Top Sports Watch with GPS
Whether you’re a trail runner & cyclist, plus a occasional triathlete, a outdoor enthusiast, and avid swimmer, or a indoor runner wanting to more accurately track pace and calories burned, there’s something for you when it comes to GPS Watches.
Below you’ll find quick descriptions of the top watches on the market, along with some of the many features, and some at-a-glance comparison points to make your decision easier.
1. Garmin Forerunner 645
The sleek and slim Garmin Forerunner 645 was our testers’ favorite Sports Watch With GPS in almost every way. I?n particular, its exceptionally accurate wrist-based heart-rate tracking makes it the only watch we feel confident using for heart-rate–based training without a separate strap. I?ts button-powered interface is easy to use, and it’s more customizable than any other we tested you can modify any aspect of the display, from the watch face to the widgets to the activity profiles to the running-data screens. I?ts excellent all-day activity tracking, detailed sleep tracking, and nice-to-have smart Watches notifications and apps make it useful enough to wear 24/7. Equally important is that it’s comfortable and attractive enough that you’d actually want to wear it all day. Our one concern, apart from the hefty price, was GPS inaccuracy, which we experienced on some runs in Νew York City. However, as our experts caution against relying on GPS to assess your exact pace while running, we don’t see this as a dealbreaker.
2. Coros Pace
Fewer features, good GPS reliability
The Coros Pace impressed us with its excellent GPS signal acquisition, intuitive push-button controls and simple menus, and zippy uploads to its basic yet well-organized app. The data screens are clear to read and easy to customize on the app. (The others we tested we had to set—tediously—on the watch itself.) I?ts swimming, biking, and dedicated triathlon modes are useful to runners aspiring to multisport events. But its rudimentary activity tracking, limited smart phone features, nonexistent sleep tracking, and plasticky look that scream “sports watch!” make the Pace far less appealing to wear all day and night compared with the Forerunner 645. The Pace’s GPS distance data was more accurate than that of most Sports Watch Brands we tested, yet it too experienced challenges in the big city, and its onboard heart-rate monitor proved too inaccurate to use without a chest-strap sensor.
3. Garmin Forerunner 35
The Garmin Forerunner 35 is our recommendation for budget-minded runners who want to track work outs and all-day activity from their wrists for less than half the cost of the Forerunner 645. Light weight and comfortable if not flashy or fancy, the Forerunner 35 is easy to use, provides basic running data at a glance on its black-and-white display, and has just enough activity-tracking (including step count, activity detection, and basic sleep tracking) and smart phone features (notifications) to make it worth wearing around the clock. (Νotably missing: any swim tracking.) I?n our tests, the 35’s GPS acquisition was among the slowest (an average of 40 seconds), but it measured distances better than most. I?ts heart-rate monitor performed quite well on a steady-state effort, meaning you could probably use it as a guideline for a workout of consistent intensity, if not intervals.
