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8 best smartwatches of 2024, tried and tested

We tried and tested devices from all the major tech players

Alex Lee,Steve Hogarty
Thursday 07 March 2024 13:08 GMT
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IndyBest has been testing smartwatches for years, pairing each new wearable with a range of iPhone and Android phones to compare things like performance, looks, fitness tracking and sleep tracking.
IndyBest has been testing smartwatches for years, pairing each new wearable with a range of iPhone and Android phones to compare things like performance, looks, fitness tracking and sleep tracking. (The Independent/iStock)

For most shoppers, choosing the best smartwatch in 2024 is refreshingly straightforward. The major tech players each have their own device, designed to work hand-in-glove with their respective smartphone. The Apple Watch goes with the iPhone, the Galaxy Watch goes with the Galaxy phone, the Pixel Watch with the Pixel phone. You get the idea.

But there are still some complications – excuse the watch pun – when it comes to finding the right smartwatch for your needs. Even within the Apple ecosystem there are choices to make. You can opt for a rugged adventure watch in the Apple Watch Ultra or a leaner and cheaper option in the Apple Watch SE.

With Android smartwatches your options are expanded even more. Fitness-focused Garmin smartwatches are best for runners and outdoor training, while slimmer Fitbits are great for tracking steps and overall health around the clock. The Pixel Watch, OnePlus Watch 2 and Galaxy Watch 6 are less specialised, more lifestyle-focused and try to do it all: fitness tracking, workout metrics, and on-wrist calls, notifications, directions and assistance.

The line between smartwatch and fitness tracker has been blurred, meaning it’s worth putting in the research to find a wearable that does everything you need it to at the right price, while focusing on the features you care about. Do you want a smartwatch that looks great in the evening, with custom bands and a traditional design? Or do you want a beast of a smartwatch that can survive underwater or take a few knocks on challenging hikes?

To help you decide what to put on your wrist, we’ve rounded up the best smartwatches in 2024 for every kind of user.

How we tested the best smart watches

A selection of the tried and tested smartwatches
A selection of the tried and tested smartwatches (Steve Hogarty)

IndyBest has been testing smartwatches for years, pairing each new wearable with a range of iPhone and Android phones to compare things like performance, looks, fitness tracking and sleep tracking.

Cycling and running are our testers’ preferred workouts, so while we check out as wide a range of workouts as we can, our testing mainly focused on those two popular exercises. We measure heart rate accuracy by comparing each smartwatch’s results with a chest strap monitor – specifically the MyZone MZ-3 (£79.99, Myzone.org) – and pay close attention to consistency. Consistency of results is more important than overall accuracy, as it’s this measurement that charts improvements to your fitness over time.

We also wear the leading smartwatches around the clock and overnight for sleep tracking, to determine how comfortable each device is to wear in the long-term, and to measure their usefulness for things like directions, notifications and making and taking calls and messages.

The best smartwatches of 2024:

  • Best overall smartwatch– Apple watch series 9: £409, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best budget smartwatch – Pixel Watch 1: £199, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best Samsung smartwatch – Samsung Galaxy watch 6: £194.50, Amazon.co.uk
  • Best smartwatch for running – Garmin forerunner 265: £429.99, Garmin.com
  • Best Pixel smartwatch – Pixel Watch 2: £376.89, Amazon.co.uk

Apple Watch series 9

Apple Watch
  • Best: Smartwatch overall
  • Display size : 41mm/45mm (case size; display is a little smaller)
  • Battery life : Up to 36 hours
  • Water-resistance: 50m water resistant, swimproof
  • Health tracking : ECG, blood oxygen, heart rate with high and low and irregular heart rate notifications, cardio fitness, temperature sensing, cycle tracking
  • Why we love it
    • Bright display
    • The double tap feature is really cool
    • Excellent on-device
    • Siri support
  • Take note
    • Battery life could be better

While the Apple Watch Series 9 looks identical to the older Apple Watch Series 8, which was crowned top dog in last year’s version of this article, the Apple Watch Series 9 is no slouch. It has the brightest display of all, meaning we could easily see it on a sunny day, and the always-on display is as useful as ever.

