RUN AT A HIGHER LEVEL
You’re making strides. Now, let’s take the next step. Get the training and recovery insights you’ll need to notch your best time yet.
*Get an overview of your sleep, HRV status and daily workout with morning report.
*Charge less, train more with up to 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours in GPS mode.
*Push your limits with a built-in triathlon feature and 30+ activity profiles.
*Plan your strategy with daily suggested workouts, course details and more on the race widget.
*Utilize a full suite of advanced metrics and training tools to reach your goals.
READY FOR THE LONG RUN
Get an uninterrupted picture of your daily health and nightly sleep with up to 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours in GPS mode.
AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER
With its sleek design and 49g weight, you’ll almost forget you’re wearing Forerunner 255 — even when you’re asleep.
SWEAT-READY MATERIALS
Featuring easy-to-use buttons and a silicone band, this watch is ready to wear — and tear — with durable Corning Gorilla Glass 3.
MORNING REPORT
Receive an overview of your sleep, recovery and training outlook as soon as you wake up — alongside HRV status and weather. You can even customize your report to show you what you want to see.
HRV STATUS
Gain a deeper understanding of your overall health, recovery and training performance through heart rate variability while you sleep, based on technology developed by our Firstbeat Analytics team.
BUILT-IN SPORTS APPS
Tap into 30+ built-in activities, including the triathlon and open-water swimming profiles — new to the Forerunner 255 series. For races and brick workouts, transition to the next activity with a single button press.
RACE WIDGET
Get ready for your next race with training tips, personalized daily suggested workouts and completion time predictions based on course details, weather and performance.
DAILY SUGGESTED WORKOUTS
View your entire week of daily suggested workouts, which adapt after every run to match your performance and recovery as well as the races coming up in your Garmin Connect smartphone app calendar.
GARMIN COACH
Free adaptive training plans include 5K, 10K and half-marathon programs, featuring guidance from expert coaches that adapt to you and your goals.
RUNNING POWER
When using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro monitor, get a continuous measurement on your wrist of how much power you’re applying to the road as you run, so you can manage your effort.
RECOVERY TIME
Know how long to recover before your next high-effort workout based on your latest training as well as overall stress, sleep and daily activities outside of workouts.
PACEPRO FEATURE
To help you plan your race day strategy, this feature offers GPS-based pace guidance for a selected course or distance, so you can tailor your efforts to what’s ahead.
TRAINING STATUS
Using new indicators such as HRV status, your recent exercise history and performance, get an easy insight into your overall effort — and whether you’re training productively, peaking or strained.
ACUTE LOAD
See your training history, and compare the intensity of your recent workouts to the optimal range to help improve your fitness.
TRAINING EFFECT
See how your workouts influence your endurance, speed and power with aerobic and anaerobic training effect feedback
.
PERFORMANCE CONDITION
While you run, get an analysis of your pace and heart rate for a real-time assessment of your current ability to perform.
RUNNING DYNAMICS
When using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro monitor, the Forerunner 255 watch measures crucial running metrics such as cadence, stride length, ground contact time and balance, and more — while comparing to others in the Garmin Connect app.
COURSES
Create or find existing courses in the Garmin Connect app, so you’ll never run out of places to run. Or plan one on other platforms such as Strava and Komoot, then automatically sync them to your Forerunner.
VISUAL RACE PREDICTOR
Based on your running history and overall fitness level, get an estimate of what your pace could be for a 5K, 10K — or even a marathon. Plus, trend data highlights your training’s impact over time.
CROSS-TRAINING
Mix up your training with different types of workouts. Free HIIT, strength, cardio, yoga and Pilates workouts come preloaded on the watch, and you can download more from the Garmin Connect app.
WRIST-BASED HEART RATE
The watch constantly samples your heart rate1 with our latest-generation heart rate sensor and will alert you if it stays too high or too low while you’re at rest. It also helps gauge how hard you work during activities — even while swimming.
BODY BATTERY ENERGY MONITORGIN
Track your body’s energy levels so you can find the best times for activity and rest1.
SLEEP SCORE AND ADVANCED SLEEP MONITORING
Get a score for your sleep’s quality and insights on how you can do better. Even keep track of the different sleep stages as well as heart rate, stress, Pulse Ox2 and respiration.
