This is what you need to do if you want to have a good chance of being one of the first people to get a Garmin Forerunner 945 on your wrists in May 2019.
SPECS FURTHER BELOW
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Announcement Date
It’s live! All the info here
Garmin Forerunner 945 Specs Comparison to 935 + MARQ Athlete Preview Opinion
In-Stock Dates
I don’t know these exact dates, but many retailers will receive SOME stock within a couple of weeks ie by end of week 2 in May.
Pre-Orders
You can already place orders now. Quite a few sites have been offering pre-orders for a week or so. However this all changed last week when
Pre-Order USA
PRE-ORDERS NOW LIVE FROM PMC
In the USA, dealers have together placed larger orders on Garmin than Garmin are able to initially fulfill for the Forerunner 945. As a result, some, and perhaps all, retailers will NOT be receiving their full allocation immediately.
So your best option is to use your ‘trusted dealer’, whoever that might be, and hope your order is high enough up the list to get fulfillment from the first batch they receive.
Obviously I’m biased but my suggestion is to use PowerMeterCity. The price will likely be the same wherever you go. PowerMeterCity have placed a large order and have been promised that they will receive ‘partial early stock’ – this means a few tens of units.
If you place the code ‘THE5KRUNNER10’ in the order notes field, then I have an agreement with Josh @PowerMeterCity that these orders will ALL BE SHIPPED FIRST before his other customers, even if that means the entire initial allocation.
Of course there are other retailers who have probably placed larger orders and will probably get a bit more stock. But they will probably also experience greater demand. You can do the maths/economics, I’m sure.
Pre-Order UK
My suggested strategy for the UK is different.
Wiggle.co.uk are based in Portsmouth and Garmin are close-by in Southampton. I’m guessing that Wiggle/ChainReaction is the dominant UK customer of Garmin and will get a good chunk of stock.
ADDED BONUS: If you use the code NEWGB and if you are a new customer to Wiggle then you will get free delivery and a discount. Yep, even off a new 945. Well, at least I did with the Edges last week.
Pre-Order EU
I don’t know what’s the best thing for you to do here. Wiggle do actively service European markets (and the US too) but I don’t know how quickly you’ll get an order from Wiggle elsewhere in the EU.
Pre-Order General
This single link should work in ANY country, it knows what country you are in and should go through to a local retailer. In the USA, UK and EU it will go through to the exact same links as above for Wiggle and PowerMeterCity
Link: https://geni.us/GarminForerunner945
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Pre-Leaked Summary Specs, Below
Source: via @Chris/KV, all images here link to my original source will mean that they will disappear if the source is taken down. I think the true source is one of the online retailers trying to get a head start on pre-orders.
Garmin Forerunner 945
Garmin Forerunner 945 Premium Running Watch with Music $599 & $749 (tri bundle)
You’re an athlete, and this is your watch. The Forerunner®945 running watch lets you sync with premium music services to put your songs on your wrist when paired with a compatible smartphone(may require premium subscription). It also offers our most advanced physiological features, including training load balance and more. Also enjoy the convenience of quick, contactless payments solution (available for supported cards from participating banks)from the wrist with Garmin Pay™. With full-color, onboard maps to guide you on your run, you’ll never get lost during a workout. Wherever you go, built-in safety and tracking features —such as incident detection (during select activities), which sends you send your real-time location to emergency contacts through your paired compatible smartphone.
Product Features:
- Premium GPS running/triathlon smartwatch with music
- Sync music from select premium streaming services when paired with a compatible smartphone (may require premium subscription), or store up to 1,000 songs on your watch, and connect with headphones (sold separately) enabled with BLUETOOTH®technology for phone-free listening
- Performance monitoring features include VO2 max and training status with adjustments for heat, altitude acclimation status, training load focus, recovery time, and aerobic and anaerobic training effects
- Garmin Pay™ contactless payment solution (available for supported cards from participating banks) lets you make convenient payments with your watch so you can leave your cash and cards at home
- Full-color, onboard maps guide you on your run so you never get lost during your workout
- Safety and tracking features include incident detection (during select activities) which sends your real-time location to emergency contacts through your paired compatible smartphone
- Battery life: up to 2 weeks in smartwatch mode, 10 hours in GPS mode with music or up to 60 hours in UltraTrac™ mode
Note: this battery life note seems worrying and I would have hoped to have a GPS figure as well and for that figure to exceed 20 hours.
