THE BEST SMARTWATCHES OF 2024

Smartphones have changed the way that we interact with information and people, and how we navigate our world—for better or worse. In the case of the latter, having your face buried in your smartphone's display for hours a day means missing out on what's going on around you or, worse, leaving you in a position where you're missing out on the opportunities to focus on the experiences right in front of you, for fear of missing out online. A good smartwatch allows you to put your phone away and still keep on top of your digital life. Tracking your schedule, staying in touch with the people that matter, and tracking your health and fitness, are all just a wearable device away.

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After extensively testing the top smartwatches for years, we can say with confidence that the Apple Watch Series 9 (available at Apple) is the best smartwatch you can buy thanks to its brilliant design, intuitive usability, and loads of useful features.

If the Series 9 is too pricey, the Apple Watch SE (2nd gen) (available at Amazon) does a fine job as a stand-in for a much lower price, offering a very similar design and many of the same features. If you’re an Android phone owner (particularly those with Samsung phones) you’ll want to look at our best pick for Android, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 (available at Amazon).

But there are a few other great options below, and we've run them all through our rigorous testing procedures so you can find your Dick Tracy accessory of choice.

Editor's Note January 2, 2024: Due to a claim of copyright infringement surrounding the health sensors in their latest wearables, Apple is currently fighting to keep the Apple Watch Series 9 available for sale in the United States. For the time being, the Series 9 is still for sale. We'll be watching for updates on this issue, closely, and let you know what, if anything changes in this area.

BEST OVERALL

Apple Watch Series 9

The Apple Watch Series 9 is the best smartwatch you can buy. Unfortunately, it’s only compatible with Apple’s iPhone—Android users will have to look to one of our other Editor’s Choice Award winners for the smartwatch of their dreams. Available in 41mm and 45mm lug sizes, the Series 9 is designed to fit a wide variety of wrists. And, as its case is made from a number of different materials with a wide variety of color and band choices, you’re sure to find a style and price point for this smartwatch that’ll agree with your fashion and fiscal sensibilities.

Powered by Apple’s new S9 SiP chip, The Series 9 is faster and more power-efficient than ever before. However, instead of pushing this power efficiency in the direction of improved battery life, it was decided that superior processing power, with the same all-day battery life as the previous generation Apple Watch enjoyed, was the way to go. Many of the tasks asked of Siri are now performed right on the watch, with no need for Internet connectivity. You’ll find that voice dictation thrown at the Series 9 is a little more accurate than it has been with past models of the wearable, too.

Like most smartwatches in this guide, the Apple Watch Series 9 comes packing a plethora of fitness-tracking features, the ability to relay notifications from your smartphone, take phone calls, and respond to messages. One of the most important things that sets the Series 9 apart, however, is WatchOS: Apple’s smartwatch operating system. Constantly evolving, the latest version of Watch OS makes it easier to find what you’re after intuitively, with as little fuss as possible. And there’s a lot to find: no smartwatch has more high-quality apps available to download and customize its user experience with. If your use of Apple products goes beyond the Apple Watch and iPhone, you’ll find that the Series 9’s first-party apps like Music, Podcasts, Reminders, and Home will make accessing the content from Apple’s ecosystem easy; its smart home devices like the HomePod or Apple TV controllable from your wrist. It will even help you find your iPhone if you misplace it, with precision tracking.

That said, like most Apple products, the Series 9’s innovations only represent a small, incremental update over the capabilities of last year’s Apple Watch, the Series 8. If you own one, or even a Series 7, we don’t feel that you’ll notice much of a difference were you to upgrade. Those who own earlier iterations of the Apple Watch, however, will appreciate the Series 9’s larger display, speed, and understated good looks.

Pros

Faster processor
Brighter screen
Great fitness-tracking features

Cons

Aging design
Battery could be better

Buy now at Apple

$459.00 from Amazon

BEST VALUE

Apple Watch SE (2022)

If you’re an iPhone user, the Apple Watch SE is a great way to step into the world of smartwatches. Building on an already great product, this 2nd-generation SE model adds a faster processor, improved features, and a few new ones—most notably crash detection, which can alert family members and emergency responders in the event of a car collision.

