The Best Running Watches for Long Distance, Trail Running and More in 2024

The right running watch can help you train harder, recover better and learn more about your overall health. Here are our top picks.

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Not so many years ago, running watches were limited to basic Timex sports watches that only had a stopwatch and possibly an interval timer. Now, the features and functions of the best running watches span from accurate GPS and altimeters to heart rate monitoring, sleep assessments and calories burned.

While having access to all the technology and feature options for the top running watches has really upgraded the workout experience for runners, it can also make choosing the best running watch to buy rather complicated.

In this article, we will share tips for buying a running watch, features to consider, how to use a running watch for your workouts, as well as our picks for the best running watches for beginners to competitive marathoners and triathletes alike.

Our Picks for the Best Running Watches of 2024:

• Best Running Watch For Beginners: WHOOP
• Most Versatile Running Watch: Garmin Forerunner 945
• Best GPS Running Watch: Polar Pacer
• Best Watch For Trail Running: COROS APEX
• Best Running Watch for Triathletes: Amazfit T-Rex Pro
• Cheapest Running Watch: HUAWEI Band 6 Smartwatch
• Best Running Watch for Tracking Women’s Health: Fitbit Sense
• Best Running Watch With Music: Apple Watch Series 6

Best Running Watch for Beginners: WHOOP 4.0

WHOOP

Key Features:

• Price: Free but there’s a monthly membership fee of $18-30 dollars
• Battery life: Smartwatch Mode: Up to two weeks; GPS mode with music: Up to 10 hours; GPS mode without music: Up to 36 hours
• Display: Full color 240 x 240 pixels resolution
• Display size: 1.20-inch diameter
• Weight: 50 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone, Android
• Additional smartwatch features: Mobile payments, notifications, music storage

A fitness and health watch in one, the WHOOP 4.0 is a great option for those who are new to running but still interested in general health features that will help them stay on track with their fitness goals.

It captures biometric data, such as heart rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen levels. These metrics are then used to provide a fairly thorough analysis of your minute-by-minute and overall health and physiology.

One of the top features of the WHOOP 4.0 is the sleep, recovery and daily effort monitoring, which gives you actionable insight into how you can optimize your performance. For example, the watch uses your heart rate variability data to determine how recovered you are after a workout, and then the Strain Coach function advises when you should take it easy or when it’s a good time to push yourself on your run.

Since it’s designed to be worn as a daily, 24/7 fitness watch, it has robust activity tracking, so you can see how physically active you are all day long, not just when you are out for your run or hitting the treadmill for your workout.

Furthermore, the sleep monitoring provides insight into not only how many hours of sleep you get, but also the time spent in the different sleep stages and the length and characteristics of your sleep cycles. Based on your sleep data, activity level, workouts and recovery, the WHOOP 4.0 Sleep Coach feature provides feedback on how much sleep your body needs.

Compared to many running watches, the WHOOP 4.0 fitness watch is smaller, lighter and slimmer. It is also super comfortable to wear because it has a flexible, soft SuperKnit band and can even be worn off your wrist in WHOOP’s specialized branded apparel. This is a great option for runners who want all the performance features and functions of a running watch or fitness tracking watch for full day use, but just can’t stand wearing something on their wrist constantly.

The watch is fully waterproof, so you can wear it while in the shower, doing dishes or even in the pool.

Furthermore, the heart rate monitoring seems more accurate and robust than most wrist-based devices. There are five LEDs and four photodiodes that flash and capture your data more often than most wearables to increase the accuracy of your heart rate data, especially while you run.

The companion app for the WHOOP 4.0 running watch is easy to use and displays all of your information in graphs and tables. You can even download or export 30- or 180-day health data trends into a PDF for your own records or to share with your doctor or coach.

There is also a behavior journal where you can keep track of different health-related behaviors and practices you are working on, such as drinking more water, reducing your caffeine intake, eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting down on soda.

The one major downside of the WHOOP fitness tracker is that it requires a membership, which costs $18-30 per month, depending on how many months you commit to up front.

Overall, this is a great running watch for beginners or runners who really want to have good insight into their overall health and fitness on a daily basis.

