- A high-quality GPS running watch provides accurate data about your runs, displays the information you want clearly on one screen, and offers a variety of useful fitness metrics.
- The Garmin Forerunner 935 is a fitness enthusiast’s dream that’s perfect for swimming and cycling, has a long battery life, and measures several metrics you won’t find on similar watches.
- Though it’s one of the more expensive running watches (currently on sale for $365.36 via Amazon), it outperforms a majority of similar fitness wearables and comes highly regarded by a long-distance runner who logged more than 1,000 miles with it.
Updated on 7/8/2020 by Rick Stella: Updated the bottom line section to include alternative picks from Garmin’s Fenix and Vivosmart line of fitness trackers, checked the availability of the Forerunner 935, and updated the prices, formatting, and links throughout.
Garmin produced its first wrist-worn GPS unit designed specifically for runners in 2003 and called it, the Forerunner 101. Dozens of technological generations and improved models later, the very latest watch with Garmin’s running technology is now the Forerunner 935.
To truly put it to the test, we had competitive distance runner, Ted Westbrook, put the Forerunner 935 and Running Dynamics Pod through 1,000 cumulative miles of running. Starting with the Forerunner 205, Ted has over a dozen years of experience using GPS running watches and is no stranger to utilizing fitness trackers to reach his mileage goals and to keep him within his goal paces.
After three months of using the watch – both in training and in races – Ted told us the Forerunner 935 is “far and away the best training tool I’ve ever used.”
Below, we took a closer look at Ted's experiences with the watch to see just how impressive it actually is.
Build quality and features
The Forerunner 935 is a mid-sized watch for the average man and a large watch for the average woman. It is, however, lightweight (49 grams), comfortable to wear, and packed with technology. The band, which is made of a slightly stretchy rubberized plastic, is an improvement in comfort over its predecessor, the 920XT. It also looks nice in the dark gray color.
The face is protected by tempered glass that's very scratch-resistant - another substantial improvement over the 920XT. The watch offers an impressive battery life of up to 24 hours with GPS enabled.
In addition to providing real-time feedback like pace and distance, the 935 also features an integrated optical heart rate monitor that proved to be both accurate and quick. This allows you to glance down and get a useful indication of how hard you're working. Many runners can benefit from setting target heart rates, too, particularly for easy-effort runs where the goal is active recovery and not to over-stress the body.
The 935 is also waterproof to 5 ATM and has a mode entirely devoted to swimming, is able to keep accurate stroke counts. Cyclists will appreciate being able to use it as a cycling computer, as it has devoted outdoor and indoor cycling modes and the ability to connect to ANT+ bike speed and cadence modules. There's even a dedicated triathlon mode that tracks each leg, providing custom information for each sport, along with transition times.
It also has a built-in barometric altimeter to provide irrefutable scientific confirmation that your last run was hillier and more extreme than your friend's last run, or that your combined elevation gains for the last year would get you to the International Space Station (unlike your Florida-based flatlander friends).
Intuitive setup
Setting up the Forerunner 935 was intuitive and only took a few minutes. The Garmin Connect app walks you through the initial setup and imports all settings to the watch via Bluetooth. You can count on this taking roughly five minutes or less to get up and running - longer if you need to download the Connect app and set up an account.
A wealth of fitness metrics at your fingertips
The Garmin Forerunner 935 collects and displays all your workout data, and allows users to customize the face to show exactly what they want. Generally, while running, you'll want it to show three or four different parameters at a time so each is readable. For instance, you might want lap pace, distance, and heart rate on one page. The 935 allows great customization so that you can move your chosen parameters to where you want to see them and add or remove data screens.
Ted loved this functionality: "I have one screen that I use most of the time and a second that's available at the push of a button for data that's more specific to running interval workouts, like lap time and lap distance. Customization is easy and intuitive."
Accessorizing the watch
Accessories push the 935's limits even further. Ted used the Running Dynamics Pod, which is a tiny sensor that attached to the back of his shorts, allowing the watch to provide data like vertical oscillation (how high he bounces between steps), ground contact time, and left-to-right ground contact time balance.
