12 best running watches to help you improve speed and endurance

Although this is one of Garmin’s more budget-friendly options, it’s packed with premium features to help boost a user’s performance in a number of different sports. This versatile wearable can track activities such as swimming and cycling to improve your cardiovascular fitness, which would have a positive benefit on running.

We were impressed by the Garmin coach feature, which offers free 5k, 10k and marathon training plans you can follow on the screen. Rather than pay for a physical coach or PT in the park with you, blowing their whistle when it’s time to shake up the pace, the watch guides you through each session, providing pace suggestions, reminders, and encouragement. Even smarter is that we found this training plan adjusted dynamically based on our performance. We once missed a workout and the app adapted the next planned session to help us ease back into it.

While the screen is on the large side for daily wear, it’s excellent for exercise. It offers crystal-clear visibility in various lighting conditions, including bright sunlight and low light. An always-on screen means that we were able to quickly glance at stats without needing to slow down to press any button or twirl any knobs.

If you’re new to running, you really cannot beat this £80 Fitbit. For Park Runners and those training for 10k or half marathon races, it’s all you need to track heart rate, pace and calorie burn in real time as you run.

Technically it’s an activity tracker rather than a smart watch but Bluetooth functionality will allow you to broadcast text message and social notifications from a nearby phone to the inspire 3’s screen so you don’t miss anything important while you are pounding the pavement. We also like the slimline design that looks unassuming on the wrist so you can wear it with formal dress as well as sports kit and not feel like the watch is running the lines of your outfit.

Despite the small size of the screen, it’s easy to read thanks to the colour OLED display. This screen is also waterproof up to 50 metres so you can swim in it too. And let’s just say, we were surprised that such an affordable watch also gave us SPO2 scores so we could see oxygen circulation as well daily scores that showed how hard we could exercise that day or how well we were managing stress.

The Polar Pacer pro is a serious tool for runners of all abilities looking to level up at an impressively competitive price. With its onboard GPS, it can keep track of your runs, delivering accurate information on pace, distance, cadence, elevation, running power, and more in the Polar Flow app. And all for around half the price of a comparable Garmin watch.

We found the screen easy to read thanks to the watch’s reflective colour display that meant we didn’t have to squint to read the numbers. But our favourite feature by far, is that we found this the best watch for motivating you to go that little bit harder with coaching detail and rich training analysis. From the watch itself you can access FuelWise smart fuelling recommendations, Strava live segments and four different fitness tests. As for recovery, it’s able to break down sleep stages and tell you how long you’ve slept for with additional insights into sleep continuity and sleep regeneration based on the amount of REM sleep managed.

The only reason it loses half a star is because we enjoy running with music and the Polar Pacer pro isn’t quite there just yet. It can control the music on your phone, so there’s no need to use your handset during runs, but it can’t store tracks on internal memory.

For accuracy, reliability and durability, you cannot fault a Garmin watch. We’ve tested several models over the past 15 years and always found they helped massively with pacing and post-run insights through the Garmin Connect app. We’re also a big fan of the Connect’s training plans that allow you to select pre-designed running, cycling or triathlon plans developed by the world’s top coaches at various experience levels. You can choose 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon along with getting started or improving fitness options and these will be sent to your watch so you get daily reminders to complete your workouts.

As we already had Garmin Connect, setting up the forerunner 955 solar took just a couple of minutes and that included being given tips about what the watch could do. One of the most impressive features, especially for those who like to try new routes or run on trails, is the live mapping feature. Whether you’re running on pavements in the city or out in the wild, the watch provides full-colour, built-in mapping to keep you on track.

It also has a touch screen which adds to ease of navigation and is brilliant for reading text and social media notifications. We had fun playing with the solar charging feature, which works best if you’re doing longer runs or cycling rides of more than an hour. If you’re not outside enough to maximize the solar charging capacity, a short 30-minute charge gets you back up to 50 per cent of battery life if you’re running low.

If you’re looking for a watch that’s simple to use, the Fitbit versa 4 shows all your key fitness statistics in large font on its 40.5mm square screen with gently curved edges. Data available includes heart rate, temperature tracking, cardio fitness and daily readiness scores as well as steps counted. Like the Apple watch, it will nudge you to get up if it notices periods of inactivity, and it offers continuous heart rate data through Fitbit’s purepulse optical heart rate sensor. This includes heart rhythm so you can be forewarned of heart activity that could signify a serious health issue.