Pros:

• Doesn’t have to be worn on the wrist, multi-band options
• Great insights into overall health and fitness
• Attractive
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Monthly membership fee
• Fewer running-specific metrics

Most Versatile: Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin

Key Features:

• Price: $499
• Battery life: Smartwatch mode: Up to two weeks; GPS mode with music: Up to 10 hours; GPS mode without music: Up to 36 hours
• Display: Full color 240 x 240 pixels resolution
• Display size: 1.2-inch diameter
• Weight: 50 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone, Android
• Additional smartwatch features: Mobile payments, notifications, music storage

You'll find the Garmin Forerunner 945 is the most versatile running watch because it has everything you need for a little bit of exercise, a quick jog or a PR-chasing marathon. Garmin has been an industry leader in cutting-edge GPS running watches for quite a few years now, and the Forerunner 945 is demonstrative of the performance features, quality, construction and usability of Garmin’s masterful design and craftsmanship in the running watch space.

The Forerunner 945 is a premium GPS running/triathlon smartwatch with music, enabling users to download songs or playlists to the watch, including those from Spotify, Amazon Music and Deezer.

Like other Garmin watches, the Garmin Forerunner 945 running watch is all about giving runners every last performance feature available, with everything from accurate heart rate tracking and caloric expenditure to VO2 max, training status insights, adjustments for heat or altitude and acclimation status.

There are robust insights provided in regards to your training load, recovery time and aerobic and anaerobic training effects.

There are tons of different workout modes, such as interval running, cycling, pool and open-water swimming, track running, plus options for working out in the gym on the elliptical, stair-stepper and more, to improve the accuracy of your workout metrics and data capturing while allowing you to easily sort and keep track of your training history by activity type.

A cool convenience feature of the Garmin Forerunner 945 is Garmin Pay, a contactless payment system, so you can grab a coffee and bagel after your long run or a sports drink mid-run without carrying cash.

Unlike most GPS running watches that just show pixelated black and white routes, the Forerunner 945 has full-color, onboard maps to help guide you on your run, ensuring you never get lost during your workout, even if you’re traveling or venturing off into new areas.

With a solid battery life, the watch will last up to two weeks when used in smartwatch mode, 10 hours when used in GPS mode with music or up to 60 hours when used in ultraTrac mode.

We also appreciate the safety features for runners, such as incident detection, which sends your real-time location to designated emergency contacts.

Ultimately, this is a watch designed for runners, offering an unparalleled number of crucial running metrics such as cadence, stride length, ground contact time, balance and VO2 max, which even accounts for changes in performance that may be caused by heat or altitude.

There are tons of other features, such as workout recommendations that you get, free downloadable workouts from the Garmin Connect app, the Garmin Coach in the companion app, insights into your seven day training load, etc. 

Finally, the Forerunner 945 strikes the balance of being super rugged yet sleek, sporting a high-performance silicone band and an ultra-durable Corning Gorilla Glass DX lens.

Pros:

• More running features than the average watch
• Highly accurate GPS and heart rate
• Various music options
• Full-color GPS maps
• Very robust Garmin Connect app
• Compatible with iPhone and Android

Cons:

• Expensive compared to other brands
• Can’t make or receive calls

Best GPS Running Watch: Polar Pacer

Polar

Key Features:

• Price: $200
• Battery life: 35 hours of training time with full GPS and heart rate and up to 100 hours in the power save mode
• Display: Always-on color display. Gorilla glass lens (1.1 millimeter thickness) with anti-fingerprint coating.
• Display size: 1.2-inch diameter
• Weight: 40 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone, Android

The Polar Pacer stands out thanks to incredibly accurate GPS tracking, along with its other features specifically designed for runners.

The GPS uses a new integrated antenna design for improved movement tracking for unparalleled accuracy and reliability, even if you run on trails, in a city or with thick cloud cover anywhere in the world. Plus, the assisted-GPS provides faster fixes and alerts your watch of the predicted positions of the satellites, enabling it to receive signals from the satellites within seconds no matter where you are, even under difficult conditions.

Additionally, like all Polar devices, the Polar Pacer smartwatch has extremely accurate heart rate monitoring, which is great for runners who train by heart rate.

Additional running features include workout time, pace, distance, laps, sleep (including sleep stages) and recovery monitoring and training load. You can get personalized guidance and feedback from the short-term and long-term monitoring of your training strain and cardio load.

There is 24/7 activity tracking and a VO2 max assessment as well.

The battery provides up to 35 hours of training time with full GPS and heart rate monitoring throughout and up to 100 hours in the power save mode, ensuring that you capture every last second of even your longest workouts without worrying about running out of power.