With the addition of a downloadable app, the Pod also allows the unit to display the newest single metric being used by coaches: power in watts. All of these can be used to help fine-tune your running form for better efficiency.
Accurate both with and without GPS
Whether on an indoor track, treadmill, or running at a breakneck pace through the Mall of America, the watch maintains solid functionality via indoor running modes that use the watch's precise accelerometers to estimate pace and distance. While generally less accurate than using GPS outdoors, Ted confirmed on indoor tracks that the non-GPS mode still provides accurate data to within 2-3%, which is remarkably good.
Many of the 935's advanced features are more accessible post-run through the Garmin Connect system, which is available as a mobile device app and a web interface. This is where the 935 is unique. It allows a serious runner to truly geek out on data analytics while enjoying a post-run beer in the supine position.
The 935 takes heart rate, pace, and distance data and combines it with information about your height, weight, age, sex, maximum heart rate to estimate your VO2 max and lactate threshold - the two most important metrics of running fitness and potential. It can also tell you how stressful your run was for your anaerobic and aerobic systems on scales of 0 to 5.
Taking data over time into account, the 935 and Garmin Connect can give indications of whether your overall training is productive or unproductive through the Training Status feature.
It's not without a few drawbacks
Many, if not all, of the advanced training functions of the 935 and Garmin Connect rely on assumptions and formulae that aren't always going to produce accurate results. At one point, the Race Predictor feature of the 935, relying on calculations of VO2max from Ted's running and personal data, predicted that he could run a marathon in two hours and 28 minutes. Ted told us, "This was flattering but about 7% faster than reality." VO2max can only truly be measured in a lab environment.
By the same token, even the formulae are subject to user-induced error. For example, it is important to have accurate weight data. Ted shared with us a recent experience where the watch told him that his lactate threshold pace had worsened by a few seconds per mile after a moderate run while pushing his baby daughter in a running stroller on hilly terrain.
"The watch just can't correct for that added effort," Ted said. "It can only assume you're having a bad day or are getting old, which I am not."
With all of the advanced data available - which is often most useful for high-mileage competitive distance runners who are out on the pavement or track every day - it's fair to question whether a new or occasional runner should go for a lower-shelf model than the $499.99 Forerunner 935.
While the answer could depend on one's budget and just how much of a runner they want to be, new runners are likely to appreciate how well the 935 does the basics of near-instant GPS acquisition, pace, distance, and heart rate. When they're ready, the more advanced data analytics would still be there when they want them.
A beginner isn't going to outgrow the 935, and the basics are intuitive enough in use that they won't intimidate anyone who is used to dealing with smartphones. The 935 is an investment that pays dividends in fitness motivation and hardcore data.
The bottom line
Caveats notwithstanding, the 935 is a running geek's dream come true. It works in competition and training, plus it gives a huge array of analytics to inform your training approach. We asked Ted if he would continue to use the 935 once done testing it. He said, "Most certainly. And, I would buy another if this one got lost."
- Should you buy it? Yes. Whether you're a competitive runner or just want to improve your fitness and cardio, the Garmin Forerunner 935 is a worthwhile investment. Featuring a variety of advanced metrics, trackable activities, and unique analytics, it's able to not just benefit runners but swimmers and cyclists alike.
- What are your alternatives? Garmin's own selection of activity trackers and smartwatches are an obvious place to start to look for alternatives. There's the fenix line which represents the brand's high-end, full-featured smartwatch designed for the serious fitness fanatic or outdoors-person. Then there are more low-profile watches like the vivosmart 4 that don't come with as many frills as the Forerunner or fenix but still offer users Garmin's high-quality activity tracking, albeit in a less technical package.
Pros: Long battery life, waterproof, durable glass face, built-in barometer and thermometer, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, and the ability to measure more metrics than we can list here
Cons: Expensive, reduced GPS accuracy when running on a track, built-in thermometer only measures temperature right above your skin