Best GPS Running Watches of 2024

If you’re looking into options for the best GPS running watch and are feeling overwhelmed by the options and their price tags, you’re not alone. As runners, many of us are wildly committed to the sport, and some of us have a thirst for our personal data rivaling the overlords at Meta. Then, others of us want a simple watch to keep track of time and maybe measure our heart rate. And then some runners choose to go with no technology at all. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, our testing of various GPS watches on the market will help you choose the best one for your needs and budget.

When testing watches, our team looked at battery life, screen size, features, and durability. This guide builds on years of testing, comparing the latest watches to their predecessors and identifying what stands out. Our team of runners of all types analyzed which watches worked best for different situations, runner needs, and budgets. We continually update this guide as new models of watches hit the market.

The Suunto Race is our favorite for its features, appearance, and price. If you’re looking for a more budget option, we recommend the Coros Pace 3 or the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music, which we named the best option for beginners or those who want the simplest GPS watch possible.

To learn more about the lingo associated with GPS watches, how we came up with our list of favorites, and things to consider when choosing yours, look at the how-to-choose, frequently asked questions, and research and testing methodology sections below our picks.

Best GPS Running Watches

• Best Overall GPS Running Watch: Suunto Race
• Best Overall GPS Running Watch — Runner-Up: Garmin fēnix 8
• Best Smartwatch for Running: Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Best GPS Running Watch Update: Coros Apex 2/2 Pro
• Best Battery Life in a GPS Running Watch: Coros Vertix 2S
• Best Budget GPS Running Watch: Coros Pace 3
• Best Beginner GPS Running Watch: Garmin Forerunner 165 Music
• Best GPS Running Watch Design: Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium

Best Overall GPS Running Watch: Suunto Race ($450)

Pros:

• Good battery life
• Beautiful display
• Reasonable price

Cons:

• Slower processing speed
• Lacks offline Spotify streaming
• Lower-than-average mapping

With the new Suunto Race, you get a sleek and stylish watch with all of the features you could want in a GPS watch, all for a price point significantly less than some competitors. With a stylish design that works comfortably in most settings, this watch ticks a lot of boxes.

While a few other watches use a high-definition display, referred to as an AMOLED display, this was the first of the trail-specific watches to do so. It is absolutely brilliant, though it does take a fair bit of battery to keep it on. There are several battery-saving modes that dim the screen to improve battery performance, but in many instances, that’s overkill because Suunto uses a battery that rivals some of the biggest on the market.

The watch claims 40 hours of continuous GPS use, but we found that we could get upward of 45 hours of use without a charge. If you put the watch in the lowest power setting, with no heart rate measurement, sleep tracking, or mapping, it will last upward of 26 days.

During activity, we did find that the watch was slightly too slow to switch out of battery-saver mode when we wanted to look at it. Having to wait for the dimmed screen to illuminate so that we could check the time was tedious at times.

But without a doubt, as battery performance improves, other watches will start to adopt high-definition displays. Suunto has a reputation for fast charging times, and this watch will go from dead to about 80% charge in about 25 minutes and to full charge in under an hour.

There are two buttons and a dial to navigate the features of the watch. There is also a touchscreen that makes it easy to navigate maps. If you don’t like dials, the touchscreen is a welcome addition to the watch.

This watch has either 16 GB or 32 GB of memory and access to worldwide maps. Unfortunately, these maps aren’t labeled, making them less useful than the map sets that come with other watches, but they will still provide plenty of information. You can transfer the maps to the watch via a Wi-Fi network, and it will only take a few minutes.

We found this watch’s optical heart rate monitor to be the most accurate of all the watches tested. As with all watches, this one measures heart rate most accurately at rest, but it’s at higher exertion levels that this tracks the metric better than other options. Suunto also includes HRV tracking with this watch, and you can get an overnight HRV measurement in the morning to gauge your recovery and training status.

Several other health and wellness features are also included, including nutrition alerts and other coaching components. The Suunto Race also supports Strava Live Segments and cadence and power measurements.

We appreciated this watch’s flashlight feature, which lights up the screen entirely. It’s not as handy as watches with an actual light built into the side, but this one can help you see things in a pinch.

The processor of Suunto watches has historically been sluggish compared to other watches, and unfortunately, this one still struggles somewhat. It gets the job done, but there’s a noticeable difference between this watch’s speed and that of top-end options.

Overall, this watch offers a great deal of features for the price, and the incredible display just adds to its value.

Read our in-depth Suunto Race review to learn more.

