Garmin's Vivoactive 3 provided a solid alternative to the Fitbit Ionic and the Apple Watch last year, but it lacked one big feature: onboard music storage. At CES, Garmin announced its first wearable with space to save music you could listen to without your smartphone present: the $450 Forerunner 645 Music.

The Forerunner 645 Music has 3.5GB of storage that can hold approximately 500 songs, which is more than the Fitbit Ionic's 300 song limit. The 645 Music can pair with Bluetooth earbuds and also supports music transferred from a computer or a music streaming service. According to Garmin, paid subscribers of iHeartRadio's streaming service can download saved playlists to the Forerunner 645 Music (Garmin plans on supporting other music streaming services in the future, but iHeartRadio is the first).

The device will also support downloaded playlists (of DRM-free music only) from iTunes and Windows Media Player. Garmin Express, the company's desktop application for device setup and syncing, will be the gateway to transferring music from your PC to the Forerunner 645 Music.

It's almost shocking that Garmin hasn't made a wearable with onboard music storage before. Many of its wearables, including all of those in the Forerunner family, are built for serious runners and athletes. Typically, space for saved music is demanded by those groups because they want to exercise without their smartphones weighing them down.

However, mainstream wearables have only recently included onboard music storage. Fitbit's new Ionic smartwatch is the first and only Fitbit device to store music. The Apple Watch has been able to save music locally for a few years now, which isn't shocking considering Apple's history with the music industry. But only the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE can stream music from Apple Music using data, even when your phone isn't with you.

None of Garmin's devices has standalone LTE access, but the onboard storage will be a welcome addition for users who have wanted a wearable that can replace their smartphone for short periods of time. Garmin plans to release two nearly identical Forerunners: the regular 645 (without music storage) and the 645 Music. Both Forerunners have built-in GPS and heart-rate sensors, as well as NFC capabilities for Garmin Pay.

Garmin launched its contactless payment system last year with the Vivoactive 3. The system currently supports Visa and MasterCard and will support some banks in the future. The Vivoactive 3, while a solid device, felt a bit out of place when compared to the Fitbit Ionic, the Apple Watch, and Android Wear watches. It only had Garmin Pay and no onboard music storage. Those two features go hand in hand to support runners and other athletes who want to listen to music while they exercise and pay for a coffee on the way home even though they left their smartphones and wallets at home.

Both Forerunner 645 models (musical and non-musical) track a bunch of activity and daily movement data, support a plethora of sport profiles, and can connect to the Garmin Connect IQ store to download watch faces, widgets, data fields, and other programs. The devices will also deliver all your smartphone alerts to your wrist, and Android users can even respond to text messages directly from the watch. Garmin claims the Forerunner 645 Music will last seven days in smartwatch mode or up to five hours in GPS mode with music.

The Forerunner 645 Music is in a better position to compete with the Apple Watch thanks to the addition of onboard storage. However, its $449 starting price makes it more expensive than the base Apple Watch Series 3 model. The Forerunner 645 sans music storage starts at $399, and both devices are available now.