It has been an excellent year for sports watches, with Garmin refreshing almost its entire line-up while Suunto and Coros both released their best devices to date. Barely a week has gone by that I haven’t had at least one new watch on my wrist to test, and usually I’ve been wearing two at a time, with one or two more watches strapped on during runs to gather even more priceless data to compare.
Of the 19 new watches I’ve tested, plus the several older devices I’ve also used this year, there are many I’d be happy to wear as my main sports watch to track my marathon training, but two I consider standouts that I’d look at buying myself. They are the Garmin Forerunner 970, which is the best sports watch I’ve tested this year overall, and the Coros Pace 4, which is the best value option I’ve tried. Here's what you need to know about these running watches.
