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Home » Fitness » The Best Fitness Watch for Every Kind of Exercise – GQ Magazine

Technology makes it easier to track every piece of your exercise routine. But maybe the greatest innovation is that the watches themselves are more than bearable to look at too. GQ's Best Stuff has the low down on the best fitness smartwatches for every kind of exercise and every budget.

Technology has made fitness more quantifiable and precise. Gone are the days of running to the lamppost just past the bandshell in the park, turning back, and calling it four miles. Now, not only do you know youve actually been running 3.8 miles (slacker!) but precisely how fast you went each step of the way. For years Garmin, the Kansas-based GPS behemoth, has been the leader in GPS fitness watches. And thats not changing anytime soon. Their newest multisport watch, the Fenix 5, is unquestionably the gold standard.

Sure, the price tag is a little steep. But we like the Fenix 5 because it is down for whatever. Running (outdoors or on the treadmill), swimming, cycling (on your commute or in spin class), hiking, climbing, snowboarding, stand-up paddleboarding, skiing, snowboarding, rowing, and golf (seriously). They werent lying when they said multisport. Its also the first GPS watch Ive tested over the last decade that my partner did not clown on me for wearing in public. Wow, that looks like a normal watch, she said. Progress!

But seriously: If youre a fit dude looking for one watch to track your every moveit also has a built-in fitness tracker and wrist-based heart rate monitorthat you can wear to a meeting without looking like a character from Tron, the Fenix 5 is for you.

1. The ridiculous capabilities. Im training for a triathlon right now. And this watch has become my trusted companion. Running, swimming, bikingI never have to take the watch off. But the metrics it spits out are helpful not just for lunatic triathletes with no discernible social life, but half marathoners and weekend warriors alike. A former swimmer from high school getting back into the pool? The watch measures how many strokes you take on each lap, among other wonky-but-useful swim metrics. Trying to get in shape for your local Firecracker 4th of July 10k? There is a ton of performance data to obsess over, from heart rate (youre going too fast my man!) to VO2max and Grade Adjusted Pace (your pace adjusted for flat land vs. climbing or descending). I really cant express how much shit you can do with this watch. It has its own subreddit.

2. There are lots of options. It comes in all sorts of colorsblack, silver, white, turquoise, highlighter yellowbut more importantly: three different sizes. One of the knocks on fitness watches, especially Garmin, is how hilariously big and clunky and outright hideous they are. Earlier versions of the Fenix made me feel like a Marine in the field. The Fenix 5 comes in sizes ranging from normal to Rambo. We like the Fenix 5sthe smallest versionwhich, at 42 mm wide, is smaller than your average Shinola.

3. Its built to last and will never be obsolete. I bought a Garmin Forerunner watch when I trained for my first marathon in 2011. Its still kicking. Garmin is good about constantlyalmost annoyingly soupdating the software on their watches, so even if there is a new shiny watch on the market, the technology itself is never really out of date. Theres no denying that $600 is a lot of money for a watch, but its far superior to the Apple Watch and, at $200 more, far more capable and far more durable.

4. You can customize the hell out of it. Its not just a watch for running nerds. You can get texts, keep track of your Uber, and drop a pin in the airport parking lot to find your car. And there are tons of fitness-specific apps, for everything from marathon training to prescriptiv

The Run IQ doesnt have all the bells and whistles of the Fenix. But it has everything you needheart rate, GPS, a fairly deep roster of customizable performance appswhich makes it perfect for someone training for their first big race, from 5k to the marathon. New Balance teamed up with the fitness tracking platform Strava, providing a simple and digestible way to track your progress (and compare it to your annoying friends from high school who inexplicably have all their runs linked on Facebook). Oh, and it has 4GB of storage, so you can load up your embarrassing pump-up playlist and jam out with your favorite Bluetooth headphones sans phone. Its technically an Android Wear watch, but works with Apple iOS too.

If youre looking for a watch that will tell you how far youve gone, at what pace, and whether or not your heart is going to burst out of your chestlook no further. The Polar M200 is accurate, reliable, and the optical heart rate was virtually the same when I wore it simultaneously on a run with the Fenix 5 and a heart rate strap. It didnt miss a beat. If you dont mind the Clifford the Big Red Dog vibes at work all day, it doubles as an activity tracker too.

Running, swimming, biking, and bluetooth. The TomTom Spark does most of what the Fenix does at a lower price point and a boxier silhouette with 3GB storage for your playlists (or, dare we recommend, a podcast). It wont help you find your car in the mall parking lot, but TomToms Route Exploration feature ensures youll get back to your starting point if youre running in a foreign city or cycling an unfamiliar route.

The Nike+ version of the Apple Watch is like a multisport watch for beginnersin a good way. The interface is user friendly, verging into Little Tikes territory levels of simplicity. Its accurate, comfortable, and will tell you when to stand up (if youre into that kind of thing).

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The Best Fitness Watch for Every Kind of Exercise - GQ Magazine

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Home » Fitness » The Best Fitness Watch for Every Kind of Exercise – GQ Magazine