Garmin has released an update for a whole slew of its higher-end watches, and it brings major new features to models like the Garmin Fenix 8 and Enduro 3.
Most notably, watches released a little earlier get features introduced with the launch of the Garmin Forerunner 970 and 570.
I’m currently using a Forerunner 970, and extras I think Fenix 8 owners and others may want to dig into first include Evening Report, Smart Wake Alarm and Running Tolerance.
Garmin Fenix 8 Update Features
Evening Report is a natural extension of the long-standing Morning Report feature. As well as giving you a nudge that it’s getting towards bed time, this provides a preview of the next day’s weather and what Garmin’s going to suggest for your workout the next day. If you use the Suggested Workouts feature, that is.
Smart Wake Alarm is a vibration-based morning alarm that tries to wake you up during the part of the sleep cycle that will leave you feeling most refreshed. And if that doesn’t pan out, it will wake you up anyway, groggy or otherwise. Better that than missing your train.
Finally, Running Tolerance expresses what Garmin thinks is your healthy running limit as a rolling figure of max miles or km, versus your current total. However, the figure you see is not your actual distance ran, as a harder run will result in more km headroom being eaten up than you actually ran in pure distance terms.
You may need to use Running Tolerance to really get your head around it, but I’ve found it useful in recent weeks while I’ve been pushing up training volume.
Watches that get these two include the Fenix 8 and Fenix E series, the Tactix 8, Quatix 8, Venu X1 and Vivoactive 6. The Forerunner 570 and Forerunner 970 already had them.
What about true brand new features? There’s just the one, Track Run Daily Suggested Workouts. It’s a tweaked version of the standard runner’s Suggested Workouts, where recovery internals will be expressed in terms of laps instead of a certain time interval.
Here’s a more exhaustive list of features the Fenix series, Enduo 3, Taxtic 8 and Quatix 8 models get as part of this August 2025 update:
- Running Tolerance
- Garmin Triathlon Coach
- Triathlon Race Events
- Multisport Workouts
- Projected Race Time Prediction
- Suggested Finish Line
- Auto Lap By Course Point
- Performance Glacne Enhancements
- Track Detection Expansion
- Mobility workout mode
- Calculator app
The watches will also gain extra abilities when paired with a Garmin HRM 600 chest strap, just like the Forerunner 970. Extra information is used to work out Running Economy and Step Speed Loss, which indicates how much speed you lose when your foot is in contact with the ground.
Worth buying a Garmin HRM 600 for? Probably not for most runners, but it can give you greater insight into our running form.
Here’s a summary of which watches are getting which features in this latest Garmin August 2025 update.
Based on reports from Reddit this Garmin update began rolling out in the last day or so, so should hit your Garmin Fenix or Forerunner watch soon if it has not already.
