The Best Smartwatches
A good watch doesn't just display the time of day—it can elevate your outfit and make you feel good. Smartwatches can do even more, from tracking workouts and measuring heart rate to offering up notifications and access to voice assistants. While you're wearing a connected watch, you can leave your phone in your pocket and just check your wrist for urgent notifications. Here are the best ones we've tested.
Looking for a fitness tracker instead? We've got plenty of more workout-friendly options in our Best Fitness Trackers guide.
Updated October 2021: We've added the Samsung Galaxy Watch4, TicWatch E3, Fossil Hybrid Retro Pilot, and mentioned the Apple Watch Series 7 and Fossil Gen 6.
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- Photograph: Apple
Best for iPhone Owners
Apple Watch Series 6The Apple Watch is the best smartwatch money can buy. It has the best operating system, WatchOS, which is slick with plenty of apps to help reduce the number of times you need to pull out your phone. However, buying the best model right now is tricky. Apple just introduced the Series 7, but it's not arriving until later this fall. It has a larger and brighter screen, faster charging, improved water- and dust- resistance, plus the ability to auto-detect ebiking.
Apple still sells last year's Series 6 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) for now, which is an excellent smartwatch with the same health features as the Series 7, including blood oxygen monitoring to measure oxygen saturation in the blood (SpO2)—helpful for athletes training at altitude or if you have an underlying health condition—and the FDA-cleared electrocardiogram. It's the same $399 price though, so I recommend waiting for the Series 7 unless you find it at another retailer for close to $300. Unfortunately, battery life is still mediocre (you'll need to charge it before bed to track sleep), and Apple doesn't suggest the Series 7 improves this in any way.
Comes in 40-mm or 44-mm sizes.
★ Cheaper alternatives: The Apple Watch SE ($279) is worth a look. It debuted alongside the Series 6 and is the model for those who balk at a $400 price and don't need an electrocardiogram, SpO2, or always-on display. There's also the Series 3, which is getting a bit old at this point, but it does the basics and is frequently on sale. Check our Apple Watch guide for more details.
- Photograph: Samsung
Best for Android Owners
Samsung Galaxy Watch4Samsung's new Galaxy Watch4 and Watch4 Classic (7/10, WIRED Recommends) are the first to use Google's Wear OS 3 instead of the company's homegrown Tizen operating system. This brings broader app support. While third-party apps are still lacking, expect many more to arrive over the next year. The Classic is the upgrade version made of stainless steel instead of aluminum, and it has a mechanical rotating bezel around the screen for navigating the interface. It's nice, but not quite worth the $100 extra.
Surprisingly, Samsung managed to retain nearly the same interface and many features from its previous smartwatches. You still get a bright OLED screen, smooth performance, and accurate health and fitness tracking features, including heart rate and SpO2. Unfortunately, the electrocardiogram is limited to Samsung phones only, as is blood pressure monitoring. The latter isn't even available in the US yet. Battery life is lackluster, with the smaller models lasting just a day. If your wrist can manage it, I recommend sizing up.
Watch4 comes in 40-mm or 44-mm sizes. Watch4 Classic comes in 42- or 46-mm sizes.
- Photograph: Garmin
Best Fitness Watch
Garmin Venu Sq and Sq Music EditionIf you're prioritizing health and fitness, read our Best Fitness Trackers guide. But the Garmin Venu Sq and Venu Sq Music Edition (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are excellent and relatively affordable watches that do more than your average tracker. The Music Edition is best paired if you have a Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer subscription, but both deliver accurate fitness-tracking data, with features like blood oxygen monitoring, built-in GPS, and sleep tracking. Better yet, they'll last around five to seven days on a single charge.
You can get basic notification alerts, such as calls, texts, and emails, and if you have an Android phone, you can respond to texts. It also includes Garmin Pay, which will work anywhere contactless payments are accepted. The downside? It's not very intuitive to use, so there's a bit of a learning curve.
Comes in 40-mm or 45-mm sizes.
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- Photograph: Skagen
Best Hybrid Smartwatch
Skagen Hybrid HR JornI love wearing the Skagen Jorn, which is what matters most when you're wearing a watch. The round design and mechanical hands make it very much like a traditional watch, but I can immediately see my heart rate data, step count, and the weather on the E Ink screen. You can control music playback, and in the companion app, you can choose which apps you'll get notification alerts from. The whole thing lasts well more than a week on a single charge too.
You can use it to track workouts, but I wouldn't rely on it, as activity tracking isn't very accurate (though resting heart rate matched up with results from other smartwatches). E Ink screens just aren't suited for this. It can also monitor sleep, but I didn't find it too helpful. The Jorn tries to do too much, and the interface is clunky, but it's a good watch if you like the look and want very simple health data alongside notification alerts.
