If you take a look at Garmin’s line of running watches, it’s easy to get confused.
There are a lot of different series. By my count, there are at least 18 different series of Garmin watches currently available on their website.
Some of these – like the Garmin Approach or the Garmin Descent – appeal to a specific niche audience. But with others, there’s a lot of feature overlap and it can sometimes be hard to tell what watch is right for who.
But today, I’m not concerned with features or actually choosing a watch. I was curious to see which of Garmin’s watches are more popular – and which are the least.
The best source of this data would of course be Garmin’s own sales data. But I don’t think they’re going to hand that over to just anyone. Since they are a publicly traded company, I was curious to see if there was anything in their annual filings that would hint at this – but there wasn’t.
So the next best thing is to look at Google. Google does release data on the number of monthly searches for specific keywords. By looking at this data, we can get a good idea of how many people are searching for each series of Garmin – and that in turn gives us a good idea of which watches are more popular and which are less.
So let’s dig into some data.
The Ten Most Popular Garmin Watch Series
I took all eighteen of the current Garmin watch series and entered them into the Google Ads research tool. This returned the approximate number of monthly searches for each keyword.
The top ten results are displayed in the visual below.
The lead, by far, goes to the Garmin Forerunner, and I’m not surprised.
If someone asked you to name a Garmin, this is probably the first one that comes to mind. It also has some of the most affordable offerings – with the Forerunner 55 costing $200 or less.
The Forerunner is a basic running watch with just enough features to make it a great watch – but not so many that it becomes a luxury. Take a look at this comparison of the Forerunner 55 vs 165 and this one of the 265 vs 965 to get a sense of the features offered with this watch.
Next up is the Garmin fenix. My current watch is a fenix 7S Pro Solar, and I love it. The fenix line is essentially a premium step up from the Forerunner line – all the running features you know and love, some additional features, and a premium build. Here’s a rundown of the new fenix 8 offerings.
The Garmin Instinct comes in after that. This is a more outdoorsy, adventure oriented watch. A lot of the features are similar to the Forerunner, but it’s got better battery life, the build is more durable, and it doesn’t look or feel like a smartwatch. Check out this comparison between the Garmin Instinct and the Garmin Forerunner.
The epix comes in fourth on the list. This one is maybe a little surprising in that the epix is on the way out. The AMOLED screen used to be the defining feature of the epix, but with the fenix 8 AMOLED that has come over to the fenix line. This is evidence of some strong sentiment for the older fenix watches – but I’m sure this will taper off over the next year or two.
And then there’s the Venu. The Venu 3 is similar in a lot of ways to the Forerunner 265 – but it leans a little more heavily into “smartwatch” territory and away from sportswatch” territory. Its defining feature is the microphone, which gives you access to voice calls and your phone’s voice assistant. This is also available on the fenix 8, but the Venu 3 is a lot more affordable.
Beyond that, the popularity really drops off. The Vivoactive has only about 20% of the searches the Forerunner does, while the MARQ has less than 10%.
The Vivoactive has a lot of the basic fitness and running features of the Forerunner, but it’s lacking some of the more advanced training metrics.
The Bounce is the cheapest option, and it’s basically a kids watch – with limited features.
The Lily focuses more on style. It has fewer features, but it makes up for it with looks. Similar with the Vivomove.
And then there’s the MARQ. There are a few versions of the MARQ with specific features for different use cases. But they’re all expensive – because this is really the most luxurious, premium watch that Garmin makes.
Not included on this visual are some more niche products that appeal to a much smaller crowd, including: the tactix, the Approach, the vivosmart, the Enduro, the Descent, the vivofit jr, the quatix, and the D2.
Most of those don’t surprise me. But I did expect the Enduro to tank higher. Maybe, with the shift of the fenix towards AMOLED screens and away from MIP, we’ll see the Enduro become a more popular choice for MIP enthusiasts. We’ll see what happens.
What’s the Most Popular Forerunner?
Given the fact that the Forerunner is – by far – the most popular series, and it also has the most options, I was curious to dig into that a little more.
There are essentially three tiers to the Forerunner – entry, mid, and premium – and each tier has an AMOLED and a MIP version. These six watches are on the visual below – again, showing the number of monthly searches on Google.
This actually surprised me a little bit.
I started out with a Garmin Forerunner 245 – the mid-tier. It was a great entry level running watch. And when I wanted to upgrade, I considered the 9XX, but I found the fenix was much better for not much more money.
But the Forerunner 965 is the dominant watch here. The Forerunner 265 isn’t that far behind, but more people are interested in the higher end 965 than the mid-tier 265. Check out this comparison of the two watches here.
The Forerunner 255 – which is basically the MIP version of the Forerunner 265 – comes in next. Lately, this has been the best bang for your buck for a Garmin. It has almost all the features of the 265, and it’s significantly cheaper. Here’s a comparison.
Then there’s the Forerunner 55. It’s the entry level Forerunner, it’s the cheapest, and it still has the MIP screen. I find it telling that the 55 is more popular than the 165 – the lower level AMOLED version. But the 955 – the MIP version of the 965 – is the least popular watch of them all.
It seems that people looking at the lower end of the Forerunners are happy with the MIP screen and the 55 – while many people are more interested in the higher end, AMOLED Forerunner 965.
Which Garmin Are You Interested In?
Scroll down and leave a comment. I’d love to hear which series you’re interested in – and why.
Personally, I’m very happy with my fenix 7S Pro Solar. I like the MIP screen and the premium build. But with the new fenix 8’s, I think I might be more inclined to get an Enduro in the future.
Luckily, my fenix is only two years old, and it’ll be around for a while. I don’t think I’ll be in the market for an upgrade for a couple years. But we’ll see what’s out there when the time comes.