The newly-released Garmin Forerunner 970 has gone on sale for the first time

Every Black Friday we see new Garmin watches go on sale for the first time – and this year is no different. While last year belonged to occasional athletes, in 2025, runners and triathletes will benefit from the best offers. These two models only came out in May of this year, but they’ve just been discounted for the first time.

First up, the Garmin Forerunner 970 – this premium running smartwatch is now $100 off and at its lowest price ever. The same deal can be found at Walmart, Best Buy, Garmin, REI and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Then there’s the Garmin Forerunner 570. The price of this more budget-friendly model has also been reduced by $100 at Amazon, Walmart, and other major retailers.

Both options are great, and we were torn on which one should be highlighted here, but we decided to go with the former. We gave the Garmin Forerunner 970 a higher rating of 4.5 stars and included it in our guides to the best running watches and Garmin watches.

Anna Gora

Anna Gora is a health editor and product reviewer at Live Science, as well as a highly experienced personal trainer, nutritionist, and fitness coach. She has extensive knowledge of fitness trackers, having personally tried and tested a wide range of wearables over the past two decades. She also wrote or co-wrote our buying guides to smart rings, fitness trackers, budget fitness trackers, and Garmin watches.

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There’s a lot to like about the Garmin Forerunner 970. For starters, it’s exceptionally accurate thanks to its advanced multi-band SatIQ GPS and Elevate Gen 5 heart rate sensor. As Andrew Williams, our trusted reviewer, puts it succinctly: “We’re basically looking for a level of quality that is the best Garmin can offer in terms of GPS and HR accuracy, which is also among the best currently found in any wearable device.” »

Then there’s the beautifully bright and colorful 1.4-inch AMOLED display, a surprisingly lightweight design and a host of advanced features. For example, this is one of the few Garmin watches with a built-in LED flashlight, speaker, and microphone. Not to mention, it has a host of useful smartwatch features, such as NFC payments, offline music playback, and voice control. Overall, the Garmin Forerunner 970 is a complete package, and you can now get it for $100 less.

Main features: 1.4-inch AMOLED display, 32GB internal storage, dual-band GPS, up to 15 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 26 hours in GPS mode, built-in LED flashlight, speaker and microphone

Product launched: May 2025

Price history: The price of the Garmin Forerunner 970 has been stable at $749.99 since its release in May of this year. Today’s deal from Amazon and other major retailers brings the price down to $649.99 for the first time.

Price comparison: Amazon: $649.99 | Walmart: $649.99 | Best buy: $649.99 | Garmin: $649.99 | RI: $649.99 | Dick’s Sporting Goods: $649.99

Consensus of opinions: The Garmin Forerunner 970 is universally praised for its exceptional accuracy, lightweight design, bright display, and comprehensive set of workout tracking features, with many reviewers considering it one of the best running smartwatches on the market. The only major complaint was that it cost $749.99, and some testers were also disappointed by its limited size and color options.

TechRadar: ★★★★½ | Android Center: ★★★★½ | Tom’s guide: ★★★★½ | T3: ★★★★½ | Science Live: ★★★★½

Featured in the guides: Best Running Watches, Best Garmin Watches

✅ Buy it if: You want an elite GPS sports watch.

❌ Do not buy it if: You’re looking for something slightly more affordable, like the older Garmin Forerunner 965 (now 25% off at Amazon), or something with a better waterproof rating – the Garmin Instinct 3, for example (also on sale, also 25% off).

Check out our other guides on best fitness trackers, budget fitness trackers, smart rings, sleep trackers and much more.