At the time of writing, the Fitbit Flex 2 is available for around $85 and is one of the most popular fitness watches currently on the market. The Fitbit flex 2 is aesthetic, it’s comfortable, and it is packed full of features designed to help you get more out of your workouts. Plus it is the first Fitbit wearable that is waterproof for swimming!

The device allows users to track calories burnt, distance covered, active minutes, steps taken, and much more besides. For people who enjoy water-based activities, the Fitbit Flex 2 is also fully waterproof so can be worn in the pool, or even in the ocean, and recognises the 4 swimming strokes for tracking and will provide basic swim metrics like distance, speed and duration of a swim. The tracker offers technology which instantly recognises the activity you are doing and logs it via the Fitbit app.

With sleep tracking, and much more besides, the Fitbit flex 2 is a fantastic piece of kit and will suit a casual swimmer and someone who wants to monitor one’s general health and activity.

Garmin Swim – This Garmin fitness tracker is built for swimmers in mind and will log all the vital swim metrics from distance completed, pace of a swim stroke, number of strokes per 60 seconds, time swum every 100 meters, and more.

Other notable features of Garmin Swim include a waterproof rating to 50 meters, a decent battery life up to 12 months, as well it can sync data with Garmin connect using ANT. At around $124, this waterproof fitness tracker is worth an investment for a serious swimmer. Plus you can strap it on as a sports watch or normal wear to get the time plus some.

Up next we have the Moov Now. Coming in even cheaper at just $59.99, this fitness watch offers audio coaching to talk you through your workouts. What’s more, it actually gets to know you as it monitors your activity and offers useful advice accordingly. The battery life lasts for up to 6 months, and again, it too is fully waterproof so whether you’re swimming, surfing, or anything else, you needn’t worry about getting the device wet. The omni-motion sensor really brings this device to life and provides some of the most accurate fitness tracking you could wish for.

The Swimovate Poolmate Live is available for $115, and as the name implies, is perfect for use in water and ideal for swimmers. It is waterproof for up to 50 metres, and will log laps, strokes, calories, distance, rest, pace, swim efficiency, recovery time, and much more. Best of all is that, for checking progress, you can simply refer back to previous sessions, as the device will store up to 50 sessions. There is a clock and an alarm, and the poolmate is considered one of the most advanced waterproof fitness trackers currently available, as it uses the same tech previously used by NASA.

The Garmin Vivoactive HR is a GPS smart watch like no other. Available just under budget, at $249.99, it is incredibly advanced and looks fantastic in the process. The display is sunlight readable, it features a color display touchscreen, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, along with smart notifications so you can get notifications on your watch, from other devices. There are in-built sports apps, which will track numerous sports and activities like golf, paddling, skiing, cycling, swimming and more.

Swimmers will enjoy this Garmin waterproof fitness tracker as it can provide metrics like swim intervals, number of laps, intervals, stroke count, swim efficiency and more. This is truly a sports mad geek delight.

• Most suitable for – general activity tracking
• Displays your active steps, active distance, calories burnt off, minutes of moderate intensity, sleep patterns and the time of the day.
• Vivofit 3 does provide inactive alerts to alert you to move more plus it even allows the user to set daily activity goals and when you meet the target the device will adjust the next day’s goal whilst gradually pushing you toward a more healthier lifestyle.
• Does not provide the following – smart notifications, heart rate monitoring, GPS
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• 1-year battery life

• Most suitable for – general activity tracking
• Stylish analogue smart-watch which automatically record both active steps and sleep (from light, deep and awake periods) patterns. As well it has an accelerometer to measure distance covered for indoor running.
• Does not provide the following – smart notifications, heart rate monitoring, GPS
• Garmin Vivomove does provide inactive alerts to alert you to move more
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• You can style your watch with interchangeable silicon bands
• 1-year battery life

• Most suitable for – general activity tracking and running
• A sleek Garmin Fitness tracker with a built-in GPS and heart rate sensor. It will display your active steps, active distance, floors climbed, calories burnt off, minutes of moderate intensity, sleep patterns, heart rate and the time of the day
• For runners, the HR+ will map your run or walk and provide metrics from distance, time, running pace and more
• Does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, heart rate alerts, music control, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• It has Move IQ which can pick up any slight changes to your activity from walking, cycling, swimming, elliptical to running which is then automatically timed
• Battery life up to 5 days – which will depend on GPS usage and type of activities used for

