I’ve tested a lot of smartwatches over the years and all the best running watches, and two of the most popular brands, which people choose consistently and have been doing for years, are Apple and Garmin.
The best Apple Watches are great running watches, but they’re also good lifestyle companions. With a raft of third-party apps, better communication features and seamless integration with iOS, they’re the smartwatch of choice for iPhone users because they’re the best all-rounders, but they don’t have very good battery life.
The best Garmin watches, on the other hand, have excellent battery life: even the very basic models last for at least a week between charges. Garmins offer a less intuitive smartwatch experience than Apple, with limited third-party app support, but make up for it with an excellent suite of fitness and health features, such as Body Battery and Fitness Age.
Right now, you can get the Apple Watch Series 10 40mm (GPS) for $70 off at Amazon, from $399.99 down to just $329.99.
However, the Garmin Vivoactive 5 sees the bigger discount, from $299.99 down to just $199.99. Check out both deals below
Both smartwatches are superb buys, but if you’re buying a watch today to primarily assist with your running, I know which one I’d get out of the two great deals above.
If I had to buy one today, I’d go with the Garmin. There are three very simple reasons for this:
- Battery life. As a runner and regular exerciser, battery life is one of the prime considerations I need to take into account when looking for an everyday watch. Workout profiles using GPS, such as running, take a lot of battery life on any watch, and the Apple Watch Series 10’s scant 18 hours can’t hold a candle to the Garmin Vivoactive 5’s chunky 11-day limit. With three or four runs, you’re likely to go about eight days before need to recharge the Vivoactive, while the Apple Watch will need to be charged nightly.
- Body Battery. The long battery life makes it a lot easier to wear the Garmin to bed, whereas the Apple Watch needs to be removed and charged for 30 minutes to an hour after a full day’s wear. Wearing the Garmin to bed allows you to take advantage of Garmin’s excellent Body Battery metric, which uses an aggregation of sleep quality and exercise intensity to estimate your energy levels.
- Garmin Coach. While you don’t get the Daily Suggested Workouts that you do on more expensive Garmin watches, you do get access to Garmin Coach, and its racing plans available on the app. Designed by experts, they’re perfect for seeing you through your first 10k, your first half marathon and beyond.
