Best Black Friday Garmin deals 2020 | Get a Garmin GPS computer for less than £100

Black Friday is here, and now is the perfect opportunity to pick out a Garmin deal.

Many retailers have launched extensive sales (see our links below) where you’ll find all sorts of incredible Black Friday cycling deals – and several of them have cut the prices of both Garmin smartwatches and bike computers.

A smartwatch, such as those made by Garmin, can prove a valuable tool for cyclists. Not only do these handy devices work as fitness trackers – storing data about your heart rate and other metrics – they also provide valuable information about your ride. Garmin’s GPS devices, meanwhile, are considered to be some of the best bike computers out there.

But to say shopping for deals during Black Friday is hectic is a serious understatement. Mercifully we’ve done the searching and scrolling and found the best Garmin deals currently out there. And, if you’re browsing for wearables in general, head to our Black Friday smartwatch deals page for a run-down of the best current offers.

Best Garmin Black Friday deals

Garmin Edge 130 Plus – £169.99 £139.99

Garmin launched the Edge 130 Plus in June and Argos has the best Black Friday offer we can find on the new GPS bike computer.

With £30 off the retail price, this looks like a steal on one of Garmin’s most compact yet feature-packed computers.

The Edge 130 packs tons of training data into a compact head unit. It also offers synced workouts, performance insights and Garmin’s clever ClimbPro feature, to help you pace your efforts.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 130 Plus from Argos for £139.99

Garmin Edge 1030 Plus – £519.99 £468

The Edge 1030 Plus is Garmin’s latest flagship GPS cycle computer.

Our in-depth Garmin Edge 1030 Plus review found it combines a super responsive and bright touchscreen with fantastic battery life, comprehensive mapping and navigation capabilities, and every cycling metric imaginable.

One of our concerns though was its fearsome price, but with Wiggle currently offering a 9 per cent discount (a saving of just over £50) that feels a little less of an issue right now.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 1030 Plus from Wiggle from £468

Garmin Forerunner 735XT GPS smartwatch – £299.99 £224.90 / $499.99 $299.99

The Forerunner 735XT is a genuine multi-sport watch. It can track a range of different metrics and has a wrist-based heart rate monitor to record everything from running and swimming to, yes, cycling.

It can receive calls, texts, email and social notification alerts from your phone. Even more impressively, it can measure your VO2 max, lactate threshold and it will calculate how much recovery time you need.

• Buy the black Garmin Forerunner 735XT for £224.90 from Amazon
• Buy the blue Garmin Forerunner 735XT for £169.95 from GPS Outlet
• Buy the Garmin Forerunner 735 XT tri-bundle for $299.99 from Competitive Cyclist

Garmin Edge 130 GPS cycling computer – £149.99 £99.99 / $199.99 $179.99

The Edge 130 has been replaced by the Plus model we’ve featured above but is still an impressive piece of tech, especially since it’s one that has a headline weight figure of just 33g. In our Garmin Edge 130 review, we gave this bike computer a four-star verdict.

Even though it’s one of the more basic Garmin devices, the Edge 130 still features power meter connectivity, Bluetooth and ANT+ sensor compatibility, and will deliver a wide range of essential training data. You also get basic navigation.

On top of that, the computer can display on-screen notifications from your phone, supports Garmin’s LiveTrack feature and can be connected to the Garmin Connect IQ app store. All for less than £100.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 130 from Argos for £99.99
• Buy the Garmin Edge 130 from Competitive Cyclist for $179.99

Garmin Edge 520 Plus GPS cycling computer – £199.99 £149.99 / $279.99 $223.99

Making use of the Garmin Cycle Map – based on OpenStreetMap data – the Edge 520 Plus features turn-by-turn navigation, off-route redirection and back-to-start routing functionality. As you can read in our Edge 520 review, we were hugely impressed by the performance metrics it offers, such as FTP and VO2 max tracking – a cut above the average GPS bike computer.

