THE BEST FITNESS WATCHES of 2025

Train more effectively, race stronger and recover quicker with our pick of the best fitness watches on the market

- 

The best running watches get the basics right, with accurate heart rate, fast satellite linkup and reliable GPS tracking for pace and distance. Along with good runtime GPS battery life, these are the non-negotiables. The good news: you can now find these essentials in even the cheapest running watches. A good running watch boasts a bright, clear, crisp screen that's easy to read in all light conditions, particularly on the move. There's a big trend for AMOLED screens, with all the major brands, Polar, Suunto and Garmin adding these Apple-esque super-sharp displays to their mid-to-premium watches. Though you might sacrifice the longest battery life for that pleasure.

Customization of your mid-workout stats and post-run watch faces is also very handy. And the best watches offer zippy interfaces and responsive controls and touchscreen. You don't want to be jabbing at unreactive buttons when you're trying to take your splits.

When it comes to training insights, the best watches now track a huge array of metrics and offer up a broad sweep of feedback. That ranges from post-run training effect, the buildup of fatigue and recovery time recommendations, to heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, daily stress, sleep and even ECG.

You might look for lifestyle health tools like sleep tracking and training readiness scores, but be warned: almost all of the sleep trackers lack accuracy, and the readiness scores that often rely on sleep data are fallible, too.

What is the best fitness watch in 2025?

The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the best fitness watch I've tested. The ultra-crisp AMOLED touchscreen adds some user-friendly smartwatch style to Garmin's market-leading training, performance and recovery insights. Accuracy across the board is generally impressive, though the battery isn't quite up to that of its predecessor, the 965.

Garmin Forerunner 970 £629.99, garmin.​com