TUNE YOUR TRAINING
Add a beat to your step. Get the training and recovery insights you need to run at a higher level — plus music to motivate you along the way.
- Get an overview of your sleep, HRV status and daily workout with morning report.
- Charge less, train more with up to 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours in GPS mode.
- Push your limits with a built-in triathlon feature and 30 activity profiles.
- Plan your strategy with daily suggested workouts, course details and more on the race widget.
- Utilize a full suite of advanced metrics and training tools to reach your goals.
- Pay for your post-workout coffee with Garmin Pay™ contactless payments1 — and listen to music on the go.
In the box
- Forerunner 255 Music
- Charge/data cable
- Documentation
READY FOR THE LONG RUN
Get an uninterrupted picture of your daily health and nightly sleep with up to 14 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 30 hours in GPS mode.
(ALMOST) AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER
With its sleek design and 1.7 oz weight, you’ll almost forget you’re wearing Forerunner 255 Music — even when you’re asleep.
SWEAT-READY MATERIALS
Featuring easy-to-use buttons and a silicone band, this watch is ready to wear — and tear — with durable Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3.
MORNING REPORT
Receive an overview of your sleep, recovery and training outlook as soon as you wake up — alongside HRV status and weather. You can even customize your report to show you what you want to see.
HRV STATUS
Gain a deeper understanding of your overall health, recovery and training performance through heart rate variability while you sleep, based on technology developed by our Firstbeat Analytics™ team.
BUILT-IN SPORTS APPS
Tap into 30 built-in activities, including the triathlon and open-water swimming profiles — new to the Forerunner 255 series. For races and brick workouts, transition to the next activity with a single button press.
RACE WIDGET
Get ready for your next race with training tips, personalized daily suggested workouts and completion time predictions based on course details, weather and performance.
DAILY SUGGESTED WORKOUTS
View your entire week of daily suggested workouts, which adapt after every run to match your performance and recovery as well as the races coming up in your Garmin Connect™ smartphone app calendar.
GARMIN COACH
Free adaptive training plans include 5K, 10K and half-marathon programs, featuring guidance from expert coaches that adapt to you and your goals.
TRIATHLON AND MULTISPORT PROFILES
Switch between sports with one press by using built-in profiles for triathlons, duathlons, brick workouts and swimruns. Or, create your own custom multisport profiles.
WRIST-BASED RUNNING POWER
See how much power you’re applying to the trail or the road so you can manage your effort and fine-tune your training. No accessory required.
RECOVERY TIME
Know how long to recover before your next high-effort workout based on your latest training as well as overall stress, sleep and daily activities outside of workouts.
PACEPRO™ FEATURE
To help you plan your race day strategy, this feature offers GPS-based pace guidance for a selected course or distance, so you can tailor your efforts to what’s ahead.
GRADE-ADJUSTED PACE
Don’t run out of steam before the activity is over. Understand how to adjust your pace over varying terrain to perform according to your plan.
TRAINING STATUS
Using new indicators such as HRV status, your recent exercise history and performance, get an easy insight into your overall effort — and whether you’re training productively, peaking or strained.
ACUTE LOAD
See your training history, and compare the intensity of your recent workouts to the optimal range to help improve your fitness.
TRAINING EFFECT
See how your workouts influence your endurance, speed and power with aerobic and anaerobic training effect feedback.
PERFORMANCE CONDITION
While you run, get an analysis of your pace and heart rate for a real-time assessment of your current ability to perform.
RUNNING DYNAMICS
When using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro monitor, the Forerunner 255 Music watch measures crucial running metrics such as cadence, stride length, ground contact time and balance, and more — while comparing to others in the Garmin Connect app.
COURSES
Create or find existing courses in the Garmin Connect app, so you’ll never run out of places to run. Or plan one on other platforms such as Strava and Komoot, then automatically sync them to your Forerunner.
TRACK RUNNING
Ready for some speedwork? Input your lane on the built-in track run activity to record accurate lap distances and see your distances in meters.
VISUAL RACE PREDICTOR
Based on your running history and overall fitness level, get an estimate of what your pace could be for a 5K, 10K — or even a marathon. Plus, trend data highlights your training’s impact over time.
