Review on 🏃 Garmin Forerunner 645 Music: GPS Running Watch with Contactless Payments, Heart Rate, and Music - Cerise by Robert Gilbert

A little about me: I'm a pretty average guy. Not a triathlete and probably not marathon training. I'm just a middle-aged guy struggling with a natural tendency to be lazy. I go to the gym 3-4 days a week and mostly swim and work out with weights, kettlebells, etc. I "run" occasionally, but mostly I only go fast on the track a few days a week. OK, enough about me. Let me share my thoughts on the watch. My wishful thinking: more of an activity tracker than a smartwatch. Good battery life. Fairly accurate activity tracking (hopefully it gets better with more calibration). Lap Swimming - More importantly, I wanted a watch that would guide me during my workout. PROS: Nice shape and size Great interval/dial display so you don't have to keep track) Great battery life (yet) Music storage (haven't used it yet) CONS: Garmin Pay doesn't work Although I don't like it, no touchscreens, buttons take some getting used to are not the cheapest watch Other watches tried: Garmin Fenix 5 with sapphire crystal PROS - amazing features. Bomber design. Great design. Accurate tracking. Swimming features were great. Lots of preloaded activities. CONS - The display is slightly dimmed due to the sapphire crystal. Limited selection of apps on Garmin Connect. Despite being much smaller than its predecessors, I still find it to be a fairly hefty watch. The final nail in the coffin of this incredible watch was a price difference of almost 50% for a watch that didn't meet all of my needs. The Samsung Gear Sport 2PROS is a reasonable price. Excellent ad. Samsung Pay worked well. Pretty nice design. There is a good selection of apps. Can store music on board. CONS - More of a smartwatch than a fitness tracker. Fitness tracking was inaccurate. The battery life was short. Better than the Apple Watch but not bad compared to the Fenix 5. There was only swim tracking, no workout guidance, and the tracking was inaccurate. The Samsung Gear Fit 2 ProPROS is a great value. The display is nice and clear. Battery life was pretty good. CONS - Inaccurate activity tracking - it was 0.5 miles off a 2 mile run. No Samsung payment. Not thrilled with the shape or aesthetics. There was only swim tracking, no workout guidance, and the tracking was inaccurate. The Garmin Vivoactive 3 HRPROS is a decent price for what you get. Good size and shape. Nice range of options. CONS - Lack of swim training feature. Battery life could be better. The touch screen is too sensitive.