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Fitness encompasses a host of activities: walking, running, golfing, climbing — all with different metrics to track. The best fitness watch or fitness tracker is one that supplements your workout regime, tracks the data, and fits with your lifestyle.
Our experts have been strapping on fitness watches of all kinds for close to a decade now, testing more than 45 of the best fitness watches and pulling together the best for every situation in this guide. These watches have been tested using standardized methods for comparing sensor accuracy, battery life, functionality, durability, and fit.
Beyond that, we’ve also taken these watches everywhere — from the summits of volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest to the depths of the canyonlands of Utah — and pushed these devices to the limit to see what breaks.
Besides our own personal testing, our resident fitness coach reached out to the clients he trains and other athletes for their insights and spent hours reading online reviews. We read spec sheets and compared them across brands and models.
Below are the best fitness watches, GPS watches, and fitness trackers based on our testing. To help you find the best fitness watch for your unique needs, we’ve included a buyer’s guide, a frequently asked questions section, and a comparison chart.
Editor’s Note: We updated our Fitness Watch guide on May 24, 2024, to add the new Suunto Race — easily the best watch the brand has ever made. A new AMOLED screen differentiates it from the Vertical, along with a handful of other smart updates.
For fitness addicts and adventure professionals, the Garmin fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar ($900) is just dang hard to beat. It features advanced health monitoring, in-depth performance metrics, and over 80 activity profiles including surfing, backcountry skiing, golf, inline skating, and so much more. The tough-as-nails Power Sapphire screen is just the icing on the cake — resisting scratching even while rock climbing, and keeping your wrist-mounted companion going for days and days.
The five-button layout on the fenix 7 Pro is intuitive and programmable, and the touchscreen adds versatility for quickly blasting through menus. The transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) display allows you to see the screen in the sunlight, and gives this watch impressive battery life (stats claim up to 18 days in smartwatch mode or 22 with solar, testing proved this to be accurate). And for those who like touchscreen controls, this watch allowed that too; with the fenix 7 Pro, if you like touchscreen, it’s there, and if not, you still have buttons.
Features such as training load and status, recovery time, endurance score, and HRV status help users plan and keep track of training efforts and performance. Those 80 activity profiles certainly got put to use in our testing as well, and we worked through everything from whitewater paddling to climbing and backcountry skiing. Each displays data sets unique to the activity at hand, meaning you’ve got your strokes-per-minute while paddling, and number of pitches while climbing.
Many activity modes feature navigation with maps preloaded on the fenix 7 Pro, or choose Navigate or Map to view maps without being in an activity mode. Preloaded workouts can also be used or use Garmin Coach to customize workouts for you. Our testing showed that watch-recommended workouts did adjust well based on use and ability. Unique features like ClimbPro help users adjust effort based on upcoming ascents.
You can also expect all the standard run, swim, cycle, and hike GPS watch features, and others, such as music storage (supports Spotify, Amazon, and Deezer) and Garmin Pay. The Garmin fenix 7 Pro Sapphire Solar comes in three different case sizes (42mm, 47mm, 51mm) and features several other options for screen type with/without solar, depending on your needs. For just about anything you want to do with it, the fenix 7 Pro is up to the task.
Our climbing, cycling, and fitness editor has been using the watch for all his daily activities, and the capabilities and performance of the watch impressed him. His favorite features, however, are not related to active modes, which the fenix Pro Sapphire Solar handled almost without peer.
What enamored our hard-to-please editor was the lifestyle functions. The morning report was an excellent and non-invasive reminder of the day’s tasks and training, while the sleep tracking functions were accurate (compared to a Whoop and tracking bed) and usable.
Another outstanding attribute was the extremely long battery life. It depended on how much GPS the editor used, but with almost daily sun exposure of over an hour, he could go weeks without recharging.
You’re going to have a hard time finding a more feature-packed GPS watch at this price point. A line-by-line comparison of features to Garmin, Polar, or Suunto watches would suggest a $300 price point, so $229 for the COROS Pace 3 is a steal. There are some sacrifices you’ll make for such a stunning price point, but we’ll get to that later.
Freshly updated, the Pace 3 builds on the shoulders of our previously awarded Pace 2, but jams in an impressive new slate of features — namely, a redesigned chipset that adds Dual Frequency reception, a more accurate heart rate monitor, on-device music storage, and maybe most impressive of all: an added 8 hours of battery life. All this adds up to a watch that seems like it should command much more than the price it does, and it does it all well.
Let’s start with that dual-frequency tech. Normally seen on higher-end watches like the Garmin fenix 7 Pro, Garmin Forerunner 965, Suunto Vertical, and COROS Apex 2 Pro, this functionality siphons up satellite location information from multiple generations of GNSS systems, meaning the Pace 3 has a higher fidelity view in areas where location tracking has typically suffered, such as in dense cities or canyons.
When Senior Editor Nick Belcaster tested this watch side-by-side with other peer watches not running dual-frequency, he found the Pace 3 holding tight to the trail when he wove in and out of dense old-growth — while the other watches dropped out.
COROS also raided their tech closet and souped up the Pace 3 with the same next-generation heart rate monitor that the Apex series sports, and squeezed in a 236 mAH battery, which adds an additional 8 hours of run time in the standard GPS mode. That 38-hour run time is longer than any of the Garmin Forerunner line, and the watch does so while also only weighing 1 gram more than the previous Pace 2. Impressive.
So what’s been left off? For one, you’ll need to contend with the lesser glass in the screen, which is a scratch-resistant (read: not scratch-proof) Corning glass, as well as the polymer bezel, which won’t be indestructible. The mapping functionality, while easy to use, is a bit limited and lacks the detail of many mid-tier watches. And finally, it’s tough to match the fitness and workout planning metrics and tools that the Garmin ecosystem brings to the table, but COROS has made big improvements as of late.
