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We've Found the 7 Best Apple, Fitbit and Other Smartwatch Deals Online, Right Now

Owen Gough
·8-min read

From Men's Health

With gyms closed again in lockdown 3.0 and personal trainers reduced to the confines of a smartphone screen, it’s worth investing in a wearable device to guide you through a difficult 2021.

Unlike Mo Farah, we can't all hire an army of trainers and nutritionists to plan our sessions. But the best smartwatches are like a PT on your wrist, helping you sort out your training schedule and track your progress. Retailers usually have deals on the best models too, from Apple and Fitbit to Garmin and Samsung.

We've found some top discounts on the best smartwatches on the market, but first, there are a few things you need to know.

Display

The display on your smartwatch will be either an LCD or an OLED display. OLED screens deliver more vibrant colours by lighting up pixels individually, while LCDs use one backlight to illuminate the whole display. However, because these are small enough to fit on your wrist, there’s little visual difference between the two.

Internal storage

The best watches can house several apps and music playlists, so you can use it instead of your phone. All the watches on our list have enough space for apps like Uber, Spotify, Citymapper and Strava Running.

Photo credit: bymuratdeniz - Getty Images
Photo credit: bymuratdeniz - Getty Images

They're able to store from 4 to 32GB worth of music and apps. 4GB will house around 2,000 songs (more than enough for a marathon training session), whereas 32GB will likely hold your entire music library and all your podcasts too.

Fitness features

All the smartwatches below track the usual fitness metrics, like counting steps, GPS, and heart-rate. But some have advanced features.

For example, some alert you to the physical signs of stress or have a built-in electrocardiogram (ECG) to monitor irregularities in your heart rate. Some come with a blood-oxygen tracker, which measures how much O2 is reaching your muscles during a workout – the more, the better for maximum efficiency. Neither of these features should be considered as a substitute for medical advice, though, and you should consult a doctor if you have any concerns.

Battery life

Some watches can last up to a week on a single charge. Others, like the Apple Watch, will last less than a day. It'll all depend on which features you're using – the built-in GPS, for example, will drain the battery faster.

Contactless payments

You can connect a smartwatch to your credit or debit card to use as a contactless payment method. Whether it’s Apple Pay or Fitbit Pay, all the models on our list offer this service.

Customisable straps

With custom wristband options, you could go from using the silicone strap for a workout to putting on a leather one for a dinner party (when we can go to one!).

Water resistance

All the watches on this list have some level of water resistance. There are two ratings to note: IP and ATM. IP refers to how resistant it is to splashes and rain. ATM refers to how many atmospheres of pressure it can cope with (10m underwater being 1 atmosphere).

Photo credit: Future Publishing
Photo credit: Future Publishing

We know you’re unlikely to be deep-sea diving 50 metres, but it’s nice to know the option is there. The watches on this list range from just a few metres (1ATM) to the murky depths of 50 metres (5ATM), so you will be fine to take any of them into the shower, bath, or even the pool for a few lengths.

Year of release and price

The watches below were all released within the last year or two, and we've also listed original launch prices, so you see how much you’re saving in each deal.

Apple Watch Series 6

Display: 1.57-inch or 1.78-inch OLED, 368 x 448 pixels

Internal storage: 32GB

Battery duration: 18 hours

Waterproof: 5ATM

Year of release: 2020

Launch price: £399

An Apple Watch is ideal if you've already got an iPhone. The most recent version, the Series 6, has a bright, always-on display, an ECG app and can measure your blood-oxygen levels. It's more expensive than the competition and a little more advanced than the SE below, which is similar but lacks some health-tracking options.

The watch will recognise when you start a workout, and start measuring calories and heart-rate automatically, posting your results to your smartphone app.

Here’s the full family of Apple Watches:

Apple Watch Series 6 - £369

Apple Watch SE - £269

Apple Watch Series 5 - £329

Apple Watch Series 4 - £289

Apple Watch Series 3 - £199

On all Apple Watches, you can download apps from your phone (including the calculator, weather app, WhatsApp, Spotify, and more), and receive GPS tracking to chart your outdoor workouts.