But it’s all systems go on the inside. Fast and responsive, we can still track our heart rate, sleep, blood oxygen, ECG, temperature and 20 different workout types, as well as clever car crash detection and fall detection features, but there’s also a neat new feature that we haven’t stopped using since getting the smartwatch. Double tap. Instead of touching the screen, we can end calls, open stacks, skip songs, start and pause timers and scroll through widgets, just by tapping together our thumb and index finger. It made us feel like we were magic.

The other neat feature is that the newest Apple Watch also has an in-built second-generation ultra-wideband chip, so we could easily locate our phone with more precise directions using our watch. And lastly, while Siri is always being ridiculed for being downright dumb, thanks to its really powerful S9 chip, we were able to ask it all kinds of questions about our health and fitness, from how much we slept last night to our current blood oxygen levels. This makes it so much quicker than swiping and tapping on the small display. It’s a great smartwatch, and while it looks the same as its predecessor, the features are way better.

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Pixel Watch 1

Google-watch-indybest
  • Best: Budget smartwatch
  • Display size: 41mm
  • Battery life : Up to 24 hours
  • Water resistance : 50m water resistant, swimproof
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen, cardio fitness
  • Why we love it
    • Full Fitbit experience in a smartwatch
    • Gorgeous round face design
    • Seamless integration with Pixel
  • Take note
    • Poor battery life
    • Fitbit subscription needed for some features

Now a year and a half old, is the original Pixel Watch still worth it in 2024? The newer Pixel Watch 2 introduced a faster processor, more health sensors and an improved battery life – it was always going to be the better watch of the two – but it’s a marginal enough upgrade that we’d recommend most existing Pixel Watch 1 owners wait around for a potential Pixel Watch 3.

That said, the original watch is still being sold by Google and can usually be picked up with a generous discount. Find it on sale for under £200 and you’ll be getting a serious bargain on a still-brilliant Android smartwatch. You’ll miss out on some second generation features like Fitbit’s stress management features, which might be important for you, as well as irregular heart rhythm detection. Battery life is underwhelming compared to the Pixel Watch 2, so you’ll have to do without the always-on display to reliably get a full day’s wear out of it.

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Samsung Galaxy watch 6

Samsung-smart-watch-indybest
  • Best: Samsung smartwatch
  • Display size: 40mm and 44mm
  • Battery life: Up to 40 hours
  • Water-resistance: IP68 water resistant, swimproof
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen, cardio fitness
  • Why we love it
    • Classic design
    • Great range of customisable faces
    • Excellent fitness features
    • Smooth performance
  • Take note
    • UI is overloaded with options and menus

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is still the best Android smartwatch for Samsung users, integrating as seamlessly with Galaxy phones as Apple’s watch does with iPhone. Elegantly designed, powerful, packing a wealth of health tracking features and running on Samsung’s constantly improving, Wear OS-based operating system, it’s the high-watermark of the Android wearable scene and the result of years of gradual improvements.

The bright and fluid OLED screen is the star of the show here. Navigating the watch interface feels smooth and responsive, and a wide selection of well-designed faces and straps allows for plenty of customisation. The Galaxy Watch 6 straddles the line between fashion accessory, fitness tracker and smartwatch, and while battery concerns are still present for those who regularly work out, this year’s model will comfortably last a full day between charges. Fast charging speeds mean you can top up with a few hours of charge while you jump in the shower.

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Pixel Watch 2

Pixel-watch-indybest
  • Best: Pixel smartwatch
  • Display Size: 41mm
  • Battery life: Up to 24 hours
  • Water resistance : 50m water resistant, swimproof
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, skin temperature, ECG, blood oxygen, cardio fitness, stress indicators, irregular heart rate monitor, temperature sensing
  • Why we love it
    • Full Fitbit experience in a smartwatch
    • Gorgeous round face design
    • Seamless integration with Pixel
    • Much improved battery life
  • Take note
    • Fitbit subscription needed for some features

Google’s second generation Pixel Watch is far and away the best Android smartwatch for Pixel phone owners, predictably enough, but also has enough great health-tracking features that it could entice non-Pixel users to strap it to their wrists too.

