Forerunner 170: garminhub.ru and AliExpress listings appear, but should you believe either?
via: Reddit & Garmin News
A pair of unverified product listings claiming to show the unannounced Garmin Forerunner 170 are now circulating, one on the Russian Garmin reseller garminhub.ru and one on AliExpress. Reddit threads have picked both up. Before either gets repeated as fact, the listings deserve a sober look.
The garminhub.ru listing
garminhub.ru is a Moscow-based independent Garmin reseller, not Garmin’s Russian operation. Garmin pulled formal support for the Russian market after 2022, leaving distribution to grey-market resellers and parallel imports. Sites in this category do not receive embargoed product briefings from Olathe or Taipei, and they have a commercial incentive to populate placeholder pages for unannounced models to capture search traffic and newsletter signups.
The imagery now attributed to garminhub.ru looks like a recolour of the Forerunner 165, with the same bezel ratio, button geometry and strap mount, which would be expected for the FR170. There is no obvious physical change that would distinguish a 170 from its predecessor in those photographs. The Russian product copy reads as generic placeholder text rather than anything written from a press kit.
None of that proves the listing is made up. It does mean that, as a primary source on the existence and specification of a Forerunner 170, garminhub.ru carries very little weight.
The AliExpress listing
AliExpress carries speculative listings for almost every unannounced Garmin model within days of a credible rumour. Sellers create them to capture search traffic in the lead-up to an official launch. The mere presence of a Forerunner 170 page on AliExpress is not corroboration of anything. Treat it as evidence that a seller has read the same rumours you have.
Reddit chatter
Threads on r/Garmin have surfaced both listings over the past few days. The community response has been appropriately sceptical, with several commenters noting the recoloured-FR165 character of the garminhub.ru imagery and the boilerplate description on AliExpress.
What actually matters
These two signals carry more weight than either retail listing.
- The first is DC Rainmaker’s postings. Ray has been posting Strava activities from Olathe, Kansas, the location of Garmin’s headquarters. An Olathe visit from him almost always precedes an embargoed product briefing, with the launch typically arriving two to four weeks later. The pattern is reliable enough to act on but not an indication of the exact model.
- The second is calendar fit. Garmin’s launches almost always land on a Tuesday or Wednesday. The upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday, the 12th and 13th of May, are a credible window for the spring fitness and outdoor releases that Cliff Pemble telegraphed on the Q1 2026 earnings call when he referenced new categories. A refreshed entry-level Forerunner, the CIRQA band, and an outdoor surprise all fit that slot.
Bottom line
A listing on a Russian reseller and another on AliExpress are not, on their own, evidence that the Forerunner 170 is imminent. They are evidence that the people running those listings have read the same rumours the rest of us have. The signals worth tracking are the Olathe Strava activity and the Tuesday and Wednesday window. If the Forerunner 170 lands next week, garminhub.ru will have got there a week early through guesswork or a recycled render.
What To Believe – this site’s view
I would offer these ‘leaks’ very little credibility as per the article. However they are a tentative signal that supports a plausible release.
If I had to bet on this one I would definitely bet against these listings being a real leak and hence against an imminent FR170 launch.
Last Updated on 10 May 2026 by the5krunner
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tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
Unfortunately, The watch was first spotted by me but you didn’t even mentioned that or give us a credit. But anyway, thanks for the article:
apologies, duly added, i ge a summary feed from reddit and you werent mentioned.
I would love 4 Connect IQ datafields, like FR965. A post about that in the futur ? Thanks for all !