Garmin Forerunner® 970 is a premium smartwatch designed for performance-focused runners. This running and triathlon watch features the brightest AMOLED display, durable sapphire glass, and lightweight titanium bezel. For increased visibility before sunrise or after dusk, use the built-in LED flashlight. Track your overall running efficiency with running dynamics, including how much you slow down when your foot strikes the ground (requires HRM 600 monitor; sold separately). The Running Tolerance feature helps you understand the actual impact of running on your body so you can adjust your training, avoid overtraining, and progress faster. Use the multi-band GPS and built-in color maps with enhanced navigation features to stay on course during your workouts. The Forerunner 970 is ready when you are—with up to 15 days of battery life in smartwatch mode. When your phone isn't nearby, make calls directly from your wrist using the built-in speaker and microphone (requires pairing with your smartphone).

Features You'll Love:

• RUNNING EFFICIENCY – Measure your overall running efficiency based on long-term running range, stride length, and stride deceleration, showing how much you slow down when your foot hits the ground – available when paired with HRM 600 (sold separately).
• RUNNING TOLERANCE – Helps you understand how each run affects your body and recommends your maximum weekly distance for effective training without overreaching.
• COLOR MAPS – The Forerunner 970 features built-in color maps to help you navigate through city streets or dense trails. Maps are now even more dynamic, intuitive, and user-friendly.
• GARMIN COACH CUSTOM WORKOUT PLANS – Train for an event, hit a personal goal, or improve fitness with adaptive training plans for running, triathlon, cycling, or strength, based on performance, recovery, and health metrics.
• TRAINING READINESS – Get a readiness score each morning based on your sleep, recovery, training load, and more—so you can decide whether to go hard or take it easy.
• BUILT-IN SPEAKER AND MICROPHONE – Make and receive calls when paired with your smartphone. Use voice commands to control watch features or respond to texts via your smartphone's voice assistant.

Plan

• MORNING REPORT – Receive customized summaries including sleep, workout outlook, HRV status, weather, and more as soon as you wake up.
• EVENING REPORT – Before bed, see how much sleep you need, tomorrow’s training plan, weather, and events.
• TURN-BY-TURN NAVIGATION – Create or sync routes from Garmin Connect™ or third-party platforms to receive turn-by-turn directions.
• DYNAMIC ROUND-TRIP ROUTING – Enter your desired distance and view planned routes that bring you back to your starting point. If you go off-track, the watch creates a new route of the same length.
• TRAINING STATUS – Use HRV status, recent workout history, and VO2 max to see whether your training is productive, optimal, or too intense.
• DAILY SUGGESTED WORKOUTS – Receive tailored workouts that adjust based on your performance and recovery after each run.
• RECOVERY TIME – Know how long to recover before your next hard workout based on your last training session.
• BODY BATTERY™ ENERGY MONITORING – Track your body’s energy levels to find the best times for activity and rest.
• SLEEP COACH – Get a sleep score and personalized coaching to understand how much rest you need and track sleep stages for deeper insight.
• NAP DETECTION – Automatically record naps to learn their benefits and determine optimal timing and duration.
• HRV STATUS – Understand your overall health, stress, and recovery with nighttime HRV variability insights.
• GARMIN ECG APP – Record your heart’s electrical signals to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib).
• SKIN TEMPERATURE – View average skin temperature changes during sleep, which may reflect activity, environment, illness, or other factors.
• MENSTRUAL TRACKING – Monitor your menstrual cycle or pregnancy and receive training and nutrition guidance. Improved predictions based on nighttime skin temperature.
• RACE PREDICTOR – See your potential finish time for a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon based on your current fitness level.
• RACE TIME ESTIMATES – View your projected time and pace for an event based on your current training.

