The best running watch 2024: Top GPS watches for beginners and elite athletes

The best running watches make great road and trail companions, and are a useful way of getting to know the ins and outs of your fitness stats. While running is the main activity that users track, running watches also pack a catalog of information on activities such as cycling and swimming.

Fitness tools such as running watches are designed to help you make the most of your workouts with specific features that help you improve your overall performance. A good running watch will pack all the basic tracking features including GPS, heart rate, and pacing stats, but an excellent running watch takes things a step further with advanced performance features such as cadence and recovery information.

If you’re a runner, especially a beginner, the number of features that running watches have can make selecting the right one quite daunting. What is multi-band GPS? What's the difference between heart rate and heart rate variability? We're on hand to test watches and answer these questions, examining how they track your route, calories burned, pace, cadence, speed and more. Knowing this information can help you pace yourself for longer runs, or speed up to beat any personal records.

If you don’t need a specific running watch, but still want to track your fitness levels here’s our guide to the best fitness trackers. If you’re on a budget, our best cheap running watches guide has everything you need. For Samsung Galaxy users, the Watch 5 Pro below may be replaced by a new adventure-focused Galaxy Watch in the near future, so check back here soon to see if we've made any changes.

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Matt Evans
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Matt Evans

Matt is TechRadar's Fitness, Wellbeing and Wearables Editor, which means he's an expert on workouts, smartwatches, and all things fitness tech. Matt's spent years covering the health and fitness beat and has personally tested many of the watches below.

Latest updates: Added Coros Pace 3, and swapped it with Garmin Forerunner 165 as the "best budget" entry.

The quick list

You can read about each of the best running watches in our full list below, but here are the cliffnotes: a brief word on our top six running watches, and who they're best suited for.

Best overall

Garmin Forerunner 265S on wrist

The Garmin Forerunner 255s Music is the best mid-range running watch with built-in music capability (Image credit: Future)
The best running watch for most people

Specifications

Dimensions: 46.1 x 46.1 x 12.9 (mm)
Weight: 47 g
Display: 1.3-in, 416 x 416 px AMOLED
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, SATIQ
Battery : 13 days (20 hours GPS)
Water resistant: Yes, 5ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Full triathlon support
+
Onboard music
+
HRV tracked
+
New heart rate and multi-band GNSS

Reasons to avoid

-
No real-time stamina
-
No solar charging

If you enjoy running as part of triathlon training, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is a great watch for you. It's as good as the Forerunner 955 – only the fact it's a very iterative update and shares many of the same features as its predecessors stopped it from winning an elusive five stars.

It's reasonably priced if you can't stretch to some of the more expensive entries in Garmin's stable. Its location-tracking and biometrics are extremely accurate thanks to the latest Garmin software and multi-band GPS, and it's packed with genuinely useful training tools to help you get more from your runs, bike rides, and swims.

Last year's Training Readiness score is here, and Heart Rate Variability functions allow you to more accurately tell if you're fully recovered, offering training suggestions based on how ready or how fatigued you might be. It measures how well you've recovered from the previous day's exertions, which helps you make every training run as effective as possible.

We were also particularly impressed by the full-color on-screen maps, which make navigation easy on such a display and the sheer degree of customization on offer, especially via the new AMOLED screen. Building your own interval sessions around time or distance, for example, is surprisingly straightforward.

There are bigger, more powerful, classier-looking running watches with a broader range of sports modes and better battery lives out there, but the Forerunner 265 is a superb training aid and affordable for beginners and serious athletes alike.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 265 review

Best budget watch

Coros Pace 3 on wrist

The Coros Pace 3 has impressive specifications for a mid-range price (Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)
A lightweight, feature-packed mid-range running watch

Specifications

Dimensions: 41.9 x 41.9 x 11.7 (mm)
Weight: 32g
Display: 240 x 240 pixels, always-on LCD
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS
Battery: 24 days, up to 38 hours GPS
Water resistant: 5 ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Outstanding value for road and light trails
+
Lots of metrics
+
Battery lasts for some time

Reasons to avoid

-
Feels slightly cheap
-
Touchscreen is a little slow
-
Stripped-back smart features

The Coros Pace 3, like its predecessor the Pace 2, is an outstanding running tool. At just 32g, it's barely noticeable on the wrist but includes lots of features we'd expect to find in more expensive running watches, including outstanding accuracy, workout modes tailor-made for runners and triathletes (we tested it in the pool and found stroke count accurate) and compatibility with third-party sensors like chest-strap heart rate monitors. "Running fitness" is a new composite metric that tells you everything you need to know in a single number, which is great.

