'Garmin actually want their devices to break in these labs' I went to
Garmin's closely guarded Kansas HQ to find out why its watches are so expensive

Date:
Tue, 27 Jan 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Description:
From brutal stress tests to a robot-run warehouse, heres what surprised me 'behind the scenes' at Garmins home in Kansas City.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

When people talk Garmin, its usually about one thing the best running
watches . And sure, thats the bit most of us see. You buy a Forerunner or a Fenix, sync it to the Connect app, and then spend the next few years being a bit too smug about battery life, especially when your friends complain about their Apple Watches dying after a day.

But when I was invited to Garmins HQ in Olathe, Kansas for a media tour to coincide with the surprise launch of the new Forerunner series last year, I was excited to see behind the scenes. As a smartwatch enthusiast, it was like a golden ticket straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .

Ill admit, I was expecting the usual checklist of activities a trip like this brings: product demos, a few executive chats, and a polite tour of a shiny office. And while there was still plenty of that, what I didnt expect was
just how much of Garmins wider operations I'd be privy to, including the unglamorous, behind-the-scenes bits most runners dont even know exist.

And while not every part of the tour delivered the juicy, headline-grabbing stuff journalists always hope for, it did offer some genuinely surprising insight into a brand that builds expensive things and they're built to last, unlike most smart technology, not just to the next upgrade cycle. Here are three of my biggest takeaways from the trip. 1. Garmin tests all its watches in-house to breaking point

The highlight of the tour for me wasnt a shiny new watch reveal, it was the testing labs. Not because theyre glamorous (theyre really not), but because they explain why Garmin owners tend to have the same device for ages.

It was quite amusing to hear how Garmin actually want their devices to break in these labs. But the point is, it really helps them understand why failures happen, so they can fix them before a product goes to market. A wall of labelled Garmin wearables in the test area, basically a grab-and-go reference library, so engineers can pull specific models quickly for checks,
comparisons and lab work (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

The guide explained that the whole point of this kind of testing is to get ahead of potential field failures as early as possible in development, then keep rerunning tests as the design matures. They would much rather a
prototype to fall apart in a lab than for a retail unit to die halfway
through a user's triathlon, which makes complete sense.

The variety of tests happening in those labs was also quite impressive. I was shown specially-made chambers for cold, heat, humidity and UV-style weathering, designed to accelerate the kind of slow damage that normally manifests after months of sun, sweat and winter runs.

There are also salt fog chambers for corrosion, including one that cycles exposure to mimic real-world conditions, and chemical testing for the stuff people actually get on wearables, such as artificial sweat, sunscreen, and even nastier things like fuel and transmission fluid. One of Garmins
vibration shaker rigs, used to mimic the constant rattling and impacts
devices face in the real world, so weak points show up in the lab instead of on your wrist (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

Then theres the physical abuse the wearables undergo. Drop testing is a
given, but Garmin uses rigs that can orient a device so it lands exactly on a specific point (like a button) over and over, with high-speed footage so they can watch what fails in slow motion.

Cycle tests make up a big part of the testing, too, where parts get actuated thousands of times like straps stretching repeatedly, buttons being
hammered, or mechanisms being worked until something gives. Its not just
about whether it can survive a fall, but if it can survive being used how a normal person would, repeatedly, over months, years, and maybe even decades.

I wasn't allowed to take photos in this area, annoyingly (but
understandably), but what I will say is that experiencing it left a stronger impression than any product slide deck did that entire trip. Its also the
sort of thing that makes Garmins, err, premium pricing a bit easier to swallow. You might still wince at the cost, but at least you can see where some of that money is going. 2. Garmin's enormous warehouse is basically a super-advanced robot motorway

If the test lab is where Garmin proves its products durability, the companys warehouse is where it showcases scale. This area was unbelievably huge but it wasnt just its size that surprised me, it was seeing everything that happens here.

Its definitely not the sexy side of tech, but I got to see how the company ensures you get your watch quickly, handles returns efficiently, and how much (or little) waste gets created along the way. One of the main warehouse buildings on Garmins Olathe campus - the scale that makes you realise how serious the company is about making and distributing its kit in-house. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

The warehouse operation is perhaps the most impressive, since its absolutely packed with automation, employing towering machines and robots that shuttle products around so that staff arent constantly trekking up and down endless aisles or stairs.

