new Garmin Forerunner Naming Officially Explained…kinda

Garmin’s Lead Product Manager, Joe Heikes, confirmed below that the new Forerunner 5xx series naming convention reflected the significant step up made from the 265 in terms of capability, materials and design.

In an odd Instagram clip, he gives the impression that the new naming was somewhat arbitrarily arrived at or, as he said, “It felt bigger than 270”

I’m sure that uh one question that many people are asking is “Why are the product numbers for 970 and 570,” especially 570. Well, I tell you what the bottom line there is that as we looked at the products, the 265 was the predecessor product to the 570. We felt like it was such a significant step up in capability, in materials, in design that it deserved a bigger number. It felt bigger than 270. We felt like it was time to graduate up to a 500 level product. That’s the reason why 570 is named as it is. 575 975 five for those who might be interested. Years and years ago, over a decade ago, …the five was put in there to designate optical heart rate and nowadays all of our watches have optical heart rate. So, it’s not really a meaningful thing anymore. So, um we just thought we’d take the opportunity to sort of set back to 570 and 970 this go around. [Heikes, Garmin]

From my perspective, the clip does answer some questions but leaves even more unanswered, to the point of wondering why anyone at Garmin bothered to produce the clip in the first place.

Let’s analyse a bit more

Heikes confirms the xx5 suffix originally indicated optical heart rate, distinguishing it from a sibling xx0 model. Thus, the Forerunner 970 resets the numbering convention, effectively replacing what would have been the Forerunner 975. Fair enough.

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This shift opens the possibility that a future xx5 suffix could denote another technical feature, like 4G LTE/5G RedCap. Some suspect a Forerunner 975 with such connectivity might emerge. Naturally, Heikes wouldn’t confirm this.

Heikes notes that the FR570 is a step up from what could have been the FR275. He doesn’t explain why a new 5xx series was introduced instead of reviving the older 6xx series. Perhaps odd-numbered series (e.g., 5xx, 7xx, 9xx) have a design appeal—some argue odd numbers sound better and that an odd number of things looks better. But that’s likely overthinking it. The choice of 5xx over 6xx was deliberate, not a case of Garmin forgetting its history, ie there will be a reason.

The future of the Forerunner 2xx series, a lower-priced, less-specified line compared to the 5xx series, remains unaddressed. It will likely continue in some form, perhaps as the Forerunner 270 or even 370. I’m open to being persuaded that odd-numbered series are the way forward.

The Forerunner 165 is also unmentioned. I expect a Forerunner 170 to emerge, potentially replacing entry-level models like the Forerunner 55 entirely.

So, by my Tuesday morning powers of deduction, wholly unfuelled by caffeine, that leaves the next four new Forerunner models looking something like this

• Forerunner 165 > Forerunner 170 (could be this year or next Spring – entry level)
• Forerunner 265> Forerunner 370 (could be this year or next Spring – inferior materials, fewer features)
• Forerunner 570> Forerunner 575 LTE (Spring 2026 at earliest – differentiated by materials from below and by slightly reduced features to the model above)
• Forerunner 970> Forerunner 975 LTE (Spring 2026 at earliest – best of everything)

Then, of course, you will point out that I conveniently forgot about the Forerunner 7xx Series. There’s probably a prize if you can guess how Garmin will differentiate that range into the mix.

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