From route creation to free Pokémon apps, here are 3 cool things to do as soon as you buy your first Garmin

Just got a Garmin in the Amazon Prime Day sales? Congratulations. If you haven't yet pulled the trigger, the Prime Day deals won't be around for long, so I've included some of my favorites down below. Simply click here to go straight to the deals.

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

Now, welcome to the Garmin ecosystem! Garmin, the Garmin Connect app, and the Garmin Connect IQ store are cool, stripped-down app ecosystems designed to help you get the most out of exercise. There is a premium tier in Garmin Connect+, but it's entirely optional and, quite frankly, it's not been well received by the Garmin community at large, so I wouldn't recommend subscribing yet.

As well as the usual passive activity tracking, sleep tracking, and notification functionalities, Garmin gives you all sorts of tools to play with on its very modular watches. Here are three things to try as soon as you get your first watch.

1. Create your perfect home screen

When you first get your Garmin watch, you'll be presented with a watch face containing a small selection of stats, such as step counts, Body Battery score, or the watch's total remaining battery. But Garmin watch faces are made to be customized, so you can decide which stats are important to you. On five-button Garmins, you hold the left-middle 'up' button, while on two-button Garmins, you hold 'down', then navigate to Watch Face. You can scroll between different options or edit them in a granular fashion.

If you want to prioritize step count, you can swap it out with a widget showing your sleep score, for example, while VO2 Max can be swapped for another number like Body Battery. In this way, you can truly make the watch your own pretty much right out of the gate, without even touching the companion app to do it.

These are just the most important stats to you: to view the rest, you can scroll up and down from the watch face to view the rest of your widgets, and edit this list as well by scrolling to Edit, then +. Want to know the phases of the moon, your total distance run this week, or your blood oxygen levels? You can add them all to this secondary hotlist.

2. Create a route

Garmins are perfect for going off the beaten track, and even those without actual offline maps offer basic navigation features. You can use these features by creating a Course. You can learn how to create a Course in Garmin Connect here, but the general gist is that you can use Garmin's features to plot a route on a map, then follow that route using instructions from your watch.

Even if you're just going for a short walk, you can use its route plotting to find new circular routes, but it's incredibly handy for long runs, hiking expeditions, and even specialist sports like skiing.

Download the Course onto your watch using the instructions in the link above, then go to your activity of choice and scroll down to Navigation > Courses. If you get lost, most Garmins now have a 'Back to Start' functionality you can access when you pause an activity.

3. Visit the Connect IQ store

Once you've downloaded Garmin Connect and set up your new watch, you should also download Garmin Connect IQ, its app store. From there, you can access loads of free and paid apps, widgets, and watch faces, many simply made by enthusiastic Garmin fans, such as the Walk With Frodo app, which links your step count to Frodo's journey to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings.

You can also get official players for music services like Spotify, Deezer, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music, walking apps like Komoot to help sync the app with your Garmin ecosystem, and watch faces from fans and brands alike, the latter including Star Wars and Pokémon Sleep. The Pokémon watch face is linked to your Body Battery score, and sleeps when you get tired. Adorable!

Today's best Garmin deals

Not bought a Garmin yet? Below are the best Amazon Prime Day deals on Garmin watches in the US and UK.

US deals

Save $250

Garmin Fenix 8 (GPS) 43mm: was $999.99 now $749.99 at Amazon

$250 off the five-star Garmin Fenix 8 in its smallest 43mm size and Whitestone colorway. Perfect for those who want serious power on smaller wrists (and adventure watches are usually big, lumpy affairs, so it's nice to have a smaller option), it still packs an impressive 10-day battery life, advanced training features, an LED flashlight, and full-color maps.

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Save 50%

Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2): was $999.99 now $499.99 at Amazon

Here's a chance to get a whopping 50% off the original retail price of the excellent Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2). The 4.5-star smartwatch is an excellent buy for dedicated and enthusiast runners, thanks to its top-tier health tracking and GPS navigation features. You also get a clear AMOLED display with a scratch-resistant sapphire lens and a titanium bezel. As far as premium smartwatches go, this value prospect is tough to beat.

View Deal

Save 37%

Garmin Vivoactive 5: was $299.99 now $189.99 at Amazon

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 is a fantastic all-rounder fitness smartwatch with tons of workout plans, a crisp AMOLED display, onboard GPS, and 11 days of battery life. At this price, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better-performing watch for general fitness, health, and exercise tracking. A Fitbit beater.

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US deal

Save 9%

Garmin Venu 4 : was $549.99 now $499.99 at Amazon

Right now, you can save $50 on both 41mm and 45mm Garmin Venu 4 models, in a variety of colors: Black and Lunar Gold for the 41mm, Grey and Citron for the 45mm. Up to 10 days of battery life, great workout and wellness tracking, and lots of Garmin Connect IQ third-party app support.

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UK deals

Save 59%

Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2): was £739.99 now £299.99 at H Samuel

The Garmin epix Pro (Gen 2) has a superb discount in the UK as well. Runners will not want to miss this best-ever offer on the 4.5-star smartwatch, which offers excellent health tracking and GPS navigation features. The vibrant AMOLED display and rugged titanium bezel make it easy to see and resilient. I ran a marathon with this, and at this price, I'd buy it over any other Garmin.

View Deal

Save 25%

Garmin Venu 4, 41mm (Black): was £469.99 now £354 at Amazon

Save a hefty 25% on the Black 41mm of the Garmin Venu 4. If you're looking for a bigger size, the 45mm is available for £365 in Grey and £368.49 in Citron yellow.

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Save 29%

Garmin Vivoactive 5: was £209.99 now £149.99 at Amazon

A lowest-ever price on the Garmin Vivoactive 5 means there's never been a better time to snap this up. Garmin's comprehensive training app has served me well for years, while the Vivoactive 5 at this price is an easy buy for Fitbit users who are used to cheaper price points.

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Save 30%

Garmin Fenix 8 (GPS) 43mm: was £789.99 now £549.45 at Amazon

A huge £240 off the white 43mm Fenix 8 model. A five-button configuration and AMOLED touchscreen mean you can operate the watch while wearing gloves in adverse weather conditions. It's perfect for hikers, skiers, campers, and triathletes.

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Save £700

Garmin MARQ Golfer (Gen 2): was £1,999 now £1,299 at First Class Watches

Folks in the UK have a seriously tempting offer here at First Class Watches, where you can save a huge £700 on the MARQ Golfer (Gen 2)! This is enormous, and I have never seen the premium watch as close to the thousand-pound mark as this. Considering this was a multi-thousand-pound watch not that long ago, this is a great deal for those on the premium device hunt.

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