Shop the Suunto Race GPS Watch

Best Overall GPS Running Watch — Runner-Up: Garmin fēnix 8 ($1,000-1,200)

Pros:

• Sturdy construction
• Endless features

Cons:

• Expensive
• Big

The predecessor to the Garmin fēnix 8, the 7, has long been at the top of our list of favorite GPS watches. If you want the ultimate backcountry adventure watch with some new smartwatch features, this one should be on your radar.

But if you’re looking for a basic running watch that will track your location, help you navigate, and keep track of metrics — and you don’t need much beyond that — this watch is probably overkill. The price is indicative of its many features and rugged construction, and for some, it will definitely be worth the investment.

The AMOLED display is bright and easy to read. You can get the watch with three different face sizes, ranging from 43 to 51 millimeters. The body is titanium, and the face is scratch-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about the durability of this watch.

New for this version is that it’s dive-rated, so it’s really, really waterproof. The watch has a built-in speaker that you can use to make phone calls, much like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 reviewed below.

Also new is the built-in flashlight. While we wouldn’t recommend relying on this instead of a headlamp, it can help you read a map or get you down the trail very slowly in a worst-case scenario.

We appreciate that this watch has preloaded maps. Loading a route is also fairly straightforward, and the screen is big enough to make navigation easy. If you’re a multi-sport athlete, you’ll appreciate the various features specific to other sports, like the grit and flow rating for mountain biking. The watch can also detect if you’re moving between swimming, biking, and running, so triathletes don’t have to worry about resetting the activity of their watch during a race.

The battery size is significant and varies depending on your watch size. The 47-millimeter watch has 47 hours of GPS tracking time, while the 51-millimeter model can last for 84 hours of GPS use. This is more than plenty for nearly all running and adventure applications. You can also get this watch with solar charging to extend the battery life even further.

This watch has all of the health monitoring features that come standard in smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other GPS watches. Its optical heart rate measurement system is sensitive enough to measure HRV, and it connects to the Garmin ECG app, which can help you detect atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat. It tracks stress, sleep, and naps, and you’ll receive a variety of metrics indicating your body’s state of readiness for training.

The Garmin fēnix 8 is a burly-looking watch that sticks out if you wear it casually.

Shop the Garmin fenix 8

Best Smartwatch for Running: Apple Watch Ultra 2 ($689)

Pros:

• Work and running blend perfectly in a single watch with excellent productivity features in tandem with athletic and health performance features
• Health activity monitoring and advanced safety features
• Excellent for those interested in general fitness or looking for a fitness tracker

Cons:

• Battery performance is weak compared to dedicated sports watches at this price point
• Must be paired with another Apple product to fully function; no Android compatibility
• Touch-first design is difficult to use with cold or wet fingers

At its core, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a productivity smartwatch aimed at endurance athletes who also want outstanding GPS capabilities. This watch isn’t a massive upgrade from its predecessor, which held the position of best smartwatch for running in this guide before this new release.

Compared to the previous version, it has double the memory, a faster processor, and a brighter screen. While it may not be worth upgrading to this watch if you already own the original version, it’s worth getting this one if you’re in the market for a new smartwatch.

This watch can do it all: message, make calls, play music, use contactless payments, and use a host of other first- and third-party apps right on your wrist. It can also collect tons of health data and track daily movement. Where it differs from other Apple watches is its action button — a programmed hardware shortcut that can start a specific activity instead of scrolling through all the installed apps. I mapped my action button to “outdoor run” for easy access.

Apple claims the full GPS battery life will last for an Ironman triathlon or about 17 hours. That is more than double the tracking available on other Apple watches. It also features a more durable titanium case with a sapphire crystal screen that is less prone to scratches and dings from impact.

It is water resistant to a depth of 100 meters and is more durable than other Apple watches. It also has built-in safety features. In addition to standard crash and fall detection, there is also an 86-decibel siren onboard to draw attention in emergencies.

The screen is super bright and vivid and shows great details. It is responsive to interact with. Overall, it is a significant step up for the Apple Watch platform for those wanting a single device to do it all at work or play.

This watch does have limitations. First, it requires another Apple device to activate it. Next, the battery life for day-to-day use and GPS tracking still pales compared to the competition at the same and lower price points. This is a touch-first device that is a struggle to use when wet or wearing gloves.

Routing seems to be the biggest miss for a device that prides itself on safety, as there is no native way to upload a route to follow. You can’t simply scroll to a breadcrumb screen and look back at where you may have gotten off course.