Sliding in at an impressive $229 (only $30 more than the previous iteration), the COROS Pace 3 is nigh impossible to deny for the price. This is a watch that touts many of the same features of watches that demand hundreds more, and is very likely the best watch available currently for anyone looking to dip their toe into the fitness watch game.
While other giant-bezel watches can cram in more longevity, when it comes to a watch that is a common-sense size, has all the bells and whistles, and still trudges on with incredible battery life, the COROS Apex 2 Pro ($449) ticks all of our boxes for the best mid-tier fitness watch available today.
Newly updated, the Apex line from COROS is its middle-of-the-road offering, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at it. Within the 46mm bezel is the full complement of activity tracking profiles, ABC (altimeter, barometer, compass) sensors, and antenna for a newly expanded five Global Navigation Satellite Systems.
Compared to the Apex 2, the Pro version got an extra infusion of satellite tech in the form of a Dual-Frequency chipset, which during recent testing we found made a tangible difference in old-growth forests and canyons. It also bumps up the internal storage from 8 GB to 32 GB, and tacked on even more battery life.
When put to the test, we verified that the Apex 2 Pro simply goes and goes. At a stated (and confirmed) 75 hours of battery life in the GPS-only mode, this watch can’t be touched by watches of the same size when it comes to longevity. Other watches, like the Garmin fenix 7 Pro Solar, can eke out more time by utilizing the sun, but command much more wrist real estate comparatively.
And while Garmin has consistently led the pack in terms of efficient app integration, we can now say that COROS has caught up. The COROS app is an enjoyable interface to use, and does an excellent job of displaying our recorded activities, tracks, and daily stats such as active energy, heart rate, and sleep metrics.
So, how could the Apex 2 Pro be better? For one: we did find ourselves missing the helpful fitness stats, reports, and workouts that exist in the Garmin ecosystem. Garmin has made a big push toward synthesizing all of the data their fitness watches soak up, and we do wish that COROS will make the same pivot. Beyond that, in the age of mega-bright AMOLED screens, the colors of the Apex 2 Pro were a bit muted compared to watches of a similar caliber.
Ideal for the adventurer or fitness devotee who wants it all without carrying a calculator on their wrist, the COROS Apex 2 Pro lands as just about the perfect balance in our books.
Read Review: COROS APEX 2 Pro Review: This Sports Watch Sets Benchmark for Battery Life
Updated in 2023, the Garmin Forerunner 265 ($450) makes some huge strides on its predecessor. The updated AMOLED touchscreen is the big news here, and after use, we can say that the hype is definitely real. The colors are rich, the blacks deep, and the touchscreen is easy to maneuver. And that’s not even the half of it on this running-specific timepiece.
Like the other watches in the Forerunner series, the 265 aims to be your perfect workout partner — taking in training and health data and producing suggested custom workouts that angle to get you in shape for just about anything. Running is the big deal on the 265, but there are also activity profiles for just about anything you’re looking to get into.
On the wrist, the Forerunner 265 is quite comfortable — owed largely to the polymer case and silicone band. We found that during our test runs that the properly cinched-down watch wasn’t going anywhere, and didn’t inhibit us in any way. When it comes to moving through the menus, the new touchscreen is a smooth operator, and easily breezes you through where you’re looking to go.
When it comes to everyday use the 265 does provide a few niceties like Garmin Pay, but don’t get it twisted, this is definitely a sport watch first. For the runner who wants to lean into their training, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is a bleeding-edge option with the tech to back it up.
Apple is the best-selling smartwatch worldwide, and it’s clear why — it’s undeniably the best smartwatch (not GPS watch; we’ll get to that later) on the market. Everyone we spoke with who had one gave glowing reviews. “After literally decades of not trying a smartwatch, I recently bought an Apple Watch. I love it,” said one initial skeptic.
Now tuned for the outdoors and fitness market, the new Apple Watch Ultra ($799) is upgraded to take on the rough and tumble in your day-to-day, and boasts a larger 49mm titanium case, brighter 2,000 nits screen, increased water resistance (up to 100 m), and an extended 36-hour battery life. You’re obviously going to pay for all those upgrades, but we’re convinced that it’s well worth it.
As with all the watches tested, the Apple Watch Ultra can track sleep, steps, and calories and puts it in an easy-to-understand format. Further sports integration offers up structured workouts in nearly everything from running to swimming to strength training and kickboxing.
These modes can be customized (choose your warm-up and recovery periods, etc.), and logs most all of the metrics we’ve come to expect in a fitness watch, such as heart rate, pace, distance, elevation, and more. For runs after work or a weekend strength training session, the Ultra has everything we need.
Having coached many runners who wear an Apple Watch, our resident trainer can say two things with certainty: The GPS is not great, and the battery life just isn’t there to compete with flagship watches. But now that the Ultra version brings on board a multi-GNSS chipset with multi-band technology, the location reception is tack sharp and on par with the rest of the field high-end watches, such as the Garmin fenix 7 Pro and COROS Apex 2 Pro.
The battery life issue, however, continues to be a ding, and with Apple’s large 49 mm always-on AMOLED screen, it’s tough to squeeze much more out of it without compromising greatly on functionality. While the battery life of the Apple Watch Ultra is given as 35 hours in normal smartwatch mode, that number goes down to about 12 hours in GPS tracking mode.
Still, if daily convenience and smartwatch features take precedence over a detailed fitness activity, the Apple Watch Ultra is for you. One big caveat — it only works with iPhones. If you don’t have an iPhone, we suggest the Garmin Venu 2 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. Both are similarly focused on fitness tracking while offering a wide array of apps and smartwatch features. But for the MacBook crowd, the Apple Watch Ultra is an easy go-to.
