The best fitness trackers and watches for runners, tested by our editors

A departure from the rugged Garmins we’re used to, the Vivomove Trend is part of the brand’s hybrid collection – combining classic analogue style with smartwatch functionality – and we’re big fans.

Design-wise, the watch is petite and lightweight, it felt comfy when strapped onto our wrists and, best of all, it has a hidden touchscreen – just flick your wrist or tap the screen to watch the ticking hands move away so you can see your stats and smart notifications.

The display, which is bright and easy to read, reveals metrics such as heart rate, step count, sleep, stress and blood oxygen levels, and you can access additional features via the Garmin Connect App including menstrual cycle, hydration and respiration tracking. It comes with all your usual workout modes, including cardio, strength training, cycling, swimming (it’s waterproof to a depth of 50 metres) and running. Just note that it doesn’t have built-in GPS, so you’ll have to tuck your phone into your pocket for GPS support. We would have liked to see more data on the in-workout screen, but you easily review these in the app after your session.

The Vivomove Trend is the very first Garmin model to offer wireless charging – no need to scramble around looking for a lead – plus a quick 15-minute charge will give you up to 24 hours of battery. All in all, it’s a top choice if you want a watch to monitor your health and fitness without wearing anything obviously sporty.

> Read our full Apple Watch Series 10 review <

For dedicated iPhone users, this Apple watch is tough to top. Though not specifically designed for running, it is a trusty companion for your interval sessions and long runs alike. The Series 10 packs the same GPS and heart rate sensors as the Series 9. Unlike the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and most higher-end running watches, there’s no dual-frequency/multi-band GPS here. However, in our tests that didn't seem to impact the accuracy.

The large, bright always-on display is a doddle to read when on the move, and heart rate zones help you hit the right level of exertion. There’s also automatic run tracking and a BackTrack feature to help you retrace your steps if you get lost on a trail run (we’ve all been there). Post-run insights have improved incrementally over the years and it’s now a much more comprehensive run tracker, too.

Beyond your daily jaunts, the Series 10 is rammed with advanced health and fitness monitoring features, including temperature sensing and menstrual cycle tracking, a blood oxygen monitor and an ECG sensor.All that and you also get a seamless smartwatch experience, with calls, messages, contactless payments, music and more. According to our experts, call quality was impressive, notifications were easy to read and manage and having all their apps in one place was seriously convenient.

Given its mediocre battery life (Up to 18 hours general usage and 7 hours GPS run time on a single charge), it’s not one for trail runners, athletes or ultra fans, but it will do the job nicely for the casual road runner. And the Series 10 charges faster than its predecessors, shooting to 80 percent from zero in just 30 minutes — and you can get 8 hours from 15 minutes on the plug.

If you’re looking for a fitness tracker that doubles up as a stylish fashion accessory, the Huawei Watch GT 4 combines functionality with an elegant pendant design, a bright, crisp AMOLED display and multiple stylish wrist staps to choose from.

Compatible with iOS and Android, the watch covers all your usual activity tracking, plus 100 sports modes and AI-generated training plans, enabling you to train for specific goals straight from your wrist.

When it comes to run tracking, Sunflower GPS helps to accurately log your route and afterwards you can view a host of performance metrics, including Aerobic/Anaerobic Training, VO2 Max, Recovery Time, Running Performance Index (how well you’re running compared with users of a similar age, gender, height and weight) Training Load and more.

To help you balance your performance with recovery, the wearable is packed with plenty of advanced health tracking features. TruSleep and TruSeen 5.5+ sensors offer advanced heart rate monitoring and ECG functionalities, bringing better precision for analysing workout performance and daily health monitoring. There’s also a temperature sensor for menstrual cycle management, a blood oxygen measurement, in-depth sleep tracking and a stress metric round up. The watch can even track your breathing during sleep, helping to detect conditions such as sleep apnea.

On paper, the Watch GT 4 46mm offers up to 14 days of battery life under general usage and eight days under heavier usage.

Right now you can pick up the Huawei Watch GT 4 for just £249.99 (the best price this year) and receive a free extra strap with purchase.

The Samsung Watch 7 isn’t the most ground-breaking smartwatch in our line-up, but it does bring some appealing new features that make it worth considering. Highlights include AI-powered wellness tools, precise dual-frequency GPS, and an enhanced BioActive sensor that offers more in-depth sleep tracking. It’s also FDA-approved for sleep apnea detection and includes an ‘energy score’ feature that evaluates your physical and mental readiness for the day.

Our expert found the sleek, circular design enjoyable to wear and intuitive to use. They especially appreciated the ‘double-pinch gesture’ for one-handed control - similar to Apple’s feature - perfect for when you're on the move and your hands are occupied.

When it came to activity tracking, sleep monitoring, and health insights — including heart rate and blood oxygen levels — the Watch 7 proved highly accurate. Its GPS also performed well in both urban and forested areas.