CROSS-TRAINING
Mix up your training with different types of workouts. Free HIIT, strength, cardio, yoga and Pilates workouts come preloaded on the watch, and you can download more from the Garmin Connect app.
WRIST-BASED HEART RATE
The watch constantly samples your heart rate2 with our latest-generation heart rate sensor and will alert you if it stays too high or too low while you’re at rest. It also helps gauge how hard you work during activities — even while swimming.
BODY BATTERY™ ENERGY MONITORING
Track your body’s energy levels so you can find the best times for activity and rest 2.
IMPROVED SLEEP MONITORING AND SLEEP SCORE
Understand how your body is recovering — and get ready for training — with our improved sleep monitoring feature. After waking up, you’ll receive a sleep score, as well as breakdown of your sleep stages, Pulse Ox3 and respiration, alongside detailed insights for improved sleep quality.
PULSE OX SENSOR
This wrist-based Pulse Ox sensor3 monitors blood oxygen saturation levels to support advanced sleep monitoring and altitude acclimation.
WOMEN’S HEALTH TRACKING
Use the Garmin Connect app to track your menstrual cycle or pregnancy. Log symptoms, get exercise and nutrition education, and more. Even see and log details on your wrist with the Women’s Health Tracking app.
INTENSITY MINUTES
Our intensity minutes feature tells you when during the day you earned them and during what activity.
STRESS TRACKING
Find out if you’re having a calm, balanced or stressful day. Relax reminders will even prompt you to do a short breathing activity when the watch detects that you’re feeling stressed.
HEALTH SNAPSHOT™ FEATURE
Log a 2-minute session to record key stats, including heart rate2, heart rate variability, Pulse Ox3, respiration and stress. Then generate a report with those stats to share via the Garmin Connect app on your compatible smartphone.
SATIQ™ TECHNOLOGY
Multi-band GNSS with SatIQ technology ensures the best positioning accuracy in any environment while also optimizing the device’s battery life.
MUSIC ON YOUR WRIST
Download up to 500 songs plus playlists from your Spotify, Deezer or Amazon Music accounts (subscription required).
GARMIN PAY CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS
Breeze through checkout lines with Garmin Pay contactless payments1 through participating providers.
SMART NOTIFICATIONS
Receive emails, texts and alerts right on your watch when paired with your Apple® or Android™ smartphone. You can even respond to texts if you have an Android phone.
SAFETY AND TRACKING FEATURES
If you feel unsafe or if your watch senses that an incident occurred, the Assistance and incident detection features4 send your location to emergency contacts. Incident detection is enabled by default for select activity profiles only.
LIVETRACK FEATURE
Use LiveTrack to let friends and family follow your real-time location4 and even view your entire preplanned course. Rest assured that your loved ones know exactly where you’re running.
GARMIN CONNECT APP
See your health and fitness information, connect and compete with friends, sign up for challenges to earn badges and more — all in one free, zero-subscription app.
CONNECT IQ™ STORE
Download custom watch faces, add data fields, and get apps and widgets from the Connect IQ Store app downloaded on your compatible smartphone.
