Garmin Forerunner 965

NOTE: This is not a comprehensive review. These are observations as of 2025-02-14 from personal use.

I have this watch primarily for two things (besides conveniently telling time):

• Creating GPX tracks while dirt biking.
• Calorie tracking.

For those uses, it has been doing well.

Huge caveat: charging connector reliability

The charging connector is proprietary and pin-based, and in my experience charging reliability has been easy to degrade over time.

I have purchased several chargers and they eventually become finicky. After that, I bought an entirely new watch and started being extremely careful with charging:

• Clean the connector with isopropyl alcohol before plugging it in.
• Plug in carefully to avoid stressing the connection.

That approach helped, but charging is still flaky and annoying, and it is unclear whether reliability will degrade again over time.

If you are considering this watch, this charging behavior is a major caveat to understand before purchase.