These Top-Rated Sports Watches Can Help You Become a Healthier Version of Yourself

Whether you’re a casual user in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle or an enthusiast looking to reach a new level of fitness, you need a high-quality sports watch in your workout routine. These timepieces will help you track, monitor, and improve your performance, thanks to their onboard sensors and other special features.

Many sports watches can also guide you through your workouts via on-screen animation — as well as track your sleep and recovery patterns — to help you always feel your best and avoid injuries. They are also excellent smartwatches, which can send you smartphone notifications, offer access to your favorite virtual assistant, and even allow you to control connected home products.

The Best Sports Watches

What to Consider

Compatibility

There are several important factors to consider before picking out your sports watch, with the most important being phone compatibility. For example, the Apple Watch — a rock-solid contender for the product category’s best — is only compatible with an iPhone. Its competitors from Fitbit, Garmin, and Polar, however, can also play nice with Android phones.

In addition to compatibility, you should also keep design, onboard sensors, display quality, and battery performance in mind. We break these criteria down further below:

Design

Unless you plan to use it only during workouts, a good sports watch should rock a cool design suitable for everyday wear. Having it constantly on your wrist will allow you to take full advantage of its onboard sensors and tech, instead of simply keeping tabs on your pulse at the gym. A sports watch should also be fully waterproof — the higher its rating, the better.

Sensors

When it comes to onboard sensors, every good sports watch should be able to track your heart rate well. Additional features like ECG capabilities and a blood oxygen sensor are becoming increasingly common. A built-in GPS chip for precisely mapping your outdoor exercises is also important. (Save for one product, all our picks have one.)

Display

Of course, the display quality of any sports watch is essential. The best ones have sharp, vibrant panels that are equally great for glancing at your stats during workouts as well as checking emails from work. Combined with the onboard sensors, the screen will impact your timepiece’s battery endurance — products with lower-tech screens typically last longer between charges.

Battery Performance

Depending on your workout routine, consider the battery life of a fitness watch before buying. Every option on this list will deliver at least a full day (or much more) of mixed-use. The latter will include standard smartwatch mode and a workout session of continuous fitness tracking with GPS and other available sensors constantly enabled.

After countless hours of activity and months of testing, these are the best sports watches to fuel your workouts right now. Get ready to take your sweat sessions to a whole new level.