Available in 40mm and 44mm sizes in your choice of three colors, the Watch SE starts $30 below the previous model, a surprising but welcome move on Apple’s part. Like all other Apple smartwatches, the SE is a stylish, extremely versatile wrist companion. It links with your iPhone like no other smartwatch brand (including the otherwise impressive Fitbit Versa 3), allowing you to make and take phone calls, send and receive text messages, run countless apps, stream music and much more.

It’s also an activity- and lifestyle-tracking champ, able to log just about any exercise you can think of (everything from swimming to pickleball) and monitor your sleep. It’s less polished at automated activity-tracking than the Versa 3, and unfortunately, it doesn’t have nearly the same battery life: Expect about 24 hours from the SE, versus anywhere from 4-7 days on the Versa.

Apple still offers relatively few watch face options, but at least you can dress up the external look of the watch by choosing from hundreds of band styles and colors. However, if you want an always-on display, you’ll have to look to the pricier Watch Series 8, which also adds features like blood oxygen level, temperature-sensing, and advanced women’s cycle-tracking.

Otherwise, the Apple Watch SE will prove more than enough smartwatch, and the newly lowered price makes it even more compelling. Calling it a budget watch seems almost unfair because its price belies its capabilities. This is an easy choice as the best all-around smartwatch for sheer value.

Pros

More for less
Great iPhone integration
Crash detection

Cons

Still no always-on display
Inconsistent exercise detection

Buy now at Amazon

BEST FOR ANDROID

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 replaces the Galaxy Watch 5 as our favorite smartwatch for Android users. Available in two different variants--the sleek, standard version and, the beefier, Classic iteration of the watch which comes with a rotating bezel used for UI navigation--it's a device designed to suit the widest variety of wrists possible. We tested the former, which comes in 40mm and 44mm lug sizes, available with or without cellular connectivity in three different colorways: Gold, Graphite, and, Silver.

We love the Galaxy Watch 6's sleek design and thoughtful user interface, which make the device a pleasure to wear and use. Samsung's outstanding interface is accentuated by the Watch 6's bright, crisp 2,000-nit display. During testing, we found that it was viewable in most lighting situations, even under bright sunlight. We were also impressed by its excellent fitness tracking features, which we would argue to be competitive with the best that Apple currently has to offer. That said, its Biometric Impedance Analysis (BIA) abilities, for measuring body composition, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Boasting Wear OS 4, along with Samsung's One UI 5 Watch skin, using the Watch 6 as part of your day feels pleasantly smooth. There's not a lot of bloat to slow you down. And while you won't find nearly as many apps to use on this, or any Android-centric smartwatch as you might with an Apple Watch, Google's growing catalog of software for wearables offers more than enough to keep most users happy.

There is one thing that sticks in our craw about the Galaxy Watch 6, however. During testing, we discovered that some features were only available to users who paired the watch with a Samsung phone.

Pros

Stylish design
Bright display
Solid battery life

Cons

Some features require Samsung smartphone to use

$236.35 from Amazon

A Google Pixel Watch sits on a counter top displaying the message 'How can I help?'

Credit: Reviewed / Christian de Looper

The Google Pixel Watch is one good-looking piece of wrist candy.

MOST SYTLISH ANDROID WATCH

Google Pixel Watch 2

The Google Pixel Watch 2 isn't markedly different from the original version of the wearable. That's a good thing: Google's first foray into building its own smartwatch gave us a capable, stylish timepiece that looks different from everything else on the market. In our option, the Pixel Watch and, the Pixel Watch 2 by default, are the most stylish wearables an Android user can invest in, right now.

Faster, boasting more capable health sensors and longer battery life, the Pixel Watch 2 gives users what they're looking for: incremental improvements that improve the day-to-day use of the device.

However, it's not all improvements, all the way down. With the Pixel Watch 2, Google has introduced a new charger that uses pogo pins to charge the wearable. It's said that this helps to eliminate heat, during the charging process. Many users, including our reviewer, found that the new charging system made it more difficult to juice the smartwatch up.

