The Best Fitness Watches for Runners

This publish is a part of Find Your Fit Tech, Lifehacker’s health wearables shopping for information. I am asking the powerful questions on whether or not wearables can actually enhance your well being, how you can discover the appropriate one for you, and how you can profit from the information wearables can supply.

Runners have been a few of the first individuals to embrace smartwatches. I keep in mind again when a “working watch” was a brick-like GPS machine strapped to your wrist, and it was a game-changer when these bricks began monitoring coronary heart price as properly.

Nowadays, each smartwatch can observe your coronary heart price, to not point out your location and doubtlessly a half-dozen different issues. For a working watch to be particular, it wants tons of additional fitness-centric options—and a few important small particulars, like bodily buttons. Learn on for my picks.

What to search for in a working watch

It’s straightforward to get misplaced in spec sheets and advertising and marketing claims, however on the finish of the day, what issues in a watch is whether or not it will possibly do what you desire a watch to do. Consider it like hiring an worker: you don’t need the one who can do probably the most issues, you need the one who can do the job that you just want achieved. 

So listed below are some issues to consider when crafting the “job description” on your working watch. Some may be important to you; some may be irrelevant. 

Does it have bodily buttons? 

For many on a regular basis features, it could not matter in the event you’re clicking a bodily button or booping an icon on a display. However while you’re working laps on the observe, your shaky, sweaty fingers are going to have a tough time with a touchscreen. For that motive, runners typically want a watch with actual buttons. All of my picks beneath have bodily buttons. 

How good is the GPS? 

All working smartwatches observe your location with GPS—that’s the primary motive they exist. (To be pedantic about it, GPS is only one sort of world navigation satellite tv for pc system, or GNSS, which is what we actually imply after we speak about location monitoring.)

However some location methods are extra correct than others. The least correct watches are those that depend on your telephone’s GPS moderately than having their very own inbuilt. (Whoop and a few Fitbits, for instance.) Essentially the most correct smartwatches use a number of bands of GPS, plus different location methods like GLONASS and Galileo. Take note of which methods a watch makes use of and whether or not there are settings to learn about. Most watches can help you swap between increased accuracy modes that use extra battery and decrease accuracy modes that save battery life.

All of my picks beneath use a number of satellite tv for pc methods (with one apparent exception, as you’ll see). It’s price noting that GNSS retains getting higher through the years, so newer fashions outperform older ones as a common rule.

What’s the battery life? 

Whereas phone-based smartwatches just like the Apple Watch normally should be charged day-after-day, working and health watches sometimes have a battery life that can final at the very least a couple of days between costs. Many will final per week or extra, and a few Garmins could make it an entire month.

However in the event you do very lengthy runs—you’re coaching for a marathon, maybe—you’ll additionally wish to understand how lengthy you may run. Taking part in music and monitoring your location use extra energy than simply sporting a watch in its common timekeeping mode, so test what number of hours of energetic use the watch supplies. I’ll notice battery life for my picks beneath.

Does it enable you to navigate, or simply observe the place you’ve been? 

Some working watches include a full navigation system, with pre-loaded maps and turn-by-turn instructions. Others can lay a path of digital breadcrumbs for you, letting you see the trail you have taken and retrace your steps, however with none further data or assist about the place precisely you’re on the planet. All working watches can observe your route in a method that allows you to see a map while you get house. I will notice which watches embody maps.

Does it let you know what to do, or simply observe what you’ve achieved?

Fancier working watches can observe your fatigue and readiness, counsel exercises for you, and even information you alongside a custom-made coaching plan. In the meantime, the extra fundamental watches will belief that you just’re planning your personal coaching; their job is simply to be a software to trace what you’ve achieved.

Would you like a working watch, or a common objective smartwatch? 

Earlier than we get into the specs of the perfect working watches, an vital query to ask your self is whether or not you desire a running-specific watch with common options, or a common watch that you would be able to convey on a run. 

The fashions beneath are for working first, on a regular basis life second. Try my information on trackers for general health and fitness if you would like one thing that’s extra of a “smartwatch I can run with.”

With these options in thoughts, I’ve picks for quite a lot of budgets and wishes. 

The candy spot: Garmin Forerunner 265

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki

The 2xx line of Forerunner has been the preferred for years. Strava’s end-of-year reports have constantly discovered four- and five-year-old Forerunners among the many hottest units for critical runners. I personally run with a Forerunner 265S, and I’ve written here about why this is my favorite running watch out there. I do not want maps, so I did not go for the fancier 965; however I do admire the coaching standing and upgraded GPS that the 265 sequence has and the 165 would not. The “S” on the finish signifies that it is the smaller dimension; I even have a breakdown right here of every difference between the 265 and 265S. (Backside line: choose the one that matches you higher.)