A compass app that sits outside the workout screens can do a bit of this, but you have to remember to start it in addition to starting your activity. It is a lot of jumping back and forth between screens and can become frustrating — even more so if you’re wearing gloves or in wet weather due to the touchscreen.

Overall, as an all-in-one device, it is a marvelous watch. Having the ability to leave the house on a known route with earbuds while listening to music, podcasts, audiobooks, or receiving a call or text with an enabled cellular connection while not carrying a phone is pretty great.

This is a step up if you are coming from a non-Ultra version of the Apple Watch. Those coming from medium- to high-end modern sports watches will immediately notice the frequent charging required and curious lack of mapping functions.

Check out our in-depth Apple Watch Ultra review, the predecessor to this watch, to get a good idea of the capabilities of this new edition.

Shop the Apple Watch Ultra 2

Best GPS Running Watch Update: Coros Apex 2/2 Pro ($449)

Pros:

• Touchscreen-enabled with offline mapping is a huge improvement over previous Apex models
• Exceptional battery performance
• Full-time health monitoring data doesn’t affect battery as much as competitors’ watches
• Scrolling dial is more reliable and less finicky than in the past

Cons:

• Optical heart rate is incorrect at high output
• The pace function is slow to catch up to real-time performance

While many watches get upgrades over time, the Coros Apex 2/2 Pro made the biggest jump over its predecessor, the Coros Apex, which we named our best budget GPS watch in 2022. Unfortunately, in addition to an increase in features, there’s also been a price increase, though the price has come down from when it was first released.

The preloaded offline mapping is the single update that makes this watch much better. Combined with a vivid display, the Coros navigation takes a much-needed step up. When navigating, the watch goes into touchscreen mode, making it super easy to get around the screen. The prior version didn’t have a touchscreen or preloaded maps, which was a deal breaker for many when shopping for a watch.

While you still have to resort to the relatively old-school method of emailing yourself a GPX route and then sending it to the watch to be able to navigate it, at least the landscape and topographical base maps are already there.

The watch keeps its digital dial from the previous version, which is less prone to accidental starting and stopping than a button on the side of the watch. Like all Coros devices, the battery life is exceptional and has better output than the original, offering around 30 days of regular use if you’re headed out to run for an hour or two each day. If you’ve never used a Coros watch before, you’ll be delighted at how infrequently you need to charge it.

We’re still not convinced that Coros’s implication that its use of an All-Satellite GNSS chipset is a huge value-add. Under normal running circumstances, we don’t see much of a difference in the five-satellite antenna’s GPS fidelity or accuracy compared to every other brand’s more common three-satellite antenna (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo).

The only time the five-satellite system significantly outperformed the three-satellite antenna of other watches was in deep slot canyons of Utah with a very minimal sky view. In this instance, we were amazed at how accurate the Coros system was, while the other watch tested picked up more errant points than accurate ones.

The optical heart-rate monitoring of this watch also struggles to work accurately. It’s reasonable in lower heart rate zones, but as soon as you start working harder, the number stays well below what a more trustworthy heart-rate strap provides.

Of all GPS watches, Coros has the fastest processing. It takes less than 10 seconds for an activity to synchronize with the Coros app and then another handful of seconds to upload it to a third-party app like Strava. This sounds somewhat trivial but is appreciated when you’ve thrown down and want to check your results quickly.

Shop the Coros Apex 2/2 Pro

Best Battery Life in a GPS Running Watch: Coros Vertix 2S ($700)

Pros:

• Good battery life
• Improved optical heart rate monitor sensor

Cons:

• No major upgrades
• Not great for casual wear

The Coros Vertix 2S is an upgrade on the previous watch in this category, the Coros Vertix 2. With improved GPS accuracy and the newest optical heart rate monitor, this watch’s updates are relatively minor compared to the previous version. That said, we loved the last version, and this watch keeps everything we appreciated about its predecessor. We acknowledge that this probably isn’t a pure runner’s watch, but people who go on long adventures will use the many features of this watch.

The new upgrades actually decrease the battery life of this watch when compared to the previous version. It has 118 hours of battery in standard GPS mode, which is nine hours less than the previous model. Much of the decrease is a result of the new optical heart rate monitor sensor. The watch uses an algorithm to account for your running cadence to edit out the extraneous noise that often affects wrist heart rate measurements.