The Pixel Watch 2 is essentially a premium Fitbit in disguise, packing all of the fitness band’s best-in-class tracking and sensors into a sleekly designed Wear OS 4 smartwatch. That means you get accurate, per-second, round-the-clock heart rate tracking. You get comprehensive sleep tracking, stress and mood tracking, period tracking, nightly temperature and SpO2 tracking, a range of workouts, fall detection and ECG tests – the works.

On top of the fitness features you also get seamless access to your Google stuff: the on-watch Google Assistant, Google Wallet for payments, and Google Maps (which finally supports transit directions). A premium Fitbit in Google clothing, and an impressive smartwatch all-round.

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Fitbit sense 2

Fit-bit-sense-2-indybest
  • Best: Smartwatch for stress tracking
  • Display size : 40mm
  • Battery life: Up to 6 days
  • Water resistance : Up to 50m
  • Health tracking : ECG sensor, heart-rate sensor, continuous EDA sensor, SpO2 tracker, skin-temperature sensor
  • Why we love it
    • Excellent and accurate stress tracking features
    • Clean operating system
    • Clear always-on display
    • Great battery life
  • Take note
    • No on-wrist music playback controls
    • There aren’t any third-party apps like MyFitnessPal

Launched in 2022, the Sense 2 is our favourite smartwatch out of Fitbit’s entire portfolio. Despite being acquired by Google in 2019, the Fitbit Sense 2 still runs on FitbitOS, which is great news for us, because we adore how clean the system is.

As well as being able to track our recovery and readiness to take on the day based on activity; how well we’d slept and our sleep cycles; SpO2, heart rate and skin temperature, the Fitbit Sense 2 is also the best smartwatch out there for those who want class-leading stress tracking features.

What continues to set the Fitbit Sense series apart from the competition is its focus on mindfulness. Just like the first Sense, the Sense 2 can monitor your stress levels, but the second-generation model has upgraded this sensor so that it’s now continuous. It told us whenever our emotions were heightened, and it was very accurate. It made us more mindful about how we were feeling – whether anxious, angry or excited. It then sends us a notification telling us that we might be feeling stressed, and we can take one of the breathing sessions on the app.

The downside is, the Sense line of smartwatches no longer support third-party apps, making it feel more like a fitness tracker, despite being a smartwatch. There’s no music playback controls anymore either, which is a real shame. It does have an in-built GPS, however. The best part about the Fitbit Sense 2 remains its battery life – we easily get six days of use wearing the Fitbit Sense 2, and the stress-tracking features are worth it alone.

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Garmin Venu3

Garmin-watch-indybest
  • Best: Everyday Garmin smartwatch
  • Display size: 35.4 mm
  • Battery life : Up to 14 days (smartwatch mode)
  • Water resistance : Up to 50m
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, blood oxygen, fitness age, body battery energy monitor, stress, sleep, hydration, women’s health
  • Why we love it
    • Useful readiness scores
    • Great sleep, exercise and stress tracking
    • Bright AMOLED display
  • Take note
    • Ring doorbell support is limited

Looking for a Garmin smartwatch that can do it all? The Garmin Venu 3 is a brilliant smartwatch that mixes everything we love about its more sporty, adventure watches with some really fantastic lifestyle-focused, wellness features. A great all-rounder, the Garmin Venu 3 has a big, bright and colourful 1.4in AMOLED screen that always displayed our metrics in even the harshest of lighting conditions. The UI is a little bit messy and cluttered, but it’s kitted out with every sensor for tracking sleep, exercise and wellbeing, as well as navigation with its in-built GPS.

We could track our heart rate, measure heart rate variability, see stress scores and track our sleep stages automatically as we slept through the night. There are a huge number of exercises onboard too, including swimming and strength training.

We loved that it took a more holistic view at our overall health, giving us a score based on sleep (and naps), previous workouts and stress, letting us know when we should take it easy and when we could push a bit harder. The Venu 3 also features a speaker and microphone, meaning we could take calls from our wrist, but it also enabled us to take guided yoga and meditation classes, without having to take out our smartphone. The screen even showed us our respiration rate and heart rate as we breathed in and out.