• Most suitable for – general activity tracking and multi-sport activities like swimming, rowing, cycling running, skiing and golf
• GPS tracking can be used for running, cycling, swimming
• A versatile all-round sport’s lover tracker with a built-in GPS and heart rate sensor. It will display your active steps, active distance, floors climbed, calories burnt off, minutes of moderate intensity, sleep patterns, heart rate and the time of the day
• Does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, heart rate alerts, music control, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• Battery life up to 8 days – which will depend on GPS usage and type of activities used for

• Most suitable for – swimming
• Built for swimmers, it has a focus on training, and it will display your swimming metrics from lengths, distance swam, pace of your swim, stroke count/rate, calories burnt whilst swimming, type of swimming stroke, and a SWOLF score for measuring your performance.  In addition, much like a watch you get time, date, day and be able to set an alarm.
• Does not provide the following – activity tracking, smart notifications, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, GPS
• With Garmin Swim you can set drills and timed sets for your training
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• 1-year battery life

• Most suitable for – triathlon, swimming, running, cycling, rowing
• Garmin Forerunner 920XT is a superb multi-sports fitness watch with a built-in GPS.  It will display your active steps, active distance, floors climbed, calories burnt off, minutes of moderate intensity, sleep patterns, and the time of the day. Plus it provides running dynamics, swimming metrics like Garmin Swim, record VO2 max readings, and live tracking.
• Strapping on a chest strap heart rate monitor like HRM-Run or HRM-Tri will give you access to six running dynamics numbers: cadence, length of your running stride, contact time on the pavement, contact time balance on the pavement, vertical oscillation including vertical ratio. The 920XT boasts a metronome function that can guide one’s running cadence training with audible alerts and wrist vibration
• Other advanced heart features include – a recovery check within a few minutes of your aerobic workout, a recovery time for rest before the next workout, VO2 max estimation of a run when HRM-Run is in use, VO2 max estimation for cycling when using a heart rate tracker with power metre. From those data, the wearable can measure your race times over several distances.  For swimming, HRM-Swim or the HRM-Tri is recommended.
• Does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, heart rate alerts, music control, find my phone, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• Battery life up to 24 hours in training mode

• Most suitable for – triathlon, swimming, running, cycling, rowing
• Garmin Forerunner 735XT, much like the Forerunner 920XT, this is another superb multi-sport fitness tracker with a built-in GPS. But the difference here is it’s own heart rate sensor. That means you do not need a chest strap on.
• This powerful Garmin Fitness Tracker will display your active steps, active distance, floors climbed, calories burnt off, minutes of moderate intensity, sleep patterns, heart rate and the time of the day. Plus it provides running dynamics, swimming metrics like Garmin Swim, record VO2 max readings, and live tracking
• Strapping on a chest strap heart rate monitor like HRM-Run or HRM-Tri or HRM-Swim will give you access to running, cycling and swimming dynamics such as ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio, VO2 max readings, lactate threshold, running race time prediction and recovery check/time.
• Garmin Forerunner 735XT does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, heart rate alerts, music control, find my phone, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• Battery life up to 11 days in normal watch mode

• Most suitable for – triathlon, serious fitness nuts, swimming, running, rowing, paddle boarding, cycling, hiking, rough terrain activities
• The Garmin Fenix 3 HR is the premium fitness tracker with navigational performance.  It now features wrist heart rate sensoring capability as well as GPS satellite reception which gives it the ability to track in tough surroundings.  Hence you can track your heart rate and map your run with the fitness watch only
• Like the Forerunner 735XT and FR9 920XT, as long as you strap on a chest strap monitor, it can provide more advanced running, cycling and swimming dynamics from VO2 max, vertical oscillation, vertical ratio, provide recovery time and recovery check plus there is the race predictor, which can guesstimate your finish time from the present VO2 max information. And what sets this apart to other garmin Fitness Trackers is the outdoor navigation on offer such as TracBack®, three-axis compass, barometer and altimeter feature
• Other advanced running form metrics include contact time and balance on the ground, running cadence, running stride, and other Physiological metrics that measure your heart to obtain the heart stress score, effectiveness of training and Lactate threshold. For swimming numbers, the metric features are the same as Garmin Swim, whilst for golf, paddle boarding, you can expect similar metrics from this unique Garmin fitness tracker as it literally gives you the tools to really rough it out and train in any conditions and rough terrains thrown at you.
• As mentioned, the Garmin Fenix 3 HR provides a complete navigation and tracking capability to guide anyone on and off the crazy path using GPS plus ABC (altimeter, barometer and compass). The TracBack function also helps to navigate back to the starting point and in the same direction you came from. As well, the sensors in the tracker provide trends to weather updates, elevation and heading
• Other interesting navigational features include GPS mapping of your route, create markers of your movements and locations like start and finish line, checkpoint, campsite and other notable markers you can leave bread-crumbs for
• Garmin Fenix 3 HR does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, heart rate alerts, music control, find my phone, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• Battery life can last close to 16 hours, if you are in GPS mode

