Overview
Smaller-sized GPS running watch with 30+ activity profiles and triathlon feature
Features
- Lightweight GPS running smartwatch with wrist-based heart rate
- 41 mm case size, suitable for wrists with a circumference of 110-175 mm
- Over 30+ activity profiles for indoor and outdoor sports including triathlon and open-water swimming
- Morning report shows overview of sleep, recovery and training outlook, HRV status and weather
- Includes Garmin Coach: adaptive training plans to help you reach your goals
- Running dynamics (accessories required) to measure running metrics such as cadence, stride, balance and more
- Metrics tracked: performance condition, training status based on recent exercise history, training effect and load
- Measures V02 max to indicate performance
- Training Status metric evaluates your exercise history and performance indicators to let you know if you are on track
- Training Effect metric shows hou your workouts infulence the development of endurance, speed and power
- Acute Load compares the intensity of recent workouts to optimal range to help improve your fitness
- Body battery energy monitoring, stress, hydration and respiration tracking, advanced sleep monitoring
- Sensors: wrist-based heart rate, altimeter, compass, accelerometer, thermometer, Pulse OX
- Multi-band GNSS support - GPS, GLONASS and Galileo - with multi-frequency positioning
- Contactless payments
- Smart notifications: texts, emails, alerts and social media
- Customisable with downloadable apps, widgets, watch faces using Connect IQ store
- Syncs with Garmin Connect, the online community for uploading, sharing and competing
- Safety and tracking features to let others know where you are
- Battery life: up to 12 days in smartwatch mode, 26 hours in GPS mode
Product Screen Shots









Package Includes
- Forerunner 255S
- Charging data cradle
- Documentation
Technical Specification
Garmin Forerunner 255S Powder Grey | Product Code: 010-02641-12 |
General | |
Lens material | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 |
Bezel material | Fibre-reinforced polymer |
Quick release bands | Yes (18 mm, Industry standard) |
Strap material | Silicone |
Physical size | 41 x 41 x 12.4 (mm) Fits wrists with a circumference of 110-175 mm |
Colour display | yes |
Display Size | 1.1 inch (27.5mm) Diameter |
Display Resolution | 218 x 218 pixels |
Display Type | Sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) |
Weight | 39 g |
Battery life | Smartwatch mode: Up to 12 days GPS-only GNSS mode: Up to 26 hours All-Systems GNSS mode: Up to 20 hours All-Systems GNSS mode plus Multi-Band: Up to 13 hours |
Water rating | 5 ATM |
Memory/history | 4 GB |
Clock features | |
Time/date | yes |
GPS time sync | yes |
Automatic daylight saving time | yes |
Alarm clock | yes |
Timer | yes |
Stopwatch | yes |
Sunrise/sunset times | yes |
Health monitoring | |
Wrist-based heart rate (constant, every second) | yes |
Daily Resting Heart Rate | yes |
Abnormal Heart Rate Alerts | Yes (high and low) |
Respiration rate (24x7) | yes |
Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation | Yes (spot-check, and optional all-day acclimation and in sleep) |
Fitness age | yes |
Body Battery Energy Monitor | yes |
All-day stress tracking | yes |
Relaxation reminders | yes |
Relaxation breathing timer | yes |
Sleep | Yes (Advanced) |
Sleep score and insights | yes |
Hydration | Yes (in Garmin Connect and optional Connect IQ widget) |
Women's Health | Yes (in Garmin Connect and optional Connect IQ widget) |
Health snapshot | yes |
Sensors | |
GPS | yes |
GLONASS | yes |
Galileo | yes |
Multi-frequency Positioning | yes |
Garmin Elevate wrist heart rate monitor | yes |
Barometric altimeter | yes |
Compass | yes |
Gyroscope | yes |
Accelerometer | yes |
Thermometer | yes |
Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor | yes |
Daily smart features | |
Connectivity | Bluetooth, ANT+ |
Connect IQ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps) | yes |
On-device Connect IQ Store | yes |
Smart Notifications | yes |
Text response/reject phone call with text (Android only) | yes |
Calendar | yes |
Weather | yes |
Realtime settings sync with Garmin Connect mobile | yes |
Battery Saver - customisable low power watch | yes |
Controls smartphone music | yes |
Find my phone | yes |
Find my watch | yes |
VIRB camera remote | yes |
Smartphone compatibility | iPhone and Android |
Compatible with Garmin Connect Mobile | yes |
Garmin Pay | yes |
Safety and tracking features | |
LiveTrack | yes |
Live Event Sharing | Android Only |
Incident Detection during select activities | yes |
Assistance | yes |
Activity tracking features | |
Step counter | yes |
Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it) | yes |
Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal) | yes |
Calories burned | yes |
Floors climbed | yes |
Distance travelled | yes |
Intensity minutes | yes |
TrueUp | yes |
Move IQ | yes |
Garmin Connect Challenges app | Yes (optional Connect IQ app) |
Fitness equipment/gym | |
Automatic rep counting | yes |
Available gym activity profiles | Strength, HIIT, Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Floor Climbing, Indoor Rowing, Pilates, Yoga |
Strength workouts | yes |
HIIT workouts | yes |
Yoga workouts | yes |
Pilates workouts | yes |
On-screen workout animations | yes |
On-screen workout muscle maps | yes |
Training, planning and analysis features | |
HR zones | yes |
HR alerts | yes |
HR calories | yes |
% HR max | yes |
% HRR | yes |
Recovery time | yes |
Auto max HR | yes |
Morning report | yes |
Race glance/widget | yes |
HRV status | yes |
HR broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+ to paired devices) | yes |
Respiration rate (during exercise) | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
GPS speed and distance | yes |
Customisable screen(s) | yes |
Customisable activity profiles | yes |
Auto Pause | yes |
Interval training | yes |
