Garmin just dropped a fresh round of beta updates for its premium watches, including the Garmin Fenix E, Garmin Fenix 8, and Garmin Enduro 3, and the changelog is longer than your last long run.
More than 100 individual updates, fixes and improvements are now rolling out to some of the Garmin best watches – and yes, they’re still completely free.
While some companies hold back features for the next big release (or try to quietly slide a subscription under your nose), Garmin is sticking to what it’s always done best: endless, glorious, over-the-air updates.
These tweaks fine-tune everything from widget glances and wellness stats to sports profiles and system stability. And if you think you’ve seen that update notification before, you're probably right. Garmin's beta programme is a busy place.
Let’s address the elephant in the server room: Garmin Connect+. It’s not been the smoothest PR moment, with Garmin floating the idea of a premium app subscription (still “experimental”, they say).
Some fans were ready to riot, while others just wanted to see their morning run in peace. So, what better way to win back hearts than with a tsunami of firmware love?
It’s a classic Garmin move: when in doubt, ship 100 updates and distract everyone with a shiny new feature here, a fixed sleep widget there, and a slightly improved stopwatch UI just for good measure.
The brand has built its reputation on keeping even older devices fresh with frequent updates, and this latest round proves the policy is alive and well in 2025.
These beta updates are rolling out now via Garmin’s public beta programme, so if you’ve got auto-update turned on (or you’re the type who checks every five minutes manually), expect to see them soon.
Not enrolled in the beta? Don’t worry – stable releases tend to follow shortly after once Garmin’s ironed out the bugs. And hey, even if Garmin Connect+ does eventually land as a paid extra, at least your Fenix or Enduro still gets treated like royalty – one free update at a time.
[Source: Garmin via NotebookCheck]
