Garmin March Features – A solid Update for its top-line watches

Garmin’s new features for March 2025 are now rolling out to its latest generation of watches. New owners of Fenix 8 or Forerunner 965 watches bought two years ago will all be happy with 3 new features. Contrast that to owners of the Fenix 7 Pro, the previous-gen Fenix, who will be livid that their watch does not get all the updates – and rightly so.

Does the previous generation of Fenix have its features locked (A: Yes), or is the newer gen the only one capable of running the latest features? (A: No)

An interesting tidbit is that Fenix E owners *DO* get all the latest features. Thus, we can see Garmin’s feature strategy starting to make sense (just) as Fenix E’s capabilities begin to diverge from Epix.

Let’s take a look at it in more detail.

New Features

The main new features, with links to more details and my opinion on each, are as follows:

• Supplemental Strength Workouts – When following a Garmin Run Coach or Garmin Cycling Coach plan, this feature offers suggested supplementary strength training workouts, giving options for body weight only or full gym access workouts. OPINION: This will be less popular than it should be. It’s a nice addition that helps improve performance genuinely.
• Passcode – Protects sensitive data if your watch ever gets lost or stolen with further security boosts if the watch has been taken off your wrist. OPINION: Garmin PAY has always been supported; I’m not entirely sure what tangible benefits this offers, though a minority will love the illusion of personal security – plug the watch in via USB to get complete access to the watch.
• Keyboard Enhancements Updates – This is a substantial update to usability. Previously, the ‘keyboard’ was highly UNusable. This significant improvement supports touch or button input throughout the watch’s functions – from messages to simply renaming a sensor, all is good.
• Workout Execution Score Improvements – Some minor tweaks to the feature that scores how well you execute planned workouts. #Nice #Needed
• Body Battery TrueUp – A minor update that ensures Body Battery status is synced between watches capable of supporting the features.

Which models get what features?

Garmin summarises the model/feature split nicely in the following table, with the contentious issue being the Fenix 7 Pro series that only get the new tweaks rather than the more significant feature bumps.

Take Out

Garmin continues to improve usability and fills some gaps between its features.

If confirmation were ever needed that you only get, at most, two years of feature updates from a new Garmin, this is it. It’s amazing what $1,000 fails to buy from Garmin – at least you DO get bug fixes for that price.

New Feature obsolescence is core to Garmin’s strategy – discussed here in more detail.