Most runners often complain about GPS running watches being bulky and unattractive, and not being particularly comfortable or aesthetically pleasing when you are not running. However, the Polar Pacer is super lightweight and slim, featuring a minimalist design and full-color display with an impressive resolution of 240 x 240 pixels for optimal clarity.

The watch face is made from Gorilla Glass 3.0 for durability, and the display has enhanced brightness so that it’s easy to read in any lighting.

Pros:

• Super accurate GPS and heart rate monitoring
• Lots of features for runners
• Great sleep and recovery tracking
• Slim
• Long battery life

Cons:

• No music

Best Running Watch for Trail Running: COROS APEX

REI

Key Features:

• Price: $300
• Battery life: GPS mode: 25 hours; regular: 24 days
• Display: 218 x 218 millimeters
• Display size: 42 millimeters
• Weight: 48 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone, Android
• Additional features: VO2, sleep tracking, free coaching programs

COROS has made a name for itself in running watches as a less expensive alternative to Garmin running watches with many of the same features.

We love the COROS APEX—its nearly unbeatable battery life earns it our vote for the top running watch for ultramarathoners; you can finally have a running watch that has the endurance to match your own. On just a single charge, you get 24 full days of regular battery life and 25 hours in non-stop GPS mode.

It also has functions specifically designed for trail running, such as route navigation and checkpoint features, along with a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and thermometer to give you all sorts of environmental, positional and movement metrics.

The COROS APEX is lightweight, durable and classy looking, with a stainless-steel bezel and a sapphire glass screen. The digital dial allows you to operate the watch with just one finger, even if you are wearing thick winter gloves on a chilly day.

It uses an optical heart rate monitor for 24/7 heart rate data capture, and offers many of the high-tech features found in high-end running watches, including sleep analysis, step and calorie tracking, advanced training analysis to give insights into optimizing your performance and recovery recommendations to prevent overtraining.

In addition to various running modes, there are multi-sport and strength training modes, cycling training mode, swimming and other water sport modes, interval training mode and more, allowing you to get the most accurate data capture and workout metrics no matter what type of exercise you are doing.

There’s a training mode specifically designed for track workouts that uses a proprietary algorithm to increase the accuracy of your track runs. Because speed workouts on the track are usually some of the most important workouts in your training plan, this is a great tool for serious runners looking to have a highly accurate assessment of their training data.

There is also access to free training programs and plans created by COROS athletes and coaches.

For example, using the companion app, you can select from over 200 preloaded strength training exercises and build a customized workout, and then have everything you need on the COROS APEX watch.

Additionally, the COROS APEX is compatible with Stryd running power meters. Although you would need to purchase these separately, it’s great to have the option to measure running power, especially for advanced and competitive runners truly looking to optimize their performance.

One other feature that is nice is that the screen display is fully customizable, allowing you to select up to six metrics to show at once.

Overall, this is a fantastic running watch for trail runners, ultramarathoners and serious road runners alike looking for features that elevate your training and provide insights you didn’t even know you needed.

Pros:

• Tons of running features
• Excellent GPS
• Good battery life
• Sleek
• Great value

Cons:

• No music

Best Running Watch for Triathletes: Amazfit T-Rex Pro

Amazfit

Key Features:

• Price: $160
• Battery life: Typical usage: up to 18 days; heavy usage: up to 9 days; GPS continuous working time: up to 40 hours
• Display: HD AMOLED Display, always-on display, 360 x 360 pixels
• Display size: 1.3 inches
• Weight: 59.4 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: Android 5.0 or iOS 10.0 and above
• Additional features: Receive texts, weather updates

For multi-sport athletes, our pick for the best triathlon watch is the Amazfit T-Rex Pro. Having passed 15 military-grade tests, the watch is designed to be light yet durable. It's designed to have the level and endurance and adventure to match the most intrepid runners and triathletes, whether you’re running, cycling or swimming through hot deserts, muggy rainforest or polar waterways.

The Amazfit T-Rex Pro smartwatch supports four global navigation satellite systems for the most accurate, reliable GPS signal, no matter where your adventure takes you.

The watch also offers blood-oxygen saturation measurement, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, sleep monitoring and over 100 different sport modes to choose from, with specialized algorithms for the top eight sports modes to have accurate measuring no matter what you’re doing.

There are also typical environmental features like a compass and barometric altimeter, along with fun, unique features like a weather tracker, a sunrise and sunset monitor and current moon phase display.

