The best cheap smartwatches offer affordable ways to get connected on your wrist. While they might not keep up with the best smartwatches in every aspect, the top-rated budget models might have all the features you need.
Many of the best cheap smartwatches, like the Apple Watch SE 2022 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 offer similar features to their pricier, higher-end siblings. Others, like the Fitbit Charge 6, offer GPS tracking at an affordable price.
We tested dozens of the most popular smartwatches out there while working out, sleeping, running errands, walking the dog, washing the car... you get the idea, and these are the best cheap smartwatches you can buy right now.
The best cheap smartwatches you can buy today
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Best cheap smartwatch
The second-generation Apple Watch SE (2022) is the best cheap smartwatch you can buy in 2024, offering a ton of functionality in an attractive, well-built package for the price. You get a large and immersive display, international emergency calling, fall detection, noise monitoring and optional LTE support to go phone-free.
It may be Apple's entry-level model but it still has excellent health and fitness tracking features — especially if you upgrade to the latest watchOS 11 — and more third-party apps than you can shake a stick at. Battery life is rated at just 18 hours but you can push that to closer to 24 hours in low-power mode.
Read our full Apple Watch SE (2022) review
Best cheap Android smartwatch
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 boasts a slim, lightweight and comfortable design, two size options, a bright and responsive AMOLED touchscreen and excellent health and fitness tracking features.
Like the Apple Watch SE, there are an impressive number of third-party apps to try out, as well as the option to add LTE connectivity. However, compatibility is limited to Android devices only and some features, like sleep apnea detection, require a Samsung Galaxy phone.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 review
The best cheap smartwatch for fitness-tracking
The Fitbit Charge 6 offers solid fitness-tracking capabilities for a good price. It also has an onboard GPS for location tracking, support for Google Maps, Wallet and YouTubue Music, and up to seven days of battery life.
In addition to tracking an enormous range of workout types, the Charge 6 monitors vitals like heart rate and blood oxygen levels while you sleep and provides users with a daily sleep score based on the quality of the previous night's restfulness. Meanwhile, a Fitbit Premium subscription unlocks additional insights for those who want to dive deeper into their wellness data.
Compatible with both Android and iOS devices, the Charge 6 lacks the vast offering of third-party apps you get with an Apple or Samsung smartwatch. The small screen may also turn some users off. However, this is the lightest and most comfortable wearable on the list, which also makes it an ideal choice for wearing to bed.
Read our full Fitbit Charge 6 review
Best cheap smartwatch for style
The Garmin Lily 2 is a small and stylish smartwatch that more resembles a piece of jewelry than a piece of consumer tech. Easily Garmin's most fashionably wearable, it offers wellness features that are particularly useful for female users, like menstrual health and pregnancy tracking. The Lily 2 also monitors heart rate, blood oxygen levels, stress and sleep.
Lightweight and super comfortable, the device comes in several versions but only the Lily 2 Active offers an onboard GPS for location tracking while you work out, without the need to lug a smartphone. It also supports mobile payments and battery life is good for up to nine days in normal smartwatch mode and nine hours when using the GPS.
However, the screen is on the small side and monochromatic. There also aren't any compatible third-party apps but it does play nice with Android and iOS devices.
Read our full Garmin Lily 2 Active review
Best cheap smartwatch for outdoor sports
With a large display, onboard GPS, a built-in compass and enough durability certifications to survive Jurassic Park, the Amazfit T-Rex 2 is one of the best cheap smartwatches for the outdoors. It's since been replaced by the pricier Amazfit T-Rex 3 ($279) but remains available. At $199, it’s less than half the price of the Garmin Instinct and other popular GPS smartwatches, making it an affordable alternative.
Like other devices on our best sports watch page, the T-Rex offers an impressive battery life, a variety of sports modes and sleep tracking, all wrapped in its nearly impenetrable shell. With all the sensors you could want, the T-Rex is a beast to be reckoned with, plus who doesn't want a device named after a dinosaur?
Read our full Amazfit T-Rex 2 review
Best cheap golf watch
Golf watches can be pricey, and especially for new or casual players, the upfront cost of the game tends to add up. So for the $199 Garmin Approach S12 to pack many of the key game features found in the brand’s higher-tier devices — including 43,000 preloaded courses, shot-distance measurements and compatibility with Garmin’s other golf accessories — its value is hard to beat. That's why it's one of the best cheap smartwatches for golfers, if not the best overall.
It doesn’t have the finesse of Garmin's higher-end golf watches, and the lack of a heart rate monitor means it can't replace your fitness tracker. But for mirrored notifications and a simple, yet customizable watch face, there's plenty of versatility on and off the green.
Read our full Garmin Approach S12 review
Also tested
Not every watch we test will make it into the main roundup. This is because we test a lot of cheap smartwatches so we can genuinely only recommend the best. But that doesn't mean that the others aren't also a good option. So, these are the cheap smartwatches that didn't quite make the cut if you're after more choice.
How to choose
When shopping for a cheap smartwatch, you should look for the same things as if you were shopping for a higher-priced model. First, what kind of smartphone do you have? If you own an iPhone, we recommend sticking with the Apple Watch SE or Series 9 (or some other recent version), as the Apple Watch is the only smartwatch that fully works with the iPhone.
If you have an Android smartphone, your best choice is either a Samsung or Wear OS smartwatch like the Google Pixel Watch 2; both of those platforms fully support Android phones, such as making and receiving calls from your wrist, as well as crafting messages.
You also want to consider what you plan to do with the smartwatch. If you're into fitness, you'll want a smartwatch that's water-resistant and has GPS and a heart rate monitor.
How we test
We test cheap smartwatches the same way we do pricier models: By wearing them. We first see how well the watches fit on our wrists, and how easy the displays are to read (especially in sunlight and navigate.
Depending on its capabilities, we also test the watches' sensors, such as GPS and heart rate monitors. If you need a watch that can track your workouts without your phone, check out our guides to the best GPS watches and best running watches instead.
Other criteria that factor into our ratings include the number of apps available for a smartwatch, how well it interacts with our smartphone, and battery life. In all of this, we also take into account the price of the smartwatch.
The less a watch costs, the more leeway we're inclined to give it. Still, there are a lot of lousy cheap smartwatches — and plenty of good ones under $200 — so our tolerance only goes so far.
