I tested 4 new smartwatches as a competitive athlete — here's which one could be best for you, starting at under $600

A new suite of Apple Watches dropped earlier in September. It included a slightly upgraded Ultra 2, and a completely revamped Series 10 Apple Watch with a larger display, better charging capabilities, and, most excitingly for the fitness crowd, much better fitness tracking.

The new Vitals app collects and interprets sleep data such as overnight heart rate and depth of sleep, and then helps you make sense of the numbers by suggesting reasons for anomalies — be it illness, fatigue, or changes in altitude or nutrition. Another new feature, Training Load, uses real-time bodily feedback to make suggestions about the duration and intensity of your next workout. Together, these updated settings give a much more nuanced picture of one's health metrics than did the Apple Watch Series 9. Oh, and with this version, you can also pause the activity rings and their daily reminders, allowing you to take a rest or sickness day free of guilt and without having to break your streak.

The Series 10 comes with a few other fitness perks, such as offline navigating (which comes in handy when exploring new, off-road trails), an automatic workout detector like in the Ultra, and more underwater capabilities like custom workouts for pool swims and a new depth gauge and water temperature sensor. These updates are solidifying Series 10 as a solid sports watch that is giving far more expensive competitors a run for their money.

Over the past decade, both Apple and Google have worked to create a sports watch that competes with those of traditional sports brands like Garmin and Suunto. While the Pixel Watch 3 isn't as advanced as its Apple counterpart, the Series 10, it's one of the best options available for under $600—especially if you have a Google Pixel XL or Flip phone and want a matching smartwatch.

The Pixel Watch 3 has gained credibility as a running watch with new 24/7 tracking features like Daily Readiness, Cardio Load, and Target Load. Daily Readiness uses an algorithm to track key recovery metrics such as resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and recent sleep, whereas Cardio Load monitors the intensity of your workouts, helping you avoid over or under-training. Together, these features provide a comprehensive view of your body's readiness for training each day. My personal favourite, Target Load, analyzes this data and presents it in a clear, easy-to-understand format, letting you know exactly how prepared you are for your next workout.

Lastly, the Pixel 3 has ventured into workout safety, an area Apple has dominated, with its Loss of Pulse Detection feature, which alerts users to sudden loss-of-pulse events.

Before you fret at the price tag, consider that the Fenix 8, Garmin's top watch, is the current pinnacle of sports watches. It may not have the cultural cache of an Apple Watch or perhaps even a Pixel Watch 3, but when it comes to performance metrics, the Fenix 8 beats them all. It uses insights like a VO2 max calculator and recent training load to assess your workout readiness and suggests strikingly accurate training paces for various goal races from 5k to the marathon. I recommend that athletes hire a coach as opposed to just listening to a watch, but if that isn’t possible, the Fenix 8 is capable enough to steer you in the right direction.

Despite its complexity, the watch is also user-friendly. Each morning, it delivers a personalized readiness score based on sleep quality, recovery, and training load, along with a customizable wellness summary. The display is clear and informative without feeling cluttered, showing key data like elevation, time, and VO2 max. Additional features include a speaker and microphone for voice messaging and control, plus sport-specific strength workouts. You can take calls directly from the watch, use offline voice commands, and even rely on the built-in LED flashlight with a strobe mode. The battery lasts up to 10 days in smartwatch mode.

The size is a bit clunky, and the rugged band may not be as stylish like, say, Apple’s new titanium milanese bands — but the Fenix 8 is clearly a sport watch after all; and it might be the best.

While Apple and Google’s watches are wildly popular in the general population, that is less the case in the world of serious athletes, who tend to stick with traditional sport watch brands like Garmin, Coros and Suunto. A reason for that might be the straightforwardness of their design: conceived as fitness devices rather than wrist phones. Such is the case for the Suunto Race: a super sleek, no-nonsense smartwatch with indomitable battery life and specific settings for 95 different sports.

The Suunto Race was designed for athletes who demand high performance in challenging conditions. Its bright AMOLED touchscreen display ensures excellent readability even in bright sunlight or on the run, and the battery lasts for an impressive 40 hours in Performance Mode and up to five days in Tour Mode with GPS tracking. It also provides personalized training feedback and reasonable advice through an AI coach based on heart rate variability (HRV). My knock on this watch is that it cannot pull off the tricks of mainstream smartwatches like contactless payments or quick music synching, but that is not to say that the Race has no tech chops. It synchs to a sleek Suunto App that offers deeper insights into your progress. The watch is also a boon for explorers: advanced features like route navigation, breadcrumb trails, and offline maps, ensure you stay on course during training or races.