The perfect smartwatches for 2025

Smartwatches do extra than simply monitor your steps and ship cellphone alerts to your wrist. The perfect smartwatches go even additional, providing you with the power to pay for a cup of espresso, take calls and connect with apps like Spotify all with out whipping out your smartphone.

Likelihood is, for those who’re studying this, you already know all the advantages of a smartwatch. You’re prepared to speculate, or improve from an getting old accent, however we wouldn’t blame you for those who for those who didn’t know the place to start out. There are dozens of smartwatches out there now, together with GPS operating watches, health trackers that appear to be smartwatches and multi-purpose gadgets. Plus, you’ll wish to take into account components like sturdiness, battery life and working system earlier than you spend some huge cash on a brand new wearable. We’ve examined and reviewed most main smartwatches out there right now and these are our prime picks.

Desk of contents

Greatest smartwatches of 2025

Trendy smartwatches: Fossil and extra

Sure, there are nonetheless corporations on the market making an attempt to make “trendy” hybrid smartwatches. Again when wearables have been novel and customarily ugly, manufacturers like Fossil, Michael Kors and Skagen discovered their area of interest in fashionable smartwatches that took cues from analog timepieces. You even have the choice to choose up a “hybrid” smartwatch from corporations like Withings and Garmin – these gadgets appear to be basic wrist watches however incorporate some restricted performance like exercise monitoring and coronary heart fee monitoring. They continue to be good choices for those who favor that look, however fortunately, wearables made by Apple, Samsung, Fitbit and others have gotten rather more enticing over the previous few years.

Finally, the one factor you’ll be able to’t change after you purchase a smartwatch is its case design. When you’re not into the Apple Watch’s squared-off corners, all of Samsung’s smartwatches have spherical instances that look slightly extra like a conventional watch. Most wearables are supplied in a alternative of colours and you’ll pay additional for premium supplies like stainless-steel for additional sturdiness. When you resolve on a case, your band choices are countless – there are dozens of first- and third-party watch straps out there for many main smartwatches, and for each bigger and smaller wrists, permitting you to alter up your look everytime you please.

Elements to think about earlier than shopping for a smartwatch

Compatibility

Apple Watches solely work with iPhones, whereas Put on OS gadgets play good with each iOS and Android telephones. Smartwatches made by Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit and others are additionally suitable with Android and iOS, however you’ll want to put in a companion app in your smartphone.

The smartwatch OS may even dictate the kind and variety of third-party apps you’ll have entry to. Many of those aren’t helpful, although, making this issue a reasonably minor one within the grand scheme of issues.

Worth

The perfect smartwatches typically value between $300 and $400. In comparison with funds smartwatches, which value between $100 and $250, these pricier gadgets have superior working techniques, communications, music and health options. In addition they usually embrace perks like onboard GPS monitoring, music storage and NFC, AMOLED shows, and lengthy battery life, issues that funds gadgets typically don’t have.

Some corporations make specialised health watches: These can simply run north of $500, and we’d solely suggest them to critical athletes. Luxurious smartwatches from manufacturers like TAG Heuer and Hublot can even attain sky-high costs, however we wouldn’t endorse any of them. These gadgets can value greater than $1,000, and also you’re normally paying for little greater than a model identify and a few needlessly unique choice of construct supplies.

Battery life

Battery life stays considered one of our largest complaints about smartwatches, however there’s hope as of late. You may count on two full days from Apple Watches and most Put on OS gadgets. Watches utilizing the Snapdragon Put on 3100 processor help prolonged battery modes that promise as much as 5 days of battery life on a cost — for those who’re keen to close off most options other than, you already know, displaying the time. Different fashions can final 5 to seven days, however they normally have fewer options and lower-quality shows. In the meantime, some health watches can final weeks on a single cost. If lengthy battery life is a precedence for you, it’s value trying out the watch’s specs beforehand to see what the producer estimates.

Communication

Any smartwatch value contemplating delivers name, textual content and app notifications to your wrist. Name and textual content alerts are self explanatory, but when these imply so much to you, take into account a watch with LTE. They’re dearer than their WiFi-only counterparts, however mobile connectivity permits the smartwatch to take and obtain cellphone calls, and do the identical with textual content messages, with out your machine close by. So far as app alerts go, getting them delivered to your wrist will allow you to look all the way down to the watch face and see for those who completely must test your cellphone proper now.

Health monitoring

Exercise monitoring is an enormous purpose why folks flip to smartwatches. An all-purpose timepiece ought to perform as a health tracker, logging your steps, energy and exercises, and most of right now’s wearables have a coronary heart fee monitor as effectively.