What’s in the Box:
- 945: Forerunner 945, Power/Data Cable, Documentation
- 945 Bundle: Forerunner 945, 1 set black bands, HRM-Tri™, HRM-Swim™, Quick Release Kit, Power/Data Cable, Documentation
Garmin Forerunner 945 Specs:
- Water rating: 5 ATM
- Unit dimensions: 1.9” (47 mm)
- Weight: 1.8 oz (50 g)
Garmin Forerunner 945 Imagery – Firstbeat Commentary
The images below show some new Firstbeat functions and I think they are all on the MARQ from memory, these are:
- Training Status with Elevation/Heat factored into the calcs
- Training effect summary screen with numerical Training Load
- VO2 Max trend screen
- 4 week “load focus” screen
Garmin Forerunner 945 Imagery:
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I think you could be wrong with the forerunner pre orders. Both the Va3 music and the Fenix 5 plus both was available for preorder and both shipped within days of availability on other retailers.
Amazon is the biggest online retailer and Garmin is a drop in the ocean to them! Garmin would be crazy to play hard ball with them and not give them stock.
I agree , because when we look in the past. Fenix 5 was realose in march and available April but after asap release 935aroud 20 of April and available in the shops 26of April.
i think i’m right on this one – for the usa at least. I am talking to dealers there.
Garmin has shifted their US strategy for April+ units, whereby they’re giving ‘specialty retailers’ (the specific term) a 30-day period for shipping of units. This was/is true of the Edge 530/830, and will remain true for numerous most all fitness/outdoor products going forward that aren’t part of the Vivo family (which by Garmin are considered mass-market products). Whether or not this strategy works…no idea, but that is the strategy.
As TFK outlined, Garmin has always had an awkward relationship with Amazon, and while there are rare cases of Amazon launch availability (the Fenix 5 Plus had been stockpiled for nearly two months) – they are just that – rare.
That said, the Amazon slip-up is way more interesting than most other slip-ups we’ve seen in the last week (which from everything I’ve heard mostly directly were very much un-intentional accidents due to a variety of reasons). Being 24hrs+ right now on this Amazon one, I suspect this is purposeful on Amazon’s part. They often toy with Garmin. But there’s approximately 0.0% chance anyone will get units on April 30th as Amazon is implying. At the end of the day, Amazon doesn’t have these units yet, and Garmin, like GoPro, isn’t afraid to punish Amazon directly (since specialty retailers will offer 3PL for Amazon and fulfillment/sales still happen from a consumer standpoint). We’ve seen it countless times before – and on some really big products.
The inside track on all this stuff is fascinating. I’ll get a few beers into you one of these days and get the full story!! 😀
I have this feeling though that Garmin might be giving priority to smaller dealers, but only up to “acceptable” pre-order levels before caving and giving Amazon product.
Basically, if outlets like power meter city don’t convince enough people to preorder, Garmin will cave and send to Amazon.
Could have avoided all of this if Garmin just confirmed the watch(s) were in development months ago. We’d be curious about the when and the what, but not to the point where people were hunting online and posting every little morsel they could. Not only that, but they embrace the excitement and gather more people to buy it!
I know that’s a whole different topic, but it’s worth exploring.
It’s naive (on the manufacturers part) to think that company’s like Go Pro and Garmin can play hard ball long term. As Amazon gets more aggressive, smaller retailers will disappear. Like it or not, Amazon is here for a long time with no real competition on the horizon.
true. Amazon’s risks must be from regulation ie anti-trust/monopoly and proper taxation.
Perhaps even a direct-to-consumer model then becomes increasingly more attractive for increasingly larger manufacturers as time moves on.
I agree, regulation will come into at some point (maybe 10 years for real change)
But looking at the here and now and based on estimates
Whilst Garmin could continue to play hard ball. So could Amazon and hurt them more by doing 2 things.
Stop listing Garmin products or change the shopping algorithms to promote other products. The loss of revenue would be a drop in the ocean for Amazon, but it would hurt Garmin as the mass market Vivo series would be hit (its already struggling compared to the Apple watch ect). Yes customers could go to other retailers to buy, but that will be niche buyers that know Garmin and know what they want. The mass market goes to Amazon and the 2.6billion visitors per month to the US amazon alone says it all. Clevertraining and wiggle UK don’t get 1 million between them per month.
You only have to look at history and when Amazon took on Apple.
October 2015 – Amazon stop selling Apple TV products (google products as-well) This is to push its own TV service and products
September 2017 – Apple launches the new 4k Apple TV and announces that Amazon will bring its TV app to the Apple TV service. This is big step forward.
