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Garmin’s Forerunner 55 is not the fanciest of its watches. At its original price, I would have recommended passing it by. But even after Prime day, you can get it brand-new for $129. There was previously a deal on a refurbished model for $99.99, which is gone at the moment—but probably not for long. Refurbished watches tend to fluctuate in price, and I’d expect this one to reappear at some kind of discount.
The Forerunner 55 is as basic as they come, with a MIP screen rather than a modern AMOLED, single-band GPS, and limited functionality compared to more expensive Garmins. It came out in 2021, and was the bottom of the line at that point. (The others in the line were the workhorse Forerunner 255, and the premium Forerunner 955 with offline maps.)
But the 55 gets the job done, as we saw earlier this year when Sabastian Sawe wore it for his record-breaking London marathon. At its original price of $199, it didn’t compare to newer watches that did a lot more for a similar or only slightly higher price. But I’ve always thought that if the price dropped enough, it would be an excellent buy for somebody looking for their first running watch, something that will give you accurate pace, distance, and heart rate and not complicate the experience with too many extra features.
There’s no shame in wearing an older Garmin, either: these watches age well, and there’s no subscription or software model that removes or degrades old features. Whatever your watch could do when you bought it, it’s likely to keep doing that forever. (I constantly meet runners who have no idea what Garmin model they’re wearing, and if we check, it turns out to be something that’s old enough to go to elementary school. These watches last.)
