Price: $409.99 - $319.99
(as of Apr 23, 2025 12:55:14 UTC – Details)
Run with confidence. Forerunner® 945 LTE has the power of LTE connectivity (must have an active subscription plan and connectivity to a Category M1 LTE network), bringing phone-free safety and tracking features right to your wrist (Assistance Plus is not available in all markets where Category M1 LTE network connectivity is available). Should you need assistance, your watch can send your name and location to your emergency contacts or connect you to the Garmin IERCC, a professional 24/7 emergency monitoring and response center. Loved ones can virtually cheer while they follow your run in real time. While you run, ride and swim, get the most out of every mile with advanced physiological training tools. Download music from select services (may require premium subscription with a third-party music provider) to store on your watch for phone-free listening (when paired with compatible headphones). Garmin Pay™ contactless payments (with a supported country, payment network and issuing bank information) let you leave your wallet home, too. Full-color onboard mapping with Trendline™ popularity routing even helps you find and follow the best paths.
LTE connectivity (must have an active subscription plan and connectivity to a Category M1 LTE network) enables phone-free safety and tracking features, including LiveTrack and Assistance Plus, a feature that connects you to the Garmin IERCC, a professional 24/7 emergency monitoring and response center (Assistance Plus is not available in all markets where Category M1 LTE network connectivity is available), plus you can receive messages from fans during your race
o Battery life: up to 2 weeks of battery life in smartwatch mode, 12 hours in GPS mode with music and 7 hours in GPS mode with music and LTE LiveTrack
Bring music for every mile by downloading from music services (may require premium subscription with a third-party music provider) such as Amazon Music, Deezer, Spotify and more to easily store and play up to 1,000 songs from your wrist when paired with compatible headphones
Train smarter with performance measurements adjusted for heat and altitude, track recovery time, predict your race finish time, monitor heart rate (this is not a medical device) underwater and much more
Leave your cash and cards at home; Garmin Pay contactless payments (with a supported country, payment network and issuing bank information) let you pay for purchases on the go
Full-color, onboard maps guide you on your runs or rides
Improved intervals feature includes a new rest screen, intervals data page and automatic classification that keeps track of your fast time and slow time, then separates them for you
Measure your running distance around a 400-meter track more accurately with the track run activity profile
Daily suggested workouts give you clear daily guidance designed to help you get fitter and keep your training balanced
Train for triathlons with run, bike and swim metrics plus multisport modes that allow you to easily do brick workouts and tri races
Customers say
Customers find this smartwatch to be a high-quality time instrument with accurate GPS tracking and great battery life. They appreciate its fitness capabilities, with one customer noting it provides excellent insights about training and body vitals, and consider it worth the price. The watch receives positive feedback for its appearance. However, functionality and connectivity receive mixed reviews, with some customers reporting that it stopped working and had connectivity issues.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
0x123456789 –
Love the watch and plan on keeping it forever
My Apple Watch Series 6 GPS + Cellular developed a swollen battery, rendering it pretty much unusable. I considered getting another Apple Watch, but Iâm not willing to spend a few hundred dollars every 2â3 years due to battery issues. Plus, the new Apple Watch lost its blood oxygen sensor due to patent infringement case. That left me with only one other option on the market that has cellular connectivity: the Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE.
It took me a while to get used to Garmin, but Iâm in love now. The battery lasts over 2 weeks compared to just 2 days on the Apple Watch, which is huge! It integrates with phones to sync calls, texts, and emails, allowing you to read them on the screen. However, you canât write SMS messages or make calls directly from this watch – the cellular connection is strictly for emergencies. The Garmin cellular plan costs around $6 per month, which is also cheaper than the $13 per month I paid with my carrier for the Apple Watch.
The Garmin watch offers advanced fitness metrics, onboard offline maps, and support for external sensors tailored to athletes. I thought Iâd miss Apple Pay and Spotify, but Garmin includes Spotify on the watch and has its own Garmin Pay feature. I also love the Garmin Connect app, which provides excellent insights about training and body vitals and is regularly updated.