Prepare:

• WRIST-BASED RUNNING DYNAMICS – Measures cadence, stride length, ground contact time, and more.
• STRIDE DECELERATION – Improve your running with stride analysis to see how much you slow down when your foot hits the ground – available when paired with HRM 600 (sold separately).
• WRIST-BASED HEART RATE – Continuously monitors your heart rate to assess exertion during activities.
• MULTISPORT WORKOUTS – Create custom multi-sport workouts in Garmin Connect and sync them to the watch for seamless transitions.
• HILL SCORE – Measures your uphill running ability and tracks your progress over time using VO2 max and training history.
• ENDURANCE SCORE – Assesses your ability to sustain prolonged effort across all your sports activities.
• SHORT-TERM LOAD – Compare recent training load with the optimal range for fitness improvement.
• LOAD RATIO – Track your short- and long-term load balance to stay within a safe training range.
• PERFORMANCE CONDITION – Evaluate your real-time performance during a run using pace and heart rate analysis.
• VO2 MAX – Monitor your current fitness level and track improvements over time to set and achieve training goals.
• STRESS TRACKING – Find out whether your day is calm, balanced, or stressful.
• TRAINING EFFECT – Understand how each workout improves endurance, speed, and strength.
• HEALTH SNAPSHOT – Take a 2-minute session to record key health stats and generate a report you can share with a healthcare provider.
• PULSE OX SENSOR – Track blood oxygen saturation while awake or asleep.
• CROSS-TRAINING – Download free HIIT, strength, cardio, yoga, Pilates, and flexibility workouts to diversify your training routine.

Perform

• TRIATHLON AND MULTISPORT PROFILES – Auto-transition between sports with built-in profiles for triathlon, duathlon, multi-sport, and swim/run—or create your own.
• WRIST-BASED RUNNING POWER – Track the power you apply to the road or trail to better manage effort.
• SATIQ TECHNOLOGY AND MULTI-BAND GPS – Get top-tier positioning accuracy while optimizing battery life.
• PACEPRO™ PACE STRATEGIES – Plan pacing strategies using GPS data for selected courses or distances.
• TRACK RUNNING – Accurately record lap distances in meters on standard running tracks around the world.
• CLIMBPRO – View real-time info on current and upcoming climbs during your route.
• REAL-TIME STAMINA – Monitor stamina to manage exertion and optimize performance.
• UP AHEAD – See aid stations and other key stops clearly on your preloaded route.
• AUTO LAP® BY POSITION – Auto-lap triggers when passing specific course points rather than GPS distance estimates.
• FINISH TIME ESTIMATOR – If you forget to stop the timer, the watch suggests adjustments to estimate finish time at the race line.
• BUILT-IN SPORTS APPS – Try over 30 built-in sports modes including cycling, open-water swimming, strength training, and more.
  
  

Stay Connected

• MUSIC – Download songs and playlists from Spotify or Deezer accounts for phone-free listening.
• SAFETY AND TRACKING – If you feel unsafe or the watch detects an incident, it sends a message with your location.
• GARMIN PAY™ CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS – Breeze through checkout or public transport with participating providers.
• SMART NOTIFICATIONS – Receive emails, texts, and alerts when paired with an Apple® or Android™ smartphone.
• LIVETRACK – Let friends and family follow your location in real-time and view planned routes.
• GARMIN CONNECT APP – Review health and fitness data, connect with friends, and access more tools.
• CONNECT IQ™ STORE – Customize your watch with faces, data fields, apps, and widgets.
• GARMIN SHARE – Share saved locations, routes, and workouts with nearby compatible devices.

Specifications:

