So you’re looking to upgrade your running watch, and you’re trying to decide between the new Garmin Forerunner 970 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2. The Forerunner 970 is Garmin’s top-tier Forerunner model, packed with advanced training features, and brand new on the market. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is Apple’s endurance smartwatch. To help you decide which is best for you, I’ve put the two watches head to head below.
Before I jump into the comparison, it’s worth stating the obvious — if you’re an Android user, this decision is a simple one. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 won’t work with anything other than an iPhone, so the best watch for you is the Garmin Forerunner 970, which is compatible with iOS and Android through the Garmin Connect app.
If you’d prefer to read the reviews before deciding, check out the Garmin Forerunner 970 review and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 review on Tom’s Guide .
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Price and availability
The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the newer of the two watches, and it’s more expensive than its predecessor, the Forerunner 965. The Garmin Forerunner 970 costs $749.99 / £629.99, a considerable jump from the Garmin Forerunner 965, which is $599 / £599 and often reduced to under $500.
When considering the price of the Forerunner 970, it’s worth factoring in that some of its new features also require the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is $169.99 / £149.99
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was released in September 2023. It costs $799/ £849, but is often discounted to closer to $700 in sales. It’s a singular model, outfitted with cellular support.
Winner: Apple Watch Ultra 2 — At full price, the Garmin watch is cheaper, but as the Ultra 2 has been around for a lot longer, you’re likely to be able to pick it up for less than the cost of the Garmin Forerunner 970 right now.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Design
The Garmin Forerunner 970 still looks very much like a Garmin — the watch is controlled via five different physical buttons, three on the left, two on the right, with a round 1.4-inch AMOLED screen. You can use the touchscreen to navigate around the watch, but it’s automatically disabled in sports modes.
Compared to the older model, the Forerunner 970 is harder wearing — it has a sapphire crystal display, which is more scratch-resistant than the Gorilla glass used on the Forerunner 965 and other Forerunner models.
Other notable design features for the Forerunner 970 include a flashlight — until now that’s feature’s been reserved for Garmin’s more expensive models. It also has Garmin’s new Elevate v5 optical heart rate sensor, which is an upgrade on the v4 sensor on the Forerunner 965 and can be used to take ECG measurements. There’s also a built-in microphone and speaker, allowing you to answer and make calls from your wrist.
The watch only comes in one size, and is available in three different colors — black, white, and grey/gold.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 looks pretty much identical to its predecessor, the Apple Watch Ultra, which was Apple’s first stab at an adventure watch.
The Ultra 2 has a flat 49mm display, a protruding right-side button array, and an orange action button on the left side, which can be programmed as a quick launch for an assigned purpose. It doesn’t come in alternative bezel colors, so it’s down to your watch strap if you want to add some customization, and its one-size-fits-all approach may continue to deter those with smaller wrists.
The main difference between the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 lies beneath the surface. The newer watch has the brand’s S9 processor, which Apple claims is 25% more efficient, built on 5.6 billion transistors with 30% faster GPU animations and 4-core neural engines that enable machine learning twice as fast.
It’s also worth noting that from a sustainability standpoint, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the better pick. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is made of 95% recycled aluminum, a major improvement from the virgin material used in the first-gen model.
Winner: It’s a tie — beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. Whether you prefer the rounder bezel of the Garmin or the boxier look of the Apple Watch Ultra 2, both look great on the wrist.
If, like me, you have pretty petite wrists, you’ll probably be wishing both came in a different size option; however, I do find the Forerunner 970 is slightly more comfortable, as the round face makes it feel smaller.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Battery life
Here’s where things get interesting. If you’re after a watch with a decent battery life, Garmin wins every time; however, the battery life of the Forerunner 970 isn’t as impressive as that of some of the other best Garmin watches on the market.
During testing, with the screen set to always-on, the Forerunner 970 lasted four or five days on a charge, running every day. In contrast, the Forerunner 965 would last seven days under the same conditions.
According to Garmin, the Forerunner 970 will last 15 days in smartwatch mode, and up to 26 hours in GPS mode without music, and 14 hours in GPS mode with music. The Garmin Forerunner 965, on the other hand, lasted 23 days in smartwatch mode, 31 hours in GPS mode without music, and 8.5 hours in GPS mode with music.
Despite this step back, Garmin comes out on top when compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s battery life. Like a lot of the best Apple Watches, the battery life on the Ultra 2 is one of the main things that would put me off using this watch for a marathon weekend abroad.
The watch gets 36 hours of battery life with normal use. With low power mode, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets up to 72 hours of battery, increased from 60 hours offered through the original Ultra.
That said, the Ultra 2 does charge quickly, so if you’re the type of person who never forgets to keep your devices topped up, I wouldn’t let this put you off. For me, however, I prefer to have a sports watch that I don’t need to charge every other day.
Winner: Garmin Forerunner 970 — due to that big, beautiful display, the battery life of the Forerunner 970 is slightly less than other Garmins on the market, but it still beats Apple.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Health tracking
Both of these devices are designed to be worn 24/7, and are packed with features that’ll help you train smarter and gain a better understanding of your overall health. Like a lot of the best Garmin watches, the Forerunner 970 will track your activities, sleep, step count, and calorie consumption, but the watch also has Garmin’s advanced health features, like Body Battery.
