The Garmin Forerunner 570 and 970 are more expensive than their predecessors. Other 2025 Garmin watches skimped on new features to keep prices low, so I’m happy Garmin didn’t hold back on its Forerunners. But it’s also become clearer that Garmin doesn’t feel a need to compete with other brands’ features — only against itself.

The jump between the $599 Forerunner 965 and $749 Forerunner 970 is significant. You get the newest Elevate v5 generation for better HR accuracy, ECGs and skin temperature readings, flashlight, mic & speaker for calling and commands, sapphire crystal protection, and new metrics like running tolerance.

Or if you’re weighing the $549 Forerunner 270 against the $449 Forerunner 265, you also get the gen5 HR accuracy boost, doubled screen brightness on a larger display, the same mic & speaker, and skin temperature with heat acclimation.

The Instinct 3 and Vivoactive 6 stuck to last-gen HR sensors, treading water on hardware so that Garmin could keep them in their fixed price ranges. I feared Garmin would do the same with its Forerunners, making us wait until 2027 for real changes.

That’s why I’m excited for the Forerunner 970, but also feeling frustrated at how Garmin holds back mid-tier watches like the Forerunner 570.

As prices rise, held-back features are harder to accept

The $499 Instinct 3 didn’t have offline maps despite being an “adventure” watch, while cheaper rival watches like the $349 COROS PACE Pro and Suunto Race S did. I complained at the time, but Garmin hadn’t given it storage space for maps, prioritizing a lightweight CPU for battery life.

The $549 Forerunner 570 does have storage space for maps, and no need to hold back the processor. There’s no logistical reason it shouldn’t support maps; even if they’re not pre-downloaded like on the 970, Garmin could let you download a specific region’s topo data, at least.

The only real explanation is that their absence makes people more likely to pay for the 970.

The same applies to the 570 health sensors. I obviously appreciate the enhanced HR accuracy and skin temperature. But every other gen5 watch has ECGs, including the $449 Venu 3. And outside of Garmin, ECGs are the norm, from mainstream watches to fitness rivals like the COROS APEX and Polar Vantage series.

But Garmin ignores the context of its rivals; the only competitor that matters is the Forerunner 970. That needs to stand out, so the 570 misses out. Heart health warnings become a $750 bargaining chip.

It’s a common-enough strategy for Garmin. With the excellent Forerunner 165, you can’t see your training load even though it clearly calculates load in the background to determine your VO2 Max, recovery time, and daily suggested workouts with anaerobic or low aerobic focuses. Blocking that data upsells you to the Forerunner 265.

I accepted that artificial feature block because the 165 costs $249, and training load is still fairly niche. But Garmin watch prices keep creeping up. It’s harder to swallow blocked features when these mid-tier models cost much more than a Galaxy or Apple Watch.

With Garmin watches, every component has a price tag

Smartwatch “tiers” are common enough these days, and every company wants to upsell you. But they’re also selective about which features are price-locked because they know it’ll look bad if a competitor offers something for much less.

You obviously pay more for steel or titanium casing, or other hardware boosts like better battery life. But otherwise, they squeeze most features into the mainline model while sticking to the same pricing every year (aside from the occasional inflationary boost).

With Garmin, every new feature to modernize its watches comes with a price bump. MIP-to-AMOLED display swaps for the Forerunner and Instinct lineups cost tacked on another $50–100 to the usual price. On the Fenix 8, collectively adding AMOLED, better sensors, and a mic & speaker added $200 to the price.

You won’t find dual-band GPS on any watch $300 or less, nor offline maps on any sub-$600 watch. And even though Garmin’s Gen5 HR sensors came out in 2023, it will keep using the Gen4 sensors on “cheaper” models like the $500 Instinct 3 today.

I don’t know how much the components cost Garmin, but it wants us to know that it’ll pass that cost onto us.

Other factors like tariff concerns bump up pricing, too. But Garmin’s 2025 strategy establishes a clear Garmin precedent: Once a watch costs a certain price, you shouldn’t expect new hardware at that price, nor features already established at the flagship tier.

The next version will either cost the same but make minimal upgrades, or add new tools and cost much more.

Garmin treats any new feature as an opportunity to ask athletes for more money in exchange for more value. And it can do this because it doesn’t feel as much pressure to price its fitness watches competitively as other brands.

Garmin users like its ecosystem too much — or are too invested in it — to leave. And so Garmin accepts the negative press around Connect+ paywalled features and price-locks the coolest new features because its loyal customers will pay $750 or more for them, even if they grumble about it.

If you think the Forerunner 970 and 570 are too expensive, then at least you know the last-gen Garmin watches are still available — and discounted for Memorial Day, so a Forerunner 965 costs $50 less than the 570.

Otherwise, we have to accept this new normal with new Garmin watches.

Investors look to Warren Buffett for guidance because he’s proven he can weather any market storm. That’s even earned him the nickname the Oracle of Omaha (his hometown), as over time, he’s generally made just the right moves at just the right time. A recent example: Buffett sold positions in S&P 500 index funds in the fourth quarter, locking in gains before the benchmark went on to decline.

This top investor doesn’t look into a crystal ball when planning his moves, but instead considers key elements like valuation. And the index’s shift into one of its most expensive periods ever may have helped prompt him to hit the “sell” button on the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust in the quarter.

