Best running watches of 2024 for runners of all levels

I find myself really appreciating the true value of a great running watch when I wonder how runners used to track distance, pace, and heart rate before the advent of sports watches. A quality running watch is an incredibly helpful tool, but with so many options out there, how do you choose the right one?

That's where we come in. Our team has been testing running watches for years, and with different backgrounds and running levels, we’ve reviewed a wide range of models to find the best options for every type of runner. Each watch included here has not only performed exceptionally well but also meets specific needs, whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting out.

At the time of writing, our top pick is the Garmin Forerunner 265, a feature-packed watch that combines accurate tracking with impressive battery life and customizable workouts. For beginners, we recommend the Garmin Forerunner 55 as a solid, reliable choice. And if you’re looking for value, the Coros Pace 3 is well worth considering.

But our top picks don’t stop there. Read on to discover the best running watches we've tested to date.

The quick list

Best running watch overall

Our pick for the best sports watch and one of the best Garmin watches is also our top running watch: The Garmin Forerunner 265. This lightweight device gives you everything you’d want in a running watch, from accurate tracking to music controls to the ability to create custom workouts, for the price of an Apple Watch. The device also offers access to Garmin’s wide range of training metrics, which help you not only plan workouts but also recovery time.

During testing, we found the Garmin Forerunner 265's beautiful AMOLED display to be bright and easy to read, even in direct sunlight. It also has a touchscreen, which makes it easy to navigate around the watch. The battery is long enough to last through a few workouts, even with music playing.

The Forerunner 265 has inherited some of the more advanced health features usually reserved for Garmin’s more expensive running watches. The watch has Garmin’s latest Elevate V4 sensor — the green light records heart rate, the red light records blood oxygen levels (referred to as Pulse Ox on the watch). This sensor is used to calculate breathing rate, HRV, and stress. It also now has the ability to track multisport training sessions in the triathlon mode, and Garmin's Training Readiness Score.

It's a fantastic improvement on an already fantastic watch and a great buy for all levels of runner.

Read our Garmin Forerunner 265 review.

Best running watch for beginners

If you’re starting to get into running, chances are you want a device that’s a step up from a basic fitness tracker but also won’t overwhelm you with too many features. Among Garmin watches, the Forerunner 55 is a clear choice.

At its core, the Garmin Forerunner 55 is an entry-level fitness watch, replacing the popular Forerunner 45. While it looks very similar to its predecessor, Garmin made some important changes, adding some of the more advanced training tools usually reserved for their more expensive watches. The Forerunner 55 has Garmin's new PacePro technology, which gives you gentle speed and cadence alerts on the run. There are also suggested recovery times and workouts, based on your training history, fitness levels, and recovery. This is a differentiator from similarly priced watches such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active or the Fitbit Charge 5 which track workouts but don’t offer custom coaching plans.

It’s worth noting that the Garmin Forerunner 55 doesn’t support music storage, mobile payments, or third-party apps. It also has a relatively small display, at just over 1 inch. If these are must-have features for your Garmin watch, you may want to consider a higher-end device. If you are looking for a cheaper watch, the Forerunner 45 is often discounted following the release of the Forerunner 55, so it's a good time to buy.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 55 review.

Best running watch for triathletes

The Garmin Forerunner 965 replaced the Forerunner 955 in March 2023 as Garmin's top-tier running watch. The newer watch has a bright, beautiful 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen, and a new titanium bezel to give it a premium feel both on and off the run.

Underneath, however, the Forerunner 965 is pretty much the same as the Forerunner 955. This isn't a bad thing - the 955 is a fantastic watch, but if you already own a Forerunner 955, or a Fenix 7, it's probably not worth upgrading just yet. The watch has all of Garmin's advanced training metrics, including the Training Readiness Score, Morning Report, and Garmin's new Chronic Training Load feature, which focuses on a 28-day sum of your training.

Compared to other watches on this list, despite the brighter screen, the Forerunner 965 still has the same impressive battery life we've come to expect from Garmin. The watch lasts 23 days in smartwatch mode, 31 hours in GPS mode without music, and 8.5 hours in GPS mode with music. There are a few caveats, however, one being the option for the always-on display on the Forerunner 965. When this is turned on, Garmin reckons the battery life in smartwatch mode drops from 23 days to 7 days.

During testing, we were impressed by the amazing screen on this watch, but didn't find it all that different from the Forerunner 955, which was only released nine months ago. Read our Forerunner 955 vs Forerunner 965 face-off here to find out more.

Read our full Forerunner 965 review.