Read Review: Apple Watch Ultra Review: Silicon Valley’s Best Smartwatch Dropped, Drowned, and Frozen
Adorning the wrists of workout enthusiasts everywhere, the Fitbit Charge 6 ($150) takes the crown for the best fitness tracker. The sixth iteration is less expensive than the fifth when it was introduced and features a few useful upgrades.
The Charge 6 reintroduces the haptic side button to the Charge line of trackers, which brings you back to the main screen when pressed. It also has a slightly curved AMOLED touchscreen, and battery life lasts up to 7 days — the perfect tracker to wear all week.
An optical heart-rate monitor for 24/7 monitoring is standard and provides accurate calorie-burn calculations, sleep and stress data, and heart-rate zones for working out. It tracks daily steps, calories burned, and active minutes to help you make informed health decisions based on hard data.
The Charge 6 has 40+ different sports modes for tracking, including running, walking, biking and swimming, HIIT, yoga, skiing, surfing, indoor climbing, and golf. If you’re looking for finer details such as cadence, power, or rep-counting for weight training, you’re out of luck — one of our most notable issues with the Fitbit. A built-in GPS tracker allows you to go without your smartphone during an outdoor workout.
The Fitbit Charge 6 also now connects with third-party platforms such as Peloton, NordicTrack, and Tonal to integrate heart rate data with your workouts.
A few bonus features not usually seen on trackers are the ability to get notifications (call, text, email, and calendar), control YouTube Music (since Fitbit was purchased by Google, Spotify is no longer controllable on Fitbit devices) use Google Maps and Google Pay. If you don’t need these features and you’re OK carrying your phone during activities that require GPS (such as walking, running, and cycling), we suggest the cheaper Fitbit Luxe.
Decked out with reception for the GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo satellite navigation systems, you’d think that the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar ($450) may well sprout an antenna array when in use. Couple that with its altimeter, barometer, and compass functionalities, and you have a wrist-bound information vacuum that we’d take on any remote adventure.
The newly updated Instinct 2X got an infusion of new features, including new multi-frequency GNSS reception across the GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo systems, as well as an LED flashlight that can be deployed for close-quarters work. And that’s not to mention the most exciting shift of all: an updated watch face that incorporates a new version of Garmin’s Power Glass and harvests 50% more solar energy than the previous version — keeping you off the charging cord for longer.
Garmin claims a respectable 40 days of power when in smartwatch mode, which then becomes theoretically unlimited (!) when the solar panel is in play. Functionally, this will greatly depend upon your time outside and under direct sunlight, but it’s a bold shift toward total off-grid use.
We greatly appreciated the bevy of smart fitness features that Garmin was able to pack into this device, going beyond simple data and into a synthesis of things like Body Battery Energy monitoring, or tracking intensity minutes across a day.
There are a few concessions to hit the price point, such as an unremovable strap and plastic watch body, but the styling is dialed as with most Garmin watches, and with a little more care we expect the Instinct 2X to last as long as the rest.
With many of the bells and whistles we enjoyed in the Garmin fenix 7 Pro Solar, but in a smaller and cheaper package, the Instinct 2X Solar lives on our wrist when we’ve got a long and far day ahead of us.
Read Review: The Fitness-Tracking, Light-Shining, Do-It-All Smartwatch: Garmin’s Instinct 2X Solar Review
The Garmin Forerunner 745 ($500) is one of Garmin’s best running and triathlon watches, pinned between the pricier Forerunner 965 and the less expensive Forerunner 265. In terms of design, the 745 finds a perfect balance of size, weight, and materials, and easily lands as the most feature-rich fitness watch of the year.
It’s sleek and light without feeling cheap. It’s less bulky than the pricier Forerunner 965 and fenix 7 Pro and higher quality than the less expensive Forerunner 55 and 265. The 1.2-inch sunlight-visible, transflective, memory-in-pixel display is bright and easy to read in direct sunlight — the best of all the watches tested. Top that with crisp button action that makes navigating and viewing during your workout a breeze.
The 745 comes standard with all the features you would expect from an advanced GPS watch: built-in sport profiles with easy-to-scroll-through, customizable data fields; 21-hour battery life in continuous GPS tracking mode; pre-programmable workouts with customizable training zones; a wrist-based heart-rate monitor; and health tracking.
More advanced features you won’t find on most watches include phone notifications, a pulse ox sensor to measure blood oxygen saturation levels, 500-song music storage, auto pool swim stroke detection, and compatibility with Garmin cycling power meters.
You’ll also have access to Garmin training and coaching, which uses its health readings and workout data to give you actionable insights into recovery, training load, and performance readiness.
Our only dismay lies in the battery life — which is a little subpar for a watch of this price point at seven days in smartwatch mode and 21 hours in GPS mode. This will limit you to about one full day of GPS use in between charges, which without an easy-to-access outlet might mean bringing along a separate battery pack.
Bottom line: If you’re looking for a do-it-all premium sports watch for swim, bike, and road running with some smartwatch capabilities, the Garmin Forerunner 745 is the clear winner.
Suunto has jettisoned itself squarely among the leaders in the GPS watch world with the new Vertical ($629-839), a watch that hits almost all the marks when it comes to a feature-packed wearable with plenty of horsepower under the hood.
The Vertical salves all of the things that didn’t quite make the grade for us with the Suunto 9 Peak Pro (still an excellent watch, read below), including brightening up the screen, adding Wi-Fi, and incorporating dual-band GNSS reception, and really cements itself as a true flagship watch — landing among the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Solar, and COROS Vertix 2.
Then there’s the new mapping functionality, something that Suunto hasn’t incorporated into a device since their Suunto 7 watch. The company has obviously taken the time to perfect it as well, because in the Vertical it’s an excellent rendition.
