11/12/2024
Nicole Newton

The best fitness watches of 2024

Fitness trackers have made staying in shape easier than ever, giving us all access to a wealth of data previously reserved for professional athletes. The popularity of fitness trackers means there are now a lot of options on the market, and it isn’t always easy to figure out what’s good, bad or average.

For that reason, we’ve rounded up 9 of the best fitness watches of 2024. Whether you’re buying your first fitness tracker or looking to take your tracking to the next level, there’s something for everyone!

In this blog

Apple Watch Series 10

No surprises here. The Apple Watch arguably brought smartwatches into the mainstream and remains one of the best models on the market, particularly if you’re a dedicated iPhone/Apple user already.

As you might expect, the Apple Watch Series 9 features a premium build with a titanium case (replacing stainless steel), a larger screen and a range of straps to choose from.

It does everything you’ve come to expect from a smartwatch too, with a few additions: you can track activities (with auto-detect for running, cycling and walking), body temperature deviations, fertility windows, menstrual cycles, overnight respiration and sleep, as well as receiving alerts for high/low heart rate, irregular heart rhythm or overly loud and potentially harmful sounds.

You’ll also get water resistance up to 50m, an intuitive UI and up to 18 hours of battery life, as well as full integration with your iPhone to help manage notifications and keep you organised.

All in all, if you own an iPhone and you’re just looking to track regular exercise (i.e. you’re not an athlete), you can’t go far wrong with the Apple Watch Series 9. If you want to save some money though, take a look at our refurbished Apple Watch range and opt for an older model instead!

Coros Pace 3

Coros isn’t a household name but it’s a brand trusted by athletes around the world. Designed specifically for sports, the Pace 3 is ideal for runners, cyclists and triathletes (especially triathletes, in fact, thanks to its multisport and open-water swimming mode).

The Coros Pace 3 features everything you’d expect from a sports-centric fitness tracker, including an optical heart rate sensor, pulse oximeter and a barometric altimeter.

The watch itself is comfortable and lightweight, with nylon and silicon band options available depending on your preference. It’s available in six colours: emerald, violet, mist, black, white and red.

Garmin Venu 3

Although you may know them for sat navs, Garmin have earned quite the reputation for their fitness trackers – particularly among serious runners and hikers.

Part of that is down to Garmin’s reliable and accurate GPS tracking, but they’ve put real effort into creating well-built smartwatches packed with useful features too. The Venu 3 offers all the usual tracking – heart rate, calories burned, steps taken – as well as features designed to offer a more holistic approach to physical activity such as rest/recovery summaries, wellness suggestions and nap-tracking. It even includes a sleep coach!

In addition, you’ll get offline music storage, mobile payments and water resistance up to 50 meters. And you don’t need to worry about charging every night either, with the battery lasting up to 14 days off a single charge.

Fitbit Charge 6

Fitbit is often the first name that comes to mind when you ask someone to name a fitness tracker, and it’s for good reason; they consistently produce reasonably-priced trackers that deliver accurate data across a huge range of activities.

The Charge 6 doesn’t mess with that formula too dramatically, instead focusing on the foundations that make Fitbit such a trusted brand. You can track up to 40 different sports activities (up from the Charge 5’s 20), GPS is built-in and you’ll get multi-day battery life too.

In conjunction with the Fitbit app, the Charge 6 provides a decent array of overnight metrics too, including overall sleep quality (which it can use to determine how ready you are for a workout). You can also get on-demand ECG heart and EDA stress ratings.

One of the best new features is the ability to send your heart rate direct to gym equipment via Bluetooth, an innovation that allows for consistent data tracking. The Charge 6 also integrates with apps like Strava, as well as Google Pay.

All in all, the Fitbit Charge 6 is well-priced, easy-to-use and delivers enough insight for beginners and pros alike.

Xiaomi Smart Band 9

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 isn’t the prettiest or most powerful tracker in this post, but it is almost certainly the cheapest. At just £34.99 (way less than its branded rivals), it’s the ideal entry-level tracker for people who aren’t quite all-in on their fitness journey just yet.

Despite the price, the Smart Band 9 doesn’t compromise too heavily when it comes to features. You’ll get all the usual tracking, including step counting, calorie tracking and heart rate monitoring, as well as sleep tracking and various sports modes. There are a few lifestyle features too, including music control and notifications from your phone. Impressively, the battery lasts up to 21 days off a single charge too.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 won’t satisfy hardcore fitness fanatics but it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for your first fitness tracker and don’t mind compromising on features like GPS.

Fitbit Inspire 3

There’s one key message to take away from this post if you’re buying a fitness tracker for the first time: you don’t need to spend a lot to get a quality tracker!

The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a case in point. For under £100, you get everything you need to track your workouts and sporting endeavours from a well-known and trusted brand. The design and clear AMOLED screen look great, even if it’s not as fashion-forward or large as an Apple Watch, and it’s customisable via interchangeable bands as well. You’ll get 10 days off a single charge as well.

There are some compromises, as you might expect from a tracker this cheap. It doesn’t feature some of the flashier features of its more expensive peers, such as ECG and health-monitoring, and it doesn’t include GPS either, which makes it less than ideal for long-range activities like hikes, marathons and mountain biking.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is designed with adventurers and extreme sports enthusiasts in mind. Its rugged titanium case and reinforced sapphire glass screen are built to withstand the elements, while its dual-frequency GPS provides ultra-accurate location data. With water resistance up to 100m, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is even a viable option for scuba divers.

And, of course, you get all the usual Apple Watch features like health and fitness tracking (including heart rate, sleep and activity tracking), Apple Pay and Siri integration, and access to a huge range of apps via the App Store.

All of this comes at a premium price but if you’re regularly out on a long hike, like mountain climbing or even hop on a surfboard now and again, this is the Apple Watch for you.

Samsung Galaxy Watch FE

If you’re after a smartwatch that can do everything (rather than just track fitness) and own an Android, the Samsung Galaxy Watch FE should be near the top of your list.

Like the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch FE is more than just a fitness tracker; it integrates with your phone and other devices to help manage your life, notifications and everything else.

That doesn’t mean the Galaxy Watch FE isn’t a good fitness tracker, though. In fact, it’s a very good one, offering all the usual tracking features (including over 100 different workouts, some with automatic detection) as well as body composition measurements (like skeletal muscle mass, BMI and body fat percentage), sleep tracking including stages and snore tracking, and support for a huge range of third-party apps.

Polar Pacer Pro

Serious about running, or want to get serious about it? The Polar Pacer Pro could be the tracker for you. It can measure the power of your runs, calculate your VO2 Max and offers custom training zones too, giving you everything you need to set up the perfect training plan to achieve your goals.

The Pacer Pro also offers sleep tracking and recovery stats, as well as ascent and descent tracking. Whether you’re training for a marathon or trying to beat your 5K PB, the Polar Pacer Pro is well worth considering.

Want to save even more money on your next fitness tracker? Check out the huge range of refurbished Apple Watch devices and refurbished smartwatches on the musicMagpie Store! You can also trade in your smartwatch to help make the upgrade cheaper.

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