Features
| STR3AMUP! PC tool for streaming biometrics | No |
| Multi-frequency Positioning | Yes |
| 3-axis compass with HSI (horizontal situation indicator) | No |
| Touch and/or button lock | Yes |
| Preloaded ski resort maps | No |
| Wind speed and direction (requires connection to Garmin Golf app) | No |
| Live Event Sharing | Android™ Only |
| Sleep | yes (advanced) |
| Battery saver (customizable low power watch) | Yes |
| Swing Tempo | No |
| Plays and controls watch music | Yes |
| APNEA mode | No |
| Ground contact time and balance | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Density altitude calculator | No |
| Critical swim speed | Yes |
| Training load focus | Yes |
| Compatible with Varia Vision™ (head-mounted display) | Yes |
| HR alerts | Yes |
| Training effect (anaerobic) | Yes |
| Abnormal heart rate alerts | yes (high and low) |
| Easy break planning | No |
| Vertical speed | Yes |
| Lactate threshold | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Workout tutorials | No |
| Number of transmitters supported | No |
| MTB Grit & Flow | No |
| Customizable data pages | Yes |
| Configurable lap alerts | Yes |
| Incident Detection during select activities | Yes |
| Physio TrueUp | Yes |
| Custom alerts | Yes |
| NEXRAD on moving map | No |
| Back to start | Yes |
| Vertical oscillation and ratio | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Altimeter with adjustable baro setting | No |
| Physical size |
45.6 x 45.6 x 12.9 (mm) |
| Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it) | Yes |
| Live Delta Time | No |
| Automatic altitude adjustment | No |
| Bezel Material |
fiber-reinforced polymer |
| Hazards and course targets | No |
| Truck driver workouts | No |
| TruSwing™ compatible | No |
| UltraTrac mode | Yes |
| VO2 Max (Trail Run) | Yes |
| Up Ahead | Yes |
| Preloaded race tracks | No |
| Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor | Yes |
| Relaxation breathing timer | Yes |
| % HR max | Yes |
| In Case of Emergency (I.C.E.) | No |
| Gas time remaining | No |
| Water rating | 5 ATM |
| Subwave™ Support | No |
| Audible alerts | No |
| Color display | Yes |
| Multiple bike profiles | No |
| Rest timer | Yes |
| Wrist-based heart rate (constant, every second) | Yes |
| Find My Phone | Yes |
| PrePass weigh station notifications and bypass decisions | No |
| Stride length (real time) | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Bike lap and lap maximum power (with power sensor) | Yes |
| Open-water swim metrics (distance, pace, stroke count/rate, stroke distance, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories) | Yes |
| Training effect | Yes |
| Spectator messaging | No |
| Advanced workouts | Yes |
| Charging method | Garmin proprietary plug charger |
| Trendline™ Popularity Routing | No |
| Strava Live Segments | No |
| Boundary enter/exit | No |
| Training readiness | No |
| Timer | Yes |
| Courses | Yes |
| Respiration rate (during exercise) | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Wirelessly receive flight plans from Garmin Pilot™ | No |
| Intensity minutes | Yes |
| Interval training | Yes |
| MOS & Meteogram | No |
| Alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goals including time, distance, heart rate or calories) | Yes |
| Pairs with Garmin Connect™ Mobile | Yes |
| Touchscreen | No |
| Virtual starting line | No |
| Preloaded topographical maps | No |
| Sun and moon information | Yes |
| Automatically saves dive entry and exit locations | No |
| HRV stress test (measures your heart rate variability while standing still, for 3 minutes, to provide you with an estimated stress level; the scale of this is 1 to 100; low scores indicate lower stress levels) | No |
| Sight 'N Go | No |
| Location tracking | No |
| Pulse Ox blood oxygen saturation | yes (spot-check, and optional all-day acclimation and in sleep) |
| Projected waypoint | Yes |
| Bread crumb trail in real time | Yes |
| Customizable activity profiles | Yes |
| Auto start/end dive | No |
| Reference point | No |
| SatIQ™ Technology | Yes |
| Connect IQ™ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps) | Yes |
| Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute) | Yes |
| Controls smartphone music | Yes |
| Power meter compatible | Yes |
| LED flashlight | No |
| Improved recovery time | Yes |
| APNEA hunt mode | No |
| 60-minute activity goal | No |
| Manual multisport activities | Yes |
| Chores | No |
