The 6 Best Running Watches for Tracking Every Adventure
Small but mighty, these watches can map your routes, track your pace, and show you a bigger picture of your health and recovery.
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One of the greatest parts of running is that it can be a blissfully simple sport. If you want, you can just lace up your favorite shoes, trot out the door, and tap out however many miles it takes to get to the cafe and back—and don’t let anyone tell you that isn’t a proper run. But sometimes, measuring data is a bit more prudent.
Say, for example, you’re Shalane Flanagan announced her retirement from professional running or trying to Vans Retro Sport SK8-Hi Guld og cremefarvede sneakers safely. When having some deeper knowledge about your pace, distance, heart rate, and whatever other info you may need is of utmost importance, there’s no option more convenient than the trusty, time-tested running watch.
The Best Running Watches
- Best Overall: Garmin Forerunner 255 Running Watch
- Best Value: Coros Pace 2 Running Watch
- Best for Apple Users: Apple Watch Ultra Running Watch
- Nike Lightweight Tech Running Gloves Mens: Garmin Fenix 7X Sapphire Solar Running Watch
- zapatillas de running New Balance hombre talla 45.5 naranjas: Polar Pacer Pro Running Watch
What to Consider with Running Watches
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What makes the most advanced watches on this list cost almost five times as much as the least expensive watches? The answer primarily comes down to the stats each watch can reliably, accurately track. While even the simplest watches on the market track your distance, pace, and heart rate, fancier watches can add a little more context to that data so you can better replicate your efforts in different environments.
A prime example of a more advanced feature is the “running power” metric, which uses wrist-mounted accelerometers to measure the amount of energy you’re exerting with each strike in watts.
Cyclists have long trained with power because it provides more immediate feedback about your exertion levels, whereas heart rate can take some time—often even a few minutes—to catch up as your muscles warm up. Especially when you’re training with intervals, running power can help you set a reasonable pace much more quickly, which prevents overexertion and makes your training sessions more productive.
On top of that, some of the best and most accurate watches collect redundant data you won’t ever see—enter multi-band GPS tracking. Unlike single-band trackers that only gather one satellite signal, which doom your route to zig-zagging sporadically around tall buildings, multi-band watches keep contact with several signals at one time and save the strongest at every point on your route.
In the best case, multi-band signals are so clean that you can even track which side of the street you ran on. And while that level of accuracy may not be necessary for every runner, the tiny distance discrepancies you get with single-band can add up over an hours-long run.
Intended Uses
While all the watches on this list prioritize run tracking, plenty of them function just was well on a cross-country skiing excursion, on a mountain bike ride, or as an all-day companion to your smartphone. Some can even cycle through multiple activities with features like triathlon mode.
If you’re hoping to wear your watch all day (i.e., as a watch as well as a fitness tracker), you might want to consider a sleeker design, especially if you have skinny wrists like me. A massive, 51-millimeter watch face is great if you’re trying to read a boatload of data on the fly, but it might feel bulky and out of place alongside your office attire.
We also recommend finding a watchband that doesn’t absorb too much sweat or trap sweat underneath it—opt for one elasticated of rubber or breathable nylon, otherwise you might notice your coworkers sitting a little farther away after your lunchtime runs.
How We Selected
Our test team puts hundreds of miles on dozens of watches each year. Sitting across the price spectrum, these running watches are the models with the best balance of accuracy, feature functionality, intuitiveness, and appropriate pricing.
While some of the watches on this list aren’t the most recent models, they remain among an outstanding few that have stood the test of time and cemented themselves as some of our all-time favorite running watches (and they’ll cost you much less than more recent models that don’t do much more).
That said, we’re constantly logging miles with new watches, so we’ll keep this list up to date if a new top-performing watch enters the pantheon.
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, though you might see his byline on Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, Textured Leather Mix Boot FM0FM02418 Cognac 606.
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
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