The Best Fitness Watch for Outdoor Adventures

This post is part of Find Your Fit Tech , a fitness wearable buying guide from Lifehacker. I ask tough questions about whether wearables can really improve your health, how to find the one that’s right for you, and how to make the most of the data wearables have to offer.

A watch can be a great friend when you’re traveling, helping you navigate, communicate and keep track of your activities, no matter what you end up doing. An “outdoor watch” does a tougher job than a running watch or an all-in-one fitness tracker, and I have a few picks for the best of them.

To be clear, you don’t need a watch just for hiking, camping, and kayaking. But many outdoor adventurers enjoy wearing it as a companion on their wrist… so here’s a guide to finding the one that’s right for you.

What to look for when choosing a watch for outdoor activities

Are the cards included?

Some GPS watches come with fully functional maps pre-loaded into the watch. Others have GPS functionality, excluding maps. With them, you can keep track of where you’ve been (“breadcrumbs”) and mark specific places you’d like to return to (“waypoints”). Pay attention to whether the watch comes with its own maps, whether it can accept maps you download yourself, or whether it can only display breadcrumbs and waypoints.

How good is GPS?

GPS is no longer the only game in town. There is also GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou and QZSS. But you don’t need to choose: the best accuracy will be achieved by a watch that can use several different systems. Typically the GPS itself is used, but note that single-band GPS is not as accurate as dual-band GPS. In general, the more services a watch can use, the more accurate it will be.

What is the battery life?

A smartwatch should work all day; A running watch should help you get your run done. But for an outdoor watch to really shine in terms of battery life, it needs to be able to withstand multi-day hikes. Some of my models will last several weeks on lower battery settings and will be able to track activity all day long with always-on GPS. I also award extra points to watches that can be charged using a solar panel.

Be sure to check your watch settings; There may be several battery saving settings that allow you to fine-tune the trade-offs you make.

Our pick for the best watches for outdoor activities and adventures

Best overall: Coros Apex 2 Pro ($449).

Coros Apex 2 Pro is equipped with five GNSS systems with multi-band GPS for precise location tracking. Pro comes pre-loaded with global maps.

This watch has a variety of sports modes, including various types of swimming, cycling and skiing, water sports such as windsurfing, and not only rock climbing, but also multi-level rock climbing. There are also triathlon and multisport modes for when you need to combine several activities into one workout.

The Apex 2 Pro lasts 24 days in smartwatch mode and 66 hours with full GPS. It also has a sapphire screen and can provide you with workout plans if you want.

• Koros Apex 2 Pro ($449)

• Coros Apex 2 (non-pro) costs $349. The GPS is not multi-band and does not come with maps, but you can download the ones you need.

• The Coros Vertix 2 is an upgrade from the Apex that retails for $699 and features longer battery life and a larger, higher-resolution screen.

Best for Battery Life: Garmin Instinct Solar ($259.99).

This rugged watch features multi-system GNSS (GPS, GLONASS and Galileo) as well as its own built-in compass and altimeter. Garmin also boasts that it’s built to military standard 810 for resistance to heat, shock, and water.

Instinct Solar doesn’t come with full-featured maps, but you can navigate using breadcrumbs (seeing a line showing where you’ve been) and waypoints (marking a location so you can get to it later).

The Instinct Solar has a long battery life: 24 days (not hours, days!) in smartwatch mode or 30 hours when recording GPS and heart rate. At the other end of the spectrum, the watch can last as long as 56 days in battery saving mode. If the watch gets at least three hours of bright (50,000 lux) sunlight per day, you can theoretically get unlimited battery life.

• My pick: Garmin Instinct Solar ($259.99).

• As a budget option, the non-solar Instinct currently costs just $169.99 .

• Want the best and latest? The Garmin Instinct 2 Solar costs $399.99, but the upgrades are fairly minimal compared to the original version. For example, you’ll get slightly better battery life and a ConnectIQ feature that lets you customize your watch faces.

Fashion Pant Model: Garmin Fenix ​​7 Pro Solar Sapphire ($899.99).

This was our pick for the best running watch and it ranks in the same place here. The Fenix ​​7 series features long battery life, solar charging (on models with Solar in the name), rugged construction with scratch-resistant glass, and a flashlight to keep on hand when camping.

Besides the obvious running and hiking, the Fenix ​​7 has modes for a variety of other activities, including skiing, rock climbing, and even skydiving. There are also hunting and fishing modes with functions to navigate to your favorite hunting spots or notes when and where you caught fish.

There’s also an expedition mode that marks your location once an hour—ideal for multi-day hikes where you might want to know how far you walked that day, but don’t want to constantly drain battery tracking.

• My pick: Garmin Fenix ​​7 Pro Solar Sapphire ($899.99).

• Want to save a few dollars? Here’s the Fenix ​​7S Solar (not Pro or Sapphire) for $579.99. The battery life is between 11 and 14 days depending on the amount of sunlight.

• If you can get by without a flashlight, solar panels, or touchscreen, you can save even more with this refurbished Fenix ​​6 Pro for $329.99.

Best off the beaten track: Suunto 9 Baro ($239).

While Garmin and Coros are the most well-known brands in this area, Finnish brand Suunto has its own loyal following. I’ve read countless forum threads where people rave about how well made this watch is and how it’s better value for the money than similarly specced Garmins.

Suunto 9 Baro gets its name from the built-in barometer, which measures air pressure and can warn you of an approaching storm. This watch has 80 different sports modes. The battery lasts up to 7 days in smartwatch mode or provides 24 hours of GPS activity tracking.

• My pick: Suunto 9 Baro ($239).

• If you want to use a Suunto but need more battery life, check out the Suunto Vertical ($629), which has a battery that offers 60 days of battery life in watch mode. It also has free global maps.

• The Suunto 9 Peak Pro ($409) has a 21-day battery life and is slightly smaller and lighter than the 9 Baro.

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