Pros

Improved battery
Excellent fitness tracking options
Stylish

Cons

Limited app options
Irritating charger

$349.99 from Amazon

Other Smartwatches We Tested

Apple Watch Series 8

While the Apple Watch Series 8 might be old news now that the Series 9 has made its debut, it's still a fabulous smartwatch that can often be found for a discount in-store and online.

Available in two sizes—41mm and 45mm—the Series 8 is designed to fit the majority of wrists out there. With the wide variety of colors it comes in and the plethora of first and third-party bands you can use to customize this timepiece, making it your own is easy, no matter your style. And, just like any Apple Watch, the Series 8 has access to a seemingly endless variety of apps to suit your needs.

During testing, we found that this wearable packed more than enough battery power to make it through a whole day of use—although you'll need to charge it before bed if you want to make it through to morning for a bit of sleep tracking.

Pros

Same outstanding quality
Potentially life-saving crash detection
QWERTY keyboard

Cons

Incremental upgrade
Temperature sensor underutilized
Ovulation predictions retrospective

Buy now at Amazon

Fitbit Versa 3

Along with being one of the best smartwatches, the Fitbit Versa 3 is one of our favorite fitness trackers as well. We were most impressed by how much this fitness-first watch has to offer for the price, especially against the likes of Apple and Samsung.

Unlike the Versa 2, Fitbit added a dedicated GPS to the Versa 3, so you won’t need to tap into your phone’s GPS to track where and how far you run or walk. The watch's automated fitness tracking is incredibly responsive, too, without any notable delays or issues with tracking the wrong type of workout.

The Fitbit Versa 3 also has a long battery life and comes with plenty of other features and apps, making this platform-agnostic smartwatch great for iPhone and Android owners alike (something we can’t say about watches from Apple or Samsung). But the Versa 3 is especially good for Android owners; while both iPhone and Android owners can answer calls (not place them) from the Versa 3, Android owners can also voice-dictate a reply to text messages.

One major downside to the Versa 3: unlocking premium features like in-depth health analytics, sleep data, Calm app meditations, and Fitbit workout videos costs $10 per month or $80 per year. Compared to Apple Fitness+, which costs the same as Fitbit’s subscription, Fitbit doesn’t integrate its paywalled features as seamlessly, and as our health and fitness team noted, its workout videos feel a lot like watching workout videos on YouTube.

Things like in-depth sleep analytics are already part of Apple’s and Samsung’s watch ecosystems for no additional cost. Still, if you're looking for a device-agnostic smartwatch with plenty of features, this is among the best out there.

Pros

Automated fitness tracking
Always-on display
Battery life

Cons

Button design
Premium-feature paywall
Usability quirks

Buy now at Amazon

Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar

Specifically tailored for adventurers, The Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar focuses on a robust toolset for enjoying and surviving in the outdoors, with smartwatch features taking a backseat. It's a device that emphasizes navigation, tracking metrics, and an impressive battery life that can last days or even weeks. Its 1.14-inch matrix display is clear in extreme conditions and, its backlight ensures visibility in the dark. We liked how easy the Vertical was to navigate, using its well-spaced buttons and touchscreen, even while wearing gloves.

As a fitness tracker, the Vertical is top-notch. Housing an array of health-tracking sensors, it’s adept at monitoring activities, from general fitness to specialized outdoor adventures. We love that it can store offline maps in its memory: a feature that makes it ideal for venturing into areas without cellular coverage.

That said, it lacks many of the niceties people expect from a premium smartwatch: you won't find offline music storage, tap-to-pay or cellular texting capabilities here. We also noticed that there can sometimes be a very small amount of lag between when a UI element is chosen and when the watch takes action.

Pros

Attractive design
Great fitness-tracking features
Solar-powered

Cons

Lacks many popular smartwatch features
Premium Price

$839.00 from Amazon

Wyze Watch

The headline here is an astoundingly low asking price. The Wyze Watch comes in two sizes (44mm and 47mm) both with a rectangular design that owes a debt to Apple’s smartwatch line. The grey aluminum alloy case looks quite smart and there’s a single button on the right. The silicone band is comfortable and the Wyze Watch is IP68 certified, so it can be submerged in water for short periods without sustaining damage.