What happened in them 2 years, Apples strategy to push its services business takes priority and it needs Amazon to support this via hardware sales and its video app on the platform.. Amazon brings Apple to the table discuss how they can work together
Jan 2019 – Amazon becomes a Apple authorised reseller.
The point I am trying to make. Amazon is the biggest retailer and will be for many years. Any change to regulation will take time due to the major backers being very powerful. If they can bring a company like Apple to the table to talk and play nicely, then Garmin will be easy pray or will be damaged if they don’t.
Their strategy is to cut their nose, to spite their face it seems.
interesting, cheer Ray. I was/am hoping they would have done something similiar to the 935 launch where units were available at launch.
I went to REI today and asked the manager about pre-ordering the 945. He didn’t know anything about it. He first checked their website and of course couldn’t find anything. Then he checked their internal inventory system and again, there was nothing there. He was quite surprised, especially after telling him about Amazon’s pre-order and all the other sites with leaks (Clever Training, SwimOutlet, Wiggle, etc).
He finished the conversation saying that “Garmin and REI are good partners and the new watch should be available as soon as Garmin releases them”. The interesting thing about this observation is that REI still doesn’t have listing for the new Edges 530 & 830. I wonder if it’s related to what Ray Maker said above.
yep. REI are not a speciality retailer
I personally had not very good experience with Power Meter City.
Their return policy says that open box item can be returned only for store credit minus shipping cost! Read carefully https://powermetercity.com/guaranteed-returns/
They also didn’t honored “Lowest prices” promise on Fenix 5S, selling it for $150 more comparing to Amazon. The only reply I got “the price on our site is the correct price. We would lose money at those lower prices”
Hi Yuriy. Thanks for the feedback, we take it seriously. Regarding your concerns, we are always happy to take returns but do indeed deduct our cost of shipping. In reading the return policies on several sites, I believe this is pretty standard. Regarding open boxes, totally fine. We take open box returns all day long. On the fenix thing, I’m not really sure about that. Now and then manufacturers run promos but don’t give any rebate or credit to dealers, so the entire discount comes out of our pocket. So on products where our margin is already thin, we have to think hard if it makes business sense for us to run that promo. Maybe that is what was going on? But the overwhelming majority of the time, we absolute are matching manufacturer prices and promos.
We work tirelessly 7 days a week to support all of our customers and have a pretty nice track record of customer service. Specifically, we have a 9.9/10 TrustPilot rating on our site and on eBay, where we sell a lot of products, we have a 100% service rating. We would put those metrics up not only against anyone in the cycling industry, but against any retailer, period 🙂
Again, sorry we didn’t do a better job earning your satisfaction. We’ll keep working hard and maybe there will be another opportunity!
I click the link for power meter City and nowhere does it list the pre-order for the 945. I see the Fenix, 935 and polar watches. But no 945
Update – our listing is ready to go but I am being told “by higher ups” that we have to wait for Garmin to officially announce the product before we can turn our listing live.
You can always contact us at sales@powermetercity.com if we can help you with anything else! Thanks
Wiggle.co.uk claims to have dispatched my 945 with delivery tomorrow 2 May (via DHL express). Thus it seems they have the 945 in stock already. I live in a EU country.
sounds good. I spoke to clever training UK today and they have not got any stock yet.
just to be clear to anyone else who reads this: I have other stuff on wiggle on back order that is NOT SHOWING as despatched…so maybe wiggle are shipping the 945s
I should get my 945 today from wiggle, if they did not mess it up. Took THREE attempts and some online chat with them to place the order. Let’see in some hours we know more…
Do you have a tracking number?
It looks like CT could be telling porkies about their stock
Wiggle have told me that ONLY THEY have UK stock.
I now have a forerunner 945 on my wrist so wiggle do have stock. (Or at least they had one watch in stock yesterday)
Any improvements to external sensors connectivity?
On my Tactix Bravo (Fenix3), my 935 and my friends reported same issue for Fenix5, I have to constantly move my foot if I want my Stryd to stay connected. Otherwise it disconnects. On Polar Vantage or iphone i.e, once it connects, it stays connected. This is annoying when waiting for a race to start when I’m squeezed with a ton of people and jumping up and down sometimes means hitting others or jumping on their feet 🙂
there was always a connectivity issue with the 5s and 5 (not 935 not 5x not plus models)