From the Suunto app, users are able to download (for free) shaded topographic maps for essentially the entire globe — directly onto the watch. These maps are sufficiently detailed for phone-free navigation, and can have routes uploaded to them from the app for course-making on the go.
And if all that wasn’t enough, Suunto also was able to boost its battery numbers by a substantial amount over the 9 Peak Pro, stretching the life in ‘Performance’ (all systems go) mode to an impressive 60 hours. We tested the Titanium Solar version of the watch, which leverages a solar watch face to juice up the Vertical on the go. This added feature will cost you (to the tune of $210), but it greatly extends your untethered time.
While the Vertical does not have any music-storing abilities on the device (a functionality the Garmin Fenix 7Pro boasts), it can control the music playing from your phone. This is a small ding in an otherwise iron-clad GPS watch, and the Suunto Vertical would be an excellent timepiece for anyone who lives on the cutting edge.
Read Review: Sunny Suunto: ‘Vertical’ Sports Watch Gets Solar Charging, Offline Maps
The Polar Vantage V3 ($600) is once again one of our preferred picks for running, even in a field dominated by Garmin. It’s not as jam-packed with features as most Garmins, but what it does offer it does very well — especially heart-rate monitoring.
The biggest new feature since the last model is the addition of offline topographic maps, bringing this watch closer in features to a Garmin adventure-focused watch. It also features over 150 customizable sports profiles.
In addition, the battery life has been extended to 61 hours in continuous GPS mode with the option of 140 hours in battery-saver mode. The screen has been updated to an AMOLED display. Sensors for SpO2, ECG, OHR, and skin temperature have been added to the Vantage V3.
Like all watches, you get training and recovery insights based on your unique physiological data to help you make more informed decisions about when to push and recover. It comes with built-in, step-by-step running and cycling performance tests to establish training zones via heart rate, speed, and power (meter required for cycling), as well as test recovery.
If you’re a Strava Segment-hunter, the watch will notify you as you approach your starred Segments and give real-time performance data so you can crush your Segment PRs.
Polar Precision Prime sensor fusion technology “combines optical heart-rate measurement with other sensor technologies to rule out involuntary movement that might disturb the heart-rate signal and produce unreliable readings.”
We weren’t, however, as impressed with the Polar Flow app that is used to sync your activities online — which is a bit simple and often has issues syncing data between the watch and your phone. Additionally, the buttons and interface were not as intuitive as other watches we tested. But these issues aside, the Polar Vantage V3 is rightly up there with the Garmin Forerunners for our suggestion of the best running watches.
The Garmin Venu 2 Plus ($450) is proof positive that a savvy GPS watch doesn’t need to look like a piece of military equipment to get the job done. Take it from our editor: “I wanted something that I could wear to a dinner party or on a run. For me, the Venu 2 Plus does the trick.”
Part of Garmin’s Venu line, this smartwatch is aimed at folks who don’t need the full-tilt sports-centric features of the Forerunner line, but still want to be able to track their day-to-day activities. The main watch face can be populated with daily health stats to keep you moving, such as steps, heart rate, and your Body Battery level.
The Venu 2 itself is available in a number of different models, with the simplest being the Venu Sq 2 ($250), an affordable square-faced option. But for us, the 2 Plus is where it’s at, and for one simple reason: Voice Assistant technology. This watch pairs with your phone’s virtual assistant to respond to texts, set reminders, or even take phone calls right from your wrist. Very slick.
Perfect for everyday wearing, the Garmin Venu 2 Plus makes an adaptable companion for whatever you’re facing that day.
Read Review: Garmin Venu 2 Plus Smartwatch Review: Improve Your Fitness With Style
While it may not look much different on the outside, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro ($409) got a big upgrade in late 2022 when it comes to internal muscle. Compared to our previously reviewed Suunto 9 Baro, the Peak Pro leaps ahead in both tech and sustainability. And in 2024, the watch can be had for just over $400 — that’s $100 less than when it debuted.
The first watch from Suunto to have its carbon footprint calculated — and compensated for — the Peak Pro is made with 100% renewable energy, and has the lowest footprint of any GPS watch on the market at 16.5 lbs CO2e. That’s the same as driving a car roughly 27 miles.
Our testers have had issues with older versions of the Suunto 9 lagging during operation, but the Peak Pro gains a new processor, microcontroller, and user interface that greatly improves the pep in its step. It isn’t flawless (we noticed a bit of a stumble watching the arrow icon while following a route), but it is a great step forward for Suunto.
The battery also got a shot of extra juice, increasing to 40 hours in high-fidelity mode (a 50% increase) and up to 70 hours in battery-saving GPS mode. Then there’s the classic quick charge from Suunto — providing 10 hours of operation in just 10 minutes of charging.
While this is the flagship watch in Suunto’s lineup currently, we were a bit let down to see that it doesn’t incorporate multi-band GNSS reception, something we’re seeing becoming standard in high-end fitness watches. The satellite reception is otherwise impressive — receiving information from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, and QZSS birds — just not the bleeding edge.
A killer option for those who want to keep their impact in check, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro is a greatly improved model that checks all the boxes we’re looking for in the best fitness watches.
Read Review: Suunto 9 Peak Pro Smartwatch Review: Off-Grid Action Star
With its “been there” shape and “done that” materials, the Amazfit Band 7 ($50) didn’t exactly make a strong first impression. But after a week of walking, biking, and workouts, this small bit of tech showed itself to be as useful as it is affordable.
The Band 7 retails for just under $50. For that price, you get sleep tracking, a heart rate sensor, blood oxygen monitoring, and stress measurements. Users will also be treated to a strong catalog of workouts, from strength training to cardio activities.
The Band’s screen is bright and well-made, and the interface is straightforward. If you can navigate a smartphone, you can find your way around Amazfit’s software with a few swipes and taps. The watch itself is similarly clean, with a low rise and a comfortable (if a bit short) strap.
