Garmin collaborates with Nature and go Solar

Garmin collaborates with nature and go solar with the Forerunner 955 Solar, their first dedicated running/triathlon smartwatch with solar charging. 

The Forerunner 955 Solar features a Power Glass solar charging lens to extend battery life, of up to 20 days in smartwatch mode and up to 49 hours in GPS mode. In UltraTrac™ mode, it goes even longer with up to 110 hours when solar charging. 

If you loathe charging your smartwatch every few days, this is going to be one of the best multi-sport watches you can buy. 

The smartwatch is immediately recognisable. It has the completely round case with a fairly simple design that features an always-on, full-colour display – while a responsive touchscreen complements the traditional 5-button design, allowing for fast access to everyday health features, easier control of maps and more. 

One of the new features is Training Readiness informing you how ready your body is for training taking into account sleep, recovery time, HRV status and additional metrics.  
The heart variability (HRV) is tracked while sleeping to get a better handle on recovery and overall wellness picture and is a good indicator of how much stress your body is under. 

Forerunner 955 is billed as the ultimate training smartwatch, with advanced training tools and features including Training Readiness, Stamina and Running Power

Features include: 

• Solar charging: Power Glass solar charging gives athletes up to 49 hours of battery life in GPS mode. 
• Touchscreen interface: swipe through maps, stats and more. The traditional 5-button design can be used separately or in conjunction with the touchscreen. 
• Multi-band GPS: multi-band, multi-satellite-system tracking. 
• Training readiness: learn each day how ready the body is to benefit from training by taking into account sleep, recovery time, HRV status and additional metrics. 
• HRV status: track heart rate variability while sleeping to get a better handle on recovery and an overall wellness picture. 

• Morning report: when paired with a smartphone, receive the day’s weather and daily workout suggestion, as well as information about last night’s sleep and HRV status. 
• Race widget: view race prep information – including a race day-specific performance prediction, race day weather and a countdown clock – all in one widget. Once a race is scheduled, daily suggested workouts will adapt based on an athlete’s race plans. 
• Real-time stamina insights: monitor and track exertion levels in real-time during a run or ride. 
• Native running power: when using a Running Dynamics Pod or HRM-Pro (sold separately), receive real-time metrics of how much power is being exerted on a run, built into the watch – no app required. 

Whilst Garmin will have elevated this smartwatch further to ensure the Forerunner remains the best in its class, there will be pros and cons as with any new smartwatch but as we are not making any recommendations, we will let the Garmin junkies be the first to figure them out. 

The Forerunner 955 Solar has a suggested retail price of £549.99.