The Garmin Forerunner 945 adds a range of new features to the flagship sports watch from Garmin, with the addition of Spotify music, Garmin Pay and colour maps.

The new fitness device has now been officially announced, after finding itself up for pre-order on Amazon.com, a few days early. 

Replacing the excellent Forerunner 935, the 945 looks to plug those gaps that other Garmin devices have introduced recently, helping these watches compete with smartwatches. 

A big part of that is compatibility with Garmin Pay, which while not as accommodating as Apple Pay or Google Pay, will allow payments from the watch, letting you touch to pay.

But an even bigger element for sports users is the support for local music and Bluetooth headphones. Garmin added Deezer and Spotify music to some devices in 2018 and says you'll be able to sync up to 1000 songs - meaning you can have that music on the run with no need for a phone.

Another highlighted addition is full colour mapping, saved to the watch, meaning you can look up where you are. This has previously been the preserve of some of Garmin's outdoor watches, but adding it to the 945 means even more on your wrist to help you navigate.

These functions add to the Forerunner's wide range of metrics, with GPS and heart rate tracking and a whole lot more enabled once you connect to a wide range of sensors, be that a cadence sensor or power meter on your bike.

There will also be incident detection, which can be set to automatically send your location to emergency contacts via a connected phone. The full details aren't given, but it sounds a little like the fall detection on the Apple Watch. It also looks like there's going to be a greater focus on balancing the load of your training.

Garmin Forerunner 945 image 2
Amazon

Overall the design of the Forerunner 945 doesn't appear to have changed hugely from the Forerunner 935 and we can't say we're worried about that, it's building on a great foundation. 

As for the price, it's listed at $599.99 in the US and it will cost you £519.99 in the UK.