Garmin Forerunner 745: New triathlon smartwatch launched that tells you when and how to work out

New triathlon watch includes blood oxygen sensor, which has also just arrived in Apple Watch Series 6

(Garmin)

Garmin has launched a new smartwatch, the Forerunner 745, that will tell you when to work out.

It is the first of the company's trackers that not only gathers data while out running, but uses that information to recommend whether and how intensely its owner should exercise.

In addition to those tools, the watch brings a host of features, including a blood oxygen monitor. A similar feature is already present in many of Garmin's higher-end watches, and has just been introduced to the Apple Watch with the new Series 6.

The blood oxygen sensor, which Garmin calls Pulse Ox, is intended to allow people to see how well they are sleeping, and whether they have adjusted to changes in altitude. The watch is intended to be worn all the time to collect such information, as well as to power other features such as the "Body Battery" tool which can show an estimate of how run down its owner is.

The Forerunner 745 replaces the 735XT, Garmin's triathlon watch that has not been updated for four years. As such, it brings a variety of features that have been present in other, more recently released Garmin watches, such as music storage and contactless payments, as well as new fitness tools.

It also adds features that have not been present in other watches from the company: it can now recognise track workouts specifically to gather better location data, as well as being able to suggest how intensely people should work out or if they should take a rest day.

A similar feature was rolled out with Garmin's Edge 1030 Plus cycling computer, released earlier this year, but that only recommends bike workouts. The same tool will come to Garmin's recent and high-end watches – including the Forerunner 245 and 945 that sit at the bottom and top of the same line-up – soon.

As well as releasing the new watch, Garmin also revealed its new HRM-Pro, a heart rate tracker that goes around the chest. It can also monitor running metrics such as cadence, cycling information such as how long you spend standing, and can go under water for tracking while swimming.