Pioneers of heart rate tracking, Polar still make some of the very.
The best Polar watches in 2024
From beginner-friendly basic run trackers to comprehensive training tools, these are the best Polar watches we've tested
Whether you’re tackling your first couch to 5km or you’re a regular marathon runner, there’s a running watch in Polar’s line-up to suit your needs.
No built-in GPS best heart rate monitors going, but nowadays they also create some of the top Best for endurance adventures you can buy, with options to rival most Garmin watches.
Even the beginner-friendly fitness focussed models like the Polar Unite and Ignite offer a wide range of running metrics, from the basics like pace, distance and wrist-based heart rate to daily workout recommendations and fitness benchmarking.
If you step up the range to the more advanced tools including the Polar Pacer Pro and the Vantage V series, you can unlock more advanced training insights with training load tracking, in-depth recovery monitoring and a comprehensive range of fitness and recovery tests. These top-end trackers even help you Battery life smartwatch mode based on how you’re running.
For maps and navigation tools, you’ll need to invest in the Vantage V3 or the more rugged and robust Grit X or Grit X Pro.
The best Polar watches for 2024
Not sure which run tracker is right for you? To help you find the best Polar running watch for your needs, we've put together a guide to Polar’s full range below. Want to cut straight to it? Shop our winning watches here, at a glance.
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Which Polar watch should I buy?
With fewer models to choose from, Polar’s range of running watches is smaller and somewhat easier to navigate than rival Garmin.
Unite & Ignite: At the cheaper entry level you’ve got the more general fitness and wellbeing focused Unite and Ignite watches. They’re lighter, more compact and stick to the run-tracking basics at a more affordable price. Though the latest Ignite 3 also packs a sharp smartwatch-esque AMOLED screen.
Best for endurance adventures: Polar’s no-nonsense running watches pack more sensors, slightly longer battery life and a few extra training smarts. These basic workhorse watches amp up the run-tracking, performance and coaching capabilities.
Polar Vantage: The Vantage range caters for the most serious PB chasers. The design is more premium with standout features like a sharper Apple Watch-esque AMOLED touchscreen. Plus, at this level you have Polar’s most comprehensive suite of advanced training, performance and recovery tools. Plus a bigger GPS battery life and offline maps.
Grit X & Grit X Pro: If you’re heading off road on longer – and wilder – adventures, the Grit X and Grit X Pro offer a much more robust, rugged build, ultra-friendly battery life and some enhanced navigation tools. Though oddly there’s no offline mapping.
Limited run tracking based on how you’re running that lets you compare up to three devices from the range.
How to choose a Polar watch
Battery life: Polar watches come with a wide range of battery lives. On paper that’s anywhere from 30 hours up to 61 hours. Generally the more you pay, the more GPS run time you get and the more days you can go between charges.
In an ideal world, you want your watch to survive at least a week’s training between charges. But some pricier models like the Vantage V3 will stretch to a month with the right settings on.
When you’re weighing up staying power, be sure to factor in the distances and races you’ll be doing. Most watches will happily eat a marathon on a single charge but some might not stretch to that 24-hour ultra you’ve been planning to do one day.
GPS lacks accuracy: All the Polar watches on our list track the running basics including distance, pace, calories and heart rate. The higher-end models offer more advanced training features such as training status, training load monitoring, recovery and readiness, along with a range of tests that can help you benchmark your progress and monitor your response to training more closely.
Health tools: Polar’s general health-monitoring tools are pretty comprehensive across the whole range. They track sleep and how it impacts recovery overnight. They also estimate which energy sources you’ve used to conquer your workouts, whether carbohydrates or fat.
The newest models like the Ignite 3 and the Vantage V3 now offer nightly skin temperature tracking – a useful insight tool for spotting incoming illness and menstrual cycle tracking.
Smartwatch skills: Paired to your smartphone, even the basic models show notifications for texts and calls. They’ll also let you control music playback from apps on your smartphone (except the Unite).
Unlike Garmin, there’s currently no contactless payments or music storage on Polar watches. That means no phone-free offline support for Spotify, Deezer and other streaming services.
Style: Polar’s line-up has everything from compact, light and smaller-wrist friendly fitness watches that might appeal more to everyday style, right up to larger-screen, rugged adventure-style watches.