While the GPS tracking and required Zepp app may not be as accurate as some options listed above, it’s perfectly acceptable for biking, long walks, or anything that takes you across the map instead of in circles. The audible cues routed through your earbuds (marking distance, time, and heart rate) also provide a nice touch of encouragement. Still, its 50m water rating and svelte construction are more suited to in-town exercise as opposed to the wilderness.
This is the second smart device we’ve tested from Amazfit, the first being the outstanding T-REX2. And while it may be smaller than its full-size cousin, the Band 7 offers an incredible amount of function for the price. The screen lock can be a little touchy (especially when exposed to water drops), but for the most part, the Band 7 is as easy on the wrist as it is on the wallet.
The Garmin vivoactive 5 ($300) combines basic fitness, health tracking, and performance statistics with classic smartwatch features like music, smart notifications, and texting.
For the everyday athlete who doesn’t need all the features or the price point of a watch like the fenix 7 Pro, but wants data more than your average fitness tracker or smartwatch, the vívoactive 5 is a good option. If you’re looking for more outdoor-specific features like navigation and more in-depth training features, a higher-end watch would be a better pick.
Some of the updates from the previous version include nap tracking, a new Morning Report, and an AMOLED screen compared to the MIP screen on the vivoactive 4. It also includes a new wheelchair mode, which tracks pushes and workouts. The vívoactive 5 also starts at a lower price point ($300) than the vívoactive 4 ($350).
Features like sleep scores and tracking, energy monitoring, and basic training statistics the vívoactive 5 keeps you aware of any changes in your health or activity levels. The vívoactive 5 has up to 11 days of battery life in smartwatch mode and up to 5 with the AMOLED touchscreen in always-on mode. For those looking for a smartwatch with a little extra under the hood, the Garmin vívoactive 5 is an excellent option.
Hot on the heels of the already-impressive Vertical, the Suunto Race ($449) slides in hundreds less and better suited for the runners out there — all while boasting Suunto’s first AMOLED screen. This beautiful display is a showstopper and is protected behind a sapphire crystal screen and stainless steel bezel, making it well-guarded against errant bumps and bruises. It’s not difficult to call this the best watch Suunto has ever made.
Like the split between MIP and AMOLED screens on the otherwise similar Garmin Fenix/Epix watches, the Vertical and Race also share a lot of like features, but there’s also a good bit new on the Race. For example, the new digital crown bezel makes navigating through maps a breeze and moves away from the three-button layout for the Vertical. HRV tracking has also been expanded to nightly surveying, and integrates with the newly added Suunto Coach functionality — synthesizing your workouts and providing feedback and suggestions.
The AMOLED screen can’t be ignored, however, and is a 466 x 466-pixel resolution unit that blows MIP screens out of the water when the light starts to wane. We especially noted this during map navigation, which is sharp when viewing turn-by-turn directions or zooming in or out of maps.
The processor on the Race is also top-notch, with none of the lagging that we’ve unfortunately dealt with on previous Suunto watches. Map and compass rotations are smooth, menu switching is clean, and post-workout screens flip through easily.
Like the Vertical, the Race has onboard map storage in either 16 GB or 32 GB capacities, depending on the variation you choose. These are non-routable maps, meaning your turn-by-turn route won’t update should you miss a fork in the trail, but the definition is still top-notch. The Suunto app allows for quick shuttling of maps over to the watch over Wi-Fi, and uses a smart map area picker that only downloads the sections you’ll need.
Stacked up next to the Garmin Forerunner 265 and Polar Vantage V3, the Race makes a compelling case for itself, with a much longer comparative battery life than the 265, and a more user-friendly button interface and app than the Vantage.
That beautiful screen will ding the battery life on the Race compared to the Vertical, however, with a 20-hour difference between both in the Endurance mode. Still, a full 40 hours in the highest-demand GPS mode is nothing to shake a stick at, and most runners will find this more than enough for weekend ultras.
For those engaged in endurance events, the Vertical’s longer battery life and available solar watch face may prove more tempting, but for casual and spirited runners alike, the Suunto Race has everything we’ve been wanting from a Suunto watch and more. It’s easy to say that this watch is well-competitive with top-tier Garmin and COROS options, and we’re excited to see it.
GearJunkie knows fitness, and our testers know their watches. The team includes Cory Smith, an online running coach and freelance journalist with over 25 years of running and rock climbing experience. He’s an expert, from treadmills to shoes.
Our most recent fitness watch update saw contributor Ilana Newman saddled with more watches than she has wrists to put them on, putting them through the paces in southwest Colorado while trail running, backcountry skiing, and working through daily fitness regiments.
The San Juan mountains provided the perfect testing ground for this new generation of watches, and Newman is obsessed with training data and staying up to date on the newest outdoor gear.
Our experts have crafted a detailed testing regimen that aims to compare these watches on a level playing field, and it’s not uncommon to see our testers wearing three or more watches at once in order to give them a fair shake.
We compare track lengths, measure heart rate data against dedicated devices, challenge the satellite reception with difficult terrain, and run each of these watches completely dead — all in the name of winnowing out the chafe and finding the best fitness watches available today.
Beyond their personal expertise, GearJunkie has solicited the opinions of fellow runners, hikers, and climbers. When the dust settled and the final grades came in, the list above represented the best fitness watches we could drum up. But know that fitness tech is constantly improving, and new functionalities are being added daily to some of these watches. As they improve, so does our coverage, and we’ll continue to test them.
The fitness watch market can be overwhelming. There are so many options — all of which might seem similar — it can feel as though you need a college degree to tell them apart.
While finding the best fitness watch for you does require some thought and research, this handy how-to-choose guide has all the essential information compiled so you can make the best decision for your fitness watch needs.