Best running watch for first time marathoners

The Garmin Forerunner 165 is an excellent choice for first-time marathon runners, which offers users a perfect blend of health-tracking technology and training features tailored to help you achieve your running goals. This GPS running watch is lightweight and comfortable, making it ideal for extended wear during long training sessions and of course, the big race day.

Training features include Garmin's PacePro, which acts like a running coach on your wrist, and Body Battery, which informs your daily workout plans. The watch offers workout suggestions, post-workout recovery recommendations, and insights into sleep quality, stress, recovery and menstrual health. It can also automatically alert emergency personnel if you experience a fall while training.

A feature in the Forerunner 165 that stood out for us during testing is its bright AMOLED touchscreen, which remains highly visible even in direct sunlight. Battery life is another strong suit of the Forerunner 165, with up to 19 hours of use in GPS mode, ensuring it can last through your marathon without needing a recharge.

The Forerunner 165 shares a similar design with the Forerunner 265, featuring three buttons on the left side and two on the right. Its 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen, with a resolution of 390 x 390 pixels, is of noticeably higher quality compared to previous models. The option to use buttons or a touchscreen is great for handling the watch with sweaty hands. Plus, with a water resistance of 50 meters, the watch can withstand sweat, splashes, and short submersions.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 165 review.

Best value running watch

Given its small, lightweight design and relatively low price, the Coros Pace 3 is a remarkably full-featured running watch. It offers reliable tracking, with a more accurate multi-band GPS setting that’s rare to find at this price point, and it lasted five to six days on a charge even with heavy use during our testing.

The Coros Pace 3 is a full multisport watch and has a dedicated track run mode for runners, and while it doesn’t suggest workouts each day like Garmin watches, you can download full training plans for events like 5Ks and marathons from Coros onto the watch, with all abilities and experience levels catered to.

It’s not the best-looking watch and lacks smart features you can get on other running watches, with the music storage on the Pace 3 only supporting MP3 files you drag and drop onto the watch — no streaming services are supported, unlike with Garmin. When it comes to the essentials runners need, however, the Pace 3 delivers, and it does so at a lower price than rivals from other brands.

Best Coros running watch

This is a monster running watch made by Coros, designed to rival the likes of the Garmin Fenix 7. Whereas the Fenix 7 comes in three different diameter options (42mm, 47mm, and 51mm) and multiple “editions” to suit different budgets, fitness needs, and wrist sizes, there’s only one model of the Vertix 2, which has a case diameter of 50.3mm — up from 47mm with the original Vertix. There are no solar editions of the Coros Vertix 2.

The high-spec watch does everything you'd want it to do and more, plus, it's designed for multi-day adventures. During testing, we appreciated the huge battery life of this running watch, which has the capacity to last 240 hours in UltraMax GPS mode. It's also super durable, with a reinforced bezel and screen to protect the watch from any knocks or scrapes along the trail.

While you could buy this for a heavy marathon training plan (we tested this watch in the run-up to a trail marathon), if you're not someone who is planning on skiing, swimming, and going off-road, there are cheaper watches on the market for you.

Read our full Coros Vertix 2 review.

Best Fitbit running watch

Not all smartwatches make for good running watches. Touchscreens can be tough to use with sweaty fingers or gloved hands. Batteries typically don’t last for more than a couple days, either. Without an always-on display, you have to shake your wrist or press a button just to glance at the screen.

The best smartwatch for runners is the Fitbit Sense 2. While it won’t allow you to make untethered phone calls like the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, the Fitbit Sense offers better health and fitness features.

The Fitbit Sense 2 is the company's premium smartwatch that comes with more advanced health and wellness features that the Versa line. Not only does it have an FDA-approved ECG sensor and blood oxygen reading, but the Sense has the ability to measure electrodermal activity and skin temperature, too. Compared to the original Fitbit Sense, the Sense 2 features an upgraded design, interface and EDA sensor, making for Fitbit's most holistic smartwatch yet.

Read our full Fitbit Sense 2 review.

Best Polar running watch

The Polar Vantage V3 is designed to help serious runners and multisport athletes train, rest and recover. Bursting at the seams with fitness and wellness tracking tech, the V3 also boasts a bright, beautiful touchscreen and fantastic battery life, not to mention, an accurate dual-band GPS.

Training metrics are easy to digest and plentiful, and recovery insights are in abundance: After a run, you can use the Polar Vantage V3 to conduct a Leg Recovery test, which helps you determine how long to wait before your next hard run. Other watches provide recovery recommendations, but metrics specific to legs are unique to the Polar Vantage V3. In addition, the Nightly Recharge feature puts sleep quality in the context of workout recovery.

During testing, one feature we found impressive was the training plans. Plugging workout data into Polar Flow lets you create training plans and share them with personal trainers or coaches, which is another way to help prevent injuries.