The battery life, like many smartwatches, could be better; our expert noted it lasted about a day when tracking workouts and sleep. However, considering the bright AMOLED touchscreen, fast processor, and comprehensive health and fitness tracking, it’s a strong choice for dedicated Samsung fans.

More smartwatch than mere tracker band, the latest Fitbit Charge 6 is excellent at cataloging all your daily activities with good accuracy, including steps, activity through built-in GPS, sleep, and heart rate. The colour display touch screen is bright and clear, even in daylight — with up to a seven-day battery life.

The fitness tracker has a few smartwatch-level perks, including Fitbit Pay and Spotify Control, so you can control your playlist from your wrist. You can also customise the display screen to choose your app notifications, and even respond to Android messages with pre-selected responses, when tethered to your phone.

Fitbit’s app is among the best, too — it’s fun and intuitive to use, and cleanly designed to clearly display all your relevant data.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on a fitness watch for innovative features, as this Amazfit gem proves. For just over £100, you get built-in GPS for phone-free runs, heart rate monitoring, over 120 workout modes, sleep and stress monitoring, music playback and a very decent battery life. However, it’s worth noting that in our tests, the GPS accuracy wasn’t great. It consistently underclocked our distances by more than the usual margin for error.

However, battery life is strong. We easily got 11 days usage with 7.5 hours GPS training time thrown in. While the average one-hour run with GPS tracking burned less than 8-10%.

Our experts also loved the slick Apple-esque design with its bright 1.75-inch HD AMOLED touchscreen that punches well above the price tag. It’s easy to read and nicely responsive. The lightweight style doesn’t get in the way of sessions, either, and we were particularly impressed with the post-workout summaries, which includes post-session training effect and training load readouts, VO2 Max estimates, and recovery time recommendations.

As a smartwatch, it’s no match for Apple, Google or Samsung, and its fitness tools aren’t as comprehensive or well delivered as you’ll get on a Garmin, Polar or Coros. But you get a lot here for what you pay. Overall, a savvy buy for anyone on a budget.

The Honor watch's health and fitness package is commendable. The offering includes no fewer than 100 trackable activities, built-in GPS and route tracking, plus heart rate, stress, sleep and Sp02 monitors – you can keep track of these via intricate graphs on the crisp AMOLED screen. For runners, there’s targets, pace reminders and the option to track automatic or manual splits.

This Android-only device provides a decent level of smart features – our experts said taking calls and sending messages was a faff-free experience (the audio quality was top notch) and they appreciated the music player, which allowed them to leave their phones at home when pounding the pavement. They did find the lack of core features such as third-party apps, contactless payments and a voice assistant a tad disappointing but this may or may not bother you.

> Read our full Oura Ring review <

If you want a fitness tracker that doesn’t look like a fitness tracker or take up wrist space, this is it. The Oura Ring is best known as a sleep tracker, and though the brand has continued to add more daytime health-tracking functionality, the compact, titanium device remains one of the most accurate trackers of overall slumber, according to this 2021 comparison of eight commercial trackers published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep.

To collect your stats, the Oura sits on your finger like a traditional ring and uses temperature, heart rate, and other 'body signals and daily habits' streamed to the brand’s app to calculate your health metrics. It then makes suggestions on how you can improve sleep and mental recovery — and predictions about your menstrual cycle based on the app’s period tracking.

The ring will also measure overall activity level and assign you an score based on your whole-body activity and step count. It’s accurate and unobtrusive, so if you’re looking for an overall health tracker and not something more akin to a GPS watch, this is the tool to try.

It’s safe to say that any heart rate monitor good enough for LeBron James and Michael Phelps is good enough for us. Fortunately, you don’t have to earn an eight-figure salary to enjoy the tracking benefits of this celebrity-endorsed armband. With memberships starting from £27 per month, the Strap 4.0 allows anyone to give it a try without the commitment that goes along with the one-time purchase of a premier device.

On the flip side, this can be a pricey option for those who decide they can’t live without the monitor’s outstanding features. The investment is likely worth it for competitive athletes, as it also tracks heart rate variability and offers interchangeable bands composed of high-tenacity filaments.

'WHOOP is really for anyone looking to perform at a higher level,' Whoop CEO, Will Ahmed, told Runner's World. 'That includes the world’s best athletes, that includes competitive runners, but it also includes everyday people like you and me who want to be more optimal in our daily lives.'

Longer-term memberships (24 months) start from just £16 per month.

The Inspire 3 is more of a traditional fitness tracker, with a narrow band and updated colour screen that displays the time, steps, calories burned, heart rate, and more. It has an unbeatable 10-day battery life and syncs with the easy-to-use Fitbit app.

The biggest downside of the device are that it doesn’t have built-in GPS tracking — you have to do that through the phone app if you want to record distance and speed of your activities using GPS.

But for basic tracking of your steps, sleep, and heart rate, it’s a solid bargain — and an excellent way to monitor all your health stats.