At $229 / £219 / AU$399, it's the best value in the list by far when you consider longevity and amount of features for price. If you do happen to stray off the radar (in a tunnel, for example), the watch automatically calculates your cadence and stride length so you can keep monitoring your progress.

In our tests, our only complaint was that the screen was a little dim and could be tricky to read in daylight without a tap of the backlight button, which puts a small dent in its otherwise impressive battery life, but that's a small gripe.

Read our full Coros Pace 3 review

Best premium watch

Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED watch on wrist

If your budget will stretch to it, the Garmin Fenix 8 is the best running watch available today. (Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)
The best premium running watch, now with a torch

Specifications

Dimensions: 47 x 47 x 14.5 mm
Weight: 80g
Display: 454 x 454 px, AMOLED
GPS: GPS+Beidou+Glonass+Galileo+QZSS
Battery: 16 days (47 hours GPS)
Water resistant: Yes, 10ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Advanced GPS
+
New heart rate sensor
+
Garmin’s trademark modularity

Reasons to avoid

-
Expensive
-
Bulky

The Garmin Fenix 8 delivers all the latest hardware features, which are part of the most recent flagship running watches. One of the standouts is the new GPS software that includes "dynamic routing" - a feature that generates directions during workouts. This is ideal for those who like to deviate mid-run or mid-cycle from a pre-planned route.

The AMOLED display is another highlight of this incredible running watch. With a top-quality resolution of 454 x 454 px, this is a display that is not only beautifully bright but also incredibly clear. These are two ideal characteristics for any runner. You can choose from three different sizes as well as an additional option of a solar-powered memory-in-pixel display or a brighter AMOLED one.

Waterproofing has also been improved from version 7, with diving capabilities all the way down to 40 metres. This is a serious watch featuring hardware that goes well beyond a little dip in the sea. It also features a working dive computer for scuba activities.

Safety, especially at night, is of paramount importance, so the inclusion of an LED torch for attraction attention is a welcoming addition. It also helps with running safely at night. This is a watch that has thought of everything.

Read our full Garmin Fenix 8 review

Best for distance runners

Garmin Instinct 2 with white case and band on person's wrist

The Garmin Instinct 2 is one of the toughest, most practical running watches around (Image credit: Future)
A tough watch that's perfect for serious distance runners

Specifications

Dimensions: 45 x 45 x 14.50 mm
Weight: 52 g
Display: Two-window 0.9-in, 176 x 176 px MIP
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
Battery : 28 days (30 Hours GPS)
Water resistant: Yes, 10ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Choice of sizes
+
Slimmer, but still tough
+
Advanced training tools
+
Excellent GPS tracking
+
Extra long battery life

Reasons to avoid

-
Doesn't display maps well

The Garmin Instinct 2 is a fantastic running watch if you've ever laced up your shoes and been about to head out the door, then realized your watch is going to run flat before you've finished.

The Instinct 2 has battery life that can be measured in weeks rather than days or hours, and in the right conditions, its solar variants can keep running indefinitely. Tracking workouts require a little extra juice, but on a sunny day, a two-hour run with all sensors enabled barely made a dent in the battery.

The Instinct 2 is seriously robust, with a fiber-reinforced resin case and bezel rather than the flashier stainless steel of some higher-end Garmin watches, which means it's light and shrugs off knocks and drops, making it a solid option for trail runners too. Garmin has added some fun new colors this time around, so you'll be easily visible while exploring woodland routes.

During our tests, the only real downside we found is that the Instinct 2's monochrome memory-in-pixel (MiP) display isn't great for maps. You can plot routes in the Garmin Connect app or import ones from third-party sources, but the watch itself will only be able to give you a vague impression of your bearing. If you want to explore new places, then the Fenix 7 or Epix would be a better choice, but otherwise, the Instinct 2 is easy to recommend.