• Equipped for Garmin Pay™ contactless payments for convenient wrist-based transactions
• Comfortable to wear all day, weighing only 56 grams, and comes with advanced features for running and multi-sport
• Built-in barometer records altitude changes; altimeter and electronic compass help you stay oriented
• Evaluates training status to show if you're undertraining or overtraining, with additional performance monitoring features
• Displays advanced running, cycling, and swimming dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio, and many other parameters
• Battery life: Smartwatch mode: up to 15 days, GNSS with GPS only: up to 26 hrs, GNSS with SatIQ technology (auto-select): up to 23 hrs, all GNSS systems with multi-band: up to 21 hrs, GNSS with GPS and music: up to 14 hrs, GNSS with SatIQ and music: up to 13 hrs, all GNSS with multi-band and music: up to 12 hrs
• Supports VO2 max estimation, lactate threshold, race predictor, and recovery advisor
• Connected features: smart notifications, auto uploads to Garmin Connect, LiveTrack, and many more
• Customizable with free watch faces, apps, and various other tools from the Connect IQ store
• GPS running watch with high-resolution color touchscreen
• Strava Live Segments evaluates heart rate during workouts and categorizes effort levels
• Device dimensions (W x H x D): 47 x 47 x 12.9 mm
• Fits wrists with a circumference of 130 - 220 mm
• Display size: diameter 35.3 mm
• Display resolution: 454 x 454 pixels
• Enhanced color touchscreen
• Display type: sunlight-readable, non-reflective with memory-in-pixel (MIP) technology
• Lens: sapphire crystal
• Water resistance rating: 5 ATM
• High-sensitivity receiver supports GPS and GLONASS
• Smart notifications – when paired with a compatible phone, shows alerts for emails, texts, and other messages
• Vibration alerts
• Music control
• Memory size: 32 GB
• Find My Phone feature
• TracBack®
• UltraTrac™ wrist-based heart rate monitoring
• Watch functions: date display, alarm, stopwatch, sunrise/sunset times, timer
• Included in the box: Forerunner 970 GPS watch, charging cable, manuals

Clock features:

• Time and date
• GPS time sync
• Automatic daylight saving time
• Alarm clock
• Timer
• Stopwatch
• Sunrise/sunset times

 Sensors:

• GPS
• GLONASS
• Galileo
• Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor
• Barometric altimeter
• Compass
• Gyroscope
• Accelerometer
• Thermometer
• Pulse Ox

 Daily smart features:

• Connectivity: Bluetooth®, ANT+®, Wi-Fi®
• Connect IQ™ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps)
• Smart notifications
• Text response/reject phone call with text (Android™ only)
• Calendar, weather
• Controls smartphone music
• Plays and controls watch music
• Music Storage: up to 1000 songs
• Find my phone, Find my watch
• VIRB® Camera Remote
• Smartphone compatibility: iPhone®, Android™
• Compatible with Garmin Connect™ Mobile
• Garmin Pay™

 Safety and tracking features:

• Incident Detection during select activities (smartphone required)
• Assistance (smartphone required)
• LiveTrack
• Group LiveTrack
• Live Event Sharing

 Activity tracking features:

• Step counter
• Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it)
• Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal)
• Sleep monitoring (monitors total sleep and periods of movement or restful sleep)
• Calories burned
• Floors climbed
• Distance traveled
• Intensity minutes
• TrueUp™
• Move IQ™
• Fitness Age
• Body Battery™ Energy Monitor
• All-day Stress Tracking

 Gym & Fitness Equipment:

• Available gym activity profiles: Strength, Cardio, and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Indoor Rowing and Yoga
• Cardio workouts
• Strength workouts
• Automatic rep counting

 Training, planning and analysis features:

• GPS speed and distance
• Customizable data pages
• Customizable activity profiles
• Auto Pause®
• Interval training
• Advanced workouts
• Downloadable training plans
• Auto Lap®, Manual lap, Configurable lap alerts
• Heat and altitude acclimation
• V02 max
• Training Status (lets you see if you’re training effectively by tracking your training history and fitness level trend.)
• Training Load (your total training load for the last 7 days calculated from estimated EPOC)
• Training load focus
• Training Effect (aerobic)
• Training Effect (anaerobic)
• Primary benefit (Training Effect labels)
• Custom alerts, Audio prompts, Finish time
• Finish time
• Race an Activity
• Auto multisport activities
• Manual multisport activities
• Course guidance
• Segments (Live, Garmin)
• Strava features (Beacon, live segments
• Round-trip course creator (running/cycling)
• Trendline™ Popularity Routing
• Touch and/or button lock
• Hotkeys, Auto scroll, Activity history on watch, Physio TrueUp