We’ve always found this line of Coros watches to be the most accurate when navigating difficult terrain, like slot canyons in Utah. Compared to watches from other brands, its pings seemed to jump around far less when there wasn’t a clear view of the sky.

The body of this watch features sapphire glass and a titanium bezel, and it is rugged. It makes it so that this watch isn’t the best for casual wear, but you can trust it to stand up to the rigors of the mountains.

The 1.4-inch screen is larger than most others on the market and will dwarf the wrists of smaller people, and some of our testers had a hard time fitting it through the wrist holes of shirts they were wearing. But, it provides plenty of space to see up to eight data fields at once, and it makes navigation a little easier on the eyes.

If you don’t like to charge your watch often or want one to accompany you on long adventure runs, fastpacks, or other multiday expeditions, the battery life and features of the Coros Vertix 2S can’t be beaten.

You can read more about the details of this watch in our in-depth Coros Vertix 2S review.

Shop the Coros Vertix 2s

Best Budget GPS Running Watch: Coros Pace 3 ($229)

Pros:

• Affordable
• Has all the important features

Cons:

• Screen is not as durable as others
• No coaching features

In a world of increasing tech and fancy features, we appreciate a simple and affordable watch like the Coros Pace 3. This is one of the most straightforward watches on the market and perfect for someone who wants to track their runs and basic health metrics but doesn’t need anything else. It has even fewer features than the Garmin Forerunner 165 reviewed below and comes at an even more affordable price (for a GPS watch).

The battery is good enough that you won’t feel like you’re having to charge the watch all the time. It lasts 15 days of regular use and will run for 38 hours using its full GPS capabilities. Our main tester, who runs daily, would generally go about a week or more between charges. Since this watch is relatively small and sleek, it doesn’t feel cumbersome to wear and will even pass in more casual settings.

The Coros Pace 3 comes with most of the basic health-metrics tracking we now expect from GPS watches, including HRV, sleep, continuous heart rate, and more. You can add music to the watch and leave your phone at home while still listening to tunes. It also has breadcrumb navigation if you want to use your watch to get around an unknown place. The navigation comes with deviation alerts and checkpoints.

The bottom line is that this is a very affordable and approachable GPS watch that has a lot of the higher-end features offered by other watches in this guide. It’s great for beginning runners, runners on a budget, or runners who don’t like or care about all the fancy features of higher-end watches. Our tester called this watch “the flip-phones of GPS watches, in the best way possible.” It’s dependable, straightforward, compact, lightweight, has excellent battery life, and gets the job done on a daily basis for a long time.

Shop the Coros Pace 3

Best Beginner GPS Running Watch: Garmin Forerunner 165 Music ($300)

Pros:

• It is less expensive than many other options
• Sleek and lightweight design
• All the features you need, and none you don’t
• Plenty of health-monitoring features

Cons:

• Lower battery life

Whether you’re just getting into running and looking for a relatively simple GPS watch that can do it all, or you just like simplicity in your life but still want to track data, the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music is a great option. Plus, it can hold up to 500 songs to listen to if you don’t want to run with your phone in tow.

One of the things we loved about this watch is its relatively sleek design, and it’s one of the few GPS watches that don’t stand out (too badly) when worn in a casual setting. It has a 1.2-inch colorful AMOLED display that is easy to read, even when on the move, and you can customize the watch face to show you exactly what you want to keep track of. We appreciated that this watch came with a silicone band that didn’t get stinky or dirty like cloth ones tend to do.

While positioned as an entry-level watch, the Forerunner 165 has every measurement and tracking feature that most runners could need, including optical heart rate measurement, built-in coaching suggestions, and health and fitness tracking. The heart rate monitoring is on par with other watches, and while we still got some errant measurements, we felt like we could trust this watch to give us a fairly accurate view of our effort level. You can easily pair this watch with a chest strap if you want a more accurate heart rate measurement, especially at higher exertion levels where wrist-worn monitors tend to struggle.

This watch’s battery will last 11 days in normal mode and 19 hours in GPS mode. One of our testers, who runs daily, found that he had to recharge the watch about every 5 days. Using the watch for music does drain the battery significantly more quickly.

We found the GPS to be as accurate as most of the other watches in this guide. While a high-end watch may do better in difficult GPS settings, the Forerunner 165 will perform just as well in most situations. It has built-in mapping that you can use to navigate your run. It also tracks a variety of health metrics, including HRV, sleep, stress levels, and VO2 max.

While this watch doesn’t have top-of-the-line anything, it’s a fairly simple watch at a reasonable price point that does everything that most runners need a watch to do.