Read our full Garmin Instinct 2 review

Best for iOS users

Apple Watch Ultra 2

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the smartwatch with the world’s best screen ever (Image credit: Future)
The best ever screen on an iOS smartwatch

Specifications

Dimensions: 49 x 41 x 14 mm
Weight: 61g
Display: 502 x 410 px poly-silicon always-on OLED Retina Display
GPS: Yes (unspecified)
Battery: 36 hours
Water resistant: Yes, WR100 (diveproof)

Reasons to buy

+
New S9 chipset
+
Double Tap gestures
+
Apple’s brightest display ever

Reasons to avoid

-
Very few new features
-
No battery life extension

If you want the ultimate Apple Watch that you can take anywhere, including into the wilderness and under the sea, then the Apple Watch Ultra 2 will be perfect for you. It's not hugely different from the first iteration of the Ultra, but the screen is Apple's brightest screen ever, which makes it perfect on those days when you're fighting to see the screen because of glare from the sun on the side of the mountain.

The refresh rate is like water falling off a duck’s back, and it’s Apple at its peak. It’s the best smartwatch screen we’ve ever seen in person from a purely technical standpoint. The new S9 SiP chip enables a range of new features including the hands-free Double Tap control. This innovative new gesture allows you to start workouts, dismiss timers, answer calls and more, all hands-free.

These small changes have made an already great watch into one of the very best on the market, which is why it also merits inclusion in our best smartwatch guide.

Read our full Apple Watch Ultra 2 review

Best cheap Garmin

Garmin Forerunner 165 smartwatch worn on the wrist

The Garmin Forerunner 165 isn't just a feature-packed running watch, it's also stylish enough to wear every day (Image credit: Future)
The best cheap Garmin watch

Specifications

Dimensions: 43 x 43 x 11.6 (mm)
Weight: 39g
Display: 390 x 390 px AMOLED
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
Battery: 11 days
Water resistant: Yes, 5ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Behoudt veel geavanceerde trainingsfuncties
+
Mooi AMOLED-touchscreen
+
13 dagen batterij

Reasons to avoid

-
Niet goedkoop genoeg om de Forerunner 45 of 55 te vervangen
-
Muziekopslag kost extra

The Forerunner 165 from Garmin embraces the elements of a high-end running watch while fronting all the basic features, making it a fantastic budget-friendly running watch perfect for entry-level runners.

Most people who use running watches often rely on their wearables for extended services that can be integrated into their daily lives, and for its reasonable price tag, you'd be surprised to see that the Forerunner 165 takes that a step further. One of its most useful features is the Morning Report, a service cribbed from the 165 above, that gives you insights to your recovery process by offering workouts based on your status. That way, the watch can guide you to avoid further injury all the while ensuring to keep you moving.

Its GPS capabilities go a long way too, which during our testing, we found was accurate compared to the Garmin Epix Pro in our list below. If you're using the watch's GPS around four times a week, as we were, our test shows that its battery life can last around nine days. It's also kept the modern design of its higher-end sibling the Forerunner 265, albeit significantly lighter.

Read our full Garmin Forerunner 165 review

Best value Polar

Polar Pacer Pro

The Polar Pacer Pro provides a very impressive suite of metrics and accurate GPS, even if the package is a bit barebones. (Image credit: Future)
The best value Polar running watch

Specifications

Dimensions: 45 x 45 x 11.5 mm
Weight: 41g
Display: 1.2-in 240 x 240 MIP
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou
Battery: Six days (35 hours GPS)
Water resistant: Yes, WR50

Reasons to buy

+
Terrific value for money
+
Great training and recovery analysis
+
Particularly excellent for runners

Reasons to avoid

-
No full-color, on-watch maps
-
Smartphone music control only.

The Polar Pacer Pro shares a lot of DNA with the Polar Vantage V2 and, funnily enough, other Polar devices. It's a stripped-back, super-light, runner's running watch, with no time for smartwatch frippery. It's a terrific watch and very attractively priced, but it's missing a couple of things the premium models higher on this list are packing.

