Garmin Forerunner 55, GPS Running Watch with Daily Suggested Workouts, Up to 2 weeks of Battery Life, Aqua

I bought this watch to help track with my running. I usually use strava on my phone but that setup is very cumbersome.This watch makes it easy to pause a run, has it’s own GPS, has music controls, sleep tracking, HR monitor, steps counter all I want in a little package and some more I don’t use (yet).Battery life seems good, this is my first watch so I can’t compare it to any. While running, when it uses GPS it drains about 7% every hour. When connected to my phone via bluetooth, it drains about the same every hour so I don’t connect it if not needed. Battery lasts about 5 days on my schedule.There are some customization on the display. I don’t like that the manual customization has very limited data fields. It only has battery %, clock and step/dist. I’d like to be able to show HR too but oh well. I can always use some creations in the IQ store but I don’t see anything of my liking so far.There is an auto backlight when running at night, just point the watch to your face and it turns on by itself which is a very nice feature as I run during late afternoon until dark.The display does not seem to be of high definition. This may contribute to more battery life and I don’t mind it but be aware.The band can be uncomfortable if tightened too much. This watch is very light and the bands are very grippy so I just wear it almost loose to where the bands don’t leave marks on my wrist.

Thanks to this watch, I was able to drop the 20+ pounds I put on during my post-covid depression. It got me moving again and whereas the original daunting number of 10k steps in a day made me nervous, I now walk around 23k steps daily without even thinking about it. The challenges on the app have helped me move from my former weight loss goals to my present toning ones and suffice it to say, all of this has helped tremendously with my mental health as well.As for the watch features, I was looking at all sorts of brands and all kinds of models and settled on this one and never looked back. I needed a time teller, a pedometer and a heart rate monitor, in no specific order. I received all of those and more with this wrist decor. Not only does the watch look nice and feel weightless on my skin when adjusted correctly, but it works so well at everything it was made to.The heart rate monitor is very accurate when compared with other heart rate monitoring devices. It’s simple to clean although I was afraid of damaging something whilst attempting to clear out the ‘gunk’ around the plug-in site. I didn’t purchase the watch for the sleep related feature but it is an interesting bonus. After roughly 9-10 months of continuous 24-hour use, I finally started noticing it act up during my treadmill workouts. My heart rate would drop to 0 and at one point I saw it jump to 248. Since I wasn’t dead or dying during any of these times, I thought I’d start turning it off at night and I haven’t noticed the issue since. It could have just been an error that required an update but like I said, I didn’t buy for the sleep feature anyhow.The battery life is pretty good I’d say. When I told my husband one day that I should ‘charge my watch tonight because it’s been a couple weeks’ he was really surprised. I keep track on my exercise calendar whenever I feel the need to plug in, which I do during the night so it doesn’t interrupt my steps during the day. I normally charge once it hits somewhere in the 20’s percentile. This takes (me specifically) two weeks to accomplish, with roughly an hour and a half, minimum, of recorded activities at least five days a week and the watch otherwise just being turned on consistently. Of course, there are extra outings that warrant using the start button once in a while and yet I still find my charge schedule to remain the same.You can choose from a variety of watch faces that come standard but I definitely have enjoyed looking through the Garmin store at other options. The background I’ve used for quite some time now shows the moon in its current state and as a lifetime star gazer, this is a face I was more than happy to throw money at. I spent just a few dollars and received something around 10 different looks, several animated such as plants or flowers that grow or open as you complete your steps for the day- amazing, if you like that sort of thing, turns out I do.Overall, I love my watch and I hope it lasts me a good, long time but if and when it finally dies from time cancer, I’ll be sure to replace it with another Garmin. I hear there are Star Wars versions out there that I’d love to get my wrist into.