I had the Garmin 205 from Oct 2008 until Dec 2010. It worked fantastic and I loved it. When the Garmin 405 CX went on sale for more than half price in December 2010, I decided to upgrade. I'm rather ambivalent about the upgrade.

If the 405 CX was my first GPS running watch, I'd be happy with it. Was it worth paying another couple hundred for when I already had a perfectly functional running watch? Not really.

The 405 CX is more watch size, but still a little large to wear as a regular watch. It is also lighter than the 205. The battery life is 2 weeks in power save mode, so you can just turn the bezel off and wear it as a watch. It is only 8 hours in training mode. The battery is a rechargable litium-ion batter, and a charging cord comes with it. It can be charged on a computer or on an outlet.

The 405CX has a touch bezel, which is the dial around the screen. By touching with a single finger you activate the watch and move through the menu. I found this a bit of a learning curve at first. When you read reviews saying how the bezel is difficult to use, believe them. A double touch turns the light on and off. You can lock the bezel, which is convenient. 

The 405CX includes a heart monitor, which requires some set-up and I never could get to work. It includes a dongle for syncing wirelessly with your computer, and access to myGarmin website. 

You can manipulate the watch for auto pause, auto lap, courses (previous runs), creating custom goal-oriented workouts, pace alerts, time/distance alerts, interval training, heart-rate based calorie consumption, and customizable screen. Many of these are particularly helpful for people running to lose weight or training for a race. 

Overall, I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a first GPS watch or worth the upgrade. Since it is no longer being sold, I suppose that doesn't matter. If you can find it cheap, it may be worth getting for the runner interested in weight loss or training features. 

Recommended: Yes