Sports watches are ideal for training or running. We show top smartwatches for athletes in the test from the brands Garmin, Amazfit, Polar and Suunto.
Anyone who does serious sport wants to record their training results. This helps with motivation and allows for better training planning. Simply collecting data is not enough; ideally, it should be able to be evaluated using an app. In principle, a fitness watch is a stripped-down smartwatch that is ideal for fitness tracking.
If you do different sports, work towards competitions or want to plan your training for the long term, a smart GPS sports watch is a better option. If you just want to measure your heart rate while running, an inexpensive fitness tracker is a good option. We recommend taking a look at our top 10: The best fitness trackers in the test – Huawei, Fitbit, Xiaomi, Honor & Co. We show smart watches for checking heart health in the top 10: The best smartwatches with ECG in the test .
What is the difference between a smartwatch and a sports watch?
A multifunctional watch is the tool of choice if you use it regularly and actively for outdoor activities and need extensive training features. Sports watches usually cost significantly more than simple fitness trackers (best list) . In everyday life, however, it should be able to handle all the important smartwatch functions.
In addition, many watches can be connected to a suitable external heart rate monitor for precise measurements. The heart rate is measured using optical sensors – some watches also record the blood oxygen level, and a few models even offer an ECG function. When it comes to exertion with strongly varying intensity, sports watches cannot quite keep up with a heart rate monitor, but the values ​​are becoming more and more accurate and should be sufficient for amateur athletes. In addition to counting the number of steps taken, this includes evaluating the number of floors climbed and sleep tracking.
Dedicated sports watches offer a significantly longer battery life and comprehensive training programs. Some sports watches, such as the Garmin Fenix ​​7 (test report), use a MIP screen (Memory-In-Pixel). This technology requires less energy and the display can still be read even in extreme brightness. The backlight of a MIP LCD only switches on when it is dark. However, AMOLED displays, which many sports watches also use, offer more vibrant colors.
A smartwatch, on the other hand, offers significantly more apps depending on the platform, as is the case with the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch, for example. Sophisticated features such as ECG measurement and a payment function are also on board. However, the battery lasts much shorter, and smartwatches cannot keep up with sports watches in this regard.
A sports watch is also more robust than normal smartwatches, meaning it can withstand outdoor sports. They are at least waterproof, and some models are even suitable for diving. Devices for runners and endurance athletes are also particularly light. If you want to be independent of your cell phone, you need a sports watch with an integrated GPS module and eSIM. It becomes more complicated and expensive if you want to not only record the activity but also plan it in detail. The watches from Garmin, Polar and Suunto can do this.
What is the best sports watch?
In this list we show what we believe to be the ten best fitness watches from our tests. Depending on the intended use and training, the individual models offer special features.
The test winner is the Garmin Fenix ​​7 Pro (test report) , an improved version of the Fenix ​​7 (test report) . The new watches from Polar and Suunto are in no way inferior to the Garmin smartwatch. The Amazfit T-Rex Ultra (test report) offers an excellent price-performance ratio. The Amazfit Cheetah Round (test report) is also inexpensive and especially optimized for runners . A watch that also works as a subtle fashion accessory for women in everyday life is the Garmin Venu 3 (test report) .
