There were two main selling points to the Garmin Forerunner 745 when it originally launched in late 2020, which were that it was a cheaper triathlon watch than the Forerunner 945 and Fenix range, and that it was a much smaller watch that suited thinner wrists.
At the time, I didn’t really rate those benefits as enough to make the 745 a better option than the 945, which was only a little more expensive and had offline maps as the standout feature not available on the 745, along with longer battery life.
When Garmin launched the Forerunner 255—a smaller and cheaper multisport watch than the 745 that also offers more accurate multi-band GPS and heart rate variability tracking—it seemed to signal the end of the Forerunner 7X5 line in general, and the 745 has not been supported with recent software updates.
The Forerunner 745 became the forgotten Forerunner, until Amazon Prime Day 2023 rolled around with a huge discount on the watch, which is going for $279.99 down from its RRP of $499.99.
It may seem like Garmin is clearing out stock of an old watch, but that’s no reason not to capitalize on what is an excellent deal. The Forerunner 255 Music might be an upgrade on the 745, but the 255 Music hasn’t dropped below $330 yet in any sale I can remember, so at $280 the 745 offers better value than anything else.
The Forerunner 745 is an excellent sports tracker with detailed training analysis and it has useful smart features like music storage and the ability to link up with streaming services including Spotify for offline playback.
It doesn’t have maps, but you can sync routes to the watch and follow a breadcrumb trail on your wrist, which is usually good enough to find your way in my experience.
The 745 even offers Garmin’s useful ClimbPro feature for routing, which identifies the climbs and descents on your route and shows them individually so you can judge your effort on climbs taking into account how much uphill is left.
Garmin’s newer watches do offer more accurate GPS and more insightful training analysis, but the 745 is perfectly acceptable on those fronts, and at such a big discount it’s worth considering. The only other notable drawback is its short battery life—I had to charge it every four or five days, while the Forerunner 255 would last me six days even with the smaller 255S model.
At its RRP, or even close to it, the Forerunner 745 doesn’t make sense in Garmin’s line-up. However, at $280 in the Prime Day sale, there is a case for picking it up, as long as you’re aware of the 745’s drawbacks compared with newer models.