We go into everything from GPS reception to how training data is used to provide health and performance predictions. Each brand of watch uses slightly different data and provides different features, each of which is more or less important to consumers. We’ll spell it all out for you so you can make an informed decision that works for your specific fitness, health, and performance goals.
There are three very distinct categories of watches, each with strengths and weaknesses. Smartwatches are basically small smartphones for your wrist where you can add apps and take calls without your phone.
The most popular smartwatches are Apple and Samsung Galaxy watches. Functionally, they’re geared toward convenience and health tracking, but they tend to fall short on battery life, GPS accuracy, and workout functionally.
GPS watches such as Garmin, COROS, Suunto, and Polar are designed primarily for workouts that require GPS functionality (running, cycling, hiking, swimming, etc.). They tend to have over triple the battery life of smartwatches and are very strong with workout features, metrics, and tracking.
While most will allow text and email messages, and many provide storage for music or access to streaming apps like Spotify, they’re limited in the scope of apps you can add and will not replace your smartphone.
Fitness trackers have the least functionality and only track health and fitness metrics such as resting and variable heart rate, sleep patterns, and steps. Most will need to stay connected to a phone for features like GPS tracking.
Today’s fitness watches can track just about any activity imaginable, ranging from running to indoor rock climbing and even surfing. We’ve found that watches labeled as “outdoor” or “multisport” not only tend to be able to track the more obscure activities but also do so with more detail and granularity. As a result, this increased level of functionality tends to come with a higher price tag.
Some more entry-level watches do allow you to create new activity profiles for sports that are not built-in, but most of the time these only allow you to track the basics like heart rate, time, etc.
For example, while you could track rock climbing with the Garmin vívoactive 5, it does not have a specific profile for it, so you would only get basic data logged for that workout by using a different activity profile such as cardio. The Garmin fenix 7 Pro, however, has specific rock climbing (indoor climbing, climbing, and bouldering) activity profiles that allow you to track each route, the grade of the route, and the length of each climb.
Backcountry skiing is another specific activity that testers found lacking on some of the lower-end watches, as a session includes both uphill and downhill travel, logging it without a backcountry skiing-specific activity profile creates an inaccurate representation. Even using cross-country skiing as a substitute on the Fitbit Charge 6 did not provide the same overall picture as using a backcountry skiing profile on a watch like the Polar Vantage V3.
Depending on the brand and the activity being tracked, you will be able to see different data both during the activity and in the activity summary after completion. If the watch supports navigation, and you’re tracking an activity that involves moving, one screen will feature a map with your location.
High-end Garmin watches like the fenix 7 Pro series feature over 80 activity profiles with the ability to add more. The Polar Vantage V3 can hold up to 14 profiles on the watch and requires the Polar Flow app to edit or add more. COROS watches have about 30 activity profiles, but veer more toward technical outdoor activities instead of gym activities like Fitbit fitness trackers do.
All the watches we tested tracked common activities such as walking, running (outdoor, trail, treadmill), outdoor and indoor cycling, yoga, elliptical, general strength, and cardio sessions. If there’s a less-common sport you’d like to track, we suggest taking a look at the watch’s spec sheet to see if it’s covered.
As fitness watches have gotten better at tracking health and fitness data, companies have been able to use that data to give guidance on training. As a full-time running coach, our tester Cory Smith finds this particularly interesting.
The top reason he sees most runners struggle is because they overtrain or under-rest. Garmin and Polar seem to have the best training and coaching insights, with COROS right behind them.
Garmin, as the leader in the field for training data and even coaching through the watch interface, has a few statistics that seem to be included across their newest watches, no matter how high-end it is. Even these baseline stats can provide a good overview of training readiness and recovery.
Recovery time, for example, is included on both the vívoactive 5 and the fenix 7 Pro. Garmin’s recovery time uses data from your past workouts, including your recent and long-term training load and Vo2 max. Other data, like sleep and stress tracking can also impact recovery time. Another now-standard piece of training data for Garmin is Heart Rate Variability Status (HRV), which tracks the time in between heartbeats to determine the level of stress your body is currently under, due to training load, life, lack of sleep, and more.
Garmin also uses all of the data it is constantly gathering during all-day tracking as well as activity tracking to provide workout suggestions. High-end watches, like the fenix 7 Pro or Forerunner 745, provide a specific workout each day in the Morning Report, with specific goals like “base building”, based on past activities and current training status.
There’s also the option to set up Garmin Coach on any Garmin Watch, which uses the Garmin Connect app to choose a training goal — such as training for a half marathon — and Garmin Coach will provide a training plan over an allotted time.
Polar uses similar data to provide data like Cardio Load Status, which looks at short-term training load (strain) versus long-term training load (tolerance) to determine the effect of your training (detraining, maintaining, productive, or overreaching).
Health tracking is standard across fitness watches, from the most basic fitness tracker to the highest-end GPS watch.
Technology for health tracking has advanced a lot over the past few years, and certain features that used to be considered high-end are now available on just about every fitness watch, like SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation — measured through red and infrared light) and Heart Rate Variability.
Every fitness watch measures heart rate and sleep, while some, like Polar watches, measure body temperature. Additional health data such as calories and hydration are available on most watches we tested but must be tracked manually.
The Apple Watch provides heart health alerts for low or high heart rates and also allows for medication reminders. All fitness watches provide menstrual cycle tracking, and many have integrated mindfulness into their interfaces, like the Garmin vívoactive 5.
Garmin watches now also track naps, along with overnight sleep. Each brand has its own way of summarizing a night of sleep, but most use a scale of 1-100 to rate the night of sleep while also tracking time asleep and sleep cycles.
For the most part, health tracking features are also standard across brands, but each brand also has features that synthesize data in unique ways, like Garmin’s Body Battery and Fitbit’s Daily Readiness.