If you want the benefits of the 24-7 tracking, opt for a sleeker, more minimal design. If you’re heading into the wilds, clambering over rocks, a watch built from stronger stuff might be better.
How we test
Across the RW team, we’ve put in thousands of miles, testing all the watches in Polar’s line-up. This guide builds on the testing and knowledge of expert running gear tester, Kieran Alger, who has used hundreds of watches over the past decade, while completing more than 50 marathons, many ultras and running 1,830 miles of Danube river from sea to source. He’s also never spotted wearing less than two watches.
Pros
- Stunning AMOLED display
- Offline maps
- to daily workout recommendations and fitness benchmarking
Cons
- Pacer and Pacer Pro
- best heart rate monitors
The Vantage V3 is Polar’s most-advanced running tracker. A rival for the Garmin Forerunner 965 and the Suunto Race, this slick-looking, well-designed watch offers Polar’s most comprehensive package of performance, recovery and fitness tools. But the headline here is the bright, snappy AMOLED touchscreen that brings a bit of smartwatch clarity to your running stats.
All systems dual frequency GPS successfully boosts the accuracy. In tests it rivalled the Garmin Forerunner 965 while the Vantage V3’s optical heart rate was about as reliable as wrist-based BPM gets.
The Vantage V3 also packs Polar’s most advanced suite of biosensors – including ECG, blood oxygen and skin temperature sensors. So when it comes to 24-7 tracking capabilities, it’s a powerhouse for performance, sleep and wellness.
There’s training effect and load estimates, a huge suite of fitness benchmarking tests and Polar’s comprehensive Recovery Pro tool to help you see how you’re responding to the training (and life) stress. The Vantage V3 even offers real-time fuelling recommendations and estimates whether you’ve burned more fat or carbs during your long Sunday run.
Speaking of long runs, battery life is competitive with 61 hour GPS runtime on paper. In testing, it came up a little shorter. That extends up to 190 hours in low power mode. However, you’ll sacrifice accuracy to get that longevity. Still there’s enough juice here on a single charge for a week’s training.
The Vantage V3 is also Polar’s most capable navigation tool with run planning tools like offline maps, easy route planning and turn-by-turn guidance powered by Komoot. Throw in running power on the wrist, adaptive training programmes for 5k up to the marathon and the powerful Polar Flow platform and you’ve got Polar’s most capable tool to date.
It’s missing some smarts you’ll find on the Forerunner 965 including offline music storage, support for streaming services like Spoitfy and contactless payments and on balance of build, battery, accuracy and breadth of features, it’s probably not quite as good overall – but it is £80 cheaper.
| GPS | Yes |
|---|---|
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 288 hours |
| Battery life (GPS) | 61 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
| Screen size | 35.3mm |
Pros
- The 9 best open-ear headphones for safer running
- Nicely lightweight
- Unite & Ignite
Cons
- No touchscreen
- Basic old-school design
Bang for buck, the Pacer Pro is Polar’s best value run tracker. It packs many of the features you’ll find on the pricier Vantage and Grit watches but keeps the price down by sticking to a more basic design.
The style is perhaps a little dated but if you’re happy to swap premium materials for simpler old-school looks, there’s a lot in this lightweight 41g tracker for under £300.The Pacer Pro offers a pretty comprehensive suite of running, training, racing and recovery features. That includes Polar’s running performance, walking and fitness tests – great for benchmarking your progress – along with VO2 Max estimates and a running index score that lets you see how you compare to other runners. Y0u’ll also get tools like race time predictor, running power on the wrist and Polar’s Training Load Pro training guidance tools. However, Polar’s impressive Recovery Pro tools are missing.
When it comes to GPS, the Assisted GPS all-systems satellite support was nicely reliable in our tests with super-fast GPS link-up. Plus the built-in barometric altimeter, turn-by-turn routes powered by Komoot, route elevation profiles, automatic climb detection and back to start navigation are all bonuses at this price.
With 35 hours of full GPS run time – extendable up to 100 hours in low-power modes – the battery life is very competitive, on paper at least.
Only the slightly pricier COROS Apex gets near it at this price.