Read more about the features of this watch in our full Garmin Forerunner 165 Music review.

Shop the Garmin Forerunner 165 Music

Best GPS Running Watch Design: Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium ($400)

Pros:

• Beautiful design is appropriate for wearing in all life scenarios
• Improved processing speed when scrolling through activity modes and features
• Much improved battery life compared to previous Suunto models

Cons:

• Processing performance still frustratingly lags behind competitors’ devices
• Very expensive without some key features offered by other brands

The appearance of many GPS watches turns many people off because of their size and aesthetic, but the Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium is a big step forward in the style department. When this watch first came out, Suunto’s tradition of watches with massive displays came to a screeching halt. Suunto may have become one of the key players in the watch category for ultrarunners over the past two decades, thanks to good battery performance and solid durability, but there were always glaring issues with their watches.

They struggled with processing speed, app integration, and sometimes glitchy software. But if you’re willing to compromise a little bit on performance for the sake of style, this watch is a great option.

The super sleek and attractive design has a 1.2-inch screen and keeps the same bezel size as its predecessor in comparison to the screen. Unfortunately, the bezel takes up nearly a quarter inch of the face and hogs much of the screen’s real estate.

At only 55 grams, this watch is incredibly lightweight, and our titanium version is still noticeably clean and scratch-free after months of use. It’s the least sporty-looking watch in this guide, making it attractive for regular life, not just running.

Suunto’s aesthetic sense extends to the fonts and colors this watch uses. It’s a bit like the difference between Apple and Android. The world’s best consumer product designer, Apple, nails every corner of its product from fit to finish, and Suunto fits more into this mold than, say, Coros, whose aesthetics lean more toward the function-over-fashion appearance of Android. Scrolling activity modes and even the watch’s controls are clear, simple, and inviting to the eye, and everything feels clearer and more accurate.

Though this version’s looks are virtually the same as its predecessor, it packs a ton of notable upgrades. Chief among the improvements is battery life, particularly for a watch with such a small footprint. We regularly get up to 40 hours of use in the best GPS mode, which is usually about a month’s worth of daily activities. With its flawless speed, a new processor makes scrolling around the watch an absolute joy.

Like other Coros watches, the updated GPS chipset can access all five major GPS satellites, but it is not a dual-band or dual-frequency GPS. Despite functioning on the single-band frequency, the watch does a fantastic job with GPS accuracy, showing no real deviation compared to its dual-frequency competitors in most situations. We found that this watch will connect to GPS satellites and locate itself much faster than other watches we tested.

While some major features like offline mapping and streaming-music integration are missing, particularly for a watch in this price range, the Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium offers a fast charging time of about 50 minutes from dead to full. It is easily the most aesthetically pleasing of all watches in this guide.

Unfortunately, some of the other features of this watch are still lacking. The processing speed, while much improved, is still plodding compared to some of the other watches, and just like in the old days, the watch will flat-out freeze from time to time, requiring a hard reset. We haven’t had to deal with this in the other watches tested here.

Shop the Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium

Comparing the Best GPS Running Watches

WATCH	PRICE	AVG. BATTERY LIFE	DISPLAY SIZE
Suunto Race	$450	40 hours (GPS mode)	1.4 inches
Garmin fēnix 8	$1,000	84 hours (GPS mode)	1.7 inches
Apple Watch Ultra 2	$689	36 hours (GPS mode)	1.9 inches
Coros Apex 2/2 Pro	$449	75 hours (GPS mode)	1.3 inches
Coros Vertix 2S	$700	118 hours (GPS mode)	1.4 inches
Coros Pace 3	$229	38 hours (GPS mode)	1.2 inches
Garmin Forerunner 165 Music	$300	19 hours (GPS mode)	1.2 inches
Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium	$699	40 hours (GPS mode)	1.7 inches

Glossary of GPS Running Watch Terms

• Barometric Altimeter: A measurement of altitude that uses barometric pressure. It is used to determine elevation changes and can also measure changes to atmospheric pressure caused by weather patterns.
• GPS: Global Positioning System is a United States military satellite system that allows a device to pinpoint its location on Earth. GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, and Beidou are the five main global positioning satellite systems.
• Chipset: This is the relay between the processor and the storage devices, the home of data, including maps and music, in a GPS watch. The quality and modernity of the chipset will affect the watch’s processing speed and the ability to navigate between screens and select functions.
• Bezel: A watch bezel holds the crystal covering the face of the watch in place. In GPS watches, the materials are typically very strong and durable and made of Titanium Grade 5.
• Illumination: The brightness of the GPS watch display. It can often be manipulated manually or automatically to be seen better in low light or bright sunlight.
• Water resistance: The watch’s ability to keep water out of the internal electronics. All GPS running watches are typically weatherproof and waterproof up to 100 meters deep.

