Owner’s guides
Your first 30 days with a new watch
The box tells you what the watch measures. These 40 guides — one per watch we rank — tell you which of those numbers to believe in the first week, which need a month, and what to set before the first run so the month is not wasted. Still deciding? Find the watch first.
Garmin
- Forerunner 55The honest floor: everything a new runner needs and nothing else.
- Forerunner 70The entry Forerunner goes AMOLED and gets the whole training suite.
- Forerunner 165The AMOLED entry point, and the one most runners should look at first.
- Forerunner 170The full training suite at the entry price. Still no multiband.
- Forerunner 265Multiband accuracy and the full training suite, without paying for maps.
- Forerunner 570The 265 with a brighter screen, a speaker, and a metal bezel.
- Forerunner 965Topographic maps at a weight the Fenix cannot touch.
- Forerunner 970The 965 with sapphire, a torch and an ECG — and three grams.
- Fenix 8 AMOLED 47 mmEverything Garmin makes, in metal, with the battery bill that comes with it.
- Fenix 9 47 mmThe Fenix 8 with a screen twice as bright, and the battery bill for it.
- Fenix 8 Solar 47 mmThe same watch with the sun-readable screen and half again the battery.
- Fenix 9 Pro Solar 47 mmThe transflective Fenix, now titanium, with ECG and the longest battery in the line.
- Enduro 3Built for the days that end in the dark, twice.
- Instinct 3 AMOLED 45 mmThe tough one, now with a screen you can actually read at night.
- Instinct 3 Solar 50 mmThe one that may never need a charger again.
Coros
- Pace 3Thirty-nine grams, thirty-eight hours, and almost nothing to argue with.
- Pace 4The Pace 3 with an AMOLED screen and, somehow, more battery.
- Pace ProMaps and AMOLED at the price Garmin charges for neither.
- Apex 2 ProThe mountain watch that does not need charging at the aid station.
- Apex 4 46 mmThe Apex 2 Pro rebuilt: faster, longer, with ECG — and still MIP.
- Vertix 2SFor people whose events are measured in days.
Polar
Suunto
- RunStripped to the run, and priced like it.
- Run 2The Run with maps, sixteen months on — and still the light one.
- Race SThe Race, shrunk to fit a normal wrist.
- RaceA big bright screen and a long battery, for less than the obvious choice.
- Race 2Thinner, lighter, and fifty-five hours with dual-band on.
- VerticalSolar, maps, and a fortnight of mountains.
- Vertical 2The mountain Suunto trades solar for AMOLED and a torch, and keeps the hours.
Apple
- Watch Ultra 3The best smartwatch here, and a compromised running watch.
- Watch Ultra 4Fifty hours of watch, eighteen of workout — the Ultra with a real battery at last.
- Watch Series 11A very good watch that runs. Not a running watch.
- Watch Series 12Two more workout hours and a real chip upgrade. Still not a running watch.