As with every piece of gear that you wear day in and day out, fitness tech and trackers are very personal. These have to be comfortable and attractive, sure, but these must also fit your lifestyle, as well as when and how you like to exercise. No matter what your needs are, there’s never been a better time to find a powerful, sophisticated tool that can assist you with optimising your workouts or jump-starting your routine. We’ve tested dozens to bring you these picks.
Apple Watch Series 8
The Apple Watch Series 8 is your essential companion for a healthy life and is now even more powerful. Its advanced sensors provide insights in order to help you understand your health better. New safety features can get you assistance when you need it. The bright, Always-On Retina display is quite simple to read even if your wrist is down.
Available in a broad range of sizes and materials, with dozens of bands to select from and watch faces with complications that are tailored to whatever you’re into. Crash Detection and Fall Detection can connect you automatically with emergency services in the event of a serious car crash or a hard fall. And Emergency SOS offers urgent assistance with the press of a button.
Temperature sensing is a breakthrough feature that offers deep insights into women’s health. Keep an eye on your blood oxygen. Take an ECG at any time. Receive notifications if you have an irregular rhythm. Also see how much time you spend in REM, Core or – alternatively – Deep sleep with Sleep Stages.
This smartwatch works flawlessly with your Apple devices and services. Unlock your Mac automatically and find your devices with a tap. Pay and then send money with Apple Pay. Apple Watch needs an iPhone 8 or later with the very latest iOS version.
Fitbit Luxe
The Fitbit Luxe tracks everyday activity, sleep, heart rate, respiration and workouts. It’s a great way to keep tabs on how you respond to exercise, stress or the excitement of playing at ZAR Casino. We were especially impressed by its heart rate monitoring accuracy, which was on par with far more expensive running watches. Your daily data is displayed on a super-sharp colour AMOLED display, which provides lots of detail in quite a small space. This means less scrolling, which is always a win.
In addition, the Luxe is Fitbit’s very best-looking fitness tracker to date, with a stainless steel case as well as a buckle and a choice of either a soft silicone band or a gold-toned stainless steel bracelet. In our tests, it was comfortable to wear all day and night, so allowing us to build a complete picture of our activity and sleeping habits.
Garmin Vívomove Sport
Garmin’s Connect is one of the most thorough digital health apps. If you find that you like running, for instance, it integrates easily with Strava. As opposed to Fitbit, Garmin doesn’t hide most of its very best features behind a premium subscription.
This Garmin smartwatch comes in a variety of colours and resembles an analogue watch. Just swipe along the bottom half of the touchscreen in order to log activities and check notifications.