PULSE OX SENSOR
This wrist-based Pulse Ox sensor2 monitors blood oxygen saturation levels to support advanced sleep monitoring and altitude acclimation.
WOMEN’S HEALTH TRACKING
Use the Garmin Connect app to track your menstrual cycle or pregnancy. Log symptoms, get exercise and nutrition education, and more. Even see and log details on your wrist with the Women’s Health Tracking app.
INTENSITY MINUTES
Our intensity minutes feature tells you when during the day you earned them and during what activity.
STRESS TRACKING
Find out if you’re having a calm, balanced or stressful day. Relax reminders will even prompt you to do a short breathing activity when the watch detects that you’re feeling stressed.
HEALTH SNAPSHOT FEATURE
Log a 2-minute session to record key stats, including heart rate1, heart rate variability, Pulse Ox2, respiration and stress. Then generate a report with those stats to share via the Garmin Connect app on your compatible smartphone.
MULTI-BAND GNSS SUPPORT
Access multiple global navigation satellite systems, and get access to multiple frequencies sent by navigation satellites for improved accuracy in areas where GNSS signals are reflected, weak or typically don't penetrate — giving you superior accuracy for how far and how fast you’ve run — even in challenging environments.
SMART NOTIFICATIONS
Receive emails, texts and alerts right on your watch when paired with your Apple or Android smartphone. You can even respond to texts if you have an Android phone.
SAFETY AND TRACKING FEATURES
If you feel unsafe or if your watch senses that an incident occurred, the Assistance and incident detection features3 send your location to emergency contacts. Incident detection is enabled by default for select activity profiles only.
LIVETRACK FEATURE
Use LiveTrack to let friends and family follow your real-time location3 and even view your entire preplanned course. Rest assured that your loved ones know exactly where you’re running.
GARMIN CONNECT APP
See your health and fitness information, connect and compete with friends, sign up for challenges to earn badges and more — all in one free, zero-subscription app.
CONNECT IQ STORE
Download custom watch faces, add data fields, and get apps and widgets from the Connect IQ Store app downloaded on your compatible smartphone.
See your stats, and track your goals in our Garmin Connect online community.
Run with the best. Follow us on the @GarminRunning Instagram channel.
General
Lens Material : Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Bezel Material : fiber-reinforced polymer
Quick Release bands : (22 mm, Industry standard)
Strap material : silicone
Physical size : 45.6 x 45.6 x 12.9 (mm)
Fits wrists with a circumference of 130-205 mm
Color display
Display Size : 1.3" (33 mm) diameter
Display resolution : 260 x 260 pixels
Display Type : sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP)
Weight : 49 g
Battery life : Smartwatch mode: Up to 14 days
GPS-only GNSS mode: Up to 30 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode: Up to 25 hours
All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band: Up to 16 hours
Water rating : 5 ATM
Memory/History : 4 GB
Clock Features
Time/date
GPS Time Sync
Automatic daylight saving time
Alarm clock
Timer
Stopwatch
Sunrise/sunset times
Health Monitoring
Wrist-based Heart Rate (constant, every second)
Daily Resting Heart Rate
Abnormal Heart Rate Alerts (high and low)
Respiration rate (24/7)
Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation (spot-check, and optional all-day acclimation and in sleep)
Fitness Age
Body Battery Energy Monitor
All-day Stress
Relaxation breathing timer
Sleep (advanced)
Sleep score and insights
Hydration (in Garmin Connect and optional Connect IQ widget)
Women's Health (in Garmin Connect and optional Connect IQ widget)
Health snapshot
Sensors
GPS
GLONASS
Galileo
Multi-frequency Positioning
Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate monitor
Barometric altimeter
Compass
Gyroscope
Accelerometer
Thermometer
Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor
Daily Smart Features
Connectivity Bluetooth, ANT+, Wi-Fi
Connect IQ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps)
On-device Connect IQ Store
Smart Notifications
Text response/reject phone call with text (Android only)
Calendar
Weather
Realtime settings sync with Garmin Connect mobile
Battery saver (customizable low power watch)
Controls smartphone music
Find My Phone
Find My Watch
VIRB Remote