Garmin’s Body Battery, for example, uses data from sleep, stress, rest, and physical activity to provide a score from 1 to 100 for physical energy. Your Body Battery will be highest upon waking and ebbs throughout the day depending on activity and stress (measured through heart rate variability).
Some Garmin watches additionally provide insights such as “Easy Day: Your day has been easy so far and you have plenty of energy left for exercise or activity”. Other brands have similar features with different interfaces.
If navigation and mapping are important to you, you’ll have to shell out some cash. You can get some basic navigation features like waypoint markers and tracking integrated into your phone without needing to go for top-of-the-line watches. But if you’re going to be using your watch off grid and want to upload your own .gpx tracks, you’ll need to go for a higher-end Garmin, COROS, or Polar watch.
Entry-level Garmin watches like the Venu 2 and vívoactive 5 that include GPS but lack navigation often feature a back-to-start mode that allows you to use an on-screen compass to get back to where you started recording, without an on-screen map.
Watches with full GPS navigational capability and onscreen maps, like the fenix 7 Pro, Polar Vantage 3, or COROS Apex 2 Pro all allow you to download maps and .gpx tracks for navigation. They all come with basic maps installed, with the ability to add maps available through each brand’s app or website.
Garmin’s high-end watches like the fenix 7 Pro have a navigational feature called ClimbPro that shows the remaining distance for a section of uphill travel. Garmin watches also include pre-downloaded ski resort maps for 2000 ski resorts worldwide.
Garmin as well as COROS includes off-track alerts as well as turn-by-turn directions to a predetermined location.
If you want the most smartwatch features, an Apple Watch or similar will be the way to go. But most fitness trackers and GPS watches also include an assortment of smartwatch features.
After Apple and Fitbit, Garmin has the best smartwatch features, with other brands like Polar and COROS forgoing features like contactless payment for better heart rate tracking and outdoor-focused features.
Pretty much all fitness watches sync with your phone and provide notifications for texts and other alerts — if you want. You can also turn this off if you’re in the camp who seek fewer distractions.
Many Garmin and COROS watches also feature offline music storage, while lower-end watches have compatibility with music streaming apps like Spotify and have music controls. All Garmin watches now feature Garmin Pay and have the ability to download many third-party apps for various additional features through the Garmin ConnectIQ store. Some watches, like the vívoactive 5, even allow you to respond to Android phone texts through the watch’s onscreen keyboard.
Most GPS devices are accurate within 1-3%. In our testing, all GPS-focused brands (Garmin, COROS, Polar, and Suunto) performed equally in GPS connection and accuracy. Connection time varied from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes, while distance was within the 1-3% margin.
It’s important to keep in mind that location has a lot to do with GPS connection and accuracy. Accuracy depends on multiple satellites communicating with each other freely and reporting back to the watch.
Distractions such as buildings, trees, cliffs, and clouds can affect the satellites’ ability to pinpoint the sensor in the watch. We suggest asking fellow athletes in the area where you’ll be working out to find out how their watch GPS performs.
GPS isn’t the only game in town when it comes to satellite navigation systems, and many new fitness watches are integrating other global systems to increase fidelity in their location technologies.
GLONASS is a Russian satellite navigation system that provides global positioning data in the same way that the GPS system does, and can provide more definition in high latitudes. Galileo is operated by the European Union and also offers full global coverage.
The BeiDou Satellite Navigation System is operated by China and while originally only providing coverage to eastern Asia, went global in 2020. And finally, QZSS, a Japanese system, provides coverage over the Asia-Oceania regions.
Because different satellite systems have undergone multiple generations of satellites, each operates on a different frequency than the last. These older satellites are still functional and provide more data that leads to a much higher fidelity signal when combined with one another. This is multi-band GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) technology, and more and more fitness watches today are incorporating it into their builds.
Most outdoor-focused fitness watches now come with barometric altimeters and compasses that support their navigational capabilities. This is where the older term ‘ABC’ watch comes from.
Barometric altimeters measure elevation through air pressure. They can also predict incoming storms and weather patterns.
Polar and Garmin both have options to set their watches to one of three settings: Automatic, Barometer, and Altimeter. ‘Barometer’ locks the watch in a mode where all changes in pressure will be considered due to weather and changes in ambient pressure, while ‘Altimeter’ considers all changes in pressure to be due to elevation change. Automatic determines the best mode for your current activity.
Pretty much all fitness watches that include GPS, even without full navigational capabilities, include a compass. This allows for back-to-start navigation and basic orientation without service.
Monitoring heart rate is one of the most basic features of any fitness watch or tracker, and pulse oximeters have become standard over the past few years. These two sensors allow users to keep track of training strain and overall health.
Each brand of watch uses a slightly different technology to analyze and interpret heart rate data, but they all use similar ways of measuring optical heart rate, known as photoplethysmography (PPG). A green light shines from the back of the watch, through your skin, and reflects off of red blood cells in your veins, measuring blood flow.
Pulse oximeters measure blood oxygen content, which is most useful at high elevations to determine adjustment to altitude and performance ability. Fitness watches use red and infrared light to estimate the percentage of oxygen in your blood. While useful especially for altitude training, watch pulse oximeters are not as reliable as fingertip pulse oximeters.
This is the most notable difference between smartwatches and GPS watches. On average, smartwatches need to be recharged every 24 to 48 hours, whereas GPS watches can last 5 to 20 days between charges.
These times are ever-increasing, thanks to the integration of solar charging on some of the more premium models. Solar charging, like with the Garmin fenix 7 Pro Solar uses a Power Sapphire lens to convert sunlight into power, extending the charge of your watch, depending on sun exposure.
A lot of factors influence how long your watch’s battery will last, including what you’re using it for. If you’re using GPS tracking (and single GPS versus multi-GNSS mode matters), your battery will die faster. Most watches advertise battery life with and without GPS.