Many smartwatches’ health options embrace a built-in GPS, which is helpful for monitoring distance for runs and bike rides. Swimmers will need one thing waterproof, and fortunately most all-purpose gadgets now can stand up to at the very least a dunk within the pool. Some smartwatches from corporations like Garmin are extra health targeted than others and have a tendency to supply extra superior options like heart-rate-variance monitoring, restoration time estimation, onboard maps and extra.

Well being monitoring on smartwatches has additionally seen advances over time. Each Apple and Fitbit gadgets can estimate blood oxygen ranges and measure ECGs. However the extra reasonably priced the smartwatch, the much less seemingly it’s that it has these sorts of superior well being monitoring options; if amassing these sorts of wellness metrics is necessary to you, you’ll need to pay for the privilege.

Music

Your watch cannot solely monitor your morning runs but additionally play music whilst you’re exercising. Many smartwatches allow you to save your music regionally, so you’ll be able to join wi-fi earbuds through Bluetooth and hearken to tunes with out bringing your cellphone. People who don’t have onboard storage for music normally have on-watch music controls, so you’ll be able to management playback with out whipping out your cellphone. And in case your watch has LTE, native saving isn’t required — you’ll be capable to stream music instantly from the watch to your paired earbuds.

Shows

Most wearables have touchscreens and we suggest getting one which has a full-color touchscreen. Some flagships just like the Apple Watch have LTPO shows, which stands for low-temperature polycrystalline oxide. These panels have sooner response occasions and are extra energy environment friendly, leading to a smoother expertise when one interacts with the touchscreen and, in some instances, longer battery lives.

You received’t see important positive aspects with the latter, although, as a result of the additional battery primarily will get used up when these gadgets have always-on shows, as most flagship wearables do right now. Some smartwatches have this characteristic on by default whereas others allow you to allow it through tweaked settings. This good characteristic lets you look down at your watch to test the time, well being stats or some other data you’ve set it to point out on its watchface with out lifting your wrist. This can little doubt have an effect on your machine’s battery life, however fortunately most always-on modes dim the show’s brightness so it’s not operating at its peak unnecessarily. Cheaper gadgets received’t have this characteristic; as an alternative, their touchscreens will mechanically flip off to preserve battery life and also you’ll need to deliberately test your watch to activate the show once more.

NFC

Many new smartwatches have NFC, letting you pay for issues with out your pockets utilizing contactless funds. After saving your credit score or debit card data, you’ll be able to maintain your smartwatch as much as an NFC reader to pay for a cup of espresso in your approach house from a run. Needless to say completely different watches use completely different fee techniques: Apple Watches use Apple Pay, Put on OS gadgets use Google Pay, Samsung gadgets use Samsung Pay and so forth.

Apple Pay is likely one of the hottest NFC fee techniques, with help for a number of banks and bank cards in 72 completely different international locations, whereas Samsung and Google Pay work in fewer areas. It’s additionally necessary to notice that each NFC fee help varies by machine as effectively for each Samsung and Google’s techniques.

Different smartwatches our consultants examined

Apple Watch Extremely 2

The Apple Watch Extremely 2 might be overkill for most individuals, nevertheless it has a ton of additional options like additional waterproofing to trace diving, an much more correct GPS and the most important battery of any Apple Watch thus far. Apple designed it for essentially the most rugged amongst us, however to your common particular person, it seemingly has extra options than they’d ever want. When you’re notably clumsy, nevertheless, its excessive degree of sturdiness could possibly be a terrific purpose to think about the Apple Watch Extremely 2.

Apple Watch SE

The Apple Watch SE is much less feature-rich than the flagship mannequin, however it’ll most likely suffice for most individuals. We truly regard the Watch SE as one of the best smartwatch possibility for first-time patrons, or folks on stricter budgets. You’ll get all of the core Apple Watch options in addition to issues like fall and crash detection, noise monitoring and Emergency SOS, however you’ll need to do with out extra superior {hardware} perks like an always-on show, a blood oxygen sensor, an ECG monitor and a pores and skin temperature sensor.

Garmin Forerunner 745

Garmin watches basically will be nice choices for essentially the most energetic amongst us. The Garmin Forerunner 745 is a wonderful GPS operating look ahead to critical athletes or those that prize battery life above all else. Once we examined it, we discovered it to supply correct distance monitoring, a killer 16-hour battery life with GPS turned on (as much as seven days with out it) and help for onboard music storage and Garmin Pay.

Amazfit Bip 6

The Amazfit Bip 6, an $80 smartwatch from Zepp Well being, didn’t fairly make the reduce. As a health tracker, it’s respectable, nevertheless it’s a irritating smartwatch. For exercises, the built-in GPS tracks runs and rides with out your cellphone and, mixed with the center fee and blood oxygen sensors, collects an excellent quantity of information to create correct photos of your exertion ranges, cadence and tempo. It’s remarkably light-weight however doesn’t really feel low-cost and the AMOLED display is shiny and sharp. It’s not an always-on show, however lifting your wrist wakes it reliably.