• Most suitable for running
• The Garmin Forerunner 630 is truly a GPS fitness tracker for runners which comes with awesome running dynamics.
• When you strap on both the FR 630 and the HRM-Run chest strap you will be able to record running metrics from contact time and balance on the ground, VO2, running cadence, vertical oscillation, stride length of your run plus vertical ratio and measurements to race times.  Other advanced running form metrics include physiological metrics that measure your heart to obtain the heart stress score for recovery periods, training effectiveness and Lactate threshold
• As well, the Garmin Forerunner 630 can provide recovery feed-backs as to when you should lighten up on your training load after an activity.
• Does provide the following – inactive alerts to alert you to move more, music control, find my phone, smart alerts, smart notifications from sms, calls, emails, calendar reminders and anything from WhatsApp, Instagram to Snapchat, and so on
• Syncs to the Garmin Connect App to give you statistics and breakdown of your activities
• Battery life can last close to 16 hours, if you are in training mode

Vivofit 3 is a basic Garmin Fitness tracker that records your daily active steps, calories burnt, active distance, active minutes, sleep tracking and as well, shows time of the day.

Battery Life – One year

If you want style and personality, the Garmin Vivomove is the one for you. This Garmin fitness tracker is the first classic analogue watch that has 24/7 activity tracking produced by the company.

Vivomove offers style and elegance to your steps – in other words, whether you are attending a cocktail party, wearing 3 inch heels or a Hugo Boss suit, it will track your daily steps and monitor your sleep.

Battery Life – One year

This Garmin Fitness Tracker is a marriage of activity tracking with half smart watch performance.

Vivosmart HR offers not only offers general activity tracking (step counting, recording active distance, calories worked off, flight of stairs climbed, active minutes) it also provides 24/7 heart rate monitoring and automatic sleep tracking.

As well, it includes smart notifications which will display time of day, call alerts, emails, text messages, calendar alerts, personal social media messages (Whatsapp, Instagram, etc), to calendar reminders.  Plus you can set multiple smart alerts and control your music from your wrist heart rate monitor.

Battery Life – close to 5 days, which can vary depending on the type of activity tracking

This is the next generation to Vivosmart HR.  Much like the Vivosmart HR, HR+ covers all the features of what HR offers from all-day activity tracking, all day heart rate monitoring, automatic sleep tracking, idle alert and smart notifications. Please refer above.

But the big difference here – Garmin Vivosmart HR+ has it’s own GPS location feature which allows you to map your runs, running pace, route and more.  For casual and serious runners, the HR+ has a dedicated mode for running which can measure the pace of your runs, start/stop your timer based on your pace.

Other notable additions include a dedicated more for jog/walk, a dedicated for cardio, Move IQ (which can pick the difference of movements between running, cycling, walking, swimming, elliptical and time those activities.

Interestingly it has an alert feature that tells you when you reach your distance or time goals.

Battery Life – close to 5 days, which can vary depending on the type of activity tracking

This GPS-enabled Garmin Fitness Tracker is a multi-sports fan delight.  It literally records activities for walking, running, swimming, cycling, rowing, golf and more!

Like the Vivoactive, Garmin Vivoactive HR is a GPS fitness tracker, but with it’s own heart rate sensor. Hence no need for a smart-phone to map and track your activities.

Vivoactive HR offers not only offers general activity tracking (step counting, recording active distance, calories worked off, flight of stairs climbed, active minutes) it also provides 24/7 heart rate monitoring and automatic sleep tracking.

As well, it includes smart notifications which will display time of day, call alerts, emails, text messages, calendar alerts, personal social media messages (Whatsapp, Instagram, etc), to calendar reminders.  Plus you can set multiple smart alerts and control your music from your wrist heart rate monitor.

Other note worthy offerings include electronic compass, auto pause timer, auto lap, and “built-in” sports activity app for running, swimming, cycling, golf and more. Hence it can provide great detailed metrics for each form of exercise like your pace, distance. An example of swimming metrics include type of swim, pace, stroke count, rate of strokes, calories and more.

Interestingly Garmin Vivoactive HR, it has an alert feature that tells you when you reach your distance or time goals.