One of the best features of the Amazfit T-Rex Pro running smartwatch is the impressive battery life, which is ultimately another reason why this is our pick for the best running watch for triathletes. You won’t have to worry about the watch dying during your Ironman, with up to 40 hours of battery life on a single charge during non-stop GPS use. You can also enjoy up to 18 days of activity tracking. 

For swimming, the Amazfit T-Rex Pro smartwatch has a 10 ATM grade, so it is water-resistant to a depth of up to 100 meters.

Unlike most GPS fitness watches, the Amazfit T-Rex Pro has a HD AMOLED color screen that is always on, so you don’t have to wake the watch to quickly see your stats. It also has an attractive color display.

Finally, this smartwatch notifies you of any incoming text messages or calls or upcoming calendar notifications and you can control music playback, though you can’t send texts, make or receive calls, or download music to the watch.

Pros:

• Great battery life
• Inexpensive
• Excellent GPS
• Very rugged for extreme conditions
• Nice display

Cons:

• No music
• Can’t make or receive calls

Best Budget Running Watch: HUAWEI Band 6 Smartwatch

Huawei

Key Features:

• Price: $52
• Battery life: 14 days for typical use
• Display: AMOLED 454 x 454 pixels HD
• Display size: 1.39 inches
• Weight: 52 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: Android 4.4 or later, iOS 9.0 or later

Many of the top running watches are quite expensive, but there are some inexpensive running watches that are still surprisingly feature-packed, accurate and well-made.

For just over $50, HUAWEI Band 6 Smartwatch for runners has an impressive list of features and functions including GPS, blood oxygen saturation, sleep monitoring, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, stress monitoring, VO2 max, recovery time and aerobic/anaerobic effort assessment during your runs.

Essentially, this budget running watch is designed to replicate many of the functions you would find on more expensive GPS running watches such as the Garmin Forerunner series, and while it isn’t as easy to navigate, and doesn’t seem quite as accurate and robust, it’s a pretty impressive little watch for runners on a budget who don’t need every possible feature and extreme accuracy.

The battery life is also impressive, at about 14 days during regular use.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Surprising number of features

Cons:

• A little less intuitive to use
• No robust app support
• May be less accurate

Best Running Watch for Tracking Women’s Health: Fitbit Sense

Amazon

Key Features:

• Price: $175
• Battery life: Up to six days with regular use, 12 hours with continuous GPS
• Display size: 1.58 inches
• Weight: 50 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone, Android
• Additional smartwatch features: Menstrual tracking, sleep tracking

Runners who want to have more insight into their overall health will love the Fitbit Sense. Fitbit has been an industry leader in fitness trackers and smart watches since 2008, and the Fitbit Sense is one of its most advanced smartwatches for runners and everyday athletes alike.

As a health and fitness smartwatch, the Fitbit Sense measures stress through an electrodermal (EDA) scan and has advanced heart monitoring through electrocardiogram (ECG), which not only monitors your heart rate, but also your heart rhythm. This is an extremely rare feature that is particularly important for runners with any type of heart arrhythmia or cardiac issue.

The Fitbit Sense is our pick for the best running watch for women’s health because in addition to all of the work out features and activity tracking, it keeps tabs on your stress levels, sleep and menstrual cycles.

One thing that’s really nice about this smartwatch is that it’s quite intuitive to use, so you can adjust to it quite quickly.

Swiping up and down on the main screen reveals your daily Core Stats, including step count, calories burned, number of flights of stairs you’ve climbed and Active Zone minutes.

You can customize what type of data you see when you swipe down, such as the weather, your menstrual cycle information, the stress scan, quick access to guided breathing exercises for relaxation and your water intake.

In terms of the smartwatch running features, in the exercise mode, you can see the workout time elapsed, steps, heart rate, calories burned, average speed, current pace, total distance and number of minutes in the different Active Zones, which are essentially heart rate zones based on your age-predicted maximum heart rate.

When your workout is over, the Active Zones chart displays how much time you spent in the fat-burning, cardio and peak zones.

The watch face is fully customizable in the Fitbit app, so you can choose colors and designs that speak to you on any given moment at any given day. The screen is made from Gorilla Glass 3, a highly durable material that resists cracking if the watch is dropped or smacked against something.

You can also change the band, or use an infinity band, which is super comfortable because there is no access strap that hangs out and you can adjust it to exactly the right level of tightness for your wrist.

Although you cannot send texts or download music to the watch, you can change tracks and read incoming texts that come from your phone.

