There are some better times of the year to buy a Garmin Forerunner that can save you money as well as let you know the best times to get other Garmin watches.
The Lineup
The Forerunner are Garmin’s running line of watches I’ve reviewed in the past, like the 165, 265, and 965. These are the current line at various price points and the other major differences being a few advanced tracking features, battery life, and size options.
When To Buy
Historically Garmin doesn’t have great Black Friday deals on Forerunners – typically around 10%. Now that’s not an insignificant discount, especially on the more expensive 965 (about $50 off the $600 price tag). At other times throughout the year though Garmin tends to run sales on Forerunners with better deals about double the discount of typical Black Friday sales.
Those better deals tend to happen at some key points of the year, February, June, and September to align with marathon and running seasons. That means at the end of the year when many other electronics are released and put on sale, Garmin tends to hold off on the Forerunner line.
New Versions On The Way
The Forerunners tend to have a release cycle around March. Both the 265 and 965 were released in March or 2023 so an update to those versions is expected between March and June of 2025. So, which watch should you buy when? Let’s start with the 165.
If you have been eyeing the 165 you should wait for Black Friday and see if it goes on sale but other than that, go ahead and buy it. It’s the entry level Forerunner that in my original review I found had pretty much every useful feature for fitness tracking and it’s a great watch. It’s also not expecting to be updated any time soon and chances are if you’re looking at the 165, you don’t already have a recent Forerunner and it will be an upgrade.
For those of you looking at the 265 or 965, right now, here’s my advice.
If you already have a smart or fitness watch you’re happy with that’s tracking your runs, workouts, swims, whatever, then I would hold off until the next version of the Forerunner. It’s likely to be released in March and it’s almost certain there will be key upgrades. The latest Elevate 5 heart rate sensor found in the Venu 3 series, ECG support and hopefully even better battery life. The glass screen might be enhanced to Sapphire for more scratch resistance and almost certainly we’ll get a few new metrics and menu views.
If you don’t have a Forerunner or fitness watch and you want one, the 265 and 965 are great. Even if you buy one now and then the next version comes out in 5 months, there’s probably going to be nothing in those that you’re really going to be missing.