One quibble we did have, though, was the asking price. That’s since dropped, thanks to a £15 reduction at Decathlon. It reached as low as £150 during last year’s Black Friday sale, and we’re all but positive it will do the same this year.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 520 Plus for £149.99 from Wiggle
• Buy the Garmin Edge 520 Plus for $223.99 from Competitive Cyclist

Garmin Fenix 6S Solar – £649.99 £540.21

Garmin’s recently launched Fenix 6S Solar is the brand’s flagship multisport smartwatch. As the name suggests, it has the ability to charge itself using solar energy, which should help to extend the battery life significantly if you can get outside enough.

Beyond that, there’s all the features you’d expect from a high-end smartwatch, including a number of different sport profiles, as well as ANT+, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. It also has a wrist-based heart rate monitor and pulse oximetry feature, to measure your blood oxygen levels.

If all of that tickles your fancy, it’s currently available with 17 per cent off at Amazon.

• Buy the Garmin Fenix 6S Solar from Amazon for £540.21

Garmin Instinct Solar GPS watch – £349.99 £280.00 / $399.99 $299.99

With a built-in solar charger, the Garmin Instinct Solar can potentially go for months between charges, or provide up to 38 hours of GPS tracking.

Garmin puts fitness tracking functionality from its higher-end smartwatches into the Instinct Solar too, like wrist-based heart rate monitoring and pulse ox, and you can easily analyse all your health and performance stats via Garmin Connect.

• Buy the Garmin Instinct Solar for £280.00 from Go Outdoors
• Buy the Garmin Instinct Solar for $299.99 from Competitive Cyclist

Garmin Vector 3 double-sided pedal power meter – £849.99 £629.99

Garmin’s newest power meter pedals fully enclose the battery and electronics in the pedal bodies for a sleek look and resistance to damage. As well as power output, the double-sided option gives you left/right balance, cadence and pedal stroke data. That’s all available via Garmin Edge computers as you ride and for further analysis via the Garmin Connect app.

The pedal-based format means that the Vector 3 power meter is easy to transfer between bikes and Garmin reckons you get 120 hours battery life from the four coin cells.

• Buy the Garmin Vector 3 power meter for £629.99 from ProBikeKit

Garmin Varia 2 Radar Tail Light & Head Unit – £269.99 £199.99

The Garmin Varia 2 uses its built in radar to detect traffic behind you over 100m away. It sends info about how far away vehicles are and how fast they’re travelling to the head unit, or to a Garmin computer or smartwatch. You can also control the Varia 2 Radar and other Varia lights from the head unit.

Plus, as a vehicle approaches, the Varia 2 Radar flashes more frequently and with increased intensity, upping your road presence. It may be pricey, but the Varia 2 Radar should add a lot of confidence on busy roads.

• Buy the Garmin Varia 2 Radar Tail Light & Head Unit for £199.99 from Wiggle

Garmin Varia UT800 Smart Headlight Trail Edition – £149.99 £124.98

With 800 lumens output, the Varia UT800 might not be the brightest light for its price, but it makes up for that with smart features and integration with your GPS.

So you can set it up to increase in brightness as you ride faster, conserving battery life when you need less light. It also uses ambient light to vary output and can be controlled via an Edge bike computer. You get three constant and two flashing modes and run times between 1.5 and 20 hours and the Varia UT800 can be fixed using a helmet or GoPro mount.

• Buy the Garmin Varia UT800 Smart Headlight Trail Edition from Amazon for £124.98

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music – £349.99 £219.99

Though the Forerunner 645 Music is primarily designed for runners, it does also have activity profiles for cycling, and it’s currently available at a hefty, 37 per cent discount at Wiggle.

Its key selling point is its internal storage space for up to 500 songs and the ability to connect to Bluetooth headphones, so if you like to run or cycle with music (we’d recommend headphones that don’t obstruct your ability to hear other sounds, like Aftershokz Trekz Air bone conduction headphones, if it’s the latter), then this could be a great option.

Beyond that it has all the usual functions you’d want in a multisport watch, like optical heart rate monitoring, GPS tracking, Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity and lots of activity tracking modes.

