Garmin Forerunner 645 Music review: my favorite purchase of 2019

I had not worn a watch since I was 10 years old. Now, I sleep with my Garmin Forerunner. It’s just great!

I had my moments when I tried to wear a watch in that watch-are-dumb period, mostly just to look cool. My latest was a piece of Xiaomi Ciga mechanical watch. But I had always returned to use my phone to keep track of time. Until I bought the Forerunner 645 Music last year, a sports smartwatch that can track your workouts and play music.

Workouts

Many people get their smartwatch to be better connected through push notifications on their wrist. Forerunner 645 does an okay job there. But ironically, I love my Garmin Forerunner mainly because it lets me disconnect and drop my phone. It integrates three important features I need when I leave the house for a workout: track workout, listen to podcasts, and pay. Garmin Pay can be used in most grocery stores in Singapore and even on public transport. It makes it so easy to just get going!

(that said, I also find the push notifications useful, mainly during the workday. But I filter out only for the most important messages — mainly messages from my partner, my mum, and the bosses :-) )

Music

I use Spotify for listening to podcasts on the watch. You can hook up any Bluetooth headphones and get going. The controls are a bit clunky — in the end, you have only five buttons and no 5G connection. There is no feature to track your podcasts but I found my way: I keep one playlist on Spotify to save podcasts to listen to. Before I go for a run, I simply hit the update button on the watch. While it downloads new podcasts, I change into my running outfit, and by the time I am done the watch is read.

Time

I feel more conscious about time now that I don’t have to reach for my phone. It’s also great to have a stopwatch and a timer at my fingertips when I need to time my tea steep without the need to fight Google Assistant.

Battery

The great thing as compared to other smartwatch is its battery life. It lasts for about 4–5 days without charging which is great!

Tracking

I am a nerd and Garmin Forerunner 645 gives everything a nerd can dream of. You can track anything. I used it daily to track my steps, calory intake, sleep, and stress level. I can easily trace down the stressful meeting I had the last week which probably cost me a year of my life :-).

Obviously the workout tracking is its main strength. There is a wrist heart rate monitor which is surprisingly very precise for running, not so great for a strength workout. An accelerometer is used to detect stride length or cadence. The watch also distinguishes different exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, squats, etc. For hiking, there is a barometer to track the altitude.

Conclusion

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music really improved my life. Probably the best proof is that I felt motivated enough to shout it out loud in this article spending half an hour writing it without any other reward!