Track Your Activities with the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music

I’ve been a fan of Garmin devices for a long time. I’ve had at least 3 of their devices, and I still have an older model that is running strong! First though, I have to admit, that there is something about me that ruins watches. Timex’ are notoriously bad. They carry a 1 year warranty, and without fail, 13 months after purchasing a Timex, it stops working, and it’s not a battery issue. Polar watches have been a bit better, but I eventually had issues with those too. Garmin’s just tend to be more reliable. I did test Garmin’s customer service with a previous Forerunner 245 Music, and they were awesome. More about that later.

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Garmin Forerunner 645 Music

I’ve owned the Forerunner 645 Music for about 10 months. This watch is now my “go-to”. I use it for everything and all the time. I used to wear my Apple watch casually and then would switch to my Garmin Forerunner 910XT for my workouts. This is also a great device, but it is big. Because it is a bit bigger, I still use it as my bike computer, but my activity is tracked on this 645.

Here’s what I like about the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music:

• The size – it’s like a normal watch on my wrist
• Activity tracking – The 645 has different activity profiles so I can track trail runs, bike rides, Nordic skiing, and alpine or backcountry skiing. There are other activities that you can choose from too – SUP, swimming, etc., but I’m primarily a “land person”, so those are the ones I’ve loaded.
• Upload to Garmin or Strava – I’m a Strava geek, so I love that this uploads to my phone straight to Garmin Connect and then to Strava. Again, super easy. Once you’ve set it up, it happens automatically.
• Music/podcasts – Since I can listen directly off this device (blue tooth headphones required) I can run or bike without carrying my phone, or wearing down my phone battery. Uploading music and podcasts is easy.
• Wrist based heart rate – I no longer need to wear that cumbersome strap to monitor my heart rate. This is so nice.
• Sleep monitoring – It will check my HR periodically through the night and monitors my entire sleep cycle: REM, deep, light, etc.
• Battery life – this watch will keep going for a week as a watch. Depending on how much activity you are doing, you might need to charge it every day or two. The charging is quick, and can usually be done during a shower, cooking a meal, or just during some down time.
• VO2Max – this is just fun to track and watch it increase as your training volume and quality increases.

Other Generations of Garmin Watches

I mentioned the Garmin 245 Music, which I had before the 645. That watch was great and very similar to the 645. It had the additional feature of monitoring my SPO2, which is the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream. I had an issue with the 245 where it would not properly save an activity. I worked with Garmin Customer Service and they were awesome. They had not seen this problem and immediately sent me a brand-new replacement. I then had the SAME issue with the replacement (read above, I break watches), so they swapped it out to the 645, which is similar, except I’ve had no issues. Again, they were amazing, and I can’t recommend Garmin enough!

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