Improved interval (includes open repeats, intervals data page, rest screen and auto detection) | yes |
Advanced workouts | yes |
Downloadable training plans | yes |
Auto Lap | yes |
Manual lap | yes |
Rest timer | yes |
Configurable lap alerts | yes |
VO2 Max (Run) | yes |
VO2 Max (Trail Run) | yes |
Training status (lets you see if you're training effectively by tracking your training history and fitness level trend) | Improved |
Training load (your total training load for the last 7 days calculated from estimated EPOC) | yes |
Training load focus | yes |
Training effect (aerobic) | yes |
Training effect (anaerobic) | yes |
Primary benefit (Training Effect labels) | yes |
Improved recovery time | yes |
Daily suggested workouts | Yes (7 days) |
Customisable alerts | yes |
Audio prompts | yes |
Finish time | yes |
Virtual partner | yes |
Race an activity | yes |
Auto multisport activities | yes |
Multi-sport | yes |
Course guidance | yes |
Touch and/or button lock | yes |
Auto scroll | yes |
Activity history on watch | yes |
>Physio TrueUp | yes |
Running features | |
Available run profiles | Running, Outdoor Track Running, Treadmill Running, Indoor Track Running, Trail Running, Virtual Running, Ultra Running |
GPS-based distance, time and pace | yes |
Running dynamics | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Vertical oscillation and ratio | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Ground contact time and balance | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Stride length (real time) | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute) | yes |
Running power | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Performance condition | yes |
Lactate threshold | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
PacePro Pacing Strategies | yes |
Run workouts | yes |
Trail run auto climb | yes |
Race predictor | yes |
Course- and weather-specific race predictor | yes |
Foot pod capable | yes |
Outdoor recreation | |
Available outdoor recreation profiles | Hiking, Skiing, Snowboarding, XC Classic Skiing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Rowing |
Point-to-point navigation | yes |
Bread crumbtrail in real time | yes |
Back to start | yes |
TracBack | yes |
UltraTrac mode | yes |
Up Ahead | yes |
Elevation profile | yes |
Distance to destination | yes |
Barometric trend indicator with storm alert | yes |
Vertical speed | yes |
Total ascent/descent | yes |
Future elevation plot | yes |
Projected waypoint | yes |
Sun and moon information | yes |
Cycling features | |
Available cycling profiles | Biking, Indoor Biking, Mountain Biking, eBiking, eMountain Biking |
Alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goals including time, distance, heart rate or calories) | yes |
Courses | yes |
Bike lap and lap maximum power (with power sensor) | yes |
Race an activity | yes |
FTP (Functional threshold power) | Yes (with compatible accessory) |
Compatible with Vector and Rally (power meters) | yes |
Power meter compatible | yes |
Compatible with Varia Vision (head-mounted display) | yes |
Compatible with Varia radar (rear-facing radar) | yes |
Compatible with Varia lights | yes |
Speed and cadence sensor support (w/sensor) | yes |
Swimming features | |
Available swim profiles | Pool swimming, open water swimming |
Open-water swim metrics (distance, pace, stroke count/rate, stroke distance, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories) | yes |
Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories) | yes |
Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) (pool swim only) | yes |
Drill logging (pool swim only) | yes |
Basic rest timer (up from 0) (pool swim only) | yes |
"Repeat on" rest timer (pool swim only) | yes |
Auto rest (pool swim only) | yes |
Time and distance alerts | yes |
Pacing alerts (pool swim only) | yes |
Countdown start | yes |
Pool swim workouts | yes |
Critical swim speed | yes |
Underwater wrist-based heart rate | yes |
Heart rate from external HRM (real-time during rests, interval and session stats during rests, and automatic heart rate download post-swim) | Yes (with HRM-Swim or HRM-Pro) |
Kid activity tracking features | |
Toe-to-Toe Challenges app | Yes (optional Connect IQ Toe-to-Toe Challenges app) |
Connectivity | |
Smart trainer control | yes |
Customer Reviews
Customer Reviews for the Garmin Forerunner 255S Powder Grey.
Questions and Answers
Should I buy the Forerunner 255 or Forerunner 745?
The Garmin Forerunner 255 is the better option because in addition to new training apps and metrics it also includes a new chipset that offers multi-band Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) support with multi-frequency positioning. This means much more accurate positional data especially in more challenging environments. The battery life is also considerably better; 12 days in smartwatch mode versus 6 days on the 745 and 26 hours in GPS only mode versus 16 hours on the 745 - making it a much more suitable watch for triathletes. Finally the Garmin Forerunner 255 is a good bit cheaper than the Forerunner 745.
What are the size options - I have a thin wrist?
The Garmin Forerunner 255 comes is two sizes - the smaller ’S’ with an 41 mm watch face and the regular with an 46 mm watch face. To find out which one you should go for, get a tap measure and if your wrist circumference is between 110-175 mm go for the ’255S’ watch otherwise the ’255’. For the smaller watch there are 4 colour options - 2 with Music, 2 without - and 4 color options for the regular watch - 2 with music, 2 without.
Does the Garmin Forerunner 255 have touchscreen?
No, the Garmin Forerunner 255 does not have a touchscreen. If you want a touchscreen then you will need to consider the Forerunner 955. While the two watches are very similar, the Forerunner 255 is more focused on running, cycling and swimming while the Forerunner 955 comes with a much greater selection of sports and is also a full-featured golf watch.
Do you have any questions about the Garmin Forerunner 255S Powder Grey.