My wife wanted to buy a sports watch for a long time, but as a woman with a small wrist, she couldn’t find one with the right balance of size/design, functionality, and price. Since besides running, she also does other activities such as hiking and cycling, she wanted a watch that will not only be a great training aid but also cover a broader spectrum of sports activities that she can keep track of. She was considering multiple options such as the Forerunner 245, 645, 945, as well as the Fenix 6s, but thankfully the Garmin Forerunner 745 arrived, and it turned out to be the perfect match for her needs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Design & Comfort
• 1.1. The Design
• 1.2. Size, Weight & Comfort
• 1.3. Handling
2. Features
• 2.1. Health Features
• 2.2. Running Features
• 2.3. Other
3. Battery Life
4. Price
5. Why Chose the Garmin Forerunner 745
6. Garmin Forerunner 745 Comparison Chart

1.1. The Design

The design is a subjective matter, so this section is, of course, just my wifes opinion. Still, I would like to run through the design elements that she loves about the Forerunner 745.

She appreciates the Forerunner’s more traditional look of a circular watch over the modern square watches, like Apple Watch. On top of that, she really digs the large black bezel, which blends with the black display giving it a sleek look.

The Forerunner 745 introduced a fantastic color selection (black, magma red, Neo Tropic, and Whitestone). Even though she is not a fan of white sports watches, since they tend to be quite flashy, she chose the Whitestone. It is a beautiful off white color, which gives the watch a more high-end look. Just a word of warning, on the official Garmin site, the watch looks much darker than it really is. Below you can see the Whitestone color compared to the white paper.

If you are looking for an even smaller running watch, probably your second best bet is the Forerunner 245. It is an even smaller alternative with size 42.3 x 42.3 x 12.2 mm, and fitting wrists with a circumference of 127-204 mm (5-8,03 inches). When my wife tried the 245, It fitted like a glove. However, the Forerunner 245 lacked some key features, which I will discuss in the next section of this post.

1.3. Handling

Unlike many modern sports watches, the Forerunner 745 does not have a touch screen, which I don’t consider to be a bad thing. Navigating through the menus and functions of the watch is done by five different buttons. Over the years, I’ve come to the conclusion that the tactile feedback of the physical buttons is preferable for sports watches. Sweaty hands, wearing gloves during winter months, or movement of your hand while running are just some of the factors that make it difficult to operate a watch with a touchscreen.

2. Features

There are many websites where you can find in-depth information about the watch’s functionalities. Instead of getting into every single feature of the watch, I will focus on my favorite features that I use daily.

2.1. Health Features

A modern sports watch can gather a lot of data, but if they don’t find practical use in your daily life, they become essentially useless. In the next few paragraphs, I would like to focus on this watch’s health features, which I find useful on a regular basis.

2.1.1. Body Battery & Stress

Garmin’s All-day Stress

One of the functions I use most often is Garmin’s all-day stress score, which allows me to monitor the effects of daily stress (both physiological and psychological) ​​on my body. What does this mean in practice? It is good to realize that although you may feel mentally comfortable, your body may struggle with accumulated fatigue, incipient illness, or inflammation. Both types of stress affect heart rate variability, which is a key factor influencing this metric. Here is a real-life example:

So what valuable information can be gathered from your resting heart rate?
The foundation is to know your baseline (average) heart rate. From there, depending on whether your resting heart rate (RHR) is elevated or lowered, you can tell a few things. For example, if your average RHR is 60, but suddenly one morning, it spikes to 67, you can tell you are about to get sick, or perhaps you’ve pushed too hard with your training and need to take it easy that day. Just by glancing at the watch right after you wake up, you can tell how your body is doing.

RHR can also indicate your fitness. Generally, as you get fitter, your baseline RHR will get lower and vice versa. Understanding your RHR and how it relates to your health can help you make healthy lifestyle decisions. For more interesting info, you can read up on the Harvard medical school blog.

2.1.2. Recovery Time & Sleep Tracking

Another helpful feature is Garmin’s recovery time, which gives you an estimate of how long it will take for you to recover and be ready for your next workout.

While sleep tracking may seem like one of those features that are cool to look at but aren’t very helpful in everyday life, thanks to greater integration with the recovery advisor, it now considers the quality of your sleep and adjusts your recovery time accordingly.

2.2. Running Features

This watch is a pinnacle of the Forerunner lineup, so you can rest assured it has all necessary (as well as many unnecessary) running metrics you can think of. Heart rate metrics, pace, and running dynamics became a standard nowadays, so there is not much to talk about there.