Overall, Iâm very happy with the purchase and hope Garmin releases more watches with cellular connectivity in the future!
CichlidFiend –
Impressive battery life, fast charging, and accurate GPS tracking. Great!
I purchased this watch for the battery life and LTE functionality, although it is only for use in emergency situations. If you want to make/receive texts and calls without your phone nearby, this may not be the watch for you. If you don’t care about full-fledged smartwatch functionality when you aren’t in bluetooth range of your phone, and want a fitness-centric device, it is worth the money. My Samsung watch 4 LTE has fantastic smartwatch capability when out of bluetooth range, but you pay the price in battery drain. When tracking a workout with music on my connected headphones, I’d be lucky to make it through a day. One other thing I love about the 945 LTE is the Garmin Coach running plans that are included through the Garmin Connect app. Just choose one and start completing activities, and it automatically adjusts your training based on your fitness level, and continues to adjust the activities throughout the program.
Syncing albums from Spotify was a pain at first, but I joined Garmin’s Beta testing program and after a software update, it was easy peasy. I am extremely satisfied!
Gerlonggaul –
Best brand for sportwatch
I was an avid user of Garmin since the 910xt back in 2013. Has used the 920, and Fenix 5 before quiting and switch to apple watch because my Fenix 5 GPS was so unreliable. Whilst Apple Watch is great but it was a smartwatch first and sportwatch second, and not quite fit my need for longer workout with granular workout data tracking.
So glad to be back in Garmin again. This time my GPS is spot on.
Jason H –
A great watch until it stopped working.
I bought this watch back in February 2023, using it as both my running and everyday watch. Between the LTE connection and the ability to store music on the watch, I felt I had finally found a way to leave my phone behind and not have to worry about uncomfortable straps digging into my arm or hip.
The enjoyment lasted until the end of May, when I noticed the watch became stuck in a reboot cycle. The Garmin logo would be displayed, there would be second where the screen said maps were being loaded, the screen would go black, and the cycle would repeat again.
I reached out to Garmin and, to their credit, they issued me a free replacement. The replacement lasted less than 12 hours, as I woke up the day after setting up the new watch to find it stuck in the same reboot cycle.
I’ve reached out to Garmin support again, but even if they send me yet another replacement, I’ll always be worried it will develop the same problem.
UPDATE: My second replacement arrived yesterday. I woke up this morning to discover this watch ALSO stuck in a reboot cycle.
Avoid this watch at all costs.
Amazon Customer –
Garmin watch
There was LTE subscription and it’s cheaper than other company. Satisfied !
Jared –
Best Garmin IMO
Love this watch. Simply due to the LTE emergency feature. Iâve owned various Garmin and Apple watches over the years, only reason I ever went to the Apple watch is I DONâT want to have to lug my phone along on every run. But want to feel I can still get help if I get hurt or need assistance while on a run. Apple battery life sucks compared to Garmin by a long shot.
The 945 lte has music, great battery life, smart features (which I actually disable them all), and the ability to get help if needed phone free! For me, thatâs all I need or want.
Wished theyâd add the LTE emergency feature to the Fenix line.
Scooter –
Enables great workouts
Love this watch and app. Love looking at my running swimming and biking stats. Tracks my sleep and heart rate. Love it
I wish it had integrated calorie tracking
Alex Willis –
Superb except for pool swim workout bug and sleep tracking
I love this watch: it tracks everything very accurately and explains how to use all the data, looks great, functions well as a day to day smart watch, etc. It seems very durable and I plan to use it as my daily driver for a long time.
However, I can only give it two stars for 2 chief complaints. There is a bug with pool swim workouts that renders that feature unusable. You can still track pool swims but the on screen pool swim workouts breaks after one lap/interval. It seems like there are a few other bugs that other users are experiencing but this is the only one that I’ve encountered/affects me.
The other complaint is that the sleep tracking is awful. It can barely tell me when I go to sleep and wake up, let alone accurately determine what state of sleep I’m in.
The software support seems lazy for these reasons.
I strongly recommend this watch but for a $650 product I can’t give it more than 3 stars until these things are addressed.