Of course, Buffett isn’t one to stand up and comment on the situation with each market movement. But over the years, the billionaire has offered many thoughts on his strategy, the market, and investing in general. For example, we know he appreciates quality companies trading for reasonable prices; we also know he doesn’t go for trends, and favors holding stocks for the long term.

Over the years, Buffett has repeated one particular idea several times, in different ways. This resounding message to Wall Street couldn’t be clearer, and it may change the way you see the market and invest right now. Let’s listen in.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

A changing investing environment

First, though, let’s take a quick look at the recent investing environment. Stocks soared over the past two years on optimism about a lower-interest-rate environment ahead, and the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform how work is done. Lower rates offer companies an easier path to growth — and AI has been seen as a technology that could unlock efficiency, cost savings, and more for companies.

All of this drove stocks to one of their most expensive levels ever as measured by the S&P 500 Shiller CAPE ratio, a metric that considers stock price and earnings over a 10-year period to adjust for shifts in the economy. It reached a level of 35, something it’s only done twice before since the S&P 500 launched as a 500-company index in the 1950s.

S&P 500 Shiller CAPE Ratio data by YCharts.

However, stocks have recently retreated on concerns that President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imports will hurt companies’ earnings and the general economy. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both slipped into correction territory earlier this month, though the S&P 500 has since exited the correction zone.

Two key Buffett quotes

Now let’s turn to Buffett’s message to Wall Street, one that he’s repeated over the years. Two quotes in particular express it:

“The best chance to deploy capital is when things are going down,” he once said. And, in a letter to shareholders in the 1980s, Buffett wrote that he and his team at Berkshire Hathaway aim to “be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”

This message is particularly interesting right now, amid market declines. You may be asking yourself whether now is really a good time to buy stocks — as stocks and indexes slip, investing may seem scary. What if you buy a stock today and it falls even more tomorrow?

But Buffett tells us that times like these are actually the best moments to get in on the market. Why is this? Because as stocks fall, so do their valuations. As a result, some of the recently beaten-down players will offer you wonderful opportunities. This is the time to “be greedy … when others are fearful.”

Cheap tech stocks

For example, well-established technology stocks with bright future prospects — such as Nvidia (NVDA -1.51%) and Meta Platforms (META -4.22%) — have seen their shares drop into bargain territory. Today, Nvidia trades for 25 times forward earnings estimates, and Meta for 24. These could be fantastic buys for growth investors.

And even if the stock you buy today falls further in the coming days, that’s OK. When you hold on for the long term — and that’s the best way to invest — near-term fluctuations won’t crush your returns.

So now you may be wondering if Buffett, too, has been buying stocks in recent days. The billionaire was a net seller of stocks last year as the market soared, but it’s too early to know what moves he’s been making since the start of 2025. We’ll have to wait for his 13F filing in May for that information.

That said, he isn’t known for making rash decisions or jumping into something on a whim — so we may not see a sharp turnaround, with Buffett scooping up stocks like hotcakes. His words don’t mean that he piles into stocks during every market downturn. They just mean that during these times, he expects to find more opportunities to get in on quality stocks at the right price than he would in soaring markets.

All of this may ease your mind as you watch the indexes fluctuate these days. Buffett’s words may inspire you to seize this moment, and instead of fleeing the market, to look for smart buys that may boost your portfolio over time.

Bitcoin (BTC) has remained locked in a tight trading range of $91,000 to $102,000 for the past 81 days, reflecting traders waiting for clearer macroeconomic signals before making decisive moves, according to Bitfinex.

The firm’s latest Alpha report highlighted that BTC has shown little directional momentum despite escalating global geopolitical tensions. Its weekly performance posted only a modest 4.3% peak-to-trough movement and closed with a slight 0.82% gain.

This period of stagnation has also impacted altcoins, many of which have struggled amid uncertainty. The broader altcoin market has significantly underperformed Bitcoin, with meme coins like PEPE suffering dramatic losses — declining 46.4% over the past month.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price stability suggests that capital flows away from altcoins and into the leading crypto, further reinforcing its role as the dominant digital asset.

Altcoins tank

The global altcoin market cap has dropped by $234 billion in just 14 days. Despite this downturn, Bitcoin has held relatively steady, signaling a growing divergence between the flagship crypto and the rest of the market. 

According to the report, this trend highlights Bitcoin’s increasing correlation with macroeconomic conditions and its maturation as a risk asset.

Another crucial indicator, the Inter-Exchange Flow Pulse (IFP), turned bearish on Feb. 15 for the first time since June 2024. This shift suggests that traders may be reducing their risk exposure, potentially leading to further downside pressure. 

However, the IFP remains above its 90-day moving average, leaving room for a potential market rebound.

Realized losses

Despite the choppy price action, Bitcoin investors have recorded some of the largest realized losses of the current bull market cycle.

Short-term holders (STHs) have been particularly affected. The cohort realized $520 million in losses, mirroring levels seen in previous market pullbacks.

Meanwhile, Long-term holders (LTHs) have continued to hold their positions, reinforcing the sentiment that Bitcoin’s consolidation phase is a natural correction within an ongoing bull market.

While bullish catalysts, such as Abu Dhabi’s investment in BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), have provided some support, traders remain wary.

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