| Moving Map with aviation airports, navaids, roads, bodies of water and more | No |
| Point-to-point navigation | Yes |
| Anchor Alarm | No |
| Gauge mode | No |
| PacePro™ Pacing Strategies | Yes |
| Course- and weather-specific race predictor | Yes |
| Yardage to layups/doglegs | No |
| TAF (Terminal Aerodrome Forecast) | No |
| Auto Pause® | Yes |
| Running dynamics | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Esports Activity | No |
| Full vector map | No |
| Body Battery™ energy monitor | Yes |
| BLUETOOTH phone calling and voice assistant support | No |
| Accelerometer | Yes |
| Recovery time | Yes |
| Custom dive data screens | No |
| Drill logging (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Preloaded with 42,000 courses worldwide | No |
| Track timer | No |
| Strap material |
silicone |
| Jet lag advisor | No |
| Race App | No |
| Round timer/odometer | No |
| Smart trainer control | Yes |
| Heat and altitude acclimation | No |
| Connected GPS | No |
| Performance condition | Yes |
| Galileo | Yes |
| Distance traveled | Yes |
| Manual lap | Yes |
| GPS-based distance, time and pace | Yes |
| Text messaging | No |
| Realtime stamina | No |
| Running power | Yes |
| Nitrox support | No |
| Assistance | Yes |
| Race predictor | Yes |
| Stealth Mode | No |
| Pairs with Garmin Golf app | No |
| Auto lap splits | No |
| "Repeat on" rest timer (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Pilates workouts | Yes |
| GPS coordinates | No |
| Lap Time Repeatability Score (LTR) | No |
| Air integration | No |
| Audio prompts | Yes |
| Auto CourseView updates | No |
| Downloadable training plans | Yes |
| Stocks | yes (optional Connect IQ app) |
| Measures shot distance (calculates exact yardage for shots from anywhere on course) | No |
| Run/Walk/Stand detection | Yes |
| Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR) | No |
| Heart rate from external HRM (real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim) | yes (with HRM-Swim, HRM-Pro or HRM-Pro Plus) |
| Compatible with Varia™ radar (rear-facing radar) | Yes |
| Task timers (2, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minutes) | No |
| Pool swim workouts | Yes |
| Assistance Plus | No |
| Multi-gas mode | No |
| Music storage | Yes |
| Race an Activity | Yes |
| Kill switch | No |
| Hot keys | No |
| Single-gas mode | No |
| Activity history on watch | Yes |
| On-screen workout animations | Yes |
| Auto max HR | Yes |
| Daily suggested workouts | yes (7 days) |
| Foot pod capable | Yes |
| Compatible with Vector™ and Rally™ (power meters) | Yes |
| Phone-free text messaging | No |
| Tournament legal | No |
| Incident detection alert on phone for wearables | Yes |
| Race an activity | Yes |
| Finish time | Yes |
| Elevation profile | Yes |
| Automatic sync (automatically transfers data to Garmin Connect) | No |
| PlaysLike distance | No |
| Aviation Alerts | No |
| Virtual Partner | Yes |
| VO2 Max (Run) | Yes |
| Relaxation reminders | Yes |
| Reminder alerts | No |
| Wind meter compatible | No |
| Race glance/widget | Yes |
| Training load | Yes |
| Chronograph | No |
| Available gym activity profiles | Strength, HIIT, Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Floor Climbing, Indoor Rowing, Pilates, Yoga |
| Ambient light sensor | No |
| Touch-targeting (touch target on display to see the distance to any point) | No |
| Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) (pool swim only) | Yes |
| In-flight Pulse Ox | No |
| Yardage to F/M/B (distance to front, middle and back of green) | No |
| Calendar | Yes |
| Barometric altimeter | Yes |
| Unlock new step icons | No |
| On-device Connect IQ™ Store | Yes |
| Weather | Yes |
| Auto Lap® | Yes |
| Sunrise/sunset times | Yes |
| Pacing alerts (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Floors climbed | Yes |
| Respiration rate (24x7) | Yes |
| Gas consumption rate | No |
| % HRR | Yes |
| Ballistics calculator | No |
| On-screen workout muscle maps | Yes |
| Auto rest | Yes |
| Basic rest timer (up from 0) (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Available outdoor recreation profiles |
Hiking, Skiing, Snowboarding, XC Classic Skiing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Rowing |
| TracBack® | Yes |
| Advanced cycling dynamics | No |
| Handicap scoring | No |
| Primary benefit (Training Effect labels) | Yes |
| HR zones | Yes |