Comes in 42-mm and 38-mm sizes.
- Photograph: Fossil
An Even Simpler Hybrid Watch
Fossil Hybrid Smartwatch Retro PilotOut of all the watches in this guide, the Retro Pilot looks the most like an analog watch. It's attractive, if a bit masculine, and you can get it in different face and case colors. I like it for checking notifications, which does require a bit of work on your part. In the companion app, you can set an app to a specific hour. When I get an email from Gmail, for example, the watch vibrates, and the hour and minute hand move to 3 o'clock. It took me a day or two to fully remember the apps I assigned to each hour, but once I did, I found it helpful. I'd check the watch when it vibrated and didn't pull out my phone when I just got a Gmail notification but did when it was a message on Telegram.
In the app, you can configure the buttons to take a photo when the camera app is open, control music playback, show another time zone, and it's here where you can even track step count and sleep. The latter is fairly accurate, but the watch regularly undercounts steps, so I wouldn't rely on it much for tracking your walks.
Comes in a 44-mm size.
- Photograph: Casio
Best Barely Smart Watch
Casio PRT-B50Casio's PRT-B50, from its Pro Trek line, doesn't have the bells and whistles of the other watches on this list, but it's smart in other ways. (And its battery lasts 2 years!)
You can't see notifications, but the PRT-B50 tracks steps and can automatically adjust the time to wherever you are in the world. The compass is handy not just for when you're on the trail, but also when you need to get your bearings in dense cities like New York. Also, using the GPS on your phone, it offers up altitude readings, and it can use latitude and longitude information to note what time the sun rises and sets. You can check the temperature and barometric pressure, too. To top it all off, you can place virtual markers that are viewable through the map in the companion app, and it's easy to make your way back to them using the watch. You can view all this data on the small but easy-to-read digital screen on the watch face.
Comes in a 50.8-mm size.
Photograph: MobvoiA Word on Wear OS 3
More Watches Are ComingIn May, Google announced the new version of its wearable operating system, which is used by tech and fashion brands including Mobvoi, the Fossil Group, and now Samsung. It's called Wear OS 3, and it's being co-developed by Google, Samsung, and Fitbit (the latter is now Google-owned). As we've seen on the Galaxy Watch4, it delivers better performance, longer battery life, and includes more third- and first-party apps, along with robust health and fitness improvements.
Existing smartwatches powered by Qualcomm's Wear 4100 chips are the only models that are eligible to upgrade to Wear OS 3. That includes Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3, TicWatch E3, and Fossil's Gen 6 smartwatches, but the upgrade won't be available until the middle of 2022 (and will require a factory reset). We also know Fitbit will be releasing a premium Wear OS 3 watch either this year or early 2022. Either way, if you're going to stick with Wear OS, we recommend buying the aforementioned models that will get the new version.
Photograph: MobvoiHonorable Mentions
Other Watches We Sorta LikeThe number of smartwatches on the market is staggering. We've tested models from Tag Heuer, Citizen, Montblanc, Diesel, and so many other fashion brands, but many of them are simply too expensive for what you get. (Not to mention they're Wear OS watches that won't get the update to the latest version). Here are a few options we like but don't recommend as highly.
- Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 for $300: The TicWatch Pro 3 is the first Wear OS smartwatch with Qualcomm's Wear 4100 processor and one of the only ones that will be upgradable to Wear OS 3. Performance is smooth, and there's a unique dual-layer screen system. On top is a low-power display for always-on functionality, so you can glance at it at any moment and see the time. Below is an AMOLED panel for smartwatch functions. This helps with battery life—it'll last almost two full days on a single charge, and that includes sleep tracking. It's a big watch, so it's not for everyone. It frequently dips to around $250.
- Mobvoi TicWatch E3 for $200: The E3 has the same speedy processor as the Pro 3 above, and it will get the upgrade to Wear OS 3. It's not as long-lasting, usually requiring a recharge by the morning after tracking sleep (with the always-on display turned off), and it's still rather large. Its fitness tracking results were similar to other watches I tested alongside it, like the Galaxy Watch4. But my gripe with it is the build quality: it's plasticky, feels cheap, and isn't very pretty to look at.
Photograph: UMIDIGIBuyers Beware
Know What You BuySearch Amazon for "smartwatches" and you'll be greeted with a long list of devices from brands you've probably never heard of. One brand that frequently pops up is Yamay, but a quick visit to the company's Twitter page shows that it's offering "full refunds" for people who post reviews. Look at the 1-star reviews and you'll see complaints of the watch malfunctioning after a few weeks of use.
This is a warning not to buy the first thing you see, even if it's cheap and has plenty of positive reviews on Amazon. Research the company and look for other reputable websites that have reviewed the products before you make your decision.