The most important inclusion is Polar's advanced suite of running metrics and suggested workouts. I love this watch as it provides some excellent training recommendations, a fitness test, and all the information I could want about my run including heart rate zones, burned calories broken down minute-by-minute, detailed maps of your routes, hills you’ve climbed, and power you’ve exerted. A fitness test was introduced in previous models which gives you numerical values for your VO2 max, maximal aerobic power, and maximal aerobic speed. Repeating the test at a later date will give you a measurable indication of how your fitness is improving over time.

The Pacer Pro is lighter than the Grit X, too, and may be one of the lightest watches on this list at 41g. It doesn't feel like a plastic toy either, as so many light watches do. It doesn't contain enough memory for music, and despite packing on-board GPS and trackback features, it doesn't display maps on its watch face, providing simple (in theory) directional arrows instead, which can be fiddly to use. However, it's a great watch for the price.

Read our full Polar Pacer Pro review

Best for multi-day events

Garmin Enduro 2

The Garmin Enduro offers incredible battery life for a performance running watch (Image credit: Matt Evans)
The best running watch for multi-day events

Specifications

Dimensions: 51 x 51 x 15.6 mm
Weight: 70g
Display: 1.4-in 280 x 280 px MIP
GPS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, SatIQ
Battery: 46 days (150 hours GPS)
Water resistant: Yes, 10ATM

Reasons to buy

+
Premium build
+
Epic battery life
+
Topographical maps
+
New route guidance functionality
+
Bright flashlight

Reasons to avoid

-
Heavier and bigger than most smartwatches
-
The price might be hard to justify for more casual users

The Garmin Enduro 2 is a beast of a watch that boasts all of Garmin's usual features and some of the most impressive battery life we've ever seen on a watch. The old Enduro was missing topographical maps, which have since been added, making it hard to find a fault in the Enduro 2's makeup beyond its obvious size and price.

The Enduro 2 can go up to 65 days in smartwatch mode, and offers an enormous 140 hours of GPS battery life when you factor in solar power. And if you keep operations to the basic minimum, the Garmin Enduro 2 will keep going for anywhere up to a year.

In general, the Enduro series gives you pretty much everything you could want to track runs. It's a tank, the Christian Bale Batmobile of fitness watches. It provides advanced fitness tracking metrics and offers sleep monitoring too. Features include a barometric altimeter, a heart rate monitor, a pulse ox monitor, 24/7 fitness tracking and smartwatch features like notifications and payments.

Its price will be prohibitive for many, but if you’re seeking a big watch that's a real battery powerhouse, the Enduro 2 is the one for you..

Read our full Garmin Enduro 2 review

Best for Wear OS users

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is a great option for Wear OS users, far more substantial than other fitness-focused smartwatches. (Image credit: Future / Matt Evans)
The best running watch for Wear OS users

Specifications

Dimensions: 47.4 x 47.4 x 12.1 mm
Weight: 60.5g
Display: 480 x 480 full-color AMOLED
GPS: Dual-frequency GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
Battery: 590mAh, up to 100 hours
Water resistant: 10ATM + IP68

Reasons to buy

+
Stevige titanium buitenkant
+
Nieuwe programmeerbare sneltoets
+
Heel veel functies

Reasons to avoid

-
Batterij kan nog wel wat krachtiger
-
Scherm is niet groter dan 44mm Galaxy Watch

From a technical point of view, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is undoubtedly Samsung's best smartwatch ever. It's better than any watch they've ever produced, and that includes its build quality, size, durability, and feature set. It's even better than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro from an outdoor workout standpoint.

The design has received a complete overhaul to make it more durable and rugged than ever. It has a thicker strap that is more hard-wearing, an outer casing that is scratch-proof thanks to its titanium material, and the watch face itself is cushioned by a squircle-style shape.

They've introduced a new button, which is orange and called the ‘Quick button’. If you think this looks remarkably like the button on the Apple Watch Ultra, then you'd be completely forgiven.