The guide here explained that the warehouse robots follow set routes, drive underneath a mobile storage rack, lock into its base and lift it slightly, then carry the whole rack to wherever its needed, all directed by tablet requests from staff and cutting out a ton of pointless walking. Image 1 of 3
A birds-eye look at the fulfilment floor, with pallets, packing stations and endless racking. This is where watches stop being products and start being thousands of parcels that need to leave the building fast. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell) Image 2 of 3 One of the automated sections mid-flow, with tote bins feeding the line. This is the kind of setup that helps Garmin hit big daily shipping volumes without it turning into chaos. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell) Image 3 of 3 Conveyor lines and sorting lanes everywhere, basically a motorway system for boxes. Its all built to keep things moving with minimal human handling and fewer bottlenecks. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

The most oddly satisfying bit, though, was the packaging line. Theres a machine that measures the height of whats in a box, scores the cardboard, folds it down, glues it, and basically trims the packaging to fit.

That doesnt sound like a big deal until you remember that shipping is based
on size as well as weight. When stacked together, those small savings in
space really add up, meaning Garmin is saving emissions by not paying to send a load of air, resulting in fewer trips.

All this automation and efficiency is highly advanced, and might explain
where some of those high asking prices are going. The Garmin badge on the
side of the huge warehouse building - not exactly subtle. Standing here, its hard not to get the sense youre at an engineering campus, not just the home
of running watches. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell) 3. Garmin's aviation roots mean reliability is its cornerstone

So heres the part I really didnt expect just how much of Garmins DNA is ingrained in other industries like aviation, not just fitness, and how that feeds into our fitness watches.

On the tour, Garmin's ties to aviation were flaunted as one of its foundational areas something the early team was apparently deeply rooted in. And they spoke about it with the kind of pride you normally hear when brands talk about their hero product category, and not just some side business-to-business side hustle. Garmins aviation side in the flesh, a
proper aircraft sitting in a hangar on the same trip where wed been talking about Forerunners. A reminder that this brands roots go way beyond fitness. (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

They walked me through the sort of systems Garmin builds into aircraft, from big cockpit displays, sensors, GPS, comms, even connectivity for keeping databases up to date, so pilots arent manually fussing with backgrounds while in the air.

There was also a lot of emphasis on flight control tech such as autopilot systems and safety features, including a one-button emergency function that can take over, communicate, pick a landing location and bring the aircraft down safely if something goes wrong.

They even took us up in the air in some of their planes (yes, they have their own hangar) to show us how it all worked, which wasnt terrifying in the slightest A flight simulator demo on campus, showing how Garmin tests and trains in the aviation world, too (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

Obviously, this is all worlds away from a Forerunner buzzing your wrist because youve drifted out of the Zone 2 heart rate zone, but it does explain that Garmin is obsessed with reliability in situations where failure isnt
just annoying, its dangerous. Whether you're in the air or out in the wilderness, tech needs to be reliable. And this for me helps reframe the conversation around how expensive Garmin devices can be.

I now see Garmin as not just a brand that just makes good-quality wearables, but one that builds serious navigation and control systems, and then brings some of that mindset and engineering culture into its consumer gadgets. Looking back at Garmins very own hangar from the aircraft, which we were just about to take off in (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

All of the above made the campus feel less like a running watch HQ and more like a weirdly broad tech empire with fitness, outdoors, aviation, marine,
and automotive all under one roof, which, I must admit, gave me some serious Apple HQ vibes .

I flew there thinking I was covering a sports watch launch and came away with a totally different perspective on the brand. That the reason Garmin kit
feels so dependable isnt just the watches themselves, its the fact its a capable engineering company built around building complicated navigational tech extremely well. Garmin CEO, Cliff Pemble, on stage before the tours began, talking up Forerunners long history and setting the tone for a trip that would be more than just a product launch (Image credit: Future: Lee
Bell)

So, if youre about to buy your next Garmin, it's probably worth remembering these three things: the watches are tested in genuinely brutal ways; the logistics operation is far more advanced than most people realise; and the companys serious engineering roots run much deeper than fitness.

That doesnt mean Garmin is perfect, but its devices not only stands the test of time, but they also tend to make day-to-day training feel smoother and
more reliable, which is the sort of thing thats hard to give up once youre used to it. A first proper hands-on with the Forerunner 570 during the surprise launch, which was all about Garmin making its mid-range running
watch line a bit more premium (Image credit: Future: Lee Bell)

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/garmin-actually-want-their-devices-to -break-in-these-labs-i-went-to-garmins-closely-guarded-kansas-hq-to-find-out-w hy-its-watches-are-so-expensive


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