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Featured in this articleApple’s Latest Smartwatch Is Here
Apple Watch Series 10
Read moreBest for Android
Google Pixel Watch 3
Read moreBest for Samsung Owners
Samsung Galaxy Watch7
Read moreBest Fitness Watch
Garmin Vivomove Trend
A great timepiece doesn’t just display the time of day, it can elevate your outfit and make you feel good. The best smartwatches can do even more, from tracking your workouts and measuring your heart rate to serving up notifications and access to voice assistants. While you’re wearing a connected watch, you can leave your phone in your pocket and use your wrist for simple tasks.
The Apple Watch is our favorite for iPhone owners, but Google’s Pixel Watch 3 is a great smartwatch for Android users. We also like several other options—in various styles and with different levels of smarts. Below is a roundup of the best smartwatches we’ve tested. Looking for a fitness or sleep tracker instead? We’ve got plenty more options in our Best Fitness Trackers, Best Fitbits, Best Garmin Watches, and Best Sleep Trackers guides.
Updated September 2024: We’ve added the OnePlus Watch 2R and Pixel Watch 3, and touched on the new Apple Watch Series 10.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Apple’s Latest Smartwatch Is Here
Apple Watch Series 10
The 10th-anniversary of the Apple Watch has brought us the Apple Watch Series 10, which features a slimmer and more lightweight design and a larger display (in both sizes). There’s also a snazzy new jet-black finish. The highlight health feature of this model is sleep apnea detection, something Samsung recently added to its latest smartwatches, though Apple’s version is still pending FDA clearance.
The redesign also affords faster charging (80 percent in 30 minutes), but even though Apple claims the S10 chipset is more power-efficient, you will not see any meaningful gains in battery life. It’s still 18 hours. Also, Apple hasn’t brought back blood oxygen sensing to the watch since it was ordered to stop selling watches with the feature due to a patent dispute. There are also a slew of new software features coming in the form of watchOS 11, such as the ability to pause your fitness rings and the new Vitals app. Our Best Apple Watch guide has more details, and check out our Apple Watch Accessories guide for extras. We’ll have a review of the Apple Watch Series 10 soon.
Comes in 42-mm or 46-mm sizes.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best for Android
Google Pixel Watch 3
Google’s Pixel Watch 3 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is my favorite smartwatch for anyone using an Android smartphone. It’s the prettiest smartwatch—round is superior to square—and Google has refined the overall experience in this generation. You get reliable heart rate measurements, even during intense workouts, excellent sleep tracking, and other perks like fall detection. New in this model is Loss of Pulse detection, which can be critical in saving someone’s life, though it’s available only in Europe at the moment. Google also focused its fitness updates on running, enabling users to create custom runs and follow AI-powered run recommendations while getting feedback on cardio load—how hard your heart is working and whether it’s appropriate for your body. Some of this is hit or miss; read my colleague Adrienne So’s experience trying to use this while training for a 5K.
The Pixel Watch 3 comes in two sizes, and I strongly recommend you go with the 45-mm model, which doesn’t even feel that big. It simply delivers better battery life—just about 24 hours with the always-on display or a little more if you have it turned off. My favorite additions here come in the form of software updates. If you have Nest cameras, you can see live previews of videoclips straight from the watch and even talk through the camera without a phone. The Pixel Recorder app is handy for recording conversations without holding your phone up, and Auto Bedtime Mode on the watch automatically pulls the device out of sleep mode so you won’t wonder why you’re not getting any notifications hours after waking up.
It’s just a shame this watch is not repairable. If you encounter an issue, Google will give you a replacement if it’s within warranty.
Comes in 41-mm or 45-mm sizes.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best for Samsung Owners
Samsung Galaxy Watch7
The Galaxy Watch7 is the latest iteration in Samsung’s smartwatch lineup, and while I like the rounded design—the accented 20-mm straps add a nice touch—it’s a little plain. The smartwatch experience gets more elevated every year, and this model infuses some artificial intelligence algorithms to improve your health tracking data, like the Energy Score and updated sleep tracking capabilities. The former gives you a nice number at the start of your day, and I found it helpful to dig through the data and see whether I should push myself or take a break. The sleep tracking offers a lot of information, but I did notice a few times when it had a gap in my data because it stopped tracking mid-sleep. You also get FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection, though this isn’t a feature you’ll turn on all the time—it takes two nights to track and afterward, you’ll get a note saying whether or not you show symptoms. It’s worth noting that this feature, along with the electrocardiogram and irregular heart rhythm notifications, is only available when paired with a Samsung phone, but otherwise, this watch functions well with any other Android.
