Forerunner 55, GPS Running Watch with Daily Suggested Workouts, Up to 2 Weeks of Battery Life, White

Great watch, I use this everyday and only need to charge like twice a month. The alarm vibrations don’t get me up as easily in the mornings as my Apple Watch, but that’s the ONLY complaint. It shows all notifications, but I only like seeing calls and texts on here, and tracks my runs and workouts great. Does NOT have strength training options like the 265 or Fenix series, but that’s alright, I use HIIT for weights and can change it in the app if I want to track more specifically what I did. It had about two weeks of this weird Bluetooth connection, it was connected to my phone but showed a code like it needed to connect to something, restarted it a couple times and it’s been gone for about a month or more now.

I had two of the old gray and orange Forerunners, but since things don't last forever, they both finally failed. I was dreading shopping for a replacement because I don't want all the fancy stuff that most watches have these days. I just want the basics (time, distance, average pace), and I want ease of operation. I have been very pleased with this watch. It's not much more complicated than the old one, and it's much lighter. The charge lasts much longer, too. I do half marathons, and I can easity get three runs before it needs to be recharged.

Been using this for a year. Still use it. Great for marathons, walks or anything in between.

*** I've been using this watch for 3-years (& 1-month) now. It still works great and I still have zero regrets! I even got one of my sons to buy the same model. *** ------------------------------- Original 11-month review: 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. The watch is 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 10-19 percentile. This takes (me specifically) about 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 phase 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've had this watch for 10 months, and I'm ready for a better watch. This watch isn't all bad though. If you're looking for a cheaper option for running watches this is a pretty good choice, as long as your milage is reasonable. Obviously of you're running more mileage you're charging your watch more often. If I don't use the watch for anything but "being a watch" and heart rate monitoring I could get a couple weeks between charges. The gps seems pretty accurate, I have routes that I usually run and the watch is pretty close in marking miles in about the same spot, I'd say within .05 of a mile, worse case. I'd say this watch is more geared towards cardio workouts, I use the "other" while I'm weight lifting and it's not quite the right option, but theres no other options for this watch. It also does not have the ability to do elevation. Any elevation in your run is gps based i think. The watch itself is very durable, I only have the tiniest chip in the top of the screen, I wear this watch all the time, except while showering. The screen has minimal scratching. I've bought the screen covers for this watch before, but no brand I've ever bought was the exact correct size and there was always a small edge pulled up that would get dirt under it and it would eventually fall off. I really like that the screen is NOT touch screen and only the buttons control it. I don't have to worry about accidentally bumping something during a work out. I'm not sure how accurate the HR is, I caveat that I wear my watch on the inside of my wrist and I have dark tattooing there that could cause some problems. But I've also worn it on the opposite side of my wrist and had similar readings. You also can't wear this watch tight against the skin, then it won't read a HR at all. I've seen this happen in work outs where there a missing HR chunks of time. The sleep monitoring is NOT reliable. Like at all. Basically all it knows it that your heart rate is lowering and it's night time. I can be sitting still reading before bed and it counts all that time as sleep. So where I might have actually slept midnight to 630, my watch started counting sleep at 10. So I says I've gotten more sleep. Therefore effecting your "body battery" rate. The charger is weird. It takes a special charger, which I've bought another one for my travel bag. And if the watch charging interface gets dirty it makes charging finicky. The phone finder is really useful and I do like the period tracker.

The Garmin Forerunner 55 is an excellent entry-level GPS running watch that punches well above its price point. Designed for beginner to intermediate runners, it offers accurate GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring, and essential training features without overwhelming users with complexity. Key Features: Built-in GPS: Fast and accurate tracking of pace, distance, and route. Daily Suggested Workouts: Personalized training guidance based on your fitness level. Heart Rate Monitoring: Tracks 24/7, even during sleep. Battery Life: Up to 2 weeks in smartwatch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode—fantastic for long training weeks. Lightweight Design: Comfortable enough for all-day wear. Pros: User-friendly interface, great for beginners. Impressive battery life. Great value for the features included. Offers safety tracking (like LiveTrack) for peace of mind. Cons: No music storage or contactless payments. Limited advanced metrics for elite athletes. Verdict: If you're new to running or want a reliable, no-fuss GPS watch, the Forerunner 55 is a standout choice. It delivers just what you need—accuracy, motivation, and ease of use—at a budget-friendly price.

This watch excels in all the things we need it to do. Its GPS tracking means we can track hikes and walks in the neighborhood and see stats such as altitude gain, heart rate and pace. The app on the phone lets you see your track superimposed on a good map. Its battery lasts several days even when using GPS for a walk in the neighborhood. Screen is easy to read. It can show incoming calls and texts and the weather while in bluetooth connection with the phone. It's not too big and clunky.

I bought this a few months ago and loved it but wanted to wait to write a review so I could comment on its reliability over time. So far, this thing is great. Best sports/tracking watch I have ever owned. The battery life is as advertised. Lasts about two weeks depending on how active you are with the GPS during that timeframe. You can display the exact battery percentage, also. The size and display area are great. It doesn't feel too big but there is plenty of room on the screen for all the important info you might need. During workouts: you can customize what fields are displayed for each activity. I primarily use this for running, and I like how I can adjust what I see on the screen (HR, pace in whatever units I want, total distance, etc). There are actually quite a few different metrics you can display, so I'm confident you will find what you want. I also like how it vibrates at every mile marker and gives you a quick read out of how you're doing so far in terms of pace and whatever else you decide to display. The vibration is actually quite useful, and is powerful enough that you will definitely feel it (I know some watches are sort of weak in this regard). Heartbeat sensor: this was an important one for me, and this watch has performed very well in this regard. My older Garmin watch (Forerunner 35 I think?) seemed pretty unreliable with HR, but this one seems like its pretty spot on most of the time (as verified by manually checking my HR to see how close it is). It has some really cool "widgets" that you can add to your main menu. For example, I can check the weather for the next week with two or three button presses, which I think is a cool bonus. It also has health focused ones like V02 max and you can review your HR over the past week, displayed as a simple line graph. The only thing that bugs the hell out of me is that when you go to start a workout, a run for example, it will always give you this "suggested workout" that you have to say no to every time. It's really annoying and I wish I could turn it off, it just adds extra button presses before I can start my run. Not enough to deduct any points, but it's still a really annoying feature. Update July 2025: the battery life has taken a nosedive. I'm coming up on three years owning this watch. If I charge it all the way up to 100% and disconnect it, within an hour it will say I'm at 85% or so. As I type this, the battery indication is 58%, and this is only after one hour of running today after being fully charged last night (so about 24 hours ago). I liked this watch for a while, and it's been a great companion through marathons and ultras, but I guess they don't engineer these things to last anymore. Planned obsolescence. 3/5 stars since I do like all the functions and capabilities. But the battery has become an issue for me nearly three years later.