Battery Life – close to 8 days, which can vary depending on the type of activity tracking

Fitbit Charge 2 – Another one of those popular Fitbit products that does it’s tracking really well. And what you get from this fitness wearable is value for money, from general activity tracking, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, basic caller id, smart alarm, Fitbit community support to the super easy to use Fitbit App. Overall, considered by many to be the best activity and sleep tracker watch.  The tracking features include calorie counting, step counting, active distance, number of stairs walked up, continuous heart rate monitoring, automatic tracking of your nightly sleep, guided breathing plans and VO2 Max.  What’s more, you can log your food and fluid intake and take stock of your daily consumption.

From the comfort of your wrist, Charge 2 will automatically log your sleep patterns from sleep, restless and awake over the course of your zzz’s. As well, it even allows you to set your sleep schedule.  Charge 2 covers all the aspects of what we consider to be the best sleep tracker.

Fitbit Blaze – The Fitbit Blaze is one of the most popular activity trackers on the market today, and at around $174, it is also one of the most affordable. Fitbit trackers are synonymous with activity tracking, yet the activity doesn’t always need to be strenuous, which is evident in the fact that the device’s sleep tracking functions are incredibly effective. The Fitbit Blaze provides users with the ability to monitor their sleep each night, they can track REM sleep, light sleep, restlessness, and much more besides.

On top of that, the device also tracks steps taken, calories, distance covered, active minutes, and much more besides that. It even tracks your heart rate, cardio fitness level, offers guided breathing class sessions and provides alerts of incoming notifications from your smartphone like caller id, text messages, third party social media messaging and News app. With the appearance of a sleek and stylish smart watch, this is one of the best wearable sleep tracker currently available.

Garmin Vivosmart HR – Up next we have the Garmin Vivosmart HR, which is another truly exquisite activity tracker that half performs as a smartwatch. The device allows users to receive smartphone notification and track their heart rate, calories burned, number of active steps, distance covered, intensity of exercise, and it even has a built-in motivational features designed to encourage users to become more active. In terms of sleep tracking, it too will monitor how long you sleep each night, and indeed the quality of the sleep as well.

At a tad under $150, this wristband activity tracker is certainly not one to be missed, plus it is waterproof which is great for swimmers.

Garmin Vivosmart HR+ – we had to mention this as it is the latest upgrade to the popular Vivosmart HR above. Basically, it can perform what it’s predecessor can offer, that is, smartphone push notifications, sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and general activity tracking. Whilst the design is relatively the same, the total screen size including the display is smaller, and best of all, it now has it’s own GPS tracking…woohoo!  In other words, you can run with your Vivosmart HR+ and it will track your runs and provide the metrics of your workout.

Plus it has Move IQ which can automatically detect any changes to your activities between swimming, running, cycling, walking to elliptical, plus it also has a ‘virtual pacer’ feature to detect your running pace, a dedicated mode for running, and other modes for cardio and walking/jogging.  Like the Vivosmart HR, the Garmin Vivosmart HR+ is waterproof for swimming, another reason it is on our best sleep tracker list.

Jawbone UP4 – The Jawbone UP4 has an in-built Smart coach designed to provide help and motivation when required. It also tracks heart rate, and has an advanced sleep tracking feature which allows users to automatically monitor their sleep each night, and determine when they were in REM sleep and when they were in light sleep. The device has a 7-day battery life, it syncs wirelessly to smart devices, and it also knows when users go to bed, so it can start tracking sleep right away. At around $75 this is a bargain for one of the best fitness sleep tracker currently available, and guess what, you can now make payments conveniently from your American Express account to eligible businesses.

The Jawbone Up4 has a 7-day battery life, it syncs wirelessly to smart devices, and it also knows when users go to bed, so it can start tracking sleep right away. At around $75 this is truly a bargain for one of the best fitness tracker for sleep, and guess what, you can now make payments conveniently from your American Express account to eligible businesses.

Misfit Shine 2 – Last on our best sleep tracker list, we have the Misfit Shine 2, which is one of the more sleeker and stylish trackers currently available. Available in Black, White, or Rose Gold, the device, which has the appearance of a sleek and modern watch, retails at just under $100. It features vibration alerts for calls, texts, and emails etc, it is smart button enabled for effortless syncing, it tracks steps, distance covered, calories burned off, and of course, sleep as well.

 

The Misfit Shine 2 allows users to monitor and log their sleep, and determine when they were in deep and restful sleep, and when they were in a light and restless slumber. The battery is non-rechargeable and is instead replaceable, and it lasts for six months on average.  Plus it is waterproof for swimming, that means you can also shower with it on!