How To Chose A Smart Watch, Fitness Tracker or GPS Running Watch

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It wasn’t that long ago you only had a couple of choices for monitoring your fitness goals and activities.  Chances are you were just looking for something to count your steps.

Today there are literally hundreds of choices.  Garmin alone has over 70 models of fitness trackers, smart watches and GPS running watches.  To make it even more confusing the between these devices keeps blurring as wearables share features that could place them in any of these categories.

When choosing a fitness tracker it comes down to these factors: what activity are you wanting to monitor, do you want simplicity or advanced features, do you want it to “talk” to your other devices, and lastly, as your fitness goals change do you want your wearable device to scale with you?

But before you even open your wallet to buy one, how do you know which one is right for you?

So far, no one device has emerged as a true all-in-one wearable.  Of the three categories of fitness wearables they all seem to do one thing really well. The quality of secondary functions tends to vary with price. If you want the closest thing to an all-in-one then you’re probably looking at a GPS fitness watch.

What is a GPS Fitness watch?

As it’s name implies, it looks like a watch more than a fitness band or tracker.  They are usually waterproof and are a good fit for the person who does several activities such as running, biking, and/or swimming.  A good example would be the Garmin vivoactive HR GPS Smart Watch.

Advanced fitness watches will sync with your smartphone to track your exercise and even allow you to specify the activity so it captures the true nature of your effort.

A fitness tracker on the other hand usually lacks the GPS feature, and it’s primary function is to measure your movement throughout the day. Some do a better job than others of letting you customize the activity you’re doing, but the lack of GPS means that it’s less accurate in distance covered and what constitutes a step.  Think Fitbit Charge 2.

The final category is a Smart Watch.  Designed to really be a computer on your wrist, it’s the apps it uses that adds to the functions you may or may not use.

But it’s designed as a computer first, like a tiny iPad strapped to your forearm.  It can do just about anything that programmers tell it to (within reason) but may not have the specific functionality you want for a some activities such as swimming or golf.  Think Apple Watch.

Some wearables like the Fitbit Flex 2, don’t even have a screen or tell time.  It’s just a wristband that monitors and records your movement and relays it to an app on your smartphone or tablet.  In the Fitbit app on your smartphone you can see your progress and even set the Fitbit to notify you of phone calls or texts.  But just don’t ask it to tell time.  The Fitbit  Flex 2 is one of the few fitness trackers that lacks a screen so it’s a true fitness band only.

 

Best Smart Watch For Golf

If you spend your summer’s on the golf course and like to know how far you are to the center of the green consider a fitness tracker or smart watch that has built in features just for golf.

Wearables like the Garmin Approach X40  use GPS and swing detection to determine how long your shot was.  Others like the Garmin Approach S6 have over 30,000 golf courses promgrammed into its memory to help you plan every shot.

Once you’ve made up your mind on a GPS Running Watch, Fitness Tracker or Smart Watch you’ll have to consider budget.  If you’re tracking running on a regular basis and training for your first half marathon you likely want a rugged wearable that is built specifically for running.

 

You can spend anywhere from $65 for a Garmin Forerunner 10 up to $300+ for a top of the line Garmin Forerunner 920XT.  As you may have guessed, Garmin dominates the GPS running watch category because they basically invented it.

Be sure to shop around as prices are always creeping lower.  We usually find the most competitive price, with free Prime shipping, on Amazon, and a recent check of stores such as BestBuy.com showed their prices were significantly higher than Amazon.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, check out our “Best of” lists to help you narrow down your choices.  Finding the right fitness wearable for your lifestyle, activity and budget is easier than you think.  And we can tell you from personal experience that wearing any type of fitness tracker is going to modify your behaviour in positive way.

Good luck and keep moving!