The Best Running Watches of 2026

The previous iteration of our best overall, the Forerunner 245, offers many of the same features, including training load monitoring, an easy-to-read display, and heart rate and activity monitoring. If you can get it on sale, it's a solid pick that offers up to 24 hours of GPS tracking and 7 days in smartwatch mode on one charge. By forgoing the 255, you’ll miss out on high-end extras like the morning training report and the suggested workouts as well as elevation details, as the 245 lacks a barometric altimeter. That said, the 245 has a leg or two up on the Forerunner 55, our Best Value pick, including data related to your training status and the effectiveness of your runs.

The 245 only comes in one size—roughly the same as the 55 and halfway between the 255S and 255—and comes with optional music storage for an additional $50.

Triathletes and serious runners who want an influx of data about all of their workouts will love the Suunto 9 Baro. It is very straightforward to set up, and the combination of buttons on the side of the watch and a touch screen allows you to easily scroll through data regardless of whether you’re sitting at home or out on a tough run. During a workout, the large numbers showing pace, time, and distance are easy to make out, no matter how quickly you’re running. It also has settings to track multiple workouts, so when you’re cross training, you can still get stats about your other workouts. Like many other watches we tested, you can individually track a swim, bike ride, or run. However, if you’re competing in a triathlon, you can also switch to the triathlon setting to track all three in one event.

That said, the Suunto 9 Baro is absolutely gigantic—its face measures 50mm across (nearly 2 inches), and feels significantly larger than our Best Overall Garmin. It’s built like a tank and feels indestructible, which is great for when you’re working out. However, this made it wildly uncomfortable when we tried to wear it everyday. We had a handful of people around the lab try on the Suunto 9 Baro during testing and all of them had the same shocked reaction over how large this watch truly is. If you’re looking for something sleek and discreet, this is not the watch for you.

Like other Polar watches we’ve tested in the past, setting up the Pacer was pretty intuitive, minus its slow syncing with the app. Though it’s not on par with Garmin in terms of easy setup, the Pacer itself offers one of the easiest watch interfaces to navigate. It offers a ton of data, which could be overwhelming, but it’s presented in a way that’s clear and easy to digest. It was easy to look at the stats you might care about the most (such as workout tracking, heart rate, and route navigation), and disregard those you might not care about (like performance tests and running power). The Polar app is one of the best apps out there, giving you plenty of information in a more navigable way than Garmin’s more cluttered app interface.

The watch face is on the slightly larger side—it has a 45mm diameter (about 1.75 inches), a touch smaller than the Garmin Forerunner 255 but nowhere near as massive as the Suunto 9. Bonus for those with larger wrists: The Polar Pacer comes with a 20mm wide silicone band that’s already plenty long but can be lengthened further with extensions. Runners with extra-small wrists will have an excessive amount of watch band to deal with, but despite that, wearing it throughout the day and into an evening run proved comfortable, easy, and irritation-free.

While this may seem like a minor inconvenience to some, the layout of the buttons on this watch was a major source of frustration for our tester. There are three buttons on the right side, and two on the left (as compared to two and two on many other watches)—and “pause” is a different button than “stop” and than “start/resume.” Most watches—including the Garmins—start, pause, and stop using the same button. Because the Polar’s aren’t clearly labeled and they are flush to the sides of the watch, she often pressed the wrong button during her runs, ending her workout instead of merely pausing it. That said, if the Polar were your only watch, you’d probably get used to it quickly enough.

Like many other running watches, the Pacer tracks multiple workouts and has music streaming capability. Avid runners will love the prompts for fitness tests that will help you earn a new PR or keep you race-ready, which include basic running or walking tests that measure your VO2max, the best way to illustrate your aerobic fitness.

Despite a bumpy setup process, the Polar Vantage M is a decent watch for the serious runner or triathlete who wants data presented in a clear but detailed way. The screen’s font is large and easy to read, so our tester could immediately see her heart rate, time, distance, and pace.

Although it has a sleek look, the fit of this watch is pretty bulky, especially underneath long sleeves and while wearing gloves. At 46mm across (1.8 inches), the watch face is just large enough that if you have a smaller bone structure, you probably wouldn’t want to wear it as an everyday watch. That said, the stopwatch and countdown setting makes it easy to use for a track workout, and the way the Vantage M buzzes on your wrist after your preferred distance means you’ll never miss your mile splits because you didn’t hear a beep.

One of the more frustrating aspects of the Polar Vantage M is that you have to hit two different buttons to start a workout and stop it: Our tester often found herself getting confused and hitting the wrong one. The buttons are also flush to the side of the watch, making them challenging to press. However, with a built-in triathlon setting and profiles for about 20 other sports, the Vantage M could be a boon for multisport athletes.

The Apple Watch Series 8 is the latest version of the best smartwatch you can buy, according to our testers. In addition to all the apps that basically work as extensions to an iPhone, it offers a number of health tracking features, including the ability to record runs.

Like other running watches, it offers activity-specific data including segments, splits, and elevation, as well as heart rate and custom workouts. More advanced runners will appreciate info that could help you become a more efficient runner, like stride length and ground contact time. Workouts can be paused by pressing the side button and the digital crown, or by swiping left or right on the touchscreen and pressing pause. That said, most runners chafe at using a touchscreen to control their watch, even one like Apple’s that promises good reactivity even from sweaty fingers.

For someone who runs occasionally or casually, the Apple Watch may do the trick for tracking the effort. However, the more dedicated runners who train for races and want features such as onboard workout plans may be happier with our top pick or any of the other watches on this list designed specifically for running.