The 10 best smartwatches you can buy right now

Like picking a tattoo and choosing your next pair of specs, selecting a smartwatch is no quick decision. After all, if you’re going to be seen talking to your wrist around the office, you at least want your ticket to look the business – even if you’ll still look a total fruitcake. Worry not: after hours of prodding, poking, timing and testing, we’ve selected the 10 best smartwatches you can buy right now.

10) Huawei Watch 2

The Huawei Watch 2 is the sort of watch we should probably have seen a year after Android Wear appeared, not three years. It’s not as pretty as the original Huawei Watch or the LG Watch Style and, while it has an awful lot of features, including GPS, NFC and an HR sensor, some of them don’t work as well as they should. GPS reliability is the stinger, with tracking fidelity much worse than that of a good phone. Or, this watch’s most important rival, the Apple Watch 2. Still, flaky GPS and heart rate readings aside, the Watch 2 has the basics down, including decent battery life, a sharp screen and as solid performance as can be expected from a smartwatch.

9) Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20

An Android Wear ticker with rugged ambitions, Casio’s WSD-F20 is more team-building day than wild companion. While it’s tougher than old, orange boots and trumps others with its on-board GPS, there are plenty of niggles (both software and hardware). Android Wear should be familiar to many, but touch/button interface is a bit perplexing, while a battery that delivers less than 24 hours of GPS tracking puts paid to any sense that this is a watch for serious off-grid sorts. That said, if you’re looking for a smart, solid partner for your Android watch – one that won’t complain if it gets bashed around – the WSD-F20 is a strong choice.

8) LG Watch Style

The LG Watch Style’s top feature is that it’s very light and slimmer than most smartwatches. It’s properly comfortable, too, and a simple sand-blasted stainless steel bezel, a slimline crown and Italian leather strap make it smarter than the average smartwatch. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much and the battery life is pretty poor – in fact, it’s one of the lowest-stamina smartwatches we’ve tested. Its 360×360 P-OLED display is pretty poppy, though, and if you’re happy with subtle style over feature-rich substance you’ll probably be happy with it.

7) Tag Heuer Connected Modular 45

The price is scary, but Tag Heuer has put Android Wear into a high-end watch – and it works. Sure, it doesn’t actually do anything new – but it’s also not much more expensive than some entry-level Tag Heuer watches, and it really does inject some of that Tag class into a smartwatch. This isn’t a watch to use to track marathons (its battery is good for just 24 hours), but its top-quality screen, brilliant build and matter-of-fact design really deliver the good, and make Android Wear’s fake analogue watch faces actually look just right.

6) Fitbit Ionic

Until we’ve had time to get to grips with the Versa, the Ionic has to be Fitbit’s best all-round effort to date – trouble is, it’s essentially an expensive fitness tracker. Many of its best features (the sleep tracking, SmartTrack, heart-rate sensor, long battery life, Fitbit app) can be found in the far cheaper Alta HR. Frankly, it only just scrapes four stars. On the other hand, if you want a Fitbit that adds GPS tracking and swim-proofing to all of the usual goodies, it’s the only model that can do it all. The Fitbit Coach feature is very promising, too. Throw in a bold design and a strong battery life and it’s certainly a watch worth considering.

5) Samsung Gear Sport

In the smartwatch world, the Gear Sport is more of a reliable squad player rather than a star striker. It doesn’t have the apps of Android Wear, the fitness depth of the Garmin Forerunner series or the battery life of a Fitbit Ionic. On the other hand, its interface is one of the best you’ll find on any smartwatch and being an all-rounder never did the Apple Watch any harm. As long as you’re okay with getting a selection box of fitness and smartwatch elements, then it might well be wrist-puter for you.

4) Garmin Fenix 5

Garmin’s Fenix 5 is the undeniable champion of multi-sport trackers. Not least because it can track almost every discipline that’s out there. It also manages to be tough without looking ungainly, and carries a real sense of premium build quality that’s not undermined by a shoddy interface. Strong Bluetooth and battery performance polish things into a complete tracking package that’s also comfortable on smartwatch duty. For most people, it’s also probably overkill. This is a five-star product, but one that should, arguably, only be bought by those who eat triathlons for breakfast – or those who don’t mind paying big bucks for the smartest multi-sports watch around.

3) Samsung Gear S3 Classic

The Gear S2 was a fantastic wearable OS trapped in a naff plastic case. The S3 Classic finally sets it free, with a drool-worthy design that you won’t be ashamed to wear. The Classic opts for premium materials like metal and leather, easily making it one of the best-looking smartwatches out there for Android fans, and narrowly slots in behind the Apple Watch when it comes to feature-packed hardware. If you can put up with Samsung’s software, and lack of big-name apps, it’s a real winner, and if you’re not interested in taking one swimming, it’s probably got a tiny edge over an Apple Watch, too.

2) Garmin Vivoactive 3

The Garmin Vivoactive 3 is one of the tastiest fitness watches we’ve seen so far. It looks good, isn’t a wrist-dominator, outlasts just about all normal smartwatches and gets you tracking similar to a Fenix 5 at almost half the price. What’s not to like? True offload warriors may want the extra ruggedness of the Fenix 5, and it’s best not to expect too much from the Vivoactive 3’s smartwatch side. It’s also a shame that it doesn’t store music for you to play during runs. But for sport lovers, the Vivoactive 3’s great fitness tracking and battery life will eclipse the lack of smartwatch fluff.

1) Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS)

The 4G version needs just a little longer in the oven, but the GPS-only Series 3 is the world’s best smartwatch. Besides its speed, longevity and style, it also happens to be the best all-round fitness tracker going, while its huge array of band options makes it a properly customisable. Sure, there are loads of smartwatches that do notifications and cost a lot less than the Apple Watch, but none of those are as fast, nicely made, or have the same quality and quantity of bespoke apps.