Garmin Forerunner® 965 Running Smartwatch, Colorful AMOLED Display, Training Metrics and Recovery Insights, Black and Powder Gray, 010-02809-00

I love my Forerunner 965 because it fits into my life without trying to hype me up or guilt me. It’s just there, quietly tracking things and giving me information I actually use. I like waking up and checking how I slept, not because I expect perfection, but because it explains why some days feel harder than others. When my sleep or HRV is off, it usually lines up with how I feel. That makes the data feel real, not gimmicky. Running with it feels natural. The screen is easy to read without thinking, even when I’m tired or zoning out. I don’t have to fight the watch to get what I need. Pace, heart rate, distance — it’s all just there when I glance down. I like that it doesn’t force motivation. If I’m ready to train, it confirms it. If I’m not, it doesn’t shame me — it just says I might want to take it easy. Some days I listen, some days I don’t. Either way, it adapts. I also like the small things: the battery lasting long enough that charging isn’t part of my routine, the way trends build over time, and how progress shows up slowly instead of all at once. It makes improvement feel realistic.

The Garmin 965 is the standard by which every other running watch should be judged. Battery life is excellent, the build is tough, and the thing just works. I’ve banged it around on trail runs, soaked it with sweat and salt and pool water, and dragged it through travel without a second thought. It takes the abuse off a kettlebell being slammed against it on my wrist and doesn’t flinch. The AMOLED screen is bright enough to read in full sun and makes the older displays feel dated. It adds just the right amount of sharpness and color without feeling like a gimmick. The wrist-based HR is not perfect, but just as good as anything else out there. There’s not much to critique. It’s a very complete training tool, and the smart features work well, though I hardly use them.

Love, Love, LOVE my Garmin Forerunner 965!! I switched from an apple watch and the only thing I really miss at all was the ability to "Close my Rings" in Activity and Health. Garmin has much better training stats and I'm loving the gps/maps for my trail running. This baby lasted through a marathon and still had battery life to go! My apple watch could NEVER. The features are superior from any previous watch, and I very much think it was worth the hefty price! I'm still getting used to having to use the buttons on the side to clear notifications etc, but I'm slowly adapting to how this watch functions!! As for how comfortable, light, and nice it fits on me– I'm a pretty small gal! I'm 5'3" and 120lbs soaking wet haha, I was worried about this watch being too heavy and big on my wrist but it fits quite well! It doesn't bug me on my wrist while I'm active, or even while I'm sleeping! I do wish it came with instructions on how to change the band, but youtube and a quick google search will give me the information I need! I do really like that the watch had a black colored metal option for the bezel of the watch, as I only wear gold jewelry and would've been a bit bummed if my watch was silver. I know that's minor, but black looks so much sleeker with the clothes I wear and whatnot, and I feel that it doesn't look too distracting since it's darker.

first of all, I have loved Garmin for a very very long time. I even gifted my boyfriend the Solar Instinct last year because I didn’t want him to get an apple watch, but Garmin instead 😆. this was a step up from my Garmin Forerunner 35 and WOW have I waited so long for this. to be honest I waited and waited to buy a new Garmin watch because I knew that whenever I did I would be simultaneously retiring my previous watch, and i wasn’t emotionally ready for that. but BOY does this watch make it easy to fall in love with. I can’t love it more. I like gym workouts, running, hiking, yoga and other stuff here and there like golf or stairstepping. this watch can track it all, hold a battery life for 2 weeks, tell me all the stats I want to see, give live notifications of calls and texts, connect to my calorie counting app (myfitnesspal), even detect and track my naps which it does very accurately. i’m so impressed and so happy I finally pulled the trigger on it. 10/10 very happy with this purchase.

This GPS sports watch was not cheap, but compared to others in its class it is one of the best value for the money. After three years it is still working like new, I wear it every day and the health and fitness reports are indispensable. And of course it does a fine job of instrumenting my daily runs, which is why I bought it in the first place. Love this watch and would recommend it or any of the newer versions.

Great partner for daily runnings & races. Long battery and high GPS accuracy.

I’m a big runner, who previously had an Apple Watch. Gotta say, this watch is significantly better than the Apple Watch. It has a significantly better battery life (over 20 days), tracks your sleep, workouts, and heart rate better than competitors. Only downside is that it’s software is slightly less modern and intuitive than my Apple Watch, but all the benefits outweigh the drawbacks in my opinion. I’ve had this watch for about a year and don’t regret purchasing it at all. There’s been consistent updates which have only improved the overall experience. If you’re a runner or big into fitness, you’ll love this watch.