The sleep monitoring information is on par with what we measured on different smartwatches and there’s even a day by day readiness rating that compares your sleep high quality and yesterday’s exertion to estimate how bodily ready you might be for the day forward — just like what Pixel Watches, Fitbit gadgets and Garmin watches provide. And for the reason that watch battery lasts for over per week on a cost, it’s possible you’ll be much more apt to put on it to mattress than a watch it’s a must to cost day by day.

We weren’t anticipating an $80 machine to be a critical Apple Watch challenger, however the Bip 6’s glitches and overly difficult interface (each on the app and on the watch itself) have been disappointing. Throughout per week of testing, I received a number of repeated notifications, even after they have been deleted, together with solutions to face once I was actively doing chores round the home. The watch faces will not be customizable, so it was exhausting to get the information I wanted at a look (the Zepp app has a lot of paid watch faces that will have what I wished, however I didn’t wish to pay $3 for one thing that’s free elsewhere).

Advertising and marketing particulars state that the Bip 6 can auto-detect exercises, together with strolling and bike using. Throughout testing, I walked a couple of times per day for over one mile and went on two bike rides, however no exercise was ever detected. The watch integrates with Apple Well being, so I used to be capable of see the way it compares to the information my Apple Watch gathers. After per week of sporting the Bip 6, with no modifications to my day by day routine, I averaged 400 fewer energy burned and a couple of.4 fewer miles tracked every day. That was presumably the most important disappointment of all. — Amy Skorheim, Senior Reporter

Smartwatch FAQs

Is there a distinction between a smartwatch and a health tracker?

Whereas smartwatches and health trackers share some similarities, they’re designed for barely completely different functions.

A health tracker is primarily targeted on well being and exercise monitoring. It retains tabs in your steps, coronary heart fee, sleep and exercises, and a few even provide superior metrics like blood oxygen ranges and stress monitoring. Health trackers are typically extra compact, have longer battery life and are constructed with exercise in thoughts.

A smartwatch, however, is sort of a mini smartphone in your wrist. It affords health monitoring options, but additionally permits you to do issues like reply to texts, take calls, use apps and management good house gadgets. Many smartwatches help voice assistants, cell funds and even LTE connectivity, so you’ll be able to go away your cellphone behind in some instances.

When you primarily need well being and exercise monitoring with lengthy battery life, a health tracker is the best way to go. If you need a extra linked expertise with additional options, a smartwatch is the higher alternative.

How lengthy do smartwatches final?

How lengthy a smartwatch lasts largely relies on two issues: battery life and total sturdiness.

Smartwatch battery life varies so much relying on the model, options and the way you employ it. Primary fashions with e-ink shows or monochrome screens can final per week or extra, whereas full-featured smartwatches just like the Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch normally want a cost on daily basis or two. When you’re utilizing options like always-on show, GPS monitoring or LTE connectivity, count on the battery to empty sooner.

Bodily, an excellent smartwatch ought to final a number of years earlier than it’s worthwhile to improve. Premium fashions with scratch-resistant glass, water resistance and robust construct supplies have a tendency to carry up effectively over time. Nonetheless, software program help issues too — manufacturers like Apple and Samsung usually present updates for at the very least a couple of years, whereas some funds smartwatches might not get long-term software program help.

You may count on to cost most smartwatches day by day or each few days, and for those who care for them, they need to final 3-5 years earlier than an improve is critical.

How a lot do you have to spend on a smartwatch?

How a lot you need to spend on a smartwatch relies on what options you want and the way usually you propose to make use of it.

When you simply need the fundamentals — step monitoring, notifications, coronary heart fee monitoring and primary health monitoring — you will discover some stable budget-friendly choices from manufacturers like Amazfit, Fitbit and a few Put on OS fashions. These normally have respectable battery life however might lack premium options like LTE, superior well being monitoring or third-party apps.

Within the mid-range smartwatch worth bracket, you’ll discover well-liked fashions just like the Apple Watch SE and Fitbit Versa collection. These provide an excellent mixture of health monitoring, good options and design high quality. You’ll get higher construct supplies, extra correct sensors and app help, however battery life may nonetheless be restricted to a day or two.

Excessive-end smartwatches just like the Apple Watch Extremely, Samsung Galaxy Watch Extremely and Garmin Fenix/Epix collection provide superior well being monitoring, rugged designs, LTE connectivity and longer software program help. These are nice for critical athletes, outside adventurers, or anybody who needs the most recent and biggest options.