• Buy the Garmin Forerunner 645 Music from Wiggle for £219.99

Garmin Edge 530 – £259.99 £233.99

The Edge 530 is a GPS bike computer that’s packed with features and marketed at serious riders who want a range of performance metrics and navigation features at their disposal.

Last year, the Edge 530 replaced the Edge 520 and Edge 520 Plus, which have both since been discontinued.

• Garmin Edge bike computers: buyer’s guide to all the models

In our Garmin Edge 530 review, we gave this bike computer four stars out of five, praising the breadth of features in such a compact device, including ride-recording, turn-by-turn navigation and various performance stats including FTP tracking. Although some buyers might gravitate towards the Edge 830 with its touchscreen display, we’d argue that at over £100 cheaper, the Edge 530 offers much more value for money.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 530 from Halfords for £233.99

Garmin Forerunner 45 GPS watch – £169.99 £139.99

Much as the name suggests, the Forerunner 45 is aimed at runners, but it can track a range of other activities, and that includes cycling. The wrist-based heart rate monitor will deliver all the crucial stats that you’ll need on your ride and the Garmin Coach provides free training plans and expert guidance. The Forerunner 45 will give you smart notifications and built-in incident detection, too.

This wearable is cheapest at Wiggle, where you can pick up a large size for £140.99 and a small for £150. It’s available in black, white, lava red and iris blue.

• Buy the Garmin Forerunner 45 GPS watch for £139.99 from Wiggle

Garmin Forerunner 35 GPS smartwatch – £129.99 £99.99

The Forerunner 35 is a smartwatch that comes with something that will appeal to cyclists: a ride-recording function. And while it’s best suited to running, the Forerunner 35 is an excellent wearable, featuring a wrist-based heart rate monitor and phone notifications that come with most of Garmin’s other GPS watches.

It’s currently on sale at Greaves Sports at a price of £99 – although keep in mind that it was lower still at £82.99 during the Black Friday period last year.

• Buy the Garmin Forerunner 35 for £99.99 from Greaves

Garmin Edge 830 – £349.99 £309.99

The Edge 830 is a fully-featured GPS cycle computer that our tester described as “a true class-leading GPS that really offers plenty of useful functions above and beyond its competition.”

It’s almost identical in terms of features to the Edge 530, but adds a touchscreen for an improved user experience. And, with the price difference now down to just over £50, this could be the perfect time to grab the touchscreen model instead.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 830 from Decathlon for £309.99

Garmin Edge 820 Performance Bundle GPS cycling computer – £439.99 £349.99

The Garmin Edge 820 takes the functions of the Edge 520 (now discontinued) and adds FTP and VO2 max testing when used with a heart rate sensor and power meter. Here it comes in a bundle that includes a heart rate monitor, cadence sensor and speed sensor. The perfect package to get you training.

This bundle is currently cheapest at Merlin Cycles, where you can get it for 20 per cent off the RRP for £349.99.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 820 Performance Bundle for £349.99 from Merlin Cycles

Garmin Edge 1030 Performance Bundle GPS cycling computer – £549.99 £471.90

Get the Edge 1030 alongside some extra accessories in this bundle, including a heart rate monitor, speed sensor, and cadence sensor.

If you’re not already obsessed with tracking and analysing your riding stats, you soon will be with this versatile package. It’s currently on sale with a discount of almost £40 at Mantel.

• Buy the Garmin Edge 1030 Performance Bundle for £471.90 from Mantel

Garmin Fenix 5X Plus Sapphire GPS watch – £849.99 £536.82

The Fenix 5X Plus is a smartwatch packed with an array of fitness-tracking features, including ride recording. With technology such as wrist-based blood oxygen monitoring and heart rate monitoring, European mapping and music player integration, you’re pretty spoiled for choice.

You can pick this smartwatch up from OnBuy for £536.82 – that’s a reduction of 37 per cent from £849.99. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, you can get an overhauled model from GPS Outlet for £359.95, marked down from £499.95.