If you're after a bargain, the Polar Vantage V2 is also a competent running watch and is likely to be on sale right now.

Read our full Polar Vantage V3 review.

Best Apple running watch

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the best Apple Watch to buy if you're doing any serious running training. Like the original Ultra, the second version also has a third button — the Action Button, which makes pausing the watch, or lapping the watch on the move, that little bit easier with sweaty fingers, or when wearing gloves.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, Apple has added features that have been available on most of the best running watches for years, but the Ultra 2 does feel like an upgrade from the Apple Watch Series 9 from a running perspective. Its 49mm screen is huge, but it's built for adventure — plus, the screen is brighter than before, up to 3,000 nits from 2,000 nits. In direct sunlight the improvement is subtle, but during testing, we could see it more clearly than the Apple Watch Series 9.

While there's not a lot of physical difference between the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch Ultra 2, under the screen, there's a big one. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 packs the S9 processor, which promises the first true power upgrade since the Apple Watch Series 6. Apple claims it's 25% more efficient, built on 5.6 billion transistors with 30% faster GPU animations and 4-core neural engines that enable machine learning twice as fast.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has the best battery life of any Apple Watch. Even with a brighter display, the watch gets 36 hours of battery life with normal use. With low power mode, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 gets up to 72 hours of battery, increased from 60 hours offered through the original.

In workout modes, the bigger screen allows for seven data fields, rather than six. That said, if you're looking for longer battery life, recovery metrics, or the ability to upload maps onto the watch, you're better off shopping for one of the Garmins on this list.

Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 2 review.

Best running watch for adventurers

The Garmin Enduro 3 is designed for adventurers who prioritize reliable battery life and don't want this to compromise on top-tier sports tracking and navigation features. Lighter and more affordable than the Garmin Fenix 8, it still offers all the essentials for ultra-runners, trail enthusiasts, hikers, and explorers.

At 2 ounces, it’s lighter than both the Fenix 8 and its predecessor (the Enduro 2) and for us, felt more comfortable during extended wear. The Enduro 3 features a titanium bezel, sapphire screen, and comes with a durable nylon UltraFit band. It's waterproof up to 100 meters and packs Garmin’s latest Elevate Gen5 optical heart rate sensor, multi-band GPS, and a built-in flashlight, all crucial for night-time adventures.

With up to 90 days of battery life (solar-assisted) and 144 hours in GPS mode, this watch excels in endurance, perfect for those tackling ultramarathons or multi-day trails and hikes. The watch supports a variety of sports modes, and its robust training analysis tools—like endurance and hill-climbing metrics—offer adventurers key insights into performance.

We also tested the Garmin Fenix 8 and found that while it offers premium features like an onboard mic, AMOLED screen, and diveproof design, the Garmin Enduro 3 stands out for its superior battery life, solar-charging capabilities, and rugged design. If you need longevity in a watch and fancy saving $100 we recommend opting for the Garmin Enduro 3.

Read our full Garmin Enduro 3 review here.

Best Garmin smartwatch

Garmin watches aren’t just for serious athletes. The Venu 2 Plus is a stylish smartwatch on a par with the Apple Watch and Fitbit Versa 3 — and it’s rugged enough for bike rides, strength workouts, and playtime with the kids. It’s also a step up from the Garmin vivoactive 4 with an AMOLED display and a stainless steel bezel.

For runners, it has everything you'd expect from a Garmin watch — the ability to track all of your runs and workouts, as well as receive live feedback on the move. The big difference here is that thanks to tools like voice and call assistant, you can ask Siri to add eggs to your shopping list mid-run, or finally call your mum, should you wish.

Like some of the other smarter running watches on this list, the Venu 2 Plus also has mobile payments, notifications, a touchscreen, and storage for up to 650 songs on board. The watch also boasts a much better battery life than most smartwatches, even with its AMOLED display.

Read our full Garmin Venu 2 Plus review here.

Best premium running watch

Garmin's Epix adventure watch has been around for a while, but in June 2023, Garmin released a and improved version with the Epix Pro series: available in three different sizes, to suit every wrist size. Unlike the Garmin Epix Gen 2, the Epix Pro is available in three different sizes — 42mm/1.6 inches, 47mm/1.8 inches, and 51mm/2 inches. The Epix 2 only came in one, 47mm size. So there is now a smaller option, for adventurers with petite wrists, and a larger option for those who prefer a chunkier watch.

During testing, we were blown away by the stunning AMOLED screen and the decent battery life. Yet this watch is more impressive than just a nice watch face, it has Garmin's newest heart rate monitor, which is said to be more accurate when tracking activity profiles that aren't running-based.

