How to choose your connected watch?

Homepage

Mobile

Connected watch

How to choose your connected watch?

Johan Gautreau

Connected objects expert

May 22, 2021 at 12:05 p.m.

63

Summary

What is a smartwatch used for?

Buying a connected watch: what are the criteria to check?

Brands to watch closely for years to come

Sporty or utilitarian watch? Hybrid or tactile watch? Battery or battery powered? It is not easy to choose a smartwatch these days as the references are multiplying, as well as the functionalities. We have therefore created this guide to help you see more clearly. You will discover the main criteria to check before any purchase. Whatever your style and your budget, you will be able to find the connected watch of your dreams without difficulty!

Connected watches - or smartwatches - are now an integral part of our daily lives. True extensions of our faithful smartphones, these high-tech tocantes are increasingly sophisticated, manufacturers competing in ingenuity to stand out.

From sports-centric models to utilitarian Wear OS watches to hybrids, the choice is incredibly vast. We are even witnessing the emergence of new technologies such as solar charging at Garmin or the dual screen at Mobvoi. All means are good to create the perfect smartwatch, both elegant and enduring.

If the perfect model does not yet exist, there is already plenty to enjoy with the plethora of smartwatches that scour the market in 2020. With the few tips that follow, you will see enough clarity to decide which smartwatch will adorn your wrist for years to come!

What is a smartwatch used for?

The connected watch is above all an extension of your smartphone. It can also be a health coach, the majority of models on the market embedding a multitude of sensors to monitor your constants – heart rate, SpO2, quality of sleep – and motivate you to play sports. It's a real little computer that you have on your wrist, the kind of device our ancestors dreamed of in SF books!

Connected watches are real little wrist computers!

However, its usefulness depends on your own uses. Some choose a smartwatch for its ability to send smartphone notifications directly to the wrist. Others use their connected watch to follow their sporting achievements. Still others want it all in one device.

However, let's not forget the essential role of any watch: to tell the time. Just because smartwatches are packed with features doesn't mean they shouldn't perform the bare minimum. The watch has always been considered a jewel. Manufacturers have understood this and now offer very elegant models, much more pleasing to the eye than the first blocks on the market like the LG G Watch!

See more: Our comparison of the best models on the market

Buying a connected watch: what are the criteria to check?

You want to take the plunge but don't know which connected watch to choose? Don't panic, here are some points that will help you find the ideal smartwatch. You just need to take the time to think carefully about your future uses.

Which watch to choose according to my budget?

Money is the sinews of war. Before any purchase, you will therefore have to define your budget. A connected watch is a high-tech object that is relatively expensive, it is important to choose well so as not to regret anything afterwards...

Less than 50€

It is tempting for a first try to take an Asian model for less than 50€ on Amazon. However, we advise you not to do so. Even if there has been great progress in recent years, these affordable smartwatches will quickly disappoint you: poorly translated application, inaccurate sensors, very poor lifespan. In short, nothing too fancy, you are more likely to disgust yourself than anything else!

Between 100 and 200€

Interesting smartwatches start appearing around 100€/120€ minimum. For example, we can cite the hybrids from Withings, very beautiful tocantes with a pretty design for those looking to go straight to the point.

Withings Steel HR: approximately €150.

Between 200 and 500€

For more complete smartwatches, count between 200€ and 500€. It is in this price segment that Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch and other Garmins reign. Sure values, full of features with very beautiful screens, neat designs: the best!

500€ and more

Beyond 500€, we enter the luxury market. You won't have big extra features, but you will benefit from more noble materials such as titanium or gold in the very high end. We can thus cite watches from Montblanc or Tag Heuer at more than 1000€. It's Wear OS in very luxurious cases...

Some examples :

Withings Steel HR Sport: €150

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2: €250

Apple Watch Series 5: €450

Montblanc Summit 2+: €1200

Which watch to choose according to my use?

Having a budget is good. But above all, you will have to think carefully about your uses. Are you an accomplished athlete who wants an electronic trainer on the wrist? Or do you want a discreet watch that relays a few notifications and wakes you up in the morning?

It is essential to think carefully about what you intend to do with your future connected watch. Manufacturers tend to focus on one area at a time: sport or utility. Few do-it-all smartwatches. And if they do, they are horribly expensive!

See more: Sports connected watch, discover our comparison of the best models

Sports connected watches are often the most affordable. Normal since they do without frills such as voice assistants. Their systems are designed to best track your health, displaying graphs right on the screen and offering lots of tips for health tracking. In this field, Polar, Sunnto and Garmin are the most reputable brands. Their watches can even display on-screen animations to help beginners with fitness moves. Other brands like Fitbit or Samsung offer sports tracking, but it's not as comprehensive.