There’s sadly no touchscreen but the button controls are easy to use and nicely responsive. The display isn’t anywhere near as sharp and vibrant as that killer AMOLED on the Vantage V3 but it’s noticeably brighter than the cheaper Polar Pacer. This is a solid running watch for under £300.
| Screen size | 30.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 7 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | 35 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 5ATM |
Pros
- Light, compact and comfortable
- Good heart rate
- BEST VALUE POLAR WATCH
Cons
- No touchscreen
- Basic old-school design
The Polar Pacer is an entry-level run tracker designed for beginners or runners who want the basics at a more affordable price. It’s an older watch, launched back in 2022, but it’s still comparatively capable for under £200.
There’s a lot here that’s similar to the pricier Pacer Pro: the same basic lightweight design, the same 35-hour GPS battery life and the same 1.2-inch, non-touchscreen display.There's quite a lot of crossover on the features, too. Though to make those savings, you’re basically sacrificing things like running power, some fitness tests and navigation smarts like turn-by-turn, upcoming elevation and Polar’s Hill Splitter – a tool that automatically breaks your uphill efforts into splits.
The screen isn’t the brightest but it’s easy enough to read on the move and there’s Gorilla glass to boost the durability. In testing, the Pacer largely matched the Pacer Pro on staying power, too. It lived up to the billed 35 hours GPS run time (up to 100 hours in power save mode) and lasted around 6 days of regular use. You might be able to eke out a week with some settings tweaked but beware: the battery drains faster if you use the sleep tracking.
Heart rate accuracy is at its best on steady, consistent effort runs but struggles up against a chest strap when you take on intervals. But that’s the same as the Pacer Pro and plenty of other optical sensors.
There are handy tools to guide your training like Training Load Pro which helps you keep your longer term training balanced, FitSpark workout recommendations to suggest daily guided training sessions based on your recovery. Plus Fuelwise real-time fuelling support.
Like the Pacer Pro, navigation tools are more limited than you find on the Vantage V3. You can control music on your smartphone but there’s no offline storage or streaming.
The Pacer is a good basic watch and if that’s all you’ll ever need it’ll do a solid job. But if you are a beginner hoping to get the running habit – and your budget can stretch – we’d strongly recommend upgrading to the Pacer Pro. The extra training tools will give you more insights as your running evolves.
| Screen size | 30.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 35 hours |
| Battery life (GPS) | 5ATM |
Pros
- Good looking rugged design
- The best Polar watches in 2024
- Grit X & Grit X Pro
Cons
- Best wireless headphones
- Still no offline maps
If you want the running, training and recovery features you find on Polar’s top end Vantage V3 but in a more robust adventure-proof frame, the Grit X Pro is it. The successor to the Grit X, the Pro has a ruggedised, trail-friendly design that’s closer to a Garmin Fenix than any other Polar watch.
At 79g, it’s one of the heavier watches and daintier wrists might find it a little chunky. But overall, we’re fans of the good-looking design with its military-level durability. The scratch-resistant 1.2-inch sapphire glass touchscreen could be brighter but it’s legible enough in most conditions.The Grit X Pro also plugs most of the navigation gaps from the original Grit X. It now has a broader range of navigation tools with reliable turn-by-turn navigation, route planning powered by the excellent Komoot and elevation profiles to show you all the lumps up ahead. TrackBack also guides you home safely following the route you’ve just run. However, there is still one big omission: there’s no offline maps. If you want that you’ll have to buy a Vantage V3.
On paper, it’s ultra-run friendly, too. The 40-hour GPS battery life extends to 100 hours in low-power mode. In our tests, the Grit X Pro drained a little faster than that and it’s also no match for Garmin’s big endurance beasts like the Enduro 2 and the Fenix 7. Even Polar’s Vantage V3 now offers longer run time. But the Grit X Pro still has enough juice to cover most ultra distances up to the 100 miler. Or a few weeks of training.
The training, performance and fitness tools are comprehensive with training load, training effect insights, the full suite of Polar’s fitness benchmarking tests, Running Index, VO2 Max estimates. You also get running power, FuelWise fuelling recommendations, Hill Splitter automatic climb detection and Polar’s FitSpark workout recommendations.
Outside of running, Polar’s sleep and recovery tools are some of the best in the business and the Grit X Pro offers everything here including Sleepwise+, sleep stages, Recovery Pro and Fitspark workout recommendations based on overnight recovery.