My favorite Forerunner 745 running features are it’s advanced training features, which are especially helpful for amateur and intermediate runners. They will help you choose the right type of training and understand its effects on your body, which is key to becoming a better runner.

Again, this feature will be especially appreciated by beginners, as it will help you train more effectively. If you are a seasoned runner, it can serve as a tool to check how precisely you stick to the plan you have prepared.

2.2.3. Performance Condition

Performance condition is a neat little feature I use on every single run. It gives you feedback in realtime about your current ability to perform.

You can gain insight into your body’s fatigue level and how it changes over the course of a run. In simple terms, it’s a good day/ bad day indicator.

In practice, this means that within the first few minutes of a run, the watch notifies you with a positive or negative performance condition value (the higher, the better, and vice versa). It tells you whether you are ready for your interval session, or your fatigue level from prior training, stress, or lack of sleep might be too high, making the planned training session virtually ineffective. Thanks to this metric, you can decide in the warm-up phase of your run whether you should continue with the hard session or choose a recovery run instead.

2.2.5. Pace Pro

The right pacing strategy is critical during any long-distance race. Using this feature, you can create an optimal pacing strategy simply by uploading GPX files (file with GPS route) of the racecourse to the Garmin Connect app and then choosing your optimal pacing strategy. Pace Pro allows you to choose whether you want to run negative splits (run the first half of the race slower and finish faster) or positive splits (start faster and finish slower). It also takes into account elevation changes on the course, so hitting your splits should be easier than ever.

2.3.2 Music

If you’ve been running for some time, you’ll probably agree that running with your phone (especially if it’s a larger device) can be quite annoying. For this reason, it is great to have a sports watch that allows you to listen to music. The Garmin Forerunner 745 will enable you to store up to 500 songs. Although the process of uploading and listening to songs on the device itself is not as simple and intuitive as, for example, on Apple devices, I still see it as a great thing to have on such a small device that you always have with you.

2.3.3 Garmin Pay

Thanks to the security and convenience of mobile payments paying with our cell phones have become common nowadays. The Garmin Pay is the next step in the mobile contactless payments evolution. Having the watch on your wrist at all times gives you the ability to pay anywhere you are, even when you forget your phone or wallet at home. This feature was one of the reasons why my wife decided not to buy Forerunner 245 and wait for the next Garmin’s release.

How To Use Garmin Pay?

When you initiate the purchase using Garmin Pay, you will be prompted to enter a four-digit passcode you’ve created during a setup process. The watch will remember the passcode for future purchases for the next 24 hours or until you take the watch off your wrist. You can set Garmin Pay as a hotkey so that you can make a payment at the touch of a button.

3. Battery Life

Garmin states that the Forerunner 745 battery will last up to 7 days in smartwatch mode. For those of you who like to run with music, you can expect to get up to 6 hours of running with GPS, and if you are running without music, you should get up to 16 hours with GPS only.

From my wife’s experience, she can get up to 5-6 days of battery life running 5 times a week (averaging 40 minutes per run) with PulseOx turned off.

The smaller form factor of the Forerunner 745 is at the expense of the battery life, especially if you compare it with the Fenix series, which can last twice as long on a single charge.

However, in practice, things are not as bad as they might seem. The good news is that the charging is pretty fast. To charge 10% of the battery takes slightly over 7 minutes (compared to 13 minutes on the Fenix 5) and will last you for an approximately 2-hour run. This is good news for people like my wife, who often forget to charge their electronic devices.

4. Price

The Garmin Forerunner® 745 costs $ 499.99 / 499.99 € / 449.99 £. Although in Europe, the prices may vary from country to country. In India, the price is around 43 000 Rs.

5. Why Choose the Garmin Forerunner 745

The watch is excellent for everyone who is looking for a fully-featured multisport watch in as small as possible form factor. As I stated earlier, for my wife, the watch represents a perfect balance of performance, price, design, and comfort. Sure, for a casual runner who simply wants to log his runs, it certainly is overkill. In this case, the Forerunner 245 or 45, which are even smaller, could be a better choice. But if you like to do all sorts of different activities and are serious about growing as an athlete and want to get the most out of your training, then this might be just the perfect watch for you.

6. Garmin Forerunner 745 Comparison Chart

Are you still having a hard time deciding whether the Forerunner 745 is the right watch for you? In that case, check out my comparison table of the Forerunner 745 with Forerunner 245 Music, Forerunner 645 Music, Forerunner 945, and the Fenix 6s, it shows all features that differ between the 745 and the compared watches. I hope it helps!