Manufacturer Garmin has announced two new smartwatches. With the new Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970, the brand has worked on watches with several improvements and new features. The Forerunner series is mainly aimed at runners, but the watches are also interesting for other sports.
Forerunner 570 and 970 announced
Garmin has expanded its Forerunner range with two new smartwatches: the Forerunner 570 and the Forerunner 970. Both models target athletes who want to optimise their training, but differ markedly in design, materials and functionality. The 970 is the successor to the Forerunner 965 which were announced in March 2023.
Forerunner 570
The Forerunner 570 is designed for recreational to advanced runners, according to the manufacturer. The watch has an AMOLED touchscreen, an aluminium bezel and is available in two sizes (42 mm and 47 mm) and six colour variants. Thanks to the built-in speaker and microphone, you can make phone calls or give voice commands via a paired smartphone.
With features like Training Readiness, Evening Report and enhanced Garmin Coach workouts, the Forerunner 570 offers insight into your recovery, sleep needs and training load. The watch helps athletes make daily choices about their intensity and rest periods. Battery life is up to 11 days in smartwatch mode (47 mm) and up to 10 days for the smaller variant.
Forerunner 970
For those looking for more advanced functionality, there is the new Forerunner 970. This model is aimed at avid runners and triathletes who value performance data. The 970 features a titanium bezel, sapphire glass and Garmin's brightest AMOLED display. New is the built-in LED torch, useful for training in the dark.
Unique to the Forerunner 970 are advanced measurements such as Running Economy, Step Speed Loss and Running Tolerance, which give deep insights into efficiency and load capacity. You do need to have a heart rate strap for some of these features. The watch also includes full-colour maps, multi-band GPS and navigation functions, as we saw with the previous modle. Thanks to the speaker and microphone, you can make calls from your wrist just like the 570. The predecessor did not have these features.
The Forerunner 970 is available in one size (47 mm) and three colour variants: Soft Gold French Gray, Carbon Gray and Titanium Whitestone. The battery lasts up to 15 days in smartwatch mode and up to 26 hours with GPS.
Sale
Both models share many core functionalities such as Training Readiness, Garmin Coach, heart walking ability, multi-sport modes, Garmin Pay and extensive health functions. The difference is mainly in the materials used, depth of sports analytics and advanced navigation capabilities. Garmin sells the Forerunner 570 for €549.99. For the Forerunner 970, Garmin charges two hundred euros more; bringing the price to 749.99 euros. The new models will go on sale from next week.