Amazon Alexa is also built-in and we enjoyed talking to the watch to set alarms and check the weather before we left the house to decide on appropriate running kit. Having a daily readiness score that tells you if you have sufficiently recovered from the last session is useful, but it can also be annoying if you have a busy lifestyle and just want to run to relieve some stress.

Overall, it’s a stylish watch that’s not too bulky, has an easy-to-read screen and will answer questions through Amazon Alexa. But it does not have wifi compatibility, nor can it play music directly from the watch, so you’ll still need to take a phone out with you to run with tunes.

The Garmin fenix 7s sapphire solar is the most visually attractive Garmin we’ve ever had the pleasure of putting on our wrist. Although it has five side buttons for old-school users, it also has a touchscreen which is fast and responsive. If you need to use a map during your run, you can use the screen to zoom in to find out exactly where you are and how long its going to take you to get home. And thanks to the solar-charge feature, you never have to worry about it dying mid-run.

We enjoyed testing the pace pro feature, which enables you to upload routes and have the fenix 7S guide you to a target time, telling you when you’re going too fast and when you can push harder. But it was after a run that we really appreciated what this watch had been recording. After every session, you can see data such as estimated sweat loss, cadence, calories, and time spent in heart rate zones. We could track our progress with VO2 Max and training effect figures and recover smarter with analysis of weekly training load and recovery time.

Admittedly, it’s an investment item but it does offer a lot of data in a stylish package. And if you enjoy other activities including cycling, swimming, bouldering, golf, surfing, parachuting, elliptical training or yoga, it can offer sport-specific insights to make you better at everything you try. We also approved of the watch’s music storage capability as the built-in music player offers room for up to 2,000 songs. There’s also offline playlist support for premium-level Spotify, Deezer, or Amazon Music.

Read our full review of the Garmin fenix 7 and epix smartwatches

Solid and functional, the Samsung Galaxy watch 5 pro has a rugged exterior with sapphire crystal glass and titanium casing built to take on adventures. That said, where this watch really shines is in its smart features such as the ability to take calls, send and receive messages and offer third party apps in its in-built app store. Google Assistant is enabled so you can say ‘Hey Google’ to make calls, send messages, set timers, get the weather forecast, check your calendar and more. Apps you can download via the Play store include Strava, YouTube music, Spotify and the meditation app, Calm.

We liked that you can head straight out the door with this without having to wait for a GPS signal. The Samsung Galaxy watch 5 pro can automatically detect and begin tracking walking, running, elliptical, rowing, swimming, and dynamic high-movement activities. After 10 minutes of starting one of these activities, the watch will alert you that it’s tracking the workout. When you stop, the watch will automatically stop tracking, too.

On an Android phone, the Samsung Health app is easy to use, showing you your day at a glance and offering some visually attractive graphs to look at. It can also explain your running metrics and tell you what to improve on by indicating if your asymmetry, flight time, vertical osciallation and regularity are good or great or show room for improvement.

Overall, we’d recommend the Galaxy watch 5 pro to all Android users but it’s a shame that it’s not compatible with iOS so you can’t use it with an iPhone.

Read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy watch 5

The Pacer is the entry-level running watch made by Finnish brand Polar but it offers just the right amount of features for anyone wanting fast, easy access to key metrics. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that the Polar pacer is the simplest, most intuitive watch screen to navigate as you’re not bombarded by too many numbers or data insights.

The main screen contains heart rate, distance, pace and duration. Toggle through other screens and you’ll see elevation, more detailed heart rate metrics, music controls and Strava Live segments – this is extra handy if you’re aiming to be a Strava local legend or want to compare your performance over a specific route.

It’s easy to sync with the Polar Flow app on any smartphone to offer more detailed insights, offer training programs and monitor sleep and recovery. This app is enjoyable to use and is compatible with the Apple Health app too, so you can choose where to look at your stats.