How to Choose the Best GPS Running Watch

Accuracy

What we fundamentally want from the best GPS watch for running is to correctly measure a run’s distance, pace, and elevation change. Thanks to incredible innovation in satellite technology and specific algorithms designed for sport by watch manufacturers, we now have incredibly complex technology in a package small enough for your wrist. Even relatively inexpensive watches like the Coros Pace 3 have exceptional GPS accuracy.

But when it comes to accuracy, we’re often perplexed when, after trail running with a friend, we compare distance and vertical gain and see different results. This is sometimes a function of different brands’ technology, but it is often a function of battery power-saving modes, the number of GPS readings per minute you’ve selected, or the default settings on your watch.

Utilizing the maximum location measurement frequency will sap a watch battery, but while spacing out the readings is easier on the battery, it creates a less precise track. Obstructions in the sky, like trees or even clouds, can affect GPS coverage, and the industry suggests GPS accuracy is within 1% to 3%.

Manufacturers recommend importing your data to a run-specific app, like Garmin Connect or the Suunto App, to corroborate your data with more sophisticated elevation models. We found that the most accurate GPS watch we tested was the Coros Vertix 2S, especially in areas where we didn’t have a clear view of the sky.

Battery Life

Battery life is arguably the most prized feature for ultrarunning in finding the best GPS watch. Fortunately, we are in something of a battery life golden age. Every major GPS watch company seeks to one-up their competitor to own the title of longest-lasting battery. This competition benefits the customer, as we’re not only getting batteries that can last up to 118 hours of normal GPS use, as with the Coros Vertix 2S, but they also charge incredibly fast.

When just a few years ago, companies would boast of 15 to 20 hours of battery life, and their watches might take 3 to 5 hours to charge from dead, we’re getting roughly a 160% increase in battery life and a 200% decrease in charging time. The Suunto Race can go from dead to fully charged in less than an hour and will then measure 40 hours’ worth of activity.

Companies’ claims about battery life represent use with standard GPS tracking alone, without the additional battery demands of using navigation, receiving notifications, or playing music. Rather than manually tuning your watch to the best or worst battery performance, many manufacturers have preset battery modes that allow you to select the performance level you require based on your activity or the remaining battery power on the watch.

Comfort

Years ago, GPS watches looked like tiny computers on your wrist, and some, like the Garmin fēnix 8, are continuing to lean into the rugged and large aesthetic. The size was partly due to improving the watch’s durability by using burlier materials and creating a screen big enough to see multiple data fields at once and be useful for navigation.

As time passes, GPS watch sizes are getting more compact, and breakthroughs in technical performance are shrinking the package while adding new features. The Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium is a downright nice-looking watch.

Many brands offer different strap styles in addition to the normal silicone one, including nylon and other soft-style straps with elastic and hook-and-loop closures. These styles can add comfort and a more precise fit. General comfort on all watches here is good enough to wear all day, but the appropriateness of wearing a GPS watch to work or other life commitments varies depending on the user.

Watches like the Suunto Race or the Coros Pace 3 are small and stylish enough to wear in everyday life, while many people would shy away from wearing the Garmin fēnix 8 or similar rugged-looking watches in casual settings.

Ease of Use

The incredible technology that the best GPS running watches offer today means there can be a learning curve to taking advantage of their full functionality. Not a single watch here is simple enough to pull out of the box and use all of the features immediately. You might be able to record a run — but what next?

Do you use the watch’s corresponding app to synchronize it? Do you make adjustments in the watch itself or with the app? Is it a combination of both? These are questions you’ll need to sort out as you begin accessing features on your watch and learning its capabilities. The Garmin Forerunner 165 Music is one of the simplest watches to learn to use.

With so many options and the amount of data provided, it even takes time to remember which buttons control selections and navigate forward or back. Some watches have a bold start/stop button distinct from the others. The watches in this guide use buttons, scrolling dials, touchscreens, or a combination of the three to navigate.

Buttons are simple to use on the fly, but the dials, like on Coros Apex 2/2 Pro, can be tricky to use quickly. Buttons are generally big and responsive, with some performing much better than others. The watches in this guide with touchscreens generally work well even when the watch’s face is wet or in cold conditions.