From a fitness perspective, the Forerunner 970 offers all the sports modes and stats you could ever want. It can double as a golf watch and also deliver extensive training load analysis, including heat and altitude acclimation, VO2 max and race time estimates, and a rating of your training readiness based on factors like sleep, stress and recent workouts.
The Forerunner 970 also introduces some new features with a running economy rating, step speed loss measurements, and running tolerance, which estimates the training load you can tolerate safely each week.
That said, to get the running economy and step speed loss measurements, you need to pair the Forerunner 970 with the Garmin HRM600 chest strap, which is a significant extra outlay.
The data you can get from your Forerunner 970 is extensive, and there’s now an evening report, as well as a morning report telling you the load your training has had on your body. There are also built-in maps for going off-road.
On the other hand, Apple is yet to develop such in-depth training features, but it still does a lot more than just count your steps with its smartwatches. The Apple Watch Ultra has most of the traditional workout modes covered, and its more durable display and water resistance of up to 100 meters mean you could use it for sports like water skiing, windsurfing, and diving. You can also customize all of the data screens in each workout mode.
From a mapping perspective, the Ultra 2 displays current elevation in real time and waypoints in a 3D view based on relative elevation. For hiking workouts, there’s a more detailed topographic map that flags points of interest. Nearby trail information appears upon starting a hike, providing insights on the trail length, type, and difficulty. From a safety perspectiv,e the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has crash detection, tracking (using the Find My feature), and a siren.
With the forthcoming watchOS 26 release, you’ll be able to use the new Workout Buddy feature, which uses Apple Intelligence, coupled with your training and health data, to provide up-to-the-minute information, stats, and motivation during your workouts.
Both watches have female health tracking, allowing you to monitor your cycle and track your pregnancy. Apple uses skin temperature readings to estimate your ovulation date, and can be connected to the female health tracking app Natural Cycles to be used as birth control. At the time of writing, Garmin can’t.
Another big difference between the two watches is how you view your data. Garmin uses the Garmin Connect app, which displays your data in different boxes, starting with your day’s activity, followed by a glance at your heart rate, intensity minutes, calories burned, and stress. Click on any of these boxes and you take a deeper dive into your data.
Apple uses the Apple Health app, where you can pin exactly what you want to see to the top, and scroll through your sleep, steps, and activities below. Both are packed with information, and they’re pretty intuitive once you’re used to using them. For me, though, the user experience with Garmin Connect is slightly better.
Winner: Garmin Foreunner 970 — as a sports watch, the Forerunner 970 has all you could ever need and more. There’s no reason why you couldn’t train for a race and execute it well with the Apple Watch Ultra 2, but new features like running economy make the Forerunner 970 stand out.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Smart watch features
As mentioned above, both of these watches are designed to be worn when you’re not exercising, but one of them handles those non-exercise activities a lot better than the other.
I used my Apple Watch to find my phone, connect seamlessly to my AirPods, and reply to texts from my wrist. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve used Apple Pay on a run, and if you’re part of the Apple ecosystem, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 fits in seamlessly. It’s like having an iPhone on your wrist.
The Garmin Forerunner 570, on the other hand, just doesn’t compare from a smartwatch perspective. It’s little things — there’s still not a great mix of default watch faces, for example (and third-party watch faces fill me with dread).
When someone messages you or gives you kudos on Apple Watch, the notifications you receive come with a little photo of the person. On Garmin, it’s just text — of course, this isn’t the be-all and end-all, but the Apple Watch Ultra 2 feels like a better smartwatch.
That said, the Forerunner 970 has a lot of great features. These include the new mic and speaker, which you can use to issue voice commands like “start a timer” or activate your phone’s voice assistant. There’s music storage, and you can stream from Spotify on your watch, plus there’s Garmin Pay on board.
Winner: Apple Watch Ultra 2 — there’s no doubt about it, if you’re after a smartwatch, the Ultra 2 is the better choice.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2: Which should you buy?
So which watch should you buy? The answer depends on what you’re hoping to get from the watch. The Forerunner 970 is, without a doubt, one of the best running watches on the market, and one of the best Garmin watches I’ve ever tested. The bright screen, the flashlight, the mic and speaker, plus the new features, really make it stand out from the crowd. But it’s expensive for a Forerunner, and it might make it harder to justify buying.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2, on the other hand, is an extension of your iPhone on your wrist. It’s the best running watch Apple makes, and it’s a fantastic smartwatch when you’re not running. It’s also likely to be cheaper than the Garmin, as it’s the older watch.
If you’re on a budget, and you’re not bothered about the flashlight or built-in maps, the Garmin Forerunner 570 is the more affordable option. Other older watches that stand out are the Garmin Epix Pro, which comes in three different sizes, and has a bright, beautiful AMOLED screen.
Whichever you choose, you’ll be able to easily get through a marathon training cycle with a fantastic watch on your wrist. If you’re serious about training, however, and you can afford it, I’d say the Garmin Forerunner 970 is one of the best running watches on the market right now.