The 265 has a shiny, sharp AMOLED display, the place earlier generations just like the 255 had a MIP display. I have a breakdown of the differences here; I want AMOLED, however MIP additionally has its die-hard followers. You may typically catch a great sale on the older Forerunner 255, so it is price contemplating if you would like a great watch on a price range.

Why the Forerunner 265S? 

• Battery life: 13 to 14 days in smartwatch mode, 16 hours of working with GNSS, and 6 hours with GNSS and music.

• Gives prompt exercises and Garmin Coach training plans.

• Has quite a lot of coaching and restoration metrics, together with VO2max, Physique Battery, coaching load, restoration time, and depth minutes.

• Location monitoring: contains multi-band GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo.

The most effective price range choose: Garmin Forerunner 165

I beforehand referred to as the Forerunner 55 my price range choose, however I am altering my thoughts. This previous Christmas, I purchased a Forerunner 55 for my husband, since he stated he wished a lower-end watch. After spending per week with its low-resolution display and clunky options, which seemed positively archaic subsequent to my 265, I requested him if he may be happier with a 165. We ended up returning the 55 and getting a 165 as a substitute, and he is so a lot happier. That stated, the 55 is superb. Do not let me speak you out of it, particularly in the event you’re in a position to get one on sale. (It is an growing older mannequin, so the worth will seemingly proceed to drop). The Forerunner 55 can observe your runs simply superb and supply some extras like sleep monitoring.

However the 165 has a nicer display, higher GPS, an altimeter, compass, Garmin Share (top-of-the-line hidden options, in my view), HRV standing, extra exercise modes, extra methods to set your coronary heart price targets—simply a lot extra good things, for under $50 extra.

Actually, it could be greatest to consider the Forerunner 165 as a pared-down model of the 265. For $200 lower than my favourite watch, you get many of the identical options. It is solely actually lacking multi-band GPS and some analytics like coaching readiness and coaching standing. Do notice that it is available in Music and non-Music variations, charging a premium if you would like to have the ability to play music immediately from the watch.

The most effective-kept secret: Coros Tempo Professional

Credit score: Beth Skwarecki

Garmin has lengthy been the unquestionable chief within the working watch biz, however I’m seeing increasingly more runners transfer to Coros watches. They is probably not as frequent, however their house owners love them, citing the lower cost for comparable options in comparison with a Garmin. The Tempo 3 mannequin is a light-weight MIP display machine that I discovered could not fairly beat out the Garmin on options, however put up a heck of a fight in my head-to-head comparison.

The watch I would prefer to highlight right here, although, is the newer Coros Tempo Professional. It has an AMOLED display and options onboard maps, making it fairly akin to a Forerunner 965 for lots of of {dollars} much less. In the case of private favorites, I nonetheless want the Garmin ecosystem and the smaller sizes which can be out there in Garmin watches (the Tempo Professional is barely out there in a 46 millimeter dimension). However I can not deny that, in the case of options and worth, the Coros Pace Pro outperforms the Garmin Forerunner 265.

The flamboyant look ahead to fancy runners: Garmin Fenix 8 Photo voltaic Sapphire

When you’ve acquired a beneficiant price range for a working watch and also you need the perfect one on the market, it’s onerous to go improper with the Fenix line. This one is available in three sizes and several other totally different function units, however I would like to focus on this one. It has a sapphire display, which means it is actually manufactured from sapphire mineral for scratch resistance. It additionally options photo voltaic charging, so you may prolong your battery life open air with no need to cease to cost on lengthy outings.

Garmin additionally launched an AMOLED display on the Fenix 8, however AMOLED and photo voltaic charging do not go collectively, so you will have to decide on one or the opposite.

Fenix watches, usually, have all of Garmin’s greatest bells and whistles, with an unbelievable battery life. In smartwatch mode you’re a few weeks, not days (4 weeks with photo voltaic charging is the official estimate), and the watch will final 13 hours of energetic use with all-systems GPS and music taking part in.

The barebones possibility that elite runners use: Timex Ironman

Sure, this can be a “dumb” watch. No, I’m not together with it as a joke. Plenty of runners—together with, and I’d say, especially the pros—discover the flamboyant options of smartwatches to be extra of a distraction than a assist. 

The Timex Ironman is a watch with bodily buttons, a stopwatch, and a backlight that you would be able to activate when wanted, and it retails for $60. It could keep in mind your break up instances for an entire exercise, and your common and greatest splits for previous exercises.