Only the Series 5 and Series 6 have the always-on display feature (turn this off to preserve battery).

Apple Watch SE

Display:1.78-inch OLED, 368 x 448 pixels

Internal storage: 32GB

Battery duration: 18 hours

Waterproof: 5ATM

Year of release: 2020

Launch price: £269

Released the same year as the Series 6, the SE is Apple's budget-friendly version. However, it has the same size and has the identical battery life, and smartwatch features. It doesn't have an always-on display, though, or the ECG scan and blood-oxygen measuring feature. If you won't miss these features, go for this over the Series 6.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2

Display: 1.2-inch or 1.4-inch Super AMOLED, 360 x 360 pixels

Internal storage: 4GB

Battery duration: 24-36 hours

Waterproof: 5ATM

Year of release: 2019

Launch price: £269

Photo credit: Samsung
Photo credit: Samsung

Buy Now

Prefer Android? Samsung has its own range of smartwatches. The brand offers fitness-focused watches and others that act as a smartphone on your wrist. The Watch Active 2 is Samsung’s more affordable wristwatch, aimed at helping you keep on track of your fitness goals.

It has a large, circular face that feels much more like a traditional timepiece. It also offers smartwatch features like notifications, music playback, and apps that you can download from your phone.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3

Display: 1.6-inch or 1.77-inch AMOLED, 360 x 360 pixels

Internal storage: 8GB

Battery duration: 2 days

Waterproof: 3ATM

Year of release: 2020

Launch price: £399

Samsung's newest watch is its most premium one too. It has a circular face with a bright display. You can store up to 8GB of songs and apps, and scroll through them with its rotating bezel.

It's a good pick for customisation. There's a range of swappable straps including leather and chain metal links, and the watch face can be changed to match your outfit if you’re feeling fancy. When it comes to fitness, it has all the tracking capabilities from the Watch Active series.

Fitbit Sense

Display: 1.58 inches, 336 x 336 pixels

Battery duration: 6 days

Internal storage: 4GB

Waterproof: 5ATM

Year of release: 2020

Launch price: £299

Fitbit’s newest watch has similar ECG and blood-oxygen tracking features as the models above. It also offers other health indicating-measures, including skin temperature and electrodermal activity. These two features track your stress levels, helping you to recognise anxiety and advising you to exercise to reduce the pressure. Beyond fitness, it works well as a regular smartwatch for alerts and catching up with social media too.

Fitbit Versa 3

Display: 1.58-inch, 260 x 260 pixels, AMOLED

Internal storage: 4GB

Battery duration: 6 days

Waterproof: 5ATM

Year of release: 2020

Launch price: £199.99

The Versa 3 is a cheaper option from Fitbit that doesn’t come with as many health-tracking features. It has a large, bright display, with plenty of screen space to see apps and metrics at a glance.

It's a fitness-orientated watch, so it lacks some of Apple or Samsung’s device capabilities. For example, it has a calendar, but you can’t specify the time when setting reminders.

This one's great for battery life, though, lasting almost a week on one charge. It also alerts you when texts or calls come through to your phone, but there’s only a small selection of extra apps in the Fitbit App Store.

Garmin Vivoactive 4

Display: 1.3-inch, 260 x 260 pixels

Internal storage: 3.6GB

Battery duration: 6 hours (GPS enabled), 7 days

Waterproof: 3ATM

Year of release: 2019

Launch price: £259.99

Garmin’s VivoActive straddles the line between fitness tracker and smartwatch. It has a mix of fitness-tracking features but also sends you message notifications and helps you organise your calendar.

Garmin’s watches tend to focus on practicality over looks, so it’s perhaps the least good-looking watch on the list (in our opinion anyway). They're durable and sturdy, though, so don’t worry if you drop it down a mountainside, it will likely survive the fall.

It has a long seven-day battery life and a big display that's bright enough to see your apps and notifications at a glance.

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