How Do I Choose the Right Gadget for Me?
Choosing between a heartrate monitor watch, fitness tracker watch, smartwatch and multisport watch isn’t always easy. This summary will make it easier for you to find the right wearable for you:
- Fitness watch: measures your heartrate and clocks time, enabling focused training, even as a beginner.
- Tracker watch: also known as an activity tracker – perfect for every-day use. You have it on your wrist 24/7, and it measures your steps and calorie consumption and analyses your sleep.
- Hybrid smartwatches: use one of these along with your smartphone and special sports apps to track your sports activities and manage your training regime. You can also play music and receive calls via the watch.
- Multisport-GPS watches: the perfect high-end companion for pros and outdoor adventurers. Robust, waterproof and durable, this type of watch doesn’t just provide plenty of fitness data – depending on the model they also have features like a compass, altimeter and of course super precise satellite positioning (GPS, GLONASS or Galileo).
- The following sections describe different types of wearable product in more detail, looking at special features. The main factors here are purpose, hardware and weight and of course your personal design taste.
Fitness Watches and Heartrate Monitors – Pushing Your Limits
A heartrate monitor does exactly what it says: ECG-accurate heartrate measurement. Combined with the stopwatch function, it helps you analyse and optimise your performance. Your pulse is nowadays usually measured on the wrist, but the <strong> measurement of the pulse via a chest strap is still more precise.
Within the accessories for heartrate monitors are chest straps with heartrate sensors, which you can link to your smart phone or sport watch via Bluetooth or ANT+.
Advanced fitness watch models also provide calorie consumption and sleep quality data – yes, you heard right! Acceleration sensors record levels of restful and restless sleep. This is the point where fitness watch meets sports watch.
Fit and Motivated – With Men’s and Ladies’ Sport Watches
Fitness tracker watches ensure you get enough exercise every day. These little wearables help you by:
- Counting steps, calories and even stairs climbed.
- Logging exercise and activities like walking, running and cycling and tracking distance covered.
- Measuring heartrate, resting pulse and sleep phases.
Fitness watches derive information about your general fitness from this, motivating you with brief alerts to get up from your desk and take a few steps. Some models also come with a few useful features, like interchangeable straps, wide connectivity via GPS, WLAN, Bluetooth and/or NFC and integral smart phone apps.
Gps Smart Watches and Sports Watches – The Smart Coach on Your Wrist
Vital signs are measured by your sport watch, helping you detecting risks early. This helps beginners avoid rookie errors like over-doing it, and pros can set precise training schedules. There are generally two or three product categories:
Simple sport watches combine a fitness watch and fitness tracker in one, also measuring distance, speed and pace via GPS – when running, for example.
Mid-range fitness watches and GPS smart watches are good for assessing your performance capability for a specific sport. Fitness watches for men and women support the movement profile of various sports and can measure movement direction and acceleration with a gyroscope and acceleration sensor. In addition to devising targeted training schedules, they also offer fitness testing, recovery analysis and comprehensive data evaluation via different apps. And you don’t have to lose out on smart watch functions: as fitness watch/smart watch hybrids, many models are an attractive blend of stylish design and smart functions like music streaming and NFC chip contactless payment.
High-end GPS multisport watches are real all-rounders for professionals, outdoor freaks and ambitious athletes. They allow the recording of scientific sports performance data such as maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) or oxygen saturation and thus enable competition forecasts. There are also various activity profiles - for example for strength training, yoga or for triathletes in coupled training. For outdoor enthusiasts, the high-end sports watches offer route planning, (offline) maps, track-back, compass, weather forecast and barometer. Swimmers on the other hand, measure their efficiency in the water with the SWOLF value, for example - even with different swimming styles. High-end sports watches also convince with their extremely long battery life with various energy-saving modes, high water resistance and unbreakable workmanship.