Garmin just announced two new watches, the Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170, after a somewhat long, quiet period in 2026 with little to no hardware launches.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Forerunner 170 Music before the official launch on 15 May, and have been playing around with the new running watch for the last day or so.
If you’ve been testing Garmin watches for as long as I have, you know that the press release and the features listed on the website never tell you the full story – there are always ‘hidden’ settings to discover if you look hard enough.
Sometimes, these features jump right at you, like the Evening Report, which quietly debuted in last year’s Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970.
I remember being at a Kansas City Chiefs game, staring at my wrist, trying to figure out whether I’d seen the feature on any of my previous Garmin devices, asking all the Garmin folks around me to confirm whether the Evening Report was indeed new.
A familiar feature gets a fresh coat of paint
And, funnily enough, the new ‘secret’ setting on the Forerunner 170 is connected to the Reports, both the morning and evening varieties. It’s a subtle personalisation feature that lets you change the first and last screens of your report.
Historically, this was always related to the weather. If it were rainy that day, the report would have raindrops on the screen. Sunny? The report’s first page would feature sun rays. A simple yet effective way to gauge, if even subconsciously, what kind of day you’ll have (and how you should dress for your recommended run).
On the Forerunner 170 (and, I assume, Forerunner 70), you can swap the Weather theme to the following: Art (seen right at the top), Nature, System and Travel (oh la la). Both reports will have the same background.
The tiniest tweaks are often the most noticeable
Another tiny thing I noticed is also (somewhat) connected to the Morning Report. The alarms can now have different vibration patterns, including Beats, Waves and Stampede.
Beats is gentle, while Stampede, as you’d expect, goes hard. It’s nice to have these options, as I’m sure I’m not the only one who was scared out of his mind with a new smartwatch going bonkers with sound and vibration on their wrist in the morning.
I’m sure there will be plenty of new features and settings to find on the watch in the coming days and weeks, on top of the already announced Beginner and Instant Workouts, which I very much look forward to testing.
The Forerunner 70 and Forerunner 170 will be available to buy at Garmin from 15 May.