Pros:

• Well priced
• Lots of health tracking
• Attractive and lightweight
• Multi-band options
• Easy to navigate
• Robust Fitbit app

Cons:

• Fewer running features than premium running watches

Best Running Watch With Music: Apple Watch Series 6

Amazon

Key Features:

• Price: $320+
• Battery life: Up to 18 hours
• Display: Always-on Retina display, color
• Display size: 1.57 inches
• Weight: 31 grams
• Water resistant: Yes
• Phone compatible: iPhone
• Additional smartwatch features: Mobile payments, cell service, music storage

The Apple Watch Series 6 is not only a great smartwatch with music, but it’s also a high-performing running watch designed to keep up with you during all your workouts.

There are plenty of great fitness features on the Apple Watch Series 6, such as the ability to measure your blood oxygen level, your heart rhythm and rate via ECG and optimal heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, GPS and more. All the metrics are shown on a stunning, always-on, full-color Retina display.

Unlike any of the other GPS running watches on our list of top picks, the Apple Watch has cell service so you can make and receive phone calls or text messages without your phone.

In terms of the music capabilities, you can stream and play music, podcasts, audiobooks etc. right from the watch without needing your phone with you.

There are also some really nice safety features, including alerts if your heart rate is particularly high, low or there is a rhythm abnormality present. The watch can even detect if you take a hard fall and then notify emergency services—there is also an SOS button to get emergency help, allowing EMS to quickly come to your assistance at your exact location.

Pros:

• Cell service
• Music and podcasts
• Lightweight
• Great convenience and safety features
• Always-on display

Cons:

• Expensive
• Fewer running metrics and training features
• Requires iPhone

What Is a Running Watch?

A running watch is a sports watch specifically geared towards runners or triathletes with specs and features such as GPS tracking, instantaneous pace and average pace, interval timing, heart rate monitoring, caloric expenditure and activity tracking.

Related Post: The Best Running Shoes for Women

How We Chose The Best Running Watch

To determine the best running watches, we searched for the top running watches based on customer reviews, customer feedback and brand recognition. We evaluated each running watch based on specific criteria: price/value, GPS and additional navigation system options, heart rate monitoring, water resistance, running-specific functions (e.g., VO2 max, stride rate), battery life, display size and quality, companion app and phone compatibility, watch size, comfort and customer feedback.

Since I have been a competitive runner for over 20 years, I have tested hundreds of running watches at every price point, allowing me to have a clear understanding of the factors to consider when choosing a good watch.

I used my familiarity with what types of running watch features matter most for certain situations to choose the best watches for runners based on their features, technology, value and customer reviews.

What Features To Look For In a Running Watch

Here are some of the most important specs to consider when buying a running watch or when looking for the best smartwatch for running:

GPS functionality

Unless you are interested in just a basic fitness watch or activity tracker, it’s crucial to get a GPS-enabled running watch. GPS will allow you to have accurate speed and distance measurements, and will increase the reliability of the calorie expenditure. It’s also nice if the smartwatch can upload your data to Strava or other fitness apps.

Additionally, GPS will enable more advanced training features like predictive pacing and VO2 max.

Some GPS watches are better than others in terms of the reliability and accuracy of the GPS signal, especially on cloudy days or on trails. It is helpful to look into how the watch gets its GPS signal and if there is predictive GPS monitoring in case the signal is dropped.

GPS running watches have a receiver that triangulates the signals from four satellites to determine your exact position every few seconds.

Entry-level GPS watches use basic GPS, but premium GPS watches are often also compatible with GLONASS, Galileo and/or QZSS. These are GPS-like navigation systems from other, non-US countries. Some are said to be even more accurate than GPS; plus, the benefit of having multiple systems on your running watch is that there’s improved accuracy since the receiver in your watch will have access to multiple satellites at any instant in time. This means the signal is less likely to drop.

Battery life

One of the most important factors to consider when buying a running watch is the battery life. Most watches will have a limited battery life when the GPS is enabled, so make sure that the watch you buy has a long battery life that is sufficient for the duration of your workouts. This is a particularly important consideration for marathon runners and triathletes.

Obviously, the better the battery life, the less often you are going to have to remember to charge your watch, which is certainly a perk.

Internal training capabilities

It’s very important to consider what the running watch can do versus what training features are most valuable to you. Do you need VO2 max? Do you want the watch to automatically determine heart rate zones or intensity zones? Do you want recovery monitoring? Will you want other sport modes to track other types of exercise?

