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7 best smartwatches for fitness tracking
Get healthier during lockdown with these fashion-forward timepieces
Smartwatches may have started life as niche, nerdy gadgets, but they’re quickly shaking off their unfashionable image. Many brands now offer style as well as substance, with excellent health and fitness features to help you stay in shape during lockdown.
We’ve rounded up our tried-and-tested favourites that can log a range of workouts, estimate how many calories you’re burning, and monitor your heart rate. They’re all waterproof, and some can track swimming.
Most let you do everything your smartphone does too, from making calls and sending emails to summoning a voice assistant and storing music to play through Bluetooth headphones.
How we test
We trialled a range of good-looking, fitness-focused smartwatches to bring you the best in show. Each smartwatch was judged on its design, ease of use, tech, tracking accuracy and overall performance. These came out on top:
This elegant smartwatch teams Apple’s top-of-the-range, do-it-all tech with the timeless beauty of Hermès. The slim, handcrafted leather strap wraps twice around the wrist, in homage to the iconic Double Tour watch band that Hermès launched in the nineties. For a bolder look, choose the vibrant orange colourway.
Fitness-wise, it tracks 80 different exercises accurately and measures your blood oxygen level, so you can monitor the impact of your workouts on your health. You can also download music to the watch's memory and listen via Bluetooth headphones, while Siri allows you to read and reply to messages and emails, and make and take calls.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 80
Battery life: Up to 18 hours
If you’d prefer a smartwatch with a more traditional aesthetic, look to this techy timepiece with its round, rotating bezel. It comes in three colours - bronze, silver and black - and has sophisticated leather straps.
It’s a reliable fitness tracker, logging 40 exercises (including weight lifting), seven of which are automatic to eliminate that start-stop faff. It will track your deep and REM sleep, too. Note that while it is largely compatible with iPhones, you'll need an Android to use its smartphone features.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 40
Battery life: Up to 43 hours
Michael Kors has worked its magic on Fossil Group’s oversized smartwatch, lending it the house’s trademark style and palette. Choose from rose gold, gold, bright pink and blush, or mix and match the stainless steel straps.
You can trust its fitness tracking, but its limited choice of 10 types of exercise excludes swimming. Head to Armani for a rival fashion take on the Gen 5, which also lets you make and take calls if you’ve got an Android smartphone.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 10
Battery life: Up to 24 hours
Minimalists, this sleek gold and glass smartwatch is for you. It lasts for a fortnight on a single charge, which frequent travellers will appreciate, and we like its sleep tracking feature.
It logs all activity precisely, with rowing and cycling among its extensive range of 100 trackable workouts. It’s a personal trainer on your wrist, with multiple pre-installed fitness courses, and the integrated speaker and microphone are handy for taking calls.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 100
Battery life: Up to two weeks
This fitness-led gold and sand smartwatch harnesses the sun’s energy to give your battery a solar boost. Runners and cyclists will love its PacePro feature, which offers real-time feedback on your pace to help you achieve your fitness goals.
Built-in GPS means it can suggest and navigate routes, and it’s waterproof to a depth of 100m, with detailed swimming tracking. It’ll flash up smartphone notifications, but you can’t use it to call or email.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 32
Battery life: Up to 9 days or up to 10.5 days with solar
Suunto 7
If you’re channelling your pent-up energy into countryside rambles, this smartwatch pinpoints your location on a downloadable digital map and helps you navigate. It tracks 70 different exercises and lets you compare runs along the same route.
Though chunky, the sandstone colourway will inject some chic into your workouts. It’ll ping you smartphone notifications but it can’t take or make calls.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 70
Battery life: Up to 48 hours or up to 12 hours with GPS switched on
Fitbit might not be a winner in the fashion stakes but it is the go-to fitness tracker brand for good reason, and there are leather straps within its decent interchangeable range. The new Sense boasts some outstanding health features, such as monitoring your stress levels.
Yoga and spinning are among the 20 trackable exercises and there are guided meditation programmes in the Fitbit Premium app, which you get free access to for six months. Smartphone alerts flash up and you can listen to music and make calls.
Key specifications
Works with: iPhone and Android
Interchangeable straps: Yes
Types of exercise tracked: 20
Battery life: Up to six days
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