All in, this is a cracking smartwatch that stands up to its competitors with consummate ease. Its high price, relatively low battery and smartwatch-first rather than running-first approach are the only reasons it's not higher up this list.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra review

Best Fitbit for runners

best fitbit Fitbit Charge 5 with blue band on person's wrist

(Image credit: Future)
The best Fitbit for runners

Specifications

Dimensions : 36.7 x 22.7 x 11.2mm
Weight: 28g
Display: 1.04-in AMOLED
GPS: Yes
Battery: Up to 7 days
Water Resistant: Yes, 5ATM

Reasons to buy

+
On-board GPS
+
Excellent heart rate monitoring
+
Clean, simple interface
+
Contactless payments

Reasons to avoid

-
No music controls
-
Limited on-screen workout data
-
Some features missing at launch

The Fitbit Charge 5 takes the best features from all of the company's other devices and rolls them into one sporty package. It's technically a tracker rather than a watch, but it packs all of Fitbit's running expertise into a single handy device, packs an AMOLED touchscreen and lasts for over a week. We think it merits inclusion.

You get onboard GPS for tracking runs, walks and bike rides without carrying your phone; an EDA (electrodermal activity) sensor to measure changes in stress levels, an ECG app, and (like the Fitbit Luxe) a bright AMOLED display that makes it a pleasure to use.

The Charge 5 is a fitness tracker built for people who are taking their workouts seriously, but want an affordable option that works as an all-around activity tracker. Less obtrusive than a "true" running watch, it still provides excellent GPS-driven metrics such as pace, cadence and speed.

The Charge 5 doesn't let you control your Spotify playlist or other music from your wrist, but that's a minor quibble, and it's an otherwise excellent fitness tracker.

Read our full Fitbit Charge 5 review

How to choose

How to choose the best running watch for you

When you're picking a running watch, one of the first things to consider is your current goal. Every runner can benefit from a dedicated GPS watch, but if you're aiming to complete your first 5K, your needs will be very different to a person aiming to set a new personal best in a marathon.

For new runners, a watch that will help you set up a simple training plan and give your runs some variety are useful tools. The Garmin Forerunner 55, for example, gives workout suggestions, so you don't get stuck in the same routine, even if you're not following a specific training plan. It also suggests how long you should rest and recover after each session, so you get the most out of your training.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Polar Grit X keeps tabs on your fuelling strategy for long-distance events and training sessions, letting you know when it's time to take on more carbs and water. It also works with services like TrainingPeaks, so you can download specialized plans to help you meet your next goal.

While you can use a smartwatch to track your runs, a dedicated running watch with physical buttons will always be an advantage. Not only does this allow you to control the watch without having to study the screen, but it also lets you navigate its menus, pause and start workouts while wearing gloves or with sweaty hands.

Good battery life is another important consideration. You don't want to be waiting for your watch to charge before heading out on a training session or, worse still, find that it goes flat part way through a run. Some people will only need an hour of GPS at a time, while at the more extreme end of the spectrum, others will need days.

Additional tools like music and contactless payments can also be a very useful addition, allowing you to keep yourself occupied with music or a podcast during your training and stop to pick up a bottle of water or quick snack if you aren't carrying supplies. These tools also make your running watch more practical for everyday wear, so you don't need to invest in a second smartwatch to use when you're not training.

We've factored in all these considerations when judging the watches above, so you don't have to search through specification sheets to make sure the device you're interested in checks all the right boxes.

How we test

Each time we test a running watch, we wear it for at least two weeks to ensure it gathers a full set of fitness data. Almost all modern running watches include sleep and recovery tracking, so it's essential to wear each one 24 hours a day to get the most accurate insights.

We test each watch on a pre-determined run and compare their heart rate data with figures from the best heart rate monitors and another control watch to see how they measure up. We've also put their different training tools to the test, making sure they're genuinely useful additions rather than gimmicks.

Each watch starts testing fully charged, and we record how quickly power is drained in typical use so we can compare it to the manufacturer's quoted figures. Our reviews will always tell you the features we had enabled and the type of workouts we tracked to get a good sense of battery life.

Matt Evans
Fitness, Wellness, and Wearables Editor

Matt is TechRadar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech. A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, LiveScience and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.