A slower processor in the 47mm model contrasts with the smaller screen and larger bezels in the 44mm model. Either way, the TFT LCD display is not the most responsive and the Wyze Watch requires a little patience. Fitness tracking is basic and includes a step count and calories burned estimation. There’s also a heart rate sensor and Sp02 sensor to measure your blood oxygen levels. Sleep tracking is automatic, but activity tracking has to be started manually and only seems to cover running.

You can configure the notifications you want to come through from your phone, but they are one-way only, so you can’t answer calls or respond to messages. Connectivity is occasionally flaky, but it works correctly most of the time. There’s no support for apps, music, mobile payments, or navigation. On the upside, battery life is very good, and most people will only need to charge the Wyze Watch once a week.

Ultimately, the Wyze Watch is a very basic smartwatch that offers one-way notifications, basic fitness and sleep tracking, long battery life, and not a great deal else, but that’s reflected in the bargain price.

Pros

Serious value
Long battery life
Fitness and sleep tracking

Cons

Slow performance
Limited features
No always-on display

Buy now at Amazon

Amazfit GTS

With a colorful and bright AMOLED screen, detailed fitness and health tracking, and up to 14-days of battery, the Amazfit GTS has a lot going for it. This unashamed Apple Watch clone comes with support for Android phones, as well as iOS, and is offered at a very affordable price.

At a distance, you could easily mistake the Amazfit for an Apple Watch, though the single button is located centrally on the right of the case. The build quality is inevitably nowhere near as good as Apple’s, and my review unit picked up a couple of tiny chips to the case during the first week, though it is waterproof and had no issue going through the shower. Setup is convoluted and requires lots of time-consuming updates, making the Amazfit GTS by far the worst out-of-box experience on our list.

The software and the companion app are a little confusing, but the fitness tracking features are impressively detailed. You’ll find heart rate tracking, the ability to record workouts, a standalone GPS, and detailed sleep tracking. The Amazfit GTS also offers something called PAI (Personal Activity Intelligence), which has been inspired by a scientific health study to push you toward enough physical activity to reduce your risk of heart disease and other health problems. While the scope of the fitness tracking features is impressive, and there’s lots of data to review, the accuracy is sometimes questionable—especially the step count.

The main weakness of the Amazfit GTS is the smartphone notifications. We had difficulty getting messages and call notifications to come through and they remained inconsistent throughout testing. There doesn’t seem to be any facility to send or reply to messages, simply a notification that a message arrived on your phone, and the Amazfit GTS can’t make or receive phone calls.

There are also no third-party apps, mobile payments, or voice assistant support. While this is a very affordable smartwatch, with a great screen and some interesting fitness tracking features, for most people it will be worth spending a little more for something better.

Pros

Affordable
Good fitness tracking
Useful health features

Cons

No third-party apps
Notifications are flaky
No voice assistant

Buy now at Amazon

How We Test Smartwatches

The Best Smartwatches — Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

Like the smartphones they’re designed to tether with, smartwatches are becoming more competent and, consequently, more complicated. Many allow folks to customize their user experience with downloadable apps and watch faces. Most come packing perks like onboard GPS navigation and available cellular hardware (for a markup) that allow you to find your way and stay in touch via text message and phone calls, with or without a smartphone.

In order for us to recommend a smartwatch, it needs to do a few basic things well:

It should be built well and capable of standing up to casual abuse.
It should be fashionable and comfortable enough that you’ll actually want to wear it
Its user interface should be easy to navigate
Its display should be visible in direct sunlight
It needs to provide enough battery power to get you through the day
It shouldn’t cost more than your smartphone

Beyond these basics, we also pay attention to whether or not each smartwatch in our guide has access to downloadable apps and if they're actually useful. We pay attention to how quickly each smartwatch responds to commands, whether its speakers and microphone work for a hands-free conversation (where applicable), and if the watches provide the at-a-glance information we need quickly enough to make leaving your smartphone in your pocket worthwhile. We also test health and fitness features, which are increasingly part of the smartwatch experience.