When you simply need a easy smartwatch for notifications and health monitoring, a funds or mid-range mannequin will do the job. However if you would like a premium really feel, superior well being monitoring or LTE connectivity, it’s value spending a bit extra. For most individuals, $200 – $350 hits one of the best stability of options and worth.

Do all smartwatches have GPS?

Not all smartwatches have built-in GPS. Some depend on your cellphone’s GPS, whereas others have it built-in for impartial monitoring.

Excessive-end and fitness-focused smartwatches, just like the Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch and Garmin fashions have their very own built-in GPS. This implies they will monitor your runs, walks, bike rides and hikes while not having to be linked to your cellphone. It’s a must have for critical athletes or anybody who needs correct location monitoring with out carrying a cellphone.

Some funds and mid-range smartwatches (like some Fitbit and Amazfit fashions) don’t have built-in GPS however can use your cellphone’s GPS when linked through Bluetooth. This works superb for those who normally carry your cellphone whereas figuring out, nevertheless it’s much less handy for those who favor to depart it behind.

Some very primary or funds smartwatches skip GPS solely and rely solely on step monitoring or movement sensors. These are superb for informal customers who don’t want location monitoring.

Can you permit your cellphone at house and nonetheless use a smartwatch?

Sure, nevertheless it relies on the smartwatch and what you wish to do with out your cellphone.

In case your smartwatch has LTE or mobile connectivity , you can also make calls, ship texts, stream music, use maps and even entry apps with out your cellphone close by. Nonetheless, you’ll want a separate information plan out of your service, which normally comes with an additional month-to-month value.

Even with out LTE, some smartwatches can nonetheless do loads on their very own, together with monitor exercises and GPS routes (if they’ve built-in GPS), play music offline (in the event that they help downloads from Spotify or Apple Music), might contactless funds with options like Apple Pay and Google Pockets and management good house gadgets.

If going phone-free is necessary to you, search for a smartwatch with LTE and built-in GPS for one of the best expertise.

Can a smartwatch make calls with no cellphone?

Sure, a smartwatch could make calls with no cellphone — however provided that it has the precise options.

Some smartwatches have built-in LTE connectivity, that means they will work independently out of your cellphone. You can also make and obtain calls, ship texts, stream music and use apps so long as you might have a cell information plan for the watch. Nonetheless, you’ll must pay for a separate mobile plan and battery life drains sooner when utilizing LTE.

In case your smartwatch doesn’t have LTE, it might nonetheless make calls, however solely when linked to your cellphone through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. It primarily acts as a distant speaker and microphone to your cellphone’s calls. Watches like the usual Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch (Wi-Fi variations) can do that. Nonetheless, in case your cellphone isn’t close by or linked to Wi-Fi, calling received’t work.

Some fitness-focused smartwatches (like sure Garmin, Fitbit and Amazfit fashions) don’t have a built-in speaker or microphone, to allow them to’t make or obtain calls in any respect — solely present notifications.

If calling with no cellphone is a should, ensure that to decide on an LTE mannequin with a built-in mic and speaker.

What is the distinction between an Android and Apple smartwatch?

The most important distinction between Android and Apple smartwatches comes all the way down to compatibility, options and ecosystem integration.

Apple smartwatches (Apple Watch) solely work with iPhones. You probably have an Android cellphone, you’ll be able to’t use an Apple Watch in any respect. Android smartwatches (Put on OS, Samsung Galaxy, Garmin and many others.) largely work with Android telephones, however some additionally help iPhones with restricted options. You probably have an iPhone, the Apple Watch is your best option. You probably have an Android cellphone, go for a Put on OS or Samsung Galaxy Watch.

Apple Watch (watchOS) has one of the best app help with seamless integration into Apple’s ecosystem (iMessage, FaceTime, Apple Pay, Apple Health+, Siri and many others.). Android smartwatches provide extra selection, with entry to Google providers (Google Assistant, Google Pockets and Google Maps), and a few help Amazon Alexa or Samsung’s Bixby.

By way of design, Apple Watch has a single design however is available in completely different sizes and supplies. It’s glossy, however your solely actual customization comes from bands and watch faces. Android smartwatches, however, are available tons of types and types (Samsung, Google Pixel Watch, Garmin, Fossil and many others.), that means you’ll be able to decide a spherical watch, a rugged design or a luxury-looking mannequin.

If battery life is necessary to you, the Apple Watch lasts a few day or two per cost, relying on utilization and mannequin. Many Android smartwatches (particularly Garmin, Amazfit or Mobvoi TicWatch) final a number of days and even weeks on a single cost.

Georgie Peru contributed to this report.