Smartphone compatibility iPhone and Android
Pairs with Garmin Connect Mobile
Safety and Tracking Features
LiveTrack
Live Event Sharing Android Only
Incident Detection during select activities
Assistance
Activity Tracking Features
Step counter
Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it)
Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal)
Calories burned
Floors climbed
Distance traveled
Intensity minutes
TrueUp
Move IQ
Garmin Connect Challenges app (optional Connect IQ app)
Gym & Fitness Equipment
Available gym activity profiles Strength, HIIT, Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Floor Climbing, Indoor Rowing, Pilates, Yoga
Strength workouts
HIIT workouts
Yoga workouts
Pilates workouts
On-screen workout animations
On-screen workout muscle maps
Training, Planning and Analysis Features
HR zones
HR alerts
HR calories
% HR max
% HRR
Recovery time
Auto max HR
Morning report
Race glance/widget
HRV status
HR Broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+ to paired devices)
Respiration rate (during exercise) (with compatible accessory)
GPS speed and distance
Customizable data pages
Customizable activity profiles
Auto Pause
Interval training
Improved interval (includes open repeats, intervals data page, rest screen and auto detection)
Advanced workouts
Downloadable training plans
Auto Lap
Manual lap
Rest timer
Configurable lap alerts
VO2 Max (Run)
VO2 Max (Trail Run)
Training Status improved
Training Load
Training load focus
Training Effect
Training Effect (anaerobic)
Primary benefit (Training Effect labels)
Improved recovery time
Daily suggested workouts (7 days)
Custom alerts
Audio prompts
Finish time
Virtual Partner
Race an Activity
Auto multisport activities
Manual multisport activities
Course guidance
Touch and/or button lock
Auto scroll
Activity history on watch
Physio TrueUp
Running Features
Available run profiles Running, Outdoor Track Running, Treadmill Running, Indoor Track Running, Trail Running, Virtual Running, Ultra Running
GPS-based distance, time and pace
Running dynamics (with compatible accessory)
Vertical oscillation and ratio (with compatible accessory)
Ground contact time and balance (with compatible accessory)
Stride length (real time) (with compatible accessory)
Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute)
Running power (with compatible accessory)
Performance condition
Lactate threshold (with compatible accessory)
PacePro Pacing Strategies
Run workouts
Race predictor
Course- and weather-specific race predictor
Foot pod capable
Outdoor Recreation
Available outdoor recreation profiles Hiking, Skiing, Snowboarding, XC Classic Skiing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Rowing
Point-to-point navigation
Bread crumb trail in real time
Back to start
TracBack
UltraTrac mode
Up Ahead
Elevation profile
Distance to destination
Barometric trend indicator with Storm Alert
Trail run auto climb
Vertical speed
Total ascent/descent
Future elevation plot
Projected waypoint
Sun and moon information
Cycling Features
Available cycling profiles Biking, Indoor Biking, Mountain Biking, eBiking, eMountain Biking
Alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goals including time, distance, heart rate or calories)
Courses
Bike lap and lap maximum power (with power sensor)
Race an activity
FTP (Functional Threshold Power) (with compatible accessory)
Compatible with Vector and Rally (power meters)
Power meter compatible
Compatible with Varia Vision (head-mounted display)
Compatible with Varia radar (rear-facing radar)
Compatible with Varia lights
Speed and cadence sensor support (w/sensor)
Swimming Features
Available swim profiles Pool Swimming, Open Water Swimming
Open-water swim metrics (distance, pace, stroke count/rate, stroke distance, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories)
Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories)
Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) (pool swim only)
Drill logging (pool swim only)
Basic rest timer (up from 0) (pool swim only)
"Repeat on" rest timer (pool swim only)
Auto rest (pool swim only)
Time and distance alerts
Pacing alerts (pool swim only)
Countdown start (pool swim only)
Pool swim workouts
Critical swim speed
Underwater wrist-based heart rate
Heart rate from external HRM (real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim) (with HRM-Swim or HRM-Pro)
Kid Activity Tracking Features
Toe-to-Toe Challenges app (optional Connect IQ Toe-to-Toe Challenges app)
Connectivity
Smart trainer control