All of the watches in the Epix Pro range also have a built-in flashlight, a feature we saw with the launch of the Garmin Fenix 7X last January. The flashlight can be used in situations where you might use your phone’s flashlight, but can also be used in certain sports modes, as the flashlight can blink or pulse on a bike ride. There is also a running-specific cadence visibility flashlight, where the watch will flash white as your wrist goes forward, and red as your arm moves back, in order to help keep you safe and seen.

Overall, this is an impressive watch, and if you can afford it, you'll get just about all the running features you could ever need.

Read our Garmin Epix Pro review.

How to choose the best running watch for you

When buying a running watch, here's a few things to consider:

Appearance: If you want a running watch that can also be an everyday watch, overall design and appearance are key considerations. Will it clash with a dress or blazer, or will it get caught on the sleeve of a sweater or shirt?

Phone notifications: Do you want to be able to receive WhatsApp messages and emails mid-run, or is this your worst nightmare? Plenty of modern watches have smartwatch features, but if you're not bothered about them, you can save money.

Battery life: If you're planning on running a marathon, or heading out on an all-day adventure, you'll want a watch that can keep up with you in GPS mode. This shouldn't be a problem with most Garmin running watches, but is something to consider with a Fitbit or Apple watch.

Fit: If you're a particularly petite runner, you'll want a watch that fits neatly around your wrist, or a watch that has different size straps for a good fit.

Price vs. Features: Weigh up whether the features offered justify the price. Sometimes, a mid-range model may provide everything you need without the cost of high-end versions.

How we test the best running watches

Even today’s low-end running watches typically come with GPS sensors, heart rate monitors, and step counters. In addition to evaluating watches on these features, we look at more advanced functionality such as VO2 Max data, sleep tracking, music storage, and the presentation of training data such as recovery time and recommended workouts.

Our reviewers are experienced runners who test devices on several runs in open spaces, around tall buildings, and in the woods. We pay attention to accuracy, ease of use, and comfort during our runs, and we evaluate each watch and its companion app together after our runs. We wear watches for several days to compare battery performance to manufacturers’ claims.

If a running watch also has smartwatch capabilities, we look at the software, application ecosystem, and use of special features such as mobile payments or notification responses.

Features compared

How to choose the best running watch for you

Training Frequency and Goals

The type of running watch you need largely depends on how often you run and your running goals. Casual runners should find they have all they need in a simpler model with GPS and heart rate tracking, while runners and athletes training for marathons or triathlons may need advanced features like interval training, VO2 max monitoring, and recovery suggestions to aid their training.

Features and Metrics

For beginners, basic tracking of distance, pace, and heart rate should be enough to monitor progress and stay motivated. Those who consider themselves as a more intermediate runner looking to improve performance may want watches with metrics like cadence, stride length, and heart rate zones to help fine-tune their training. Meanwhile, for those training for races or aiming for specific fitness goals, advanced features such as lactate threshold, VO2 max, and interval training support can offer more detailed insights.

If you’re a fan of cross-training with cycling, swimming, or hiking, multi-sport modes allow you to track all your activities seamlessly.

Battery Life

Battery life is key if you’re running long distances or doing multi-day events. Watches designed for ultra runners or adventurers can last for days on a single charge, while others may need daily charging if you use GPS and other features regularly.

Style and Comfort

You’ll want a watch that fits comfortably, especially if you plan to wear it all dayand get better metrics from your watch . Consider the strap material and whether the design matches your personal style, as some watches are bulkier or sportier than others.

Budget

Your budget will influence the features your watch packs in. Higher-end models come with extras like onboard music storage, route planning, and smart notifications. Mid-range options often strike a balance between advanced metrics and affordability, while entry-level watches focus on core tracking features, such as distance, pace, and calories burned.

Is Garmin or Apple Watch better for running?

First and foremost, neither is a bad option. Garmin tends to hold the majority vote for being the more reliable brand in the running watch sphere.

However, Apple has made large leaps in increasing its running watch credentials such as the option to create custom runs, the addition of heart rate zones, plus plenty of performance metrics such as feedback on your power, cadence and ground contact time. Read our roundup of the 10 best Apple Watch running features you should try to find out more.

That being said, Garmin not only has a much larger range of running watches for runners of all abilities and budgets to choose from but, Garmin watches also provide a more seamless user experience for runners with features like route planning and coaching tools integrated into the watch and Garmin Connect app. Meanwhile, Apple requires the effort of third-party apps for advanced features like route planning.

Ultimately, it depends on your needs as a runner. If you want all the smartwatch features Apple has to offer then an Apple watch can act as a great running watch. Alternatively, if your fitness and running progress is your main concern, this is Garmin's bread and butter as a brand.