Amazon Customer –
Its a great watch for fitness tracking but the cost of the LTE additions is too much for little enhanced value
Amazon Customer –
So disappointed, waited almost 3 weeks for this to arrive and since it arrived Performance been really not a £530 watch, battery definitely won’t make a marathon, and constantly on charge.
Every swim session give me completely wrong figures, does random counts, like it said that I did 3k in less than 20minutes ð
Customer Review –
“Babe Paley had only one fault,” commented her one-time friend Truman Capote. “She was perfect. Otherwise, she was perfect.”
While the Garmin 945 LTE is not perfect, it is darn close.
Here are my thoughts on running with the 945LTE for a month. Since we all have specific needs, I’ll briefly describe myself so you can determine if my review would have any merit for you. I’m a 67-year-old marathoner. I’m not a triathlete, so I cannot address the tri features of the watch. I don’t listen to music when I run but did test this feature as described below.
I use Training Peaks, and the watch seamlessly integrates with TP. I donât use Strava but assume Garmin works with a popular platform like Strava.
My other running watches are a Suunto Peak 9 and a Coros Pace 2. The LTE will replace a Fenix 5X.
The LTE version of the 945 is smaller than the original but retains the screen size. The screen is crisp and easy to read. It is not a touch screen, which I see as a positive feature on a running watch. Buttons always work, and I find touch screens duller than regular screens, and clumsy to work with when wearing mittens.
My main interest in the LTE was the cellular safety features. These worked flawlessly. Tracking notifications went automatically to my selected contacts, and it was comforting to know that I could be found if needed. Fortunately, I did not have to test the emergency response feature. (I’m willing to take one for the team, but hey, there are limits!)
To my mind, this is the best of both worlds. You have the safety running with a phone provides, without the nuisance of dragging a clunky phone. And the LTE does not bombard you with emails, texts and messages. We run to get away from the world, right? (I know you can turn notifications on and off, but I am constantly turning off notifications Sunday morning when I go to Church and discover they are still turned off next Thursday.)
Do bear in mind that you pay a monthly fee to Garmin for this. It is $12 a month in Canada. The peace of mind is worth it to me. If you always carry your phone or have an Apple Watch cellular, this service has little point.
The music feature worked as stated. I loaded up the entire Smiths’ catalogue and the watch easily paired to my headphones. The interface to control music is elegant and simple. I confess it was quite cool to go running with Morrissey. 🙂
The metrics Garmin provides are beneficial and easily understood. I especially loved the climb pro feature-useful here on PEI, where you are either going up or down a hill. The body battery is interesting and much cheaper than a Whoop subscription. It is not something I will use, as I’ve been around long enough to know when I’m overtraining or had a bad night of sleep. (Which is all the time.)
There are two areas where I’d love to see some changes. Both could be done via a firmware update, so fingers crossed. These may not matter to you and are not deal breakers. I use a Stryd footpad as running by power works best in the hilly, windy environment on the North shore of PEI. While the Garmin does integrate with the Stryd through a Connect IQ app, I wish it would work natively as the under $300 Coros Pace 2. Secondly-and this is because I’m an old guy with big hands and aging eyes-I wish Garmin would allow customizing the watch via a phone or web portal. I find that quicker and easier than pressing buttons and scrolling a tiny watch screen. Both Coros and Suunto have a phone/web interface. (Well, Coros will have a web interface at the start of 2022-I’m testing the beta now, and it is quite nice.)
I mentioned the watch was not perfect. Perhaps a better statement would have been that the watch is not perfect for me. It might be for you. In the price range I think it is impossible to beat. Thanks for reading this, and I wish you all miles of smiles in 2022.
Sebastien –
Jâai du la retourner à Garmin et jâai pas de montre pour trois semaines parce que le update ne se faisait pasâ¦
Leclerc –
Jâai reçu ma montre Garmin Forerunner 945 LTE il y a seulement une semaine et elle affiche cette image depuis déjà 5 jours alors quâau départ elle fonctionnait, je suis réellement déçu de la qualité moindre de ce produit.