| Auto rest (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Stat tracking (strokes, putts per round, greens and fairways hit) | No |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth®, ANT ®, Wi-Fi® |
| Improved interval (includes open repeats, intervals data page, rest screen and auto detection) | Yes |
| Sleep score and insights | Yes |
| Custom targets | No |
| Downloadable cartography support | No |
| Available run profiles |
Running, Outdoor Track Running, Treadmill Running, Indoor Track Running, Trail Running, Virtual Running, Ultra Running |
| Run workouts | Yes |
| Stopwatch | Yes |
| Worldwide airport database(s) | No |
| Waypoint information page | No |
| GPS speed and distance | Yes |
| Round-trip course creator (running/cycling) | No |
| Area calculation | No |
| Find My Watch | Yes |
| Automatic club tracking compatible (requires accessory) | No |
| Connext avionics connectivity | No |
| Preloaded road and trail maps | No |
| Unified training status | Yes |
| VIRB® Remote | Yes |
| Smartphone compatibility | iPhone® and Android™ |
| Dual grid coordinates | No |
| HRM running pace and distance | Yes |
| Expedition GPS Activity | No |
| TrueUp™ | Yes |
| Morning report | Yes |
| Multiple time zones with Zulu/UTC | No |
| Trimix support | No |
| Compatible with Varia™ lights | Yes |
| Two-way voice calls | No |
| Thermometer | Yes |
| Hydration | yes (in Garmin Connect™ and optional Connect IQ™ widget) |
| Alarm clock | Yes |
| Group LiveTrack | No |
| Gyroscope | Yes |
| Underwater wrist-based heart rate | Yes |
| Countdown start (pool swim only) | Yes |
| Health snapshot | Yes |
| ClimbPro™ Ascent Planner | No |
| Truck plaza loyalty programs | No |
| Night vision mode | No |
| Available swim profiles |
Pool Swimming, Open Water Swimming |
| Tempo Training | No |
| Move IQ™ | Yes |
| Speed and cadence sensor support (w/sensor) | Yes |
| Do not disturb/School mode | No |
| Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor | Yes |
| Tides | No |
| GLONASS | Yes |
| Smart Notifications | Yes |
| Garmin Pay™ | Yes |
| HRV status | Yes |
| Automatic daylight saving time | Yes |
| Yoga workouts | Yes |
| Depth sensor | No |
| Time/date | yes |
| Sync dive log to Garmin Dive™ Mobile app | No |
| Rewards (coins) | No |
| Virtual caddie | No |
| Calories burned | Yes |
| Toe-to-Toe™ Challenges app | yes (optional Connect IQ Toe-to-Toe™ Challenges app) |
| Garmin Live Segments | No |
| HR broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT ™ to paired devices) | Yes |
| Fly activity emergency mode | No |
| Total ascent/descent | Yes |
| Auto multisport activities | Yes |
| Last race summary | No |
| Cycle Map (routable cycling-specific street map) | No |
| PinPointer | No |
| Step counter | Yes |
| METAR (Meteorological Aerodrome Report) | No |
| Quick Release bands | yes (22 mm, Industry standard) |
| Trail run auto climb | Yes |
| Barometric trend indicator with Storm Alert | Yes |
| Automatic rep counting | Yes |
| LiveTrack | Yes |
| HR calories | Yes |
| Grade-adjusted pace | Yes |
| Tides | No |
| Time and distance alerts | Yes |
| Garmin Connect™ Challenges app | yes (optional Connect IQ app) |
| XERO™ Locations | No |
| All-day stress | Yes |
| Tack assist mode | No |
| Compatible with dēzl™ OTR truck navigators | No |
| Worldwide NAVAID and Intersection database(s) | No |
| Available cycling profiles |
Biking, Indoor Biking, Mountain Biking, eBiking, eMountain Biking |
| HIIT workouts | Yes |
| Future elevation plot | Yes |
| Games | No |
| Orienteering | No |
| Text response/reject phone call with text (Android™ only) | Yes |
| Around Me mode | No |
| Realtime settings sync with Garmin Connect™ mobile | Yes |
| Hunt/fish calendar | No |
| Course guidance | Yes |
| GPS Time Sync | Yes |
| Countdown timer | No |
| Auto scroll | Yes |
| Analog hands | No |
| Compass | Yes |
| Lens Material |
Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 |
| Green View with manual pin position | No |
| Strength workouts | Yes |
| Distance to destination | Yes |
| Voice messaging | No |
| Women's health | yes (in Garmin Connect™ and optional Connect IQ™ widget) |
| Training status | yes (improved) |
| Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories) | Yes |
| Daily resting heart rate | Yes |
| Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal) | Yes |
| Garmin AutoShot™ | No |
| Fitness age | Yes |
| FTP (Functional Threshold Power) | yes (with compatible accessory) |
| Dive ascent/descent rate indicator | No |
| Built-in barometer and tide tables | No |