I’d give it 4.5 stars if the system allowed. The watch is excellent. I was using an older Forerunner 935, and the upgrades are noticeable right away—new features, a much better screen, and a faster, smoother system overall. I really love the AMOLED display, but it already picked up a scratch. I’m not sure if the bezel sits too low or if the glass isn’t as durable as advertised. Still, it’s a fantastic watch for the money (I got it on sale for $449).

Excelente Producto, original, la pantalla Amoled se ve increíble, es ligero y muy funcional, me encantó.

I had this model on my basket for a while now and with the release of the 970, comparing both meant not much of a weight on my decision, as I was upgrading my Forerunner 735XT. The price point which 965 fell under it was the decision maker for me. So many positives, but the battery life has to be up there with the features available for sports and sleep tracking. Top purchase, could not be happier.

Wer eine Uhr sucht mit der alles gemacht werden kann, ist diese Uhr die richtige. Die beste sportuhr die ich bis jetzt hatte. Man kann wirklich alles mit der machen und ist einfach nur super

This watch does absolutely everything, the screen is beautiful, battery life is excellent and with only GPS tracking a few light activities, I was rewarded with 13 days of battery with it around 2% remaining, so quite simply put it has functioned exactly as expected. The watch body seems very light and comfortable - the silicone?? strap has perfect adjustability, and just feels "right". I was surprised by little things, such as the "strength" activity tracking actually correctly detected when I was doing reps of various exercises, and you can track metrics like weight (and others) to review and inform progress, which you can correct/edit later if an error was made. Neato. Some minor perturbances if I'm being picky - sometimes the heartrate monitor is sluggish, which is not the best when you're trying to observe quick changes resulting from effort/output in your activity compared to HR recovery time for example. Also, sometimes when you're twisting your wrist to have the screen wake, it doesn't, and you have to repeat once or a couple times more. Doesn't happen often, and if it bothered me enough and I didn't mind whatever increased battery burn-rate that equates to, I would enable the screen always on. There's more little improvements they can make, I can list a few more, but I'm sure they will update and patch a lot of this stuff throughout it's support lifecycle. All in all, such a solid product. Synced well with speed/cadence sensors, and other Garmin products like inReach Mini 2. It looks classy and is still pragmatic and functional. Doesn't look boorish. Buy it, and you won't regret it! Expensive, but what should something like this cost? It seems fair for what it does and is capable of.

Used both Google watch pixel 2, pixel 3. And comparing to apple Ultra 2. Battery life blows the competition straight out of the water. The watch predicts up to 23 days of battery life and so far with excessive use of notifications and smart features and non-stop health tracking. The accuracy of the battery tracking has stayed in line with what is projected. In terms of fitness and health tracking, there are so many different ways the watch can track your activity. It has skipping rope. It has fitness like lifting boxing, running, mountain climbing. It is ridiculous compared to the pixel watch or the Apple watches In terms of build quality, the watch is made out of plastic with rubbery straps and an allegedly titanium bezel around the screen, mine has already accumulate d scratches. The screen is just regular mineral glass of some sort and it will scratch if you don't put a screen protector on. This is not a sapphire screen on the 965 so be aware that scratches can happen if the screen is not protected My biggest recommendation is replacing the strap with perhaps a velcro strap that does not have loop holes. The rubber sits tight snugly against your wrist and it sort of irritates my skin. I think I got an allergic reaction to it. So because of that reason I would highly recommend using a cloth strap so that your skin does not have any reaction, especially when sweating. It has partial smartphone features integration. Where to some notifications that arrive, you can respond with generic messages or you can create a custom message, but you cannot type up a message or speak into the watch to type up a message. It's not like a smartwatch that's like a pixel or an Apple watch in that regard. You can also answer phone calls but the watch itself does not have a microphone so it just picks up the call on your phone and you have to reach for your phone and answer there. Not very useful especially if you are trying to answer on your watch and your phone is in another room or not close to you. The 24-hour health monitoring is by comparison very accurate to some other devices that are on the market such as the Google pixel or the Apple watch. However, I feel that the Garmin health tracking is slightly more precise and more accurate in predicting your sleep patterns and energy levels. It seems that my Garmin is far more accurate at tracking my sleep cycles, then the Google pixel because there is a discrepancy of 1 hour and I have accurate account of when I fall asleep and when I wake up and I can certainly say that the garmin is far more accurate. Overall, buying the watch on sale was a really good decision. It has provided me with everything I needed in terms of fitness tracking. I do a lot of running and try to get better and this has coaching programs that are far superior compared to other competition. YMMV