Think about what you need to have and what you’d like to have and try to find a watch for running that meets those needs.

At the same time, more isn’t always better. If you don’t need every single feature one could fathom, save money by choosing a more basic running watch; it will likely be easier to use as well.

Cost

Your budget will largely dictate the types of features and capabilities you can get on your GPS running watch. More expensive watches are also usually slimmer and more aesthetically pleasing, and have enhanced displays and a longer battery life.

Design/appearance

One of the more important design criteria to consider is the size of the watch, both in terms of the display size as well as the size and thickness of the watch face. The weight of the watch is also a good indication of how bulky vs. sleek the watch is.

GPS running watches around 50 grams or less are generally considered to be super lightweight and compact, and are often more comfortable for women or runners with slender wrists.

If you're a runner looking for an easy-to-read watch face, look for one with at least a 1.2-inch diameter display.

Higher-quality running watches will have a better display quality, with a higher pixel density and color graphics rather than black and white.

Also consider if you prefer a round or rectangular watch face, as well as how many different metrics you can see on the watch at once, and whether those fields can be customized.

Apps

Aside from entry-level GPS watches, the watch should have a free companion app and/or website. It’s a good idea to download the app before you buy the watch, or read customer reviews online in the App Store or Google Play Store to see if people find the app user friendly, helpful and comprehensive.

Phone notifications

Advanced GPS running watches may support phone notifications like receiving text messages, missed call alerts and upcoming calendar appointments.

Related Post: The Best Running Shoes for Men

FAQs

Is an Apple Watch good for running?

Apple Watch has lots of great features for runners in the exercise modes, such as pace, distance, wrist-based heart rate, GPS, etc. It has a beautiful touchscreen display and is easy to navigate. However, there are also other watches for runners with additional features designed specifically for running.

Is a running watch better than a phone?

A running watch is sleeker and more comfortable for most runners than carrying a phone, and premium running watches offer additional features like wrist-based heart rate monitoring, VO2, sleep tracking, recovery monitoring that you can’t get with a phone, even when using a running app.

Can I use my running watch without a phone?

Most running watches can be used without a phone, but unless you have the Apple Watch or other select watches, you can only receive texts and alerts on your watch—you cannot make or receive calls or send texts.

What watch do marathon runners wear?

Most marathon runners wear higher-end GPS running watches, such as the Garmin Forerunner 245 or above. The Garmin Fenix series watches are popular among runners, as well as the COROS Pace 2, Suunto watches or Polar running watches like the Polar Vantage V2. It depends on the budget and preferences of the runner.

The new Garmin 955 is also quite popular, as it has even more features than the Garmin Forerunner 945 plus it has solar charging and a crystal clear touchscreen display.

How much should I spend on a running watch?

Most of the higher-end GPS running watches cost $140-300 or so, but there are budget watches and clearance models that cost less. Typically, you’ll pay more for additional features, more accurate GPS and heart rate monitoring, color displays, music, etc.

How long do running watches last?

Running watches can last anywhere from one to two years, to upwards of five or more years, depending on the quality of the running watch you purchase and how well you take care of it. Because the technology available in GPS running watches is always changing and evolving, many runners end up liking to replace their running watch every several years anyway to take advantage of the latest processors, capabilities and continually smaller builds.

Is Garmin better than Fitbit?

Garmin and Fitbit are two of the top running watch companies. Although their smart watches overlap in many ways, Garmin watches tend to be a better choice for runners who want running-specific GPS watches to optimize performance while Fitbit watches are more affordable options for general health and fitness. In other words, Garmin running watches prioritize running features whereas Fitbit smartwatches are better for overall health and activity monitoring.

Is Garmin better than Apple Watch?

Garmin running watches are better than the Apple Watch in terms of features designed specifically for running, such as VO2 max, training load, recovery status after a workout, stride length, cadence and time spent in aerobic/anaerobic zones. The Apple Watch is a good option for more recreational runners who would like plenty of advanced running features, but who do not need every specific running performance function and would like the cell capabilities of the Apple Watch.

Related Post: The Best Long-Distance Running Shoes

Final Thoughts

A running watch enables you to capture workout data instantly and track your progress over time. When choosing the best running watch for you, consider the features that are most important to you, such as running-specific metrics, music, general health, or workout planning and coaching.

Prices are accurate and items in stock as of publish time.