• Buy the Garmin Fenix 5X Plus for £536.82 from OnBuy

Garmin Vivomove smartwatch – £169.99 £139.40

This smartwatch will do a solid job of tracking your daily activity levels. Sadly, there’s no GPS tracking, but the Vivomove will still keep track of heart rate and your walking or running steps. It can also monitor your stress levels by tracking the variability in your heart rate while you’re inactive.

It makes the perfect companion to one of Garmin’s bike-mounted GPS devices. It’s currently cheapest at Amazon, where it’s been given a price drop of 18 per cent from £169.99 to £139.40.

• Buy the Garmin Vivomove for £139.40 from Amazon

Garmin Vivofit 3 – £89.99 £49.99

The Vivofit 3 is an entry-level smartwatch that’s best suited to tracking day-to-day life. It will track your steps, heart rate and calorie intake. Even though it’s a relatively basic wearable, it could still be a valuable addition to a GPS head unit to track your training and recovery.

During Black Friday last year, the price for this reached a low of £29.99. Right now, however, it’s cheapest at Wiggle for £49.99.

• Buy the Garmin Vivofit 3 for £49.99 from Wiggle

Which Garmin device should I buy?

Garmin devices fall into two broad categories: GPS computers and wearables (smartwatches).

GPS computers can be attached to the handlebars of your bike via a mount. All Garmin bike computers contain GPS chips, so at the very minimum will let you know where you’ve been, how far you’ve ridden and at what speed.

However, while lower-end models such as the Edge 130 will give you a breadcrumb-style trailer, more advanced computers like the Edge 530, Edge 830 and Edge 1030 will offer extra features such as turn-by-navigation and route recalculation. Take a look at our full Garmin Edge bike computers buyer’s guide for a more detailed lowdown on the Edge range.

Garmin’s wearables, by contrast, are more focused on fitness and health, and there are a lot out there. The brand actually has six ranges of smartwatch, although there’s plenty of overlap in terms of specs and features.

Basic features across nearly every model include step counting, sleep monitoring and smartphone notifications. As the models advance, they incorporate extra features such as not just tracking your heart rate but also measuring VO2 max and lactate threshold.

The good news is that as the technology in both categories advances, the basic models are capable of more and more. So our advice is to not overreach beyond your budget, and to prioritise what’s most important to you.

Are you looking to improve your ride performance by tracking your stats? Or are you looking for a wayfinder on your ride that’s more built-for-purpose than your smartphone?

How to get a good deal on Black Friday

But deals should never be taken at face value – they’re not necessarily the bargains they might first appear to be. Read on for a few tips in spotting genuinely good Black Friday Garmin deals:

• Conduct a spot of pre-deal research. See what the experts, who have tested a product, have to say about it before you commit to buying. Head to our Garmin reviews and news page for information about the latest products
• Put together a wishlist of items. Of course you might get inspired while browsing and find an unexpected perfect cycling Christmas gift for someone – but remember that retailers and markets do an exceptional job of convincing you to buy something you don’t necessarily want
• As mentioned, don’t assume a deal is genuinely good just because you see a huge discount against an RRP. The product might well have not been at the RRP price for months or even years prior – the best way to get around this is to take note of product prices way ahead of Black Friday
• Shop around – if you see what looks like an amazing deal, add it to your shopping basket. But before you pay at the checkout, have a quick look at Google’s price results to check it’s not cheaper elsewhere. And don’t forget that retailers like Currys PC World and John Lewis & Partners promise to match prices, so hold them to it!

Should I wait for Cyber Monday?

Cyber Monday, as the name suggests, has always traditionally been something exclusively online. Of course, 2020 has been no ordinary year for retail, with a surge in online sales as everyone has retreated to their homes during lockdown.

Shops might be open, but social distancing measures are in place. So we anticipate retailers will shift more of their deals online to counter the reduced numbers of in-store shoppers – and as a result of this, we imagine there will be less of a clear-cut divide between Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Our advice this year is to not hang on to Cyber Monday to see if an already-discounted product drops any further in price. With so many more people shopping online, products are likely to sell out even faster.