They've never been cheaper: Garmin Forerunner 265 are great mid-range watches with music playback and 13-day battery life

Garmin sports watches are among those products that hold their price quite strongly even several years after their introduction. The Forerunner 265 arrived on the market in 2023 for 11 990 Kč, but have now dropped to 7 990 Kč, which is a historically low price. You can find the current offer and a comparison of sellers in the Heureka catalog.

Quick Summary:
✅ Makes sense if you run, plan a race, or want quality GPS watches with an adaptive training plan.
⚠️ Consider alternatives if you want advanced outdoor features like offline maps or longer battery life – for that, there’s the Fenix series or Forerunner 965.
💡 For 7 990 Kč you get an AMOLED display, multi-band GPS, and a Garmin ecosystem at a level practically unheard of in this price category.

Why is this discount interesting?

Garmin is among the manufacturers whose products maintain a high residual value. After their introduction, the Forerunner 265 held their recommended price of 11 990 Kč for several months and only gradually decreased very slowly. The current price of 7 990 Kč therefore means that the watches have been discounted by approximately one-third.

Key Parameters: AMOLED, GPS, and Training Brain

The main generational leap compared to the older Forerunner 255 is the 1.3″ AMOLED display with a resolution of 416 × 416 pixels, which is covered by durable Gorilla Glass 3. The brightness and color saturation are completely different from classic MIP displays that Garmin uses in most outdoor series – in practice, this means readability in sunlight and at night, clear map layers, and a significantly more modern overall impression. Optionally, the always-on display mode can be activated, which, however, logically shortens battery life.

Crucial for runners is multi-band GPS with SatIQ technology, which automatically selects between modes based on the environment – in forests and cities, it switches to the most accurate multi-band mode, while on open routes, it saves battery. All major satellite systems are available (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS), ensuring reliable accuracy for route and pace tracking.

Training software is traditionally what sets Garmin apart from most competitors. The Forerunner 265 handles daily suggested workouts adapted to current fatigue, training readiness score right after waking up, heart rate variability (HRV) status, race time prediction for 5/10/21/42 km, and PacePro pacing strategy for a specific route and elevation. For someone training for a specific race, it is essentially a complete digital coach on the wrist.

Practical Aspects: Battery Life, Music, Payments

Battery life is always crucial for sports watches. The Forerunner 265 can last up to 13 days in smartwatch mode and 20 hours in GPS mode (GPS only, without multi-band mode). If you enable the most accurate mode with all systems and multi-band, battery life drops to 14 hours – still enough for a marathon, a full-day ultra-route, or a long cycling trip. With music playing via Bluetooth, you get approximately 6 hours of GPS recording, which is more than sufficient for running training.

Music can be uploaded directly to the watch (8 GB storage) or synced from Spotify, Deezer, and Amazon Music – so after pairing with Bluetooth headphones, you can run without your phone. Contactless payments are handled by Garmin Pay, which is supported by most major banks in the Czech Republic. Phone notifications (calls, SMS, Messenger, email) work bi-directionally, and on Android, you can reply directly from the watch with pre-set messages.

Weight is 47 grams and diameter is 46.1 mm for the larger variant, or 42 mm for the 265S version for smaller wrists. Water resistance of 5 ATM (50 meters) is sufficient for showering, rain, and swimming pools – swimming functions are complete, including stroke type recognition. Incident detection automatically sends your location to predefined contacts if the device detects a fall or impact during sport.

When it doesn’t make sense

If you need full-fledged offline maps with route navigation in the field (mountain hiking, ultra-runs in unknown environments, long-distance cycling routes), the Forerunner 265 will not be sufficient – they lack a map layer. In such a case, it makes sense to opt for the more expensive Forerunner 965 or one of the Fenix series models.

Second scenario: you are primarily a smartwatch user who wants to reply to messages, make calls from the watch, or use a wide range of third-party applications. Garmin remains conservative in this regard – the Connect IQ ecosystem is smaller than watchOS or Wear OS, voice assistants are limited, and making calls from the watch is not possible (it lacks a speaker). For “smartwatches of first choice” in the usual sense, Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch are more practical.

Verdict: Who it’s worth it for

For 7 990 Kč, the Forerunner 265 offers a combination that doesn’t exist elsewhere: multi-band GPS, AMOLED display, a complete Garmin training package without subscription, and decent battery life. These watches make the most sense for runners training for a specific goal (5 km, half marathon, marathon, triathlon), performance amateurs, and anyone who wants a structured training approach with data that can be genuinely used.

A discount of 4 000 Kč compared to the listed price of 11 990 Kč is an unusual event for Garmin and a historic price low. If you hesitated with your purchase due to the price, this is the lowest point the Forerunner 265 has reached so far. In a Heureka price comparison with similar sports watches (Polar Vantage M3, Suunto Race S), the Forerunner 265 at this price point gains a clear advantage due to broader ecosystem support and longer experience with training software.

What is most important to you in running watches – GPS accuracy, training features, or battery life?