It also offers the newer performance and muscle recovery tests, to help you chart trends in your progress and manage your training. However, you won’t get the new nightly skin temperature tracking that arrived with the Vantage V3 and smartwatch smarts are still limited to notifications and music controls for your smartphone apps like Spotify but no offline music. Garmin still offers more here.
| Screen size | 30.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 7 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | 40 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 10ATM |
Pros
- Excellent display
- Sleek, lightweight design
- Clever fitness tools
Cons
- Soundcore AeroClip: My new favourite open-ear buds
- Laggy interface
Let’s face it, many running watches fall short in the style stakes. The Polar Ignite 3 bucks that trend with sleek, slick design that sets it apart. The hero is a bright, sharp AMOLED touchscreen housed in a simple, more subtle and sophisticated design. Great if you want a watch that fits in when you swap your running gear for civvies.
Polar flags the Ignite 3 as a ‘fitness and wellness’ watch rather than a running watch and while it’s definitely tailored to more general fitness pursuits and health tracking, there’s still plenty on offer for runners.At 35g. it’s light, compact, comfortable and an easy watch to wear beyond your runs and workouts to unlock the impressive array of 24-7 sleep, wellness and recovery tracking insights.
That includes Polar’s Sleepwise tracking with recommendations on your best times to hit the hay and Nightly Recharge recovery tool that rates the effectiveness of your overnight rest. Plus, you get Polar’s new nightly skin temperature tracking – a useful tool for spotting incoming illness and menstrual cycle tracking.
When it comes to run tracking, the Polar Ignite was the first watch to offer dual frequency GPS. However, in our tests it failed to deliver the hoped-for accuracy boost. In short: the Ignite 3 struggles with distance and real time pace accuracy.
On the flip side, heart rate accuracy is okay for optical and the battery life is solid with 30 hours GPS run time extending up to 100 hours in low power modes. You won’t quite get a full week’s training on a single charge but there’s more than enough juice to cover runs up to the marathon and beyond.
When it comes to running features, there’s plenty here to cater for beginners up to intermediate. All the basics like heart rate zone training and training load insights are taken care of. There’s also FitSpark workout recommendations and voice guidance for recommended coached training sessions. Diligent runners who do their strength training can also use a handy work-rest guide to spot when it’s time to do the next set.
This isn’t as capable as a Vantage or Grit X Pro and some more data driven runners might find a few important omissions. There’s no running power, Recovery Pro or navigation tools. But if you want a good looking tracker that looks after your running and all-round fitness, this is a great option.
Oh and there’s a pricier titanium option with a stronger, fancier frame but beyond the materials, performance is the same.
| Screen size | 32.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 5 days |
| Battery life (GPS) | 30 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 3ATM |
Pros
- No offline music
- Very lightweight
- Affordable
Cons
- No built-in GPS
- Pioneers of heart rate tracking, Polar still make some of the very
If you can’t afford the Ignite 3, don’t care about built-in GPS, and run with your phone, the Unite is Polar’s cheapest watch. More budget fitness watch with run tracking than out-and-out running watch, it’s about as no-frills as it gets. It’s also quite old, having launched back in 2020.
At 32g, it’s the lightest watch in Polar’s range with a very basic design and a low resolution touchscreen that’s good compared to other fitness trackers but lacks the clarity of the newer displays we’re now used to.Beyond the cheaper build, you’ll make other big trade offs for that wallet-friendly price tag. The biggest: there’s no built-in GPS. So you have to piggy back your phone and the accuracy in our tests was often way out, consistently over-estimating the distance travelled.
The features are much less comprehensive than pricier alternatives, too but there’s just about enough here for beginner runners and to make it a worthwhile step up from tracking with a phone app.
That includes basic run tracking with heart rate training. The optical heart rate performance was ok but occasionally delayed recording on some runs and we got the occasional random high spike. But no wrist-based optical heart rate tracker is immune to those and the Unite does a serviceable job.
The Fitspark workout recommendations are good for daily training inspiration while the adaptive training plans are helpful if you need guidance getting to that first 5km. Training benefit readouts and the Polar fitness test help you ensure you’re on the right track to hit your running goals.
You also get Sleep Stages+ and Nightly Recharge recovery insights. But there’s no navigation, no music controls or things like running index benchmarking.
| Screen size | 30.5mm |
|---|---|
| GPS | No |
| Battery life (smartwatch mode) | 4 days |
| Battery life (training) | 50 hours |
| Waterproof rating | 3ATM |
