These days, putting a smartwatch on your wrist does not have to be an expensive proposition. In other words, if all you want to do is quantify your steps throughout the day, track your heart rate, and maybe your sleep? You can easily do that for under $100. On the other hand, if you want to really dive into your metrics to train for a specific event, something like the Garmin MARQ Athlete is worth a look.

  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete

Garmin MARQ Athlete: what it is

To put it simply: the Garmin MARQ Athlete takes the feature set that you know from Garmin, and expands and builds up things to make an extremely capable training partner. If you recall earlier this year, we reviewed the Garmin Venu 3 (you can see that here). While that was not an inexpensive smartwatch, it offered quite a lot of functionality in a compact package. On the other hand, the Garmin MARQ Athlete takes that set, and dramatically grows the range of what the watch is able to track (check this page out for an overview of all the things it can do)

  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete

The case

One of the first things you’ll notice on the Garmin MARQ Athlete is the case. While you can get it in “plain” grade 5 titanium, our loaner came in in the fused carbon fiber look. This helps keep things strong and light, but it also gives things a very unique look. We’ve had a number of forged and fused carbon fiber watches on our pages, and we’ve always liked the unique look they provide. Here, you get that woven repeating pattern than, in some ways, reminds us of wood grain. While we didn’t put it to any severe testing, our experience has been that this is a material that does not show the wear patterns of life (read: scratches) as easily as metal can.

  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete

Actually using the Garmin MARQ Athlete

With a watch like the Garmin MARQ Athlete, this isn’t just a “put it on the wrist and wear it around for a bit” to get a sense of the watch. Yes, there’s some of that, and for a 46mm watch, it wears quite comfortably, courtesy of that carbon fiber case and the stock silicone strap. Where the watch really stood out was when the sensors were put to work.

First thing was taking it out for my morning walk/jog. As I expected (based on my Venu 3 experience), it quite easily picked up the satellites and easily tracked where I was moving. What was really quite interesting was the ability to have it display the map on the watch while I was on the move. Yes, I did know where I was, but it can be handy for double checking where on a route you are, particularly if it’s trail-based, and not in a park or on the sidewalks.

The next test I put it to was when we were off doing some hiking. There is a specific hiking mode you can put it in, and once again, things performed flawlessly. It easily tracked my distance, my heart rate, elevation changes, and all of that. Having the map on the watch became helpful, because at one point we went a bit, shall we say, off the beaten path. Using the watch, I was able to see where we were at, and get us back to the marked trail.

  • Garmin MARQ Athlete
  • Garmin MARQ Athlete

One more test for the Garmin MARQ Athlete

The final out-of-the-ordinary (for me) test was when I was invited out to play some pickleball. I hadn’t tried it before, but thought I’d give it a go. And what do you know, the Garmin MARQ Athlete had a profile on it specifically for that sport. Interestingly, it also turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer, and some other features kicked in.

Because the sport profile could access location data (and my phone), it could figure out where I was, and what the weather was. As the matches progressed, and I started/stopped tracking, and interesting report popped up. It was letting me know how acclimated I was becoming to the heat. This was an interesting statistic, and not one I was expecting to see. This is going to be useful if you’re training for a specific climate, or just trying to ramp up your training as you get used to the warmer months.

  • Garmin MARQ Athlete

Wrapping things up

While I had it in for the review, the Garmin MARQ Athlete was definitely my primary watch. When I did need to swap over to the Venu 3, they were able to easily keep in sync for tracking my day and things like steps and body battery. Oh, and yeah, I was able to get close to two weeks on a charge with the MARQ, with mixed use of notifications and GPS. So, good on Garmin for their battery life specs, those seem spot on.

In the end, the Garmin MARQ Athlete is not going to be the watch for someone looking to keep an eye on how active they are throughout the day. I mean, yes, the watch can track that, but with a price tag of $2,950 for the fused carbon fiber version, this is a tool that you want to put to work. Also, if you like the functionality and look of this watch, they have other activity-specific versions (for excample, golfing, boating, or flying). You can check them all out over at garmin.com

Garmin MARQ Athlete Tech Specs

  • Strap material: silicone rubber
  • Lens Material: domed sapphire crystal
  • Bezel Material: titanium (Grade 5)/fused carbon fiber
  • Case material: fused carbon fiber with titanium rear cover
  • QuickFit™ watch band compatible: yes (22 mm)
  • Physical size:
    • Diameter x Thickness: 46 x 15 mm
    • Silicone rubber strap fits wrists with a circumference of 135-213 mm
  • Weight: 75 g (case only: 48 g)
  • Display Size: 1.2” (30.4 mm) diameter
  • Display resolution: 390 x 390 pixels
  • Color display
  • Large font option
  • Battery life
    • Smartwatch: Up to 16 days (6 days always-on)
    • Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 21 days
    • GPS Only: Up to 42 hours (30 hours always-on )
    • All Satellite Systems: Up to 32 hours (24 hours always-on)
    • All Satellite Systems + Multi-band: Up to 20 hours (15 hours always-on)
    • All Satellite Systems + Music: Up to 10 hours (9 hours always-on)
    • Max Battery GPS: Up to 75 hours
    • Expedition GPS: Up to 14 days
  • Charging method: Garmin proprietary magnetic charger
  • Memory/History: 32 GB
  • Connectivity: Bluetooth®, ANT+®, Wi-Fi®
  • Features
  • Sensors
    • GPS
    • GLONASS
    • Galileo
    • SatIQ™ Technology
    • Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor
    • Pulse Ox Blood Oxygen Saturation Monitor
    • Barometric altimeter
    • Compass
    • Gyroscope
    • Accelerometer
    • Thermometer
    • Ambient light sensor

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Featured, Garmin, Reviews,

Last Update: September 4, 2024

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