Garmin may launch budget-friendly Forerunner on July 22
A new teaser from China has surfaced that points to an imminent Garmin launch. The image suggests a budget-friendly Forerunner, with the unveiling set for July 22 at 12:00 local time. Our guess is that it might be the Forerunner 65.
Garmin teases new watch for Chinese market
A Chinese reader sent us this teaser, which was posted online on Weibo earlier today and the WeChat Garmin channel. It features a silhouetted Garmin watch front and centre, with dramatic lighting and text that reads:
懂了, 就买
Translation: Understand it, then buy
Beneath the watch is the text “1xxx”, indicating a price somewhere in the 1,000 to 1,999 RMB range. For context, that’s about $140 to $280 USD. At the bottom, the time and date is shown: “07/22 12:00”. And finally, there’s this line in smaller characters:
价期开封，静待此刻
Translation: Price reveal begins, await this moment
Everything about this promo feels targeted at an entry-level runners watch. There’s even an outline of a runner in the background.
Looking at the silhouette of the device, it looks like it belongs in the Forerunner range. Same button configuration, same shape.
A move to counter growing pressure?
With competition heating up, this could be Garmin’s response to rivals like Suunto, who recently launched the Suunto Run at a very aggressive price. While Suunto’s offering sticks to basic AMOLED-first features, Garmin already has a few models in this space. But they’re due for a shake-up.
The Forerunner 55 launched way back in June 2021. It’s long overdue for a replacement. Meanwhile, the Forerunner 165 landed in 2024, on February 20th. It brought AMOLED to Garmin’s entry tier for the first time. Both watches would fall into the price bracket shown in the ad.
So what could this be?
Garmin has been very busy this year. Just in the past few months we’ve seen the launch of Quatix 8, Index Sleep Monitor, Venu X1, Forerunner 570 and 970. They’ve really been on a roll. But all of these are in the mid to high range price category.
Now we might get something less expensive. And there’s every chance we’re looking at the Forerunner 65 or 175, set to debut next week. Garmin tends to follow fairly consistent numbering, so either name would make sense. More likely the former, as it has been so long since the launch of the Forerunner 55. If it is that one, it has received a slight design revamp.
Granted all of this is real, and we have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the image, then we’re only days away from a new model. July 22 is this coming Tuesday. Garmin typically schedules launches on that day. So unless this is just a China-only variant, we’re likely to hear more very soon.
Watch this space.
Update (24/7/2025): It turns out this was an advertisement for a sale on the Forerunner 265 watch in China. No new watch, unfortunately.
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