Watches · Garmin

Vivoactive 5

The budget AMOLED that quietly became one of the most common Garmins on real wrists, and the single most common home for our faces. Small, light, and it runs the same Connect IQ faces as watches three times the price.

The display, per variant

The single most important fact about any Garmin for watch faces: what screen it has. AMOLED renders faces in full color; always-on display is the main battery decision.

VariantDisplayResolutionCharacter
Vivoactive 5 (42 mm)AMOLED390 × 390bright AMOLED

Changing the face on the Vivoactive 5

Hold the touchscreen, then select Watch Face, swipe, tap to apply. New faces come from the Connect IQ store app on your phone; the install guide covers that end, and the per-model switching guide covers every other Garmin.

Our faces on the Vivoactive 5

Ours, so we are biased; every claim below is verifiable on the store page.

Quipu watch face

Quipu

Vivoactive 5 is the number-one device among Quipu owners in our stats.

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Tessera watch face

Tessera

Fully supported.

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Tessera+ watch face

Tessera+

Fully supported.

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Tifo watch face

Tifo

Fully supported.

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Beyond ours: the full catalogue for this watch lives in the Connect IQ store.

Frequently asked

Do premium watch faces run worse on a budget Garmin?
No. The Vivoactive 5 runs the same Connect IQ platform with the same face memory budget as a Fenix 8. A well-built face is indistinguishable across them; the price difference buys sports features and materials, not face quality.
How many data fields can a face show on the Vivoactive 5?
As many as the face is designed for; the platform does not limit it. Our Quipu shows up to a dozen metrics at once on this display, all readable, because the layout was designed at this exact resolution.

Last verified: 2026-07-18 · SDK 9.1.0 device data + our face manifests