There are two sizes you can choose from, and you can opt for a Bluetooth-only model or one with LTE. I tested both sizes and found battery life frustrating compared to older models. With the always-on display, I struggled to hit a full 24 hours with two tracked activities and sleep tracking overnight. With it turned off, things fared a little better, but I was still barely hitting a full day. You’ll have to baby the battery and utilize the power-saving modes when you can. The rest of the smartwatch is rich and feature-filled. It’s dead simple to check notifications, respond to messages, and even control your smart home devices via SmartThings or Google Home. If you keep the charger handy, the Galaxy Watch7 is a very nice companion.
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Photograph: Garmin
Best Fitness Watch
Garmin Vivomove Trend
Fitness watches are typically not as sleek or simple to operate as more robust smartwatches, but the Vivomove Trend (8/10, WIRED Recommends) oozes elegance. This is also the first Garmin to include wireless charging, which means you’re now free to ditch your annoying Garmin plug-in charger.
The watch has it all—wireless charging, blood oxygen measurements, sleep tracking, auto-activity tracking, and Garmin’s proprietary and excellent algorithms for measuring your fitness. It’s a little clunky to operate—it’s not anywhere near as feature-rich as the other smartwatches above—but that might be OK if you prioritize battery life, as this tracker can last five days on a single charge. Read our Best Fitness Watches guide for more recommendations.
Comes in a 40.4-mm size.
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Photograph: Adrienne So
Best Kids’ Watch
Fitbit Ace LTE
There are a lot of poor-quality kids’ smartwatches—with potentially dangerous vulnerabilities. That’s why we’re a little more comfortable recommending the Fitbit Ace LTE (8/10, WIRED Recommends). Google-owned Fitbit promises not to store children’s health data for research, and it will delete location history after 24 hours and all health data after 30 days. This watch requires a subscription to Fitbit Ace ($10 per month), but that includes cellular connectivity, so you don’t need to add it to your carrier’s cellular plan. You can set contacts and your kids can make phone calls and texts through the watch to the Fitbit Ace app, and they can share their location via Google Maps.
Fitbit is bringing the gamified fitness tracking experience that adults are used to for kids with Fitbit Arcade, and there’s even a Tamagotchi-like virtual character (Eejie) your kids can take care of. These games are time-based, so your kids can hit their activity goals by completing them, and the parental controls let you set limits, like School Time, which locks down many of the watch’s features. It’s a great way for your kid to go out and be independent, while also giving you the peace of mind in knowing how to reach and find them—without the problems that come with giving them a smartphone at such a young age.
Comes in a 40-mm size.
★ An alternative: The second-gen cellular Apple Watch SE ($299) is a nice option for kids if you set it up for them via Apple’s Family Setup. It doesn’t come with fancy features like the electrocardiogram, the always-on display, or the skin temperature capabilities, though it does have fall detection. You can find your kids through Find My and message through the usual messaging apps, but the parental controls on the SE are not as robust.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best Cheap Smartwatch
CMF Watch Pro 2
CMF is a sub-brand by Nothing, and its Watch Pro 2 is shockingly good value. It looks attractive (very minimalist!), and you can swap out the strap or even the bezel shape if you’d like. This is one of the rare sub-$100 smartwatches I like wearing that feels great on the wrist. So many of them look so bland and lack personality.
It runs a proprietary operating system, but it works with both iPhones and Android devices. I’ve been able to view notifications from my phone (you can only respond to some with canned responses), and the heart rate and sleep tracking have been exceptionally accurate for a budget device, even if it takes a little longer to process and show you the results. My step count, however, has been considerably off compared to higher-end smartwatches. You can track exercises with it, and it even has GPS to provide mapping data, though the details are pretty basic and there’s no additional context to the numbers. You can also control music playback, change watch faces (they’re all very pretty on the AMOLED display), and check the weather. The app is slick, though I have noticed the watch tends to get disconnected, so some notifications don’t come through all the time. Sometimes, the screen on the watch gets stuck on one screen and I have to press the crown to go back to the home screen. These are fairly minor quibbles, especially considering the excellent 10-day battery life I was able to hit.