Finally, what a smartwatch doesn’t do is just as important as what it does: We take note of how much unnecessary information each wearable pumps and how easy it is to decide which notifications we wanted to see and which we’d be happier not hearing about until we check our smartphones.

Each smartwatch on our list was worn for at least four days and many for much longer. We try out the full range of functionality, from fitness tracking to messaging to third-party apps, and score every aspect. We also examine the ease of setup, functionality, and how each watch looks and feels. We then weigh and compare the results in our smartwatch rubric to determine precisely how they measure up.

What You Should Know About Smartwatches

Smartwatches vs. Fitness Trackers

The line between the best smartwatches and the best fitness trackers isn’t always clear. Just like fitness trackers, smartwatches include health and fitness tracking features, alongside GPS and heart rate monitoring, but they also tend to offer better smartphone notifications and larger touchscreens.

Smartwatches are also more likely to support third-party apps, have microphones and speakers, and boast extra functionality like mobile payments, voice assistants, and customizability.

Terms You Should Know

You don’t necessarily need to know what goes on under the hood of your smartwatch to enjoy it. However, understanding a few names and definitions will help you better decide which smartwatch is best for you.

Android: Google’s open-source Android operating system runs the majority of the smartphone handsets in the world (although you can also find it used to operate some tablets and laptops, too.) Popular phone models such as the Google Pixel, the Samsung Galaxy, and OnePlus use Android.

iOS: Apple’s iOS operating system is the backbone of what makes Apple’s mobile devices tick. Without it, all those apps that you use to stay productive and, sometimes, fritter away your time with, wouldn’t be able to work.

Wear OS: When Google first offered an operating system for wearable devices, it was called Android Wear. However, to differentiate between smartwatches and other mobile gear, Google changed its wearables operating system’s name to Wear OS. You’ll find it running on a number of the smartwatches featured in this guide, including the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

watchOS: Apple’s operating system for the Apple Watch, watchOS is based on the company’s iOS operating system, sharing many of the same features and visual elements. For Apple Watches it's been optimized for use on the small display and to leverage health monitoring, notification, and other features.

Tizen OS: Developed and primarily used by Samsung, the Tizen operating system was designed to reduce its dependence on Google’s Android OS. When used in Samsung’s Galaxy Watches, Tizen OS is a powerful, easy-to-navigate operating system. Samsung has recently incorporated Wear OS into its smartwatch experience for a sort of hybrid of Tizen and Wear OS.

How to Choose a Smartwatch

Smartwatches vary wildly in price and feature sets, but there are several elements beyond budget that can help you narrow down your choice.

Which smartphone do you use? Even smartwatches that can be used as standalone devices with their own mobile data connection are designed to be tethered to a smartphone. The Apple Watch runs Watch OS and will only work with an iPhone. Samsung watches running Tizen OS work with Android phones or iPhones, while newer Samsung watches (Galaxy Watch 4 and up) are designed for Android only. Wear OS smartwatches currently work with Android or iOS, but there are limits on the functionality with iOS. Before you pick a smartwatch, check up on its compatibility.

Which features do you need? If fitness tracking is vital, look for heart rate sensors and GPS support. If you want to pay from your wrist, check up on the mobile payment system and make sure your bank is supported. If you want to leave the smartphone at home, look for a smartwatch with onboard storage and cellular data support but bear in mind that you’ll need a mobile plan for it (usually $10 per month or more).

What style do you want? Watches are also fashion accessories, so you’ll want to choose a smartwatch that looks good on. While we are starting to see smaller and more elegant designs, with some smartwatches offered in two sizes, many are still chunky. One of the best things about smartwatches, however, is the ability to customize the watch's face. You may also want to consider how easy it is to change bands and how many types are available.

How much battery life do you need? Battery life is still a big problem for smartwatches, with the most full-featured devices requiring daily charging. If you’re happy with a routine that involves placing your smartwatch on the charger every night alongside your phone, take your pick. If you want to go several days between charges, you may want to look at a hybrid smartwatch, which will lose some features but pay the debt back with incredible battery life (some offering weeks without a charge).