The 10 Best GPS Watch for Runners – 2019 Reviews and Guide

Topping our list is a revelation of a watch from a much less recognizable company than Apple or Garmin. California-based Wearables designer Coros have charged into the smartwatch market over the past year with devices boasting a remarkable battery life and durable materials. 

The Coros APEX has a beautiful, well-made design with a ceramic bezel ensuring style and wearability. Its month-long battery is the strongest on this list, and with an asking price that defeats other leading brands in terms of value, it had to top our selection.

The Coros Trainer feature tells you when to relax and when to push yourself. And with sizable battery life, there’s not much to fault it. A graphic analysis of the data the watch captures includes VO2 Max and threshold pace. It even has dedicated programmes engineered to refine your stride quality; this is the friend every runner needs.

Why we love it: a spectacular running watch that caters to every need and requirement.

Suunto, a Finnish company, provides a rugged, durable running watch in the 9 Baro. It boasts a real-time breadcrumb trail GPS that is perfect for training for or performing in marathons. Suunto is famed for the durability of their devices. Durability is present here, with a reinforced polyamide case and stainless steel bezel, this model is built for anything.

Equipped with a barometer, sunrise/set reminders, and even storm alarms, long-distance running is that much easier with this on your wrist. 

Why we love it: this carefully constructed running and fitness watch is built to last.

What the Polar M430 lacks in its screen resolution, it makes up for in data capture and analytics. It gives you access to Polar Flow, a fantastic fitness statistics analyzer that can help you to understand precisely where your workout is good and bad.

Its unique running programme offers the user a personalized and progressive journey towards their own goals. The data captured while exercising combines with the Polar Sleep Plus features to give the user a fantastic overview of their health and wellbeing.

The watch itself has a stylish design that sets it apart from your regular Apple Watch or Garmin device. 

Why we love it: a sleek sports running watch that synchronizes to an amazingly informative fitness analysis program.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 is the pinnacle of the company’s running watch offering. Built with accurate GPS sensors as well as readings on your vertical oscillation and stride length, the Forerunner is one of the best-running watches available. Its design is by no means stunning, but consider it incredibly durable and innovative in its features.

A watch for the lovers of all sports, it has a wealth of modes for other activities besides running. These modes include gym tracking, a dedicated golf mode with 41000 courses programmed into it from around the world, and swim tracking as well.

Why we love it: a rugged sports watch from Garmin with a range of activity modes built-in.

Garmin’s Fenix series work in a similar way to the Forerunner watches. The Fenix 6 has all of the features that the Forerunner 945 has, but with a distinct departure from the plastic casing, favoring a metal alternative. This makes the watch heavier, but it still retains all the fantastic features.

The Fenix 6 lasts up to 36 hours in GPS mode, and its advanced GPS can track at incredibly high altitudes as well. This watch is the perfect device for that adventurous hiker looking for a companion to chart their explorative achievements. 

Why we love it: a similar offering in features to the Forerunner preceding, but the Fenix has an unforgettable style and design.

Garmin has created the perfect simple running watch for somebody working to a tight budget. Marketed as a much-improved version of its predecessor, the Garmin Forerunner 15, the watch has a sporty look and feel, boasts GPS, and can be synced with Garmin Connect.

It counts your steps, the calories you’ve burned, and reminds when to move, all for a price below $100. And the low price does not mean they have left you with a defunct smartwatch. It has a bold design, a readable screen, and a fantastic battery life. In this device, we see Garmin’s dedication to providing inspired designs for every price bracket come to fruition.

Why we love it: simple watch with fitness tracking, it’s a bargain hunters dream.

The 4th iteration of the famous Apple Watch series provides a great fitness experience with an incredibly sleek and modern design. 

Apple has created a ‘colored ring’ method that helps you to track your fitness analytics clearly and easily. This watch also lets you set a preferential pace for your runs, and will tap you using haptic feedback if you are over or undershooting that pace. 

More amazing health features also include the ability to create electrocardiograms on the go, and the watch can warn you when you have experienced consecutive arrhythmia as well.

Why we love it: a beautifully crafted smartwatch from what many believe to be the best wearable maker out there.

We’ve spoken before about how fantastic the Fitbit Versa 2 is for sporty women before, but it also has to be celebrated for being an all-round capable running watch. It represents the latest in Fitbit’s smartwatch offering. 

It boasts multisport features, including yoga tracking and controlled breathing exercises as well. The watch is a jack of all trades, integrating contactless payment and voice assistant Alexa as well.

The fantastic fitness capabilities of Fitbit devices that include automatic fitness and activity tracking, combined with its lightweight, attractive design, make it an excellent purchase.

Why we love it: a lightweight watch with fitness and exercise as its focal point.

The Fitbit Inspire HR represents the pinnacle of fitness tracker technology when GPS features are extracted. Though some would argue GPS is integral to the running experience, the slender design, and advanced metrics offered by the Inspire HR warrant particular mention.

With its integrated heart rate monitoring and small but readable screen, this is the best running companion you’ll find without GPS. Furthermore, the Inspire HR has a great design that is compact but allows for readability. The dynamic build and features of the Inspire, even without a GPS is why you see it on this list.

Why we love it: an aesthetically pleasing fitness band with plenty of features to make up for lack of GPS.

Though the Suunto Ambit3 Vertical’s fantastic heart rate monitoring capabilities can only be used in conjunction with smart sensors and HR monitors, it is well worth the cost. With the smart sensor, your Suunto smartwatch can track your heart rate while swimming. It also includes an altimeter to help you ascertain the altitudes you’ve reached.

When running, your Suunto will track stride length, perform lap comparisons, and analyze your average pace in real-time. The ability to get these sorts of complex analytics as and when you are running, make this watch a fantastic running companion.

Why we love it: a rugged Suunto watch with intricate running features and heart rate tracking capabilities.