Some examples :

Garmin fenix 6X

Amazfit Verge

Polar Ignite

Garmin is the reference brand for sports connected watches.

Utility smartwatch

Sport not your thing? Then you will surely prefer a utility smartwatch. In this area, it is the tech giants who lead the dance. Google, Apple and Samsung have been able to develop operating systems for hyper-complete wearables. With their tocantes, you can control your home automation system from your wrist, listen to music and even have phone conversations without taking your smartphone out of your pocket!

Note however that whatever the model chosen, you will have a little of the other world. For example, utility watches running Wear OS also know how to track heart rate. They just do it much less well than their competitors really cut out for the sport. Conversely, models like the Amazfit T-Rex or the Withings ScanWatch oriented towards health monitoring will also be able to display your notifications, but the operation remains very minimalist. Few watches handle sport and utility functions well...

Some examples :

Utility Watches:

Garmin vívomove Luxe

Huawei Watch GT

The choice of case: between elegance and comfort

Now that you know how you will use your watch and how much you are willing to pay for it, let's get down to business: the look. By “look”, we include everything that corresponds not only to the visual, but also to the finishes.

A watch is often perceived as a decorative object. It must therefore be eye-catching, but also be pleasant to wear on a daily basis. The first smartwatch models on the market were far from like that. We will thus remember the venerable all-square Pebble or the rectangular LG G Watch. Connected watches that at the time looked more like toys than real wrist ornaments.

Luckily, with the help of evolution, today's models are much more attractive. Manufacturers have made great efforts to improve the design of their productions, even highlighting this card more and more regularly to attract enthusiasts.

Modern smartwatches are increasingly elegant and discreet.

Although smartwatches remain larger than classic watches, they now know how to be discreet. Their thickness is thus limited to around 10 mm, their weight only very rarely exceeding 80 grams. Most cases on the market are round, with Apple remaining one of the few brands to offer a rectangular look.

Long shunned by manufacturers, women are now also entitled to watches adapted to their morphology with cases under 40 mm. Technological developments also tend to regularly reduce the size of smartwatches. Rare are the models to be longer than 44 mm, which is already quite substantial.

The quality of design has meanwhile undergone great improvements. Exit the very cheap plastic cases, even the entry level benefits from quality materials such as aluminum or stainless steel. And when plastic there is, it is generally reinforced to cope with the harshest shocks. In the very top of the range, you will even be entitled to titanium and reinforced sapphire glasses!

Some examples :

Round models: Garmin vívomove Luxe, Amazfit T-Rex, Suunto 5

Rectangular models: Apple Watch, Huawei Watch Fit, Amazfit GTS

The screen: a choice not to be overlooked

Having a light and comfortable watch is good. But if the screen does not follow, there is a good chance that your high-tech tocante will quickly end up at the bottom of a drawer. You're in luck, there's a huge choice of technology on smartwatches today.

AMOLED display

The most common panels are those that use AMOLED technology. Yes, the same as on high-end Samsung smartphones. Their main asset: superb colors and good brightness. Even connected watches under €200 benefit from this type of screen, even if they are not always well mastered in this price range. The biggest flaw of AMOLED remains its high consumption and sometimes a lack of brightness in direct sunlight.

Some examples :

Amazfit Verge

Samsung GalaxyWatch

Garmin Venu

The AMOLED screen of the Amazfit T-Rex is absolutely beautiful!

LCD screen

Some manufacturers have therefore turned to other technologies. We can for example mention Garmin which makes intensive use of reflective LCD panels. The colors are poorly rendered, but the screen remains visible in direct sunlight. Better still: the very low power consumption allows permanent lighting of the slab. If you're outside a lot, you may need to look there.

Some examples :

Garmin fenix 6X (Reflective LCD)

Polar Ignite (IPS)

E-ink screen

If not, why not try e-ink? The great Pebble watches are the first to have used this technology, which is usually found in e-readers. These smartwatches are unfortunately no longer produced, but there are a few emulators. Fossil has thus taken over the electronic ink for its Hybrid HR models. The panel remains readable even in direct sunlight, but unfortunately you have to settle for black and white, as well as a very poor refresh rate. On the other hand, the E-Ink technology consumes almost nothing.

The choice of screen will therefore depend on your uses but also on your budget. Don't hesitate to try it out in-store to get an overview of the various current technologies.