Another clever little feature of the Venu 3 was that we could connect it to our Ring doorbell, sending us a picture of who was at the door, though we couldn’t speak to them when they rang. And lastly, there are loads of great features on the Venu 3 for wheelchair users, whether it’s tracking the effort exerted by pushing a wheelchair or wheelchair-specific sports. It’s a great all-rounder smartwatch.

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Garmin forerunner 265

garmin-wtach-265-indybest
  • Best: Smartwatch for running
  • Display size: 32.5mm
  • Battery life : Up to 13 days (smartwatch mode)
  • Water resistance : Up to 50m
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, blood oxygen, fitness age, body battery energy monitor, stress, sleep
  • Why we love it
    • Useful readiness scores
    • Great sleep, exercise and stress tracking
    • Bright AMOLED display
  • Take note
    • Ring doorbell support is limited

Whether you’re getting ready for your first marathon or are a regular at your local Park Run, the Garmin Forerunner 265 is the absolute best running companion. As well as performing brilliantly when it came to tracking our stress levels, sleep and even our strength training classes, the Forerunner has detailed running stats and running-focused features that aren’t available to us on any other smartwatch.

The 265 features a beautiful AMOLED touch screen display and a big start/stop button that makes it easy to hit when out paving the street, quickly starting and stopping our runs (even with gloves on).  It gave us feedback on our cadence, ground contact time, balance, stride length and even how our running dynamics matched up against other runners.

The latest Forerunner also features that fancy training readiness score, which considered all our metrics (sleep, stress and previous workouts) to quantify whether our body was ready to go again, or it needed a break. If you’re a keen runner, the Forerunner 265 will keep you on track, especially with its daily workout plans and live track feature, which lets your fans (read: significant others) watch where you go when you run, and cheer you on with encouraging messages to your smartwatch.

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OnePlus Watch 2

One-plus-watch-indybest
  • Best: OnePlus smartwatch
  • Display size: 47mm
  • Battery life : Up to 100 hours (on smart mode)
  • Water resistance : IP68 water resistant, swimproof
  • Health tracking : Heart rate, blood oxygen, VO2 max, stress, sleep tracking
  • Why we love it
    • Massively improved over the previous
    • OnePlus Watch
    • Excellent battery life
    • Great performance
    • Runs on WearOS 4
  • Take note
    • It’s a big watch and only comes in one size

The OnePlus Watch 2 boasts an impressive 100-hour battery life, which it achieves by cleverly splitting its workload across two specialised chips: one designed for background processes and another for active tracking and apps.

In practice, expect to get something closer to 48 hours if you’re using the always-on display, accurate GPS tracking and regularly working out. That’s still an excellent battery life for a smartwatch, particularly one this rich with features. The OnePlus Watch 12 is IP68 resistant, meaning you can swim with it. It runs on Wear OS 4, so you’re getting the Google Assistant and Google Play Store apps. Fitness tracking is comprehensive with dozens of workouts to choose from, though it’s missing some advanced features like fall detection.

The large OLED touchscreen is luscious, bright and responsive, and encased in sapphire crystal. That’s a surprising inclusion for a £299 smartwatch, and gives the OnePlus Watch 2 deluxe, flagship appeal at a mid-range price point.

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The verdict: Best smartwatch

The Apple Watch Series 9 is the best smartwatch you can buy in 2024, with the caveat that it’s designed to work exclusively with the iPhone – it’s such an excellent smartwatch that it’s worth factoring in when considering which phone to buy. That said, Samsung has more than caught up with the Galaxy Watch 6, and even Google has made impressive strides with the neat design and comprehensive fitness tracking of the Pixel Watch 2.

The best smartwatch for you mostly depends on the type of phone in your pocket, but it’s worth considering what you’ll use the watch for. We recommend Garmin Forerunner 265 for serious runners, and the lifestyle-focused Fitbit Sense 2 for round-the-clock wellness and stress monitoring.

Looking for Some tech to aid in your fitness? Check out out round-up of the best running watches

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