Best for technology Motorola MotoACTV £225
Making a “sports watch” used to mean adding a stopwatch. Not any more. Today’s devices will track workouts, monitor your health — and even coach you. Take the MotoACTV, a 35g device that fits into a wristband or shirt clip (both are provided; there’s also a £15 handlebar mount). From its 1.6in colour touchscreen you can select MP3 tunes, browse motivational tips and log activities, from aerobics to yoga. By using GPS and an accelerometer, the watch can estimate calories burnt whether you’re indoors or out, and display a map of your route. All proved accurate in testing. It has wi-fi, too, so you can upload that data to a Motorola website full of maps and graphs. And, thanks to Bluetooth, it can link wirelessly to the Android phone in your pocket to display incoming texts and take calls using suitable headphones. On the downside, it needs recharging every nine hours if you use GPS, is not fully waterproof and sound quality can be tinny. Verdict A clever but easy-to-use exercise companion.
Best for triathlons Garmin Forerunner 910XT £350
The only watch here suitable for swimmers has a GPS sensor that tracks open-water swims perfectly. Its indoor swim mode works well, too, although you have to hit a button after every length. A quick-release bike mount (£14) and multisport mode — where the watch switches between sports on each press of the lap button — will help triathletes. You can also connect a heart monitor and other sensors (some from other manufacturers). Connect the watch to Garmin’s website via a computer and every imaginable nugget of performance data is displayed using simple graphs and clear maps. But the screen can be hard to read in bright light and the watch is large, heavy (72g) and will need recharging every 20 hours or so. Verdict A clear choice for swimmers.
Advertisement
Best for budget users Oregon Scientific Tap On Elite SH201 £70
If you’re prepared to forgo GPS in a sports watch, costs come tumbling down. Oregon Scientific’s model has a decent heart-rate monitor that helps you gauge your level of exertion and train effectively. The watch also delivers regular reminders to rehydrate — a problem for many amateur athletes. A tap of the monochrome screen switches modes, and there is all manner of lap and alarm settings. The battery should last for months. Despite its plasticky appearance, build quality is good and the watch is waterproof to more than 164ft. But because it also lacks an accelerometer, it cannot capture speed or distance, and its calorie reports are unreliable. Verdict Suitable only for simple workouts.
Best for style Nike+ Fuelband £140
Advertisement
Nike’s pedometer does not have GPS but uses an accelerometer to count the steps you make each day and guesses at the calories burnt. Far cheaper pedometers and smartphone apps do much the same but they don’t offer NikeFuel, a system that calculates how many calories you burn depending on what activities you do, then converts them into points — so you could gain 100 fuel points by a quick running session and a further 100 over a long walk. But it’s let down by the number of activities the FuelBand can’t track, including cycling and swimming. You can check out friends’ efforts on a glitzy website or an iPhone app. Nice touches include tiny lights that turn green as you rack up fuel points, and a display that looks great in the dark (but washed-out in sunlight, and requires you to press a button just to see the time). Verdict A stylish but pricy way to track your activity.
Best for athletes Polar RCX3 GPS £260
The slim, light RCX3 is the only watch here that actually looks and feels like a normal timepiece, albeit one with a prominent red button — not a self-destruct switch but an easy-to-hit way of cycling through the screen display. The reason for its svelteness is that Polar has off-loaded the space- and power-hogging features into an arm-mounted GPS sensor and a heart-rate monitor (both supplied). Operation is simple, and the water-resistant RCX3 will last for months on a small watch cell (although the GPS unit needs charging every day). The watch offers pithy training tips and lets you upload data wirelessly to a website that’s less flashy than the offerings from Garmin or Motorola. Verdict Strapping on sensors makes you feel like a Cyberman and is only for hardcore exercisers, but the results are worth it.