforward data. Its price and feature set might be more than casual users need. This watch is best suited for dedicated runners and multisport athletes who appreciate detailed insights and strong GPS performance in a lightweight, stylish design.

The Garmin vívoactive 5 is a versatile health and fitness smartwatch featuring a vivid AMOLED display and impressive battery life of up to 11 days in smartwatch mode. It excels in heart rate monitoring, making it ideal for users who want to keep track of their cardiovascular health. The watch also offers extensive GPS tracking, beneficial for outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy activities like running, cycling, and hiking.

It's well-suited for fitness enthusiasts with more than 30 built-in sports apps, and special modes for wheelchair users, ensuring inclusivity. The vívoactive 5 provides comprehensive health monitoring, including sleep tracking, stress levels, and Body Battery energy monitoring, which offers personalized insights to help users manage their wellbeing effectively. Additionally, it supports smart features like music downloading, notifications, and Bluetooth connectivity, enhancing convenience.

The design is sleek and comfortable, with a lightweight build and a round, 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen that is both responsive and easy to read. However, some users might find the screen size a bit small compared to other smartwatches on the market. The water resistance makes it suitable for swimming, but those looking for more advanced swimming metrics might find it lacking. The smartwatch is compatible with both Android and iOS, ensuring broad accessibility. While it has a decent storage capacity of 4 GB, heavy music and app users might find this limiting. The Garmin vívoactive 5 is a solid choice for those looking to improve their fitness and health tracking with a stylish and functional smartwatch.

The Garmin fēnix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar is a robust multisport GPS smartwatch designed for athletes and outdoor enthusiasts who want detailed performance tracking and long battery life. Its standout feature is the solar charging lens, which extends battery life significantly by using sunlight, allowing for weeks of use in smartwatch mode without frequent recharging. The 1.3-inch round display is clear and responsive, combining touchscreen and button controls, making it easy to operate in various conditions.

It offers advanced heart rate monitoring along with additional health metrics like HRV and Pulse Ox, giving a good overview of your fitness and recovery, with readings that provide valuable insights though they are estimates and not medical-grade. GPS tracking is enhanced with multi-band GPS and SatIQ technology, improving location accuracy and battery efficiency, which is great for hiking, running, or skiing. The built-in LED flashlight is a useful addition for low-light training or outdoor adventures. Activity tracking covers a wide range of sports with specialized features like running power and new endurance scores, helping athletes better understand their training effects. Water resistance is designed to meet outdoor activity demands, making the watch suitable for swimming or rain exposure.

Smart features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, preloaded topographic and golf maps, and advanced navigation prompts, making it versatile for daily use and exploration. Although the watch is a bit on the heavier side at 73 grams, its sturdy titanium build supports durability. The combination of price and feature set makes it an excellent choice for serious multisport users who want in-depth data and long-lasting performance, while casual users might find it more complex than needed.