 Heart features:

• HR zones, HR alerts, HR calories
• % HR max, % HRR
• Recovery time
• Auto max HR
• 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 (with compatible accessory)
• HR Broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+™ to paired devices)
• Respiration rate - during exercise (with compatible accessory)

 Running features: 

• Available run profiles: Running, Indoor Track Running, Treadmill Running, Trail Running
• GPS-based distance, time and pace
• Vertical oscillation and ratio (the degree of 'bounce' in your running motion and the cost-benefit ratio with stride length)
• Ground contact time and balance (shows how much time, in the running motion, your foot is on the ground rather than in flight and lets you check your running symmetry)
• Stride length (real time)
• Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute)
• Performance condition (after running 6–20 minutes, compares your real-time condition to your average fitness level)
• Lactate threshold (through analysis of your pace and heart rate, estimates the point where your muscles start to rapidly fatigue)
• Run workouts
• Race predictor
• Running dynamics (with compatible accessory)
• Accelerometer (calculates distance for indoor workouts, without need for a foot pod)              
• Foot pod capable

 Cycling features:

• Available cycling profiles: biking, indoor biking, mountain biking
• Courses
• Bike lap and lap maximum power (with power sensor)
• Race an activity
• Time/distance alerts (triggers an alarm when you reach goal)
• FTP - Functional Threshold Power (with compatible accessory)
• Cycle Map (routable cycling-specific street map)
• Compatible with Garmin Vector power meter
• Power meter compatible (displays power data from compatible third-party ANT+™-enabled power meters)
• Advanced Vector support
• Compatible with Garmin Varia Vision (head mounted display)
• Compatible with Varia™ radar (rear-facing radar)
• Compatible with Varia™ lights
• Speed and cadence sensor support (with sensor)

 Golfing features:

• Preloaded with 41,000 courses worldwide
• Yardage to F/M/B (distance to the front, middle, and back of green)
• Yardage to layups/doglegs
• Automatic measure shot distance (calculates exact yardage for shots from anywhere on course)
• Digital Scorecard
• Stat tracking (strokes, putts per round, greens and fairways hit)
• Garmin AutoShot™
• Auto CourseView updates
• Green View with manual pin position
• Hazards and course targets
• TruSwing™ compatible
• Round timer/odometer

 Outdoor recreation features

• Available outdoor recreation profiles: hiking, climbing, skiing, snowboarding, XC skiing, stand up Paddleboarding, Rowing, Kayaking
• Point-to-point navigation
• Bread crumb trail in real time
• Back to start
• TracBack®
• UltraTrac mode
• Around Me mode
• Elevation profile
• Distance to destination
• Barometric trend indicator with Storm Alert
• ClimbPro™ Ascent Planner
• Trail run auto climb
• Vertical speed
• Total ascent/descent
• Future elevation plot
• Preloaded topographical maps
• Downloadable cartography support
• Compatible with BaseCamp™
• GPS coordinates
• Projected waypoint
• Sight 'N Go
• Area calculation (via Connect IQ™)
• Hunt/fish calendar (via Connect IQ™)
• Sun and moon information (via Connect IQ™)
• Dual grid coordinates
• XERO™ Locations

 Swimming features:

• Available swim profiles: Pool Swimming, Open Water Swimming
• Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count/rate, calories)
• Stroke type identification (e.g. freestyle)
• Open water swim metrics (distance, pace, stroke count/rate, calories)
• Swim efficiency (SWOLF)
• Drill logging
• Pool swim workouts
• Heart rate from external HRM - real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim  (with HRM-Tri™ and HRM-Swim™)

 Maps & Memory features:

• 200 hours of activity data

 Additional features: 

• Connect IQ™ app support: Yes
• Physiological measurements: Yes
• Interface: USB, Wi-Fi® in Bluetooth®
• ANT+: Yes

More details here.