Extra Features and App Compatibility

Each watch in this guide has a corresponding mobile app that can do everything from downloading your runs and sharing with a third party like Strava to designing and synchronizing routes. The apps can also control the colors and display of the watch face and synchronize firmware. Many watches have a coaching component that allows you to customize your workout or download workouts directly from professional athletes.

The Garmin fēnix 8 has a suite of features, including hydration tracking and menstrual cycle tracking as add-on features. Several watches in this guide can sync offline playlists from streaming services like Spotify or have built-in storage for music playback. The Garmin Forerunner 165 Music can store up to 500 songs, so you can listen to music without lugging your phone on your run. Some brands include Mobile Pay in several watches, including the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Why You Should Trust Us

We at iRunFar are GPS running watch aficionados with a long history of testing watches. Many of our team members love poring over running data, and we use our watches to collect accurate metrics of our runs and health metrics. We combined our 100-plus years of GPS running watch field testing with polls of the iRunFar community to see what everyone thought was the best GPS running watch on the market today. We selected nearly a dozen highly vetted watches for rigorous summer, fall, winter, and spring testing.

We tested these watches in climes from the densely forested northwestern United States to the cold, dry, and variable seasons of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. We tested them in the rugged Sangre de Cristo mountain range, Rocky Mountain National Park, the San Juan mountains (home of the Hardrock 100 Run), the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and at home on local trails in Boulder.

We took different GPS watches out in difficult terrain, like slot canyons in Utah and mountains in Bhutan, to see if there was a difference in accuracy in spaces where they didn’t get a clear view of the sky.

We evaluated the watches based on their features, price, comfort, processing speed, accuracy, navigation capabilities, battery life, and compatibility with third-party apps.

Frequently Asked Questions About GPS Running Watches

What is a GPS watch, and why is it helpful in ultrarunning?

Besides shorts and shoes, many runners consider a GPS watch a fundamental piece of ultrarunning gear. It lets you easily and accurately record your runs and see important data like pace and elevation gain while you’re out there. The data synchronizes with popular apps to let you compare or log your information securely. It’s a training log that doesn’t take up physical space.

Moreover, the watches in this guide work for more than just running. They track tons of other sports, such as paddle boarding, yoga, and cycling, and collect the unique metrics associated with each activity. A watch like the Garmin fēnix 8 can significantly improve your understanding of your body and training.

This is not to suggest that trail or ultrarunning requires a GPS watch. For many, the invasion of more and more data in our lives is becoming burdensome and tiring. A pen-and-paper training journal combined with a simple stopwatch or using your smartphone with any number of free run-recording apps is much more inexpensive and simple.

Which running watch has the best GPS?

Each watch tested in this guide does a fine job of tracking your run. Positioning in these watches is usually acquired through one or a combination of the five major satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and Beidou). Different satellite systems are more and less accurate in different areas of the world. Incremental differences appear between all of the watches, even on the same activity, yet none of the watches tested here has an outlying poor output.

The Coros Vertix 2S has a feature that seeks to combat interference, whether it’s from a dense forest or a deep canyon, by utilizing all five satellite systems at once and using a new feature called Dual-Frequency GNSS, which is the most accurate signal available in consumer technology products today. Choosing a reputable GPS watch could almost be more a matter of what else it has beyond good GPS accuracy, since there isn’t a poor performer among the bunch in this guide.

I want to race my first ultramarathon. Which GPS running watch should I use?

Many people will simply use their phone and the app of their choice, like Strava, for their first ultra. This is a low-cost and simple way to use a piece of hardware you already own and are probably going to carry regardless to track your run. The drawback is that your phone has a battery that probably won’t stand up to anything beyond 50k.

If you’re new to ultrarunning and simply looking for the best GPS running watch for reliability and affordability, the Coros Pace 3 and Garmin Forerunner 165 Music are excellent and affordable options. You won’t get all the fancy features of a higher-end watch, but you’ll get enough battery to last nearly any ultra in lightweight packages.

The Suunto Race also packs in a lot of features at a reasonable price point. For ultrarunners who want to get the most technology, data, and performance out of their races and training, this guide has some truly exceptional options, namely the Garmin fēnix 8 and Coros Vertix 2S.

What’s the difference between a fitness tracker and a running watch?

This is a question mainly regarding features. Fitness trackers have come a long way and are more affordable than any watches tested in this guide. But their downside is that they rely heavily on pairing with a phone to draw out similar features that are built directly into GPS watches.