For example, the COROS Apex 2 Pro advertises 75 hours in GPS mode (GPS + QZSS) and 45 hours with five satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS), and 30 days for daily use without GPS tracking.
Charging time is relatively quick, with most offering a full charge in around 2 hours. If you’re like us and hate having to constantly charge yet another device, we recommend a GPS watch with a longer battery life.
Outdoor and multisport watches are often larger and heavier because of the sheer number of features (and extended battery life), so much so that they can look too big and awkward on small wrists. If you prefer a smaller size, most brands (including Garmin, COROS, and Polar) offer smaller versions of flagship models.
The physical design of watches varies across brands, with some using a two-, four-, or five-button layout, others using a dial and buttons, and others using no buttons at all.
Garmin tends to have two-, four-, or five- buttons on its watches. Their lower-end watches tend to have fewer plastic buttons and premium watches feature more metal buttons. Each button can be programmed as hotkeys (press and hold) to access various screens such as music controls, settings, timer, alarm, and more. In our testing, we found that the Garmin buttons feel intuitive, but the left-side buttons can be hard to reach.
Polar uses a similar layout of buttons to Garmin, but we found the material used for its buttons to feel less satisfying and reliable when in use.
COROS and Apple use a combination of buttons and dials. The dial is useful for looking through lists at a glance, while buttons help make choices and find more in-depth information.
Most watches have ways to lock the button use, which can be convenient when you don’t want your watch to change screens. Fitbit, however, has mostly done away with buttons and uses haptic sensors on one side of the Fitbit Charge 6. Testing found this to be much less reliable compared to buttons on other watches, but it does provide a simple design.
These days, most fitness watches feature touch screens, although there are still some, like the Garmin Forerunner 745 that are button-only. But the type of screens depends on the watch and the brand.
There are two types of displays found on fitness watches — AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diodes) and MIP (Memory in Pixel). AMOLED displays are brighter and perform better in low light, but are not always great under direct sunlight. These are your smartwatch screens that look more like a smartphone. They also use up battery quickly when always on, so they usually are ‘lift’ or ‘tap’ to wake.
MIP screens look duller at first glance, with colors showing up differently than on your phone. They use reflective LCD technology that depends on ambient light for visibility. This allows them to be always on and show up brighter in bright sunlight. They use less power than an AMOLED display.
Outdoor-focused watches typically feature a MIP screen since this is the battery-friendly option and allows for better visibility outside, while smartwatches tend to have AMOLED displays. Some watches are even offered in both styles (the Garmin Epix Pro is the same as the fenix Pro, just with an AMOLED screen.)
The actual material used for a screen also matters, especially if you’re going to be using it for high-impact activities — or just tend to beat up your belongings. Sapphire glass is one material used by Garmin, Apple, and other watch brands that is incredibly crack and scratch-resistant. Another common material for fitness watch screens is mineral glass, which is cheaper but scratches more easily.
Most fitness watches come with silicone watch bands that are easy to swap out. Alternative watch bands can be found through the manufacturer, or, depending on the type of watch, can be found through third-party sites. You can choose between various textiles, rubber, or even leather watch bands depending on your needs.
Silicone is the best for active use, although some designs do need to be cleaned and dried often to avoid the build-up of sweat and grime. Textiles or leather can look nicer.
Perhaps as important as the fitness watch itself is the depth and strength of its ecosystem. An ecosystem is composed of the watch’s application, web portal, and supported third-party apps such as Strava and Spotify. To view your data, you’ll need to download an app on your phone.
As Garmin is the largest fitness watch company, it has the broadest and strongest sport-specific ecosystem. Garmin’s app and web portal, called Garmin Connect, displays just about all the performance and health metrics you need. Polar’s Flow app and web portal follow close behind Garmin, with COROS and Suunto following Polar. Amazfit’s Zepp app is a bit of an outlier, though it shows function and promise.
Price can give you a good measuring stick of the breadth of features of a watch. Entry-level fitness watches tend to focus on basic sports and tracking and cost under $200 retail. Both the Garmin Forerunner 55 and COROS Pace 3 are two of our favorite entry-level watches.
Entry-level watches are perfect for someone interested in casual fitness. More serious fitness people should expect to spend over $200. Moving up in price above $250 brings a huge difference in the look and feel of watches. Premium fitness watches fall in the $300-500 price range, with top-end watches above $500, such as the Garmin fenix 7 Pro Solar.
A fitness tracker’s primary purpose is tracking health data such as heart rate, sleep, steps, and calories. It uses sensors in the band or watch to monitor. Most fitness trackers need to be connected to your smartphone to access the data.
If you have an iPhone, we would recommend the Apple Watch Ultra. It’s the bestselling smartwatch, and everyone we spoke with absolutely loves it. If you don’t have an iPhone, the Apple Watch will not work.
Fitbit is a great choice, but with Google’s recent acquisition in limbo, the future of Fitbit as we know it today is in question.
This is a tough question to answer. It depends on what features you’re talking about. In general, we found Apple watches to have the best health tracking, Garmin to have the best GPS tracking, and Polar to have the most accurate heart-rate monitor.
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Cory Smith is a Santa Barbara, California-based athlete, online running coach, and freelance journalist specializing in running- and climbing-related content and gear reviews. He draws from over 25 years as an elite runner and rock climber for ideas, inspiration, and expertise. Check out his portfolio here.
Josh Wussow is a writer and power sector worker based out of Wisconsin. He has degrees in English and video production, but you wouldn’t know it by his reviews and photos. Josh enjoys camping, hiking, and anything involving a campfire or grill. His work has taken him from Tennessee to New Mexico and Colorado. He misses the mountains very much. He’s written for GearJunkie since 2017.
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