The mid-range watch might no longer have a place
The venerable Garmin Forerunner 245 is approaching its third birthday, and it's due for an upgrade when the company updates its sports watch portfolio — but do we really need it?
First and foremost, take a look at the current Forerunners lineup. The entry-level 50 series is at the bottom of the list. The 250 series is located above this. These are running watches for athletes who wish to step up their training and possibly start racing competitively.
The Forerunner 750 series is next, which is built specifically for triathletes and seamlessly switches between swim, bike, and run monitoring modes. Finally, at the top, we have the 950 series of devices, which are similar but have a much longer battery life, making them ideal for multi-day events.
The majority of the current Forerunner lineup is at least two, if not three, years old and in desperate need of an upgrade. The Forerunner 55 kicked off the process last year, and the remainder of the series is expected to follow suit in the near future. At least, that's how much of it is.The Forerunner 55 is a fantastic watch; not only is the GPS tracking extremely accurate (as you'd expect from a company that made its name in satellite navigation systems), but it also has a responsive heart rate monitor and a slew of new training tools to help you structure your runs and balance rest and recovery.
It's so good, in fact, that a Forerunner 255 is unnecessary. The 55 is beginner-friendly, but it also contains everything an advanced runner requires. It wouldn't be the first time that a Forerunner line was phased out by Garmin. As technology has improved, the Forerunner 100, 200, 300, and 400 series have all been discontinued, and new watches in the range have filled in the gaps. The real-time stamina chart debuted with the Garmin Fenix 7 is the only thing we can envision the Forerunner 255 bringing to the table. This is a useful graph that illustrates how much energy you have left in your tank during runs and rides, allowing you to adjust your effort as needed. No more running out of gas halfway through a workout or finishing a race wishing you'd pushed a little more.
It's also possible that the Forerunner 255 will include music storage, but Garmin rarely releases a new watch model expressly for that purpose. If it wanted to go that route, it would probably release a Forerunner 55 Music edition instead.
Of course, we can only speculate at this point – and even if the company doesn't release a Forerunner 255 this year, it may pick up the name again at a much later date for a different device,
In late January the Garmin revealed not just the Fenix 7, but also the Epix - a very similar watch, with the addition of a bright AMOLED display. However, this shiny newcomer is officially the Epix (Gen 2).
The original Epix was a touchscreen sports watch released in 2015 that was somewhat ahead of its time. Although it worked well, it was a bit of a monster, and it was some time before technology caught up with its designers' intentions and its components could be packed into a more modestly sized case.
If a Forerunner 255 doesn't arrive this year or next, it may still appear in a revamped form at some point in the future. Only time will tell.