The display on the Google Pixel 3 is clearer than on any other watch we tested. The screen has edge-to-edge glass, which we thought looked sleek and stylish and we were impressed by how our stats seemed to jump out at us, even in low lighting on early morning runs.

The display uses AMOLED technology to offer a variety of colours and crisp text. This makes it easier to read Google Maps directly from the wrist, which is ideal if you’ve gone for a long run and forgotten to create a proper route before you left. This watch allowed us to be spontaneous while helping us stay safe. Plus it integrated well with Google Assistant, so if we ever got into trouble we could say “Hey Google” and dictate a text message to send to someone in our contacts book. We may have also used this feature to tell our family that we’d be home in five minutes so they could put the kettle on. But you can also use it to check your calendar, asking when your next meeting is so you can plan how long to spend in the shower.

With so many smart features, it allowed us to leave our phone at home, so we found the Google Pixel 3 to be almost perfect as a running watch. The only reason we’re rating four stars instead of five is because it only works with Android phones, so Apple fans can’t use it.

Heatproof, cold-proof and with a scratch-resistant screen, this is the watch for you if you get a buzz from running over challenging terrains in all weathers. It’s also water-resistant to 5m, so you can use it for swimming and triathlons in summer and winter. But what’s unique about this watch is that even though it’s rugged and hardy, its resting clock face display and leather-finish strap look smart and sophisticated. It doesn’t scream “sports watch” even though you can use it to track more than 100 sports and sleep.

OnePlus boasts about this watch’s battery life so we put it to the test by seeing how long it could go without a charge and it racked up four days in sports tracking mode on a single charge, which is hugely impressive. This is a watch that you can wear 24/7 to track heart rate and blood oxygen levels at rest and when you work out, to give a clear snapshot of your overall health. We found it super interesting to track our sleep throughout a few nights, as learning how much light, deep and REM sleep we achieved made us want to go to bed earlier to see if we could get more. 

The latest version of Wear OS by Google is built-in to the One Plus 2 watch, meaning it has Google Pay, Google Maps and Google Assistant for voice commands. We would give it a full five stars if it could be used by Apple phones and not just Android ones.

One of the most underrated ways to improve your fitness is to get more rest. While it sounds counter-intuitive, the more your body rests the better it can heal between training sessions and repair damaged muscles so that your next workout feels easier. Overtraining can be tempting for athletes of all abilities, especially if you have a specific goal in mind, but it can lead to fatigue, diminished performance and injury. The Garmin vivoactive 5 woke us up every morning with a morning report, showing us how well we’d slept and recovered. This helped us work out whether or not to take a rest day and motivated us to go to bed earlier to improve our recovery.

For less than £200, this watch offers all the standard running, swimming and activity tracking you’d expect from a sports watch with other features designed to enhance your health in a holistic way. We used it to track our energy levels throughout the day to see if switching the time of a run could benefit us. Guided meditations and breathwork activities were simple to follow and we could feel them calming us down and decreasing our heart rate. Weighing 36g, it’s lightweight and comfortable to wear, even when sleeping. While we tried the lilac colour, it’s also available in white, blue or black.

Our only gripe is that it lacks some smart functionalities – for example, it can’t be operated by voice commands and Garmin Pay can be glitchy.

With a lightweight and slim design, we were very impressed by how comfortable the Coros pace 3 feels on the wrist. We recommend upgrading to a nylon watch strap, which not only feels secure but is better for recording accurate heart rate data and is 50 per cent lighter than the traditional silicone material that makes up most watch straps.

The watch provides insights into ground contact time, left-to-right balance and stride height, which is particularly beneficial if you’re recovering from an injury. Knowing your left-to-right balance will tell you if you land heavier on a specific side so you can adjust your technique before injuries occur or work your way back from being hurt sensibly. For the price, you couldn’t get better metrics. The Coros app works well on both Android and iPhone and connects to Strava and Training Peaks, so you can compete with, or get encouragement from, other runners and connect with coaches.

There are just two improvements we’d like to see. Firstly, it’s not compatible with Apple health. Secondly, Vitality members, who track activity points that earn them rewards on cinema and spa trips, may be disappointed that Vitality does not yet recognise Coros.

Put simply, this watch is our recommendation for anyone who is not a heavy Apple user or a Vitality member.