Garmin 010-02156-05 Forerunner 45, 42mm Easy-to-use GPS Running Watch with Coach Free Training Plan Support, Black

This watch is perfect for my needs. I run but not marathons. I lift but I'm not a bodybuilder. There are options to track almost any kind of workout you can think of. It tracks steps and sleep and pulse automatically. The GPS is accurate and consistent. This is a great watch for people who take care of themselves but aren't fanatics about it andb especially if they like to charge things up. The watch can do much more than what I have listed below, but here's what stands out to me:Pros:-built IN HR monitor-workout mode: choose from run, treadmill, bike, walk, cardio, or add your own activity-the app allows you to add workouts you didn't track on the watch, e.g., yoga, etc.-Not too big, not too small-choose from different watch faces-choose which widgets the watch displays and in what order (weather, smart notifications, steps, etc.)-smart notifications from your phone (if you're into that)-you can calibrate it if you're using a treadmill (for example, you run 5 miles on the treadmill, but the watch estimates 3.8. Before you save the workout, you can adjust the distance to match the treadmill display. If you forget to do it before you save it on the watch, you can do it later in the app, though the data will not adjust and you'll end up with the correct distance but a big black spot at the end). This is a manual adjustment - you don't need any special Bluetooth enabled treadmill or anything like that.Cons:-face has somewhat small print, certain displays can be hard to read-body battery is inconsistent. It's just a made up thing anyway so not a big deal but doesn't seem to make sense. A good night of sleep should "charge your battery" but often the nights I feel most rested it tells me that my battery is very low.-watch battery doesn't seem to have a warning. I occasionally forget to charge it and don't remember until it's completely dead and the watch is off. Would be nice to get a low battery warning.

My usual fitness activities have been curtailed by the pandemic, so I started running again. I wanted a device with GPS tracking so I could figure out how far I was running and at what pace. The Forerunner 45 does everything I need, some things that are informative that I didn't know I wanted, and a whole bunch of stuff I don't actually care about.The watch does a great job of tracking distance and time. It continuously records heart rate and steps, so you can see how your pace and run cadence (steps per minute) change over the course of the run. The data is transferred to a mobile device over Bluetooth and then uploaded to the cloud, so you can sit at your computer afterward and see an interactive map of the route you took. This allows you to see if you're speeding up or slowing down at different points. (You can see stats like current pace and heart rate on the watch itself while you're running, but I prefer the after-action report approach.)Most of the data is more interesting than useful, but the important parts seem pretty solid.The watch itself is easy to use. Unlike most mobile devices, it's actually easier to read in bright sunlight. There's about a billion different things you can configure, but if you don't care about those things you can just ignore them. The Bluetooth connectivity works well with my low-end Motorola phone, often sending me notifications even when I'm upstairs and the phone is downstairs. (It's got a lot of "smart watch" features, showing incoming e-mail, text messages, etc.) The watch is waterproof, but the manual recommends rinsing it off if after a workout to prevent corrosion.The Garmin Connect software has all sorts of coaching and social media blah blah whatever. If you want to share or compete you can do so.You can specify the type of exercise you're doing, so I started tracking dog walks as well.Overall, after using it for a week, it seems to be a pretty good piece of gear.

Son loved it!