Some examples :

Fossil Hybrid HR

All Pebble Watches

Hybrid smartwatch: halfway between tradition and high-tech

When the first connected watches were launched, there was not really a choice regarding the mode of operation: it was 100% tactile. Then one day a brand tried a real gamble. It was MyKronoz who had just introduced on the market the very first hybrid connected watch equipped with both a touch screen and an analog system with good old hands. An innovative concept, unfortunately not always well implemented at the time...

See more: The best hybrid connected watches are in our comparison

However, the idea has been taken up by many manufacturers. We can cite Withings, which only makes hybrid smartwatches. Fossil also has in its catalog very beautiful watches that do not have a screen. These instead use the movement of the hands to show you notifications and other data. Garmin has done it on its side with its Vivomove, sport-oriented hybrids.

Garmin Vivomove: hybrid watches that hide an AMOLED screen.

Thanks to their design closer to classic watches, hybrids go everywhere. On the other hand, we lose a lot of comfort in navigation and the connected functions are more limited. The hybrids thus go to the essentials: a few notifications, basic health monitoring and that's it. No watch of this kind has a GPS on board. A choice that makes it possible to produce smaller cases, but limits sports uses.

In the end, we recommend hybrid smartwatches to people who want a watch above all else for what it does best: tell the time in a stylish way. The connected functions are very basic and the navigation is not always very intuitive on these tocantes halfway between tradition and new technologies.

Some examples :

Withings Move ECG,

Fossil Q Grant

Garmin Vivomove Luxury

Autonomy: an essential criterion for choosing your smartwatch

We have almost covered the main criteria to check before buying any connected watch. But the most important is yet to come. We are of course talking about autonomy. This is the bane of all manufacturers and probably the main obstacle to the mass adoption of connected watches.

However, there has been some very good progress in this area. If the first connected tocantes struggled to last more than a full day, there are now models capable of operating up to a full year. A real giant leap that still hides big disparities between manufacturers.

The two giants that are Apple and Google are thus bad students. Apple Watch and watches under Wear OS must therefore go to the recharge box almost daily. Next comes Samsung with its TizenOS system, which is lighter and capable of operating for 3 to 5 days depending on the model. Surprisingly, it is the lesser known brands that manage to offer the most enduring watches. Amazfit, Honor or Huawei have smartwatches that last about 14 days.

With Wear OS, you have to plan for a daily recharge, regardless of the price of the watch...

However, the capabilities of each system must be considered. If Wear OS and Watch OS are so demanding, it's because they're also the most complete on the market. As enduring as they are, Amazfit and company smartwatches are not a quarter of an Apple Watch. This is often the harsh reality of the high-tech watch market: to gain autonomy, you have to sacrifice functionality.

It is for this reason that hybrids are so enduring. Even if the Vivomove from Garmin have a relatively short lifespan, the watches from Withings and Fossil hold the charge for 2 to 3 weeks or even a month without any problem. Some models use good old batteries. These smartwatches are then able to accompany you for more than six months without firing a shot.

If we had to name only one watch that makes the best compromise between autonomy and functionality, then it would undoubtedly be the first generation Samsung Galaxy Watch. It has everything you could want from a real smartwatch – voice assistant, quality sports tracking, superb AMOLED screen – with a battery life of up to 5 days.

When you buy, check the lifespan given by the manufacturer. Reduce it by about 10% to get a real idea of ​​how your future connected watch will withstand charging. Even with moderate use, chances are you'll need to charge more often than the manufacturer indicates.

Some examples :

Apple Watch Series 5: 1-2 days

Samsung Galaxy Watch: 4-5 days

Fossil Hybrid HR: 15 days

Withings Steel HR Sport: 20 days

Fossil Q Goodwin: 6 months to 1 year (battery model)

Which sensors should I choose on my connected watch?

Smartwatches are getting more and more sophisticated. But do you really need all the sensors they offer? Again, it's all a matter of usage and budget. The evolution helping, you will nevertheless have access to many sensors even at low cost.

Heart rate monitoring has thus become a basic element that was nevertheless a luxury not so long ago. Coupled with accelerometer and gyroscope, it allows you to follow your health metrics with more or less efficiency depending on the model. Even utility watches offer heart rate tracking.

For athletes, this will probably not be enough. That's why SpO2 tracking is now found on most sports watches. This data indicates the oxygen saturation in the blood and reflects the general state of health. At the top of the range, these sensors are complemented by the ECG which gives an in-depth insight into cardiac functioning. There is no doubt that the entry level will soon offer the same kind of equipment.

The heart rate sensor has become essential to any connected watch, like here on the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2.

