For many years, I avoided any watch touting smart, fitness or GPS capacities. I preferred to run around like a Paleolithic throwback, assessing miles based on trailhead signs or physical exhaustion, and navigate via paper maps rather than clumsy user interfaces, dead batteries when you need actual navigation, and wrist discs so large they catch on tree branches.
But as the pandemic inspired throngs of newbies out of the gym and into the outdoors, fitness and GPS smartwatches have really upped their game in form and function. Even the dubious (me) are impressed. Options abound for the different goals of burgeoning or expert outdoor athletes. Here, we highlight a few top options.
Polar Grit X Polar is a Finnish company with decades of sports computer and heart rate monitor development experience. The Grit is a foray into GPS watches and provides plenty of detailed, accurate fitness and GPS bang for the buck. It’s comparable with the Garmin, but without preloaded maps and not quite as seamless of an experience with the accompanying Flow app. But, it’s solid and nearly half the fēnix price. $430 | polar.comSuunto 7 Wear OS A capable, civilized touchscreen GPS sports watch, the 7 tracks legions of activities and integrates Google’s Wear OS to up this model’s lifestyle/smartwatch game. Wear OS has Google Pay, Play, Fit and Assistant, so you can ask your watch all sorts of questions, and even respond to Android texts and emails while following your waypoints to a summit. Battery life is only a few days, so the 7 is best for local missions. $400 | suunto.comCoros Pace 2 A brilliantly designed, minimalist athlete’s tool, the Pace 2 packs a big punch from 5-year-old industry newcomer COROS. The user interface, setup and function are intuitive and sleek: no phone or data analyst needed for interpretation. Streamlined features, easy to use scroll/button orientation, along with the lightest weight (29 grams), longest battery (20 days) and thinnest profile make this a standout. It’s won various accolades, and is by far the easiest on your wallet. $199 | coros.comGarmin Fenix 6S Pro Solar This sleek GPS watch has your back from neighborhood training to an Andean expedition, with GPS statistics, maps, analytics spanning sleep quality to fitness progress, sport-specific tracking and more. Depending on GPS usage, the battery lasts 25 hours to over a month, given the watch face doubles as a solar charger. And the gadget itself can connect to your InReach device and serve as SOS button, for a serious adventure and dependable training buddy. $800 | garmin.com
Brigid Mander is a skier and writer based in Jackson, Wyoming. She writes about mountain sports, culture and conservation issues for publications ranging from Backcountry Magazine to the Wall Street Journal.
