It's all about adding more tech but not at the expense of a form factor that doesn't feel or look bulky. With the 245 Music, Garmin doesn't stray too far away from the look it has adopted with its Forerunner watches in recent years.
Tracks running, cycling and swimming (pool).Garmin Forerunner 245 Music: Design and comfort So, does the Forerunner 245 Music do the job and land as fitting successor to the Forerunner 235? We've been putting it to the test to find out. It's also in the same pricing realm as Polar's mid-range Vantage M and you can throw in the Fitbit Ionic as a sporty rival too. Priced in at $299.99 for the 245 and $349.99 the 245 Music, it sits somewhere in between the Vivoactive 3 Music and the Forerunner 645 Music, both of which offer features you won't find on the 245 Music, like payment support. We're also getting advanced running metrics (via an additional accessory), new safety features, a Pulse Ox sensor for additional outdoor tracking metrics and support for women's health tracking. Music support is the headline feature on the 245 Music (the model we tested), giving us another watch that will let you carry tunes and podcasts, whether you own them or they're from streaming services like Spotify or Deezer. The 245 pulls in features we've already seen crop in other recent Garmin watches. Rivals: Best running watches with music playback.Top picks: Best smartwatches to buy now.Four years later, we've finally got it in the form of the Forerunner 245. The 235 launched back in 2015, so it has been well overdue a makeover. It still put sports tracking first, but more smartwatch features started to come to the fore. Its predecessor, the Forerunner 235, represented a shift in Garmin's approach to its Forerunner range and wearables as a whole. The Garmin Forerunner 245 is a running watch aiming to build on the success of one of the company's best-valued (and most-loved) Forerunners.