If you're not athletic, you won't need to invest in such advanced watches. On the other hand, you may wish to have a model with Wi-Fi or 4G module when you do not have the smartphone at hand. The GPS can also be used on a few occasions, sporty or not.

The more sensors you accumulate, the higher the bill will obviously be. You should calibrate your choice according to your uses. You should also know that with equivalent equipment, the most expensive watches are often the most precise. Thus, the heart monitoring of Garmin models is much more precise than that of Amazfit watches two to three times cheaper.

On the side of utility watches, we will often note the presence of NFC to make contactless payments. Be careful that your bank is compatible before cracking. Ditto for music management: some smartwatches require a paid subscription to Deezer or Spotify to enjoy it. Do not hesitate to consult our tests of connected watches to learn more about a specific model.

Some examples :

Apple Watch Series 5: ECG, GPS, heart rate, 4G module (optional)

Garmin Venu: GPS, heart rate, NFC with Garmin Pay

Huawei Watch Fit: GPS, heart rate, SpO2

Brands to watch closely for years to come

Now that we have reviewed the important criteria for choosing the right connected watch, we suggest that you take a look at the brands with high potential that could surprise us in the years to come.

Amazfit

Amazfit is a Chinese brand that is constantly gaining momentum, releasing at least two new watches a year. It must be said that its very aggressive price strategy plays a huge role in its success. Its connected watches do not cost more than 200€ and yet manage to acquire expensive technologies such as AMOLED.

Amazfit X, a curved screen watch like no other!

The brand's latest production, the Amazfit X, is an atypical watch with a flexible screen, like on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 smartphone. The brand clearly has some great ideas and the means to materialize them in the future. !

Withings

Withings demonstrates by A + B that France has talent. After a stormy period, French society is doing better than ever. The proof with its brand new ScanWatch, a hybrid connected watch focused on health.

Each new model of the brand is an opportunity to discover a refined concept, combining elegance and new technologies. Withings should thus continue to seduce us for the next few years with high quality hybrid watches.

Fossil

The American Fossil never ceases to amaze us. In addition to having a hyper-complete catalog, the US group has some good ideas in store. The Hybrid HR models are living proof of this, brilliantly combining E-Ink screen and moving hands.

Fossil Hybrid HR: a hybrid watch that incorporates an electronic ink screen.

The brand has great ideas up its sleeve and seems ready to make the most of them for the future. Its collaboration with Google on the Wear OS side could also have some nice surprises in store for us in the years to come.

Mobvoi

Here is another Chinese brand to watch closely. Mobvoi watches are certainly not all equal in quality, but some models show that the young brand has a few talented engineers.

We are thus thinking of the TicWatch Pro, a smartwatch under Wear OS equipped with a dual screen allowing battery savings without having to cut everything on the watch. This emblematic model should also receive an update soon with the brand new SoC Wear 4100 from Qualcomm. It will send heavy!

Garmin

Garmin is a brand whose reputation is second to none. Its catalog centered on sports connected watches is all the more convincing. Despite everything, the American manufacturer is not resting on its laurels.

Recently, its most popular watches have been upgraded to integrate solar charging, which drastically increases the already high autonomy of these top-of-the-range models. The Vivomove hybrid smartwatches are also to be followed closely with their dual AMOLED screen and their very original moving hands.

Pebble

Hey no, Pebble smartwatches aren't dead yet. Although the brand was acquired by Fitbit, the community is more active than ever in keeping these great smartwatches alive through the Rebble project.

Pebble watches are still resisting their final end thanks to the community. Soon a resurrection in sight?

Great progress has been made in the past two years and even greater progress is yet to come. The Rebble Foundation has recently launched a call for ideas with a $25,000 reward to anyone who will find new ways to resuscitate the Pebbles. I believe that the phoenix will soon be reborn from its ashes to the delight of the fans!

That closes this case. You now have all the tools in hand to choose the smartwatch of your dreams. If you ever have any doubts, don't hesitate to talk about it in the comments or read our guides dedicated to connected watches.

Modified on 07/06/2021 at 11:39

Connected watch

Mobile

This article contains affiliate links, which means that a commission may be paid to Clubic. The prices mentioned are subject to change. Read the charter of trust

Always be courteous in your comments. Respect the rules of the community.

63

31

View all forum posts

Johan Gautreau

Video games, e-readers, connected speakers: I'm a big fan of new technologies, regardless of form or function! I particularly like to test new things and tweak everything that comes to hand, just for the pleasure of trying ;-)

Why trust us ?

For you, Clubic selects and then tests hundreds of products to meet the most common uses. Quality for everyone and at all prices, that's our goal! Learn more

Homepage

Homepage

Mobile

Connected watch