As GPS watches get even more advanced, another comparison might be: can a GPS watch be a suitable stand-in for a WHOOP, Oura Ring, blood glucose sensor, or power meter on a bicycle? This technology is already available or, we would expect, is forthcoming from these GPS watch manufacturers either as built-in firmware or separately sold compatible accessories. The health and sleep monitoring features of the Coros Vertix 2S and the Garmin fēnix 8 can give you much of the information dedicated fitness trackers provide.

Which is the most accurate GPS watch?

When comparing all of the watches tested here on the same 25-kilometer run, not a single one had exact fidelity when comparing the GPX track to the trail marked on Mapbox, the commercial map provider for everything from Strava to the navigation system in your car. In some cases, the track showed a tester crossing an alpine lake, which they didn’t, or taking a very long detour around part of a forest.

You might expect the same brand of watches to provide the same output, but that wasn’t the case. There was deviation between watches across the board. We found that the advanced GPS system of the Coros Vertix 2S outperformed other watches when it came to difficult conditions, such as in slot canyons or under heavy tree cover.

Two of our testers who run together frequently will find that a Coros watch will consistently measure more distance when compared to a Garmin, but the Garmin will report more elevation gain. The consistency of the variability points toward differences in the algorithms used by the watches to calculate these numbers.

The industry says that most GPS watches are accurate within 1-3%, explaining the deviation in watches, even if tested simultaneously. A few watches have special features to improve their accuracy. Suunto employs its “Snap to Route,” where you could take a race route GPX file, load it into the watch, and then navigate that course while you run. This is a clever way to ensure that your run is as faithful to the intended route as possible, and it minimizes error due to satellite reception and other variables like clouds, buildings, or other obstructions.

We asked the Garmin product manager to explain the differences between measurements of different watches on the same course. They said, “There are numerous challenges in forming an elevation profile over a long trail run or ultramarathon, like effects of weather over longer periods and how the watch is worn (for example, if the barometer port is up against clothing).

“Because of these sources of error, we expect differences in the total ascent between runners, and these can add up over long-distance runs. On the distance side, GPS accuracy is the biggest thing. User settings, type of device, which arm the user is wearing the watch, running form, and environment (tree cover can affect the line of sight to satellites) can all affect accuracy.”

These watches are so expensive! What is the best budget running watch, and is it worth it?

You’ll have to spend some money to get the best GPS running watch for your needs, though there are major variations in the price points among the different options. The watches reviewed in this guide are expensive, and even our budget choice, the Coros Pace 3, comes in at $229! Chiefly, the ever-mind-blowing strength of their batteries is dictating the cost, plus a suite of other features that help you understand your physiology, including heart rate and blood oxygen saturation.

A GPS watch can replace your phone as a podcast or music device, and they are incredibly durable with their titanium, steel, and sapphire materials. Ultimately, the battery life that can last through an ultramarathon makes a GPS watch a must for ultrarunners.

What’s the best running watch for small wrists?

Many GPS watches, like the Garmin fēnix 8, indeed have big displays that look massive on even average-sized wrists. The large size makes it easier to see a lot of data and to navigate with offline maps. The Garmin Forerunner 165 Music and the Suunto 9 Peak Pro Titanium won’t swallow smaller wrists. These two are at opposite ends of the price spectrum, separated by about $300. In the end, the best GPS running watch for you will be one that you’re comfortable wearing, so it’s worth considering fit when choosing one.

What GPS running watch best integrates with smart technology so I can stay connected while running?

All the watches in this guide — including the least expensive Coros Pace 3 — display notifications from incoming calls, text messages, and emails on their screens. You must connect the watch to your smartphone via Bluetooth for this to work. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is essentially a phone on your wrist.

I am bad with technology. What running watch is the easiest to use?

If ultrarunning is your primary sport, many of these GPS watches are overbuilt for what you actually need in terms of features. The Coros Pace 3 and Garmin Forerunner 165 Music are the most pared-down of these options, but they still have many of the features of other watches in this guide.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is also an excellent option for those who struggle with technology. Like most Apple products, it provides a great user experience, and the dedicated action button makes it easy to put it on your wrist and go. It will still interpret your daily data, including sleep, and can guide you in improving your fitness and health.

Call for Comments

• What is your favorite GPS watch? Do you tend to replace them as technology advances?
• What is the most important element in a GPS watch, and are there some elements you never use?

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