Hey Garmin (and fellow users),
I've used the 955, 255, 945, and even recently tried Coros - but I keep coming back to my old 735XT. Why? Because it nailed what really matters:
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Slim, lightweight, comfortable
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Reliable GPS, multisport tracking and sensor support
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No bulky wrist HR or AMOLED gimmicks
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Just enough features with no bloat
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Decent battery, but needs an upgrade
What we truly need now is a modern 735XT+:
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More accurate GPS and long multi-day battery (~30–40+ hrs)
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Native power, sensor, and zone graph support
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Breadcrumb nav - as the minimum is enough
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No music, no pay, no 3D max touchscreen plus
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No HRV pseudoscience or faux recovery metrics
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No multiband GPS overkill battery-drain hype
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No titanium bezel pretending we’re Navy SEALs
Let’s be real — most of us don’t smash our wrists on rocks. Few need a £600+ metal-encased smart-brick with flashlight mode and pulse ox in five colours.
Garmin’s great at adding — and restricting — features across more confusingly overlapping models than anyone needs. Feature bloat, wrist irritation, and increasingly unreliable wrist HR come up again and again online. What we need is a return to focused, reliable endurance tools.
The 735XT was everything a performance watch needed (for its time): slim, light, durable. No fluff, no skin burn, no wellness metrics that cause more stress than they solve. Just the right tools, the right data, and the freedom to train hard and go long.
Give us that again — with a modern twist, better battery, and tighter GPS — and it might just be the most perfect endurance watch on the market.
HRV and stress metrics might help sell watches, but they don’t work for everyone. Some of us want less noise, not more. We want to be empowered by data not ruled by it. Garmin should offer a stripped-back but powerful training tool — not every athlete needs a wellness dashboard.
We want full access to core performance features like structured workouts, power support, navigation, and real world metrics — without the distraction of recovery voodoo or daily readiness scores.
The Forerunner 55 is too limited. The 955 is overloaded. Even the 255 — probably the closest — still falls short. It’s bulkier, less intuitive, and saddled with a flaky HR sensor that opens up sleep stages and HRV tracking most of us don’t genuinely need — and certainly can’t trust. Let’s not lose the tools that work, in pursuit of features we’ve been convinced we need.
Some of us want to train hard and recover smart — but guided by feel, not fear. We want a watch that supports intuition, not replaces it. A durable, trusted workhorse that strips back the fluff but keeps the power. This is why the 735XT+ will sell.
Anyone else feel the same?
Thanks,