• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow

1

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

2

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Tech

The best smartwatches of 2020

By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Aaron Pressman
Aaron Pressman
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 28, 2020, 9:00 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Over the past decade, smartwatches have racked up big sales, mostly for their health and fitness tracking. They log how many miles you’ve run and monitor your resting heart rate, a not-so trivial feature considering that a rise in resting heart rate may be a warning sign of COVID-19 infection.

This year’s smartwatch models add to their usefulness, although the upgrades they come with are more incremental than big breakthroughs. And for more fashion-conscious wearers, there are more colors of cases and styles of bands than ever.

Here are some of the best smartwatches available in time for the holiday season:

For Apple fans

Apple’s latest smartwatch, the Series 6, may not be the most appealing to traditional watch wearers, with its squared off screen and lack of visible lugs on the band. But to everyone else, the design is still a sharp-looking accessory that arguably offers the best lineup of features that you’ll actually use.

Unlike its predecessor, the Series 6 comes with a blood-oxygen sensor, built-in sleep tracking, and some new colors. Otherwise, it’s largely the same as last year’s model.

Still, the Series 6 has among the sharpest and brightest screens of any smartwatch, a vast array of watch bands to choose from, and the most robust app ecosystem by far. Even in some places where the Series 6 lacks features out of the box, you can add an app to fill the gap. Need a better golfing app or more detailed sleep tracking? There’s a choice of apps for that.

The Series 6 also has the full-color always-on display that Apple introduced last year on the Series 5. That’s a killer feature that makes it easier to quickly check the time, the weather, or other small bits of information.

Now for some downsides: Battery life on all Apple models is only a day or two, versus rivals that last for four or five days, so frequent charging is necessary.

Also, keep in mind that Apple limits how smartwatches from other manufacturers interact with iPhones. So some important features, like being able to respond to messages and alerts on the watch, don’t work.

And if you don’t have an iPhone, don’t even bother buying an Apple Watch. It doesn’t connect to Android phones.

For fitness fanatics

Fitbit was the original fitness-tracking sensation a decade ago when the device was just a plain plastic band. Since then, Fitbit has expanded into smartwatches, and its latest model, the $230 Versa 3, has a lot going for it.

The Versa 3 matches many of the features in Apple Watch Series 6, such as heart-rate tracking, blood-oxygen sensors, sleep tracking, menstrual-cycle tracking, and built-in GPS. It’s also waterproof and has its own wireless payments system, matching Apple Pay.

What sets the Versa 3 apart from Apple is that it includes Amazon’s dependable Alexa voice assistant instead of less-than-dependable Siri. It also offers six days of battery life and lets users select from hundreds of third-party watch faces. Many exercisers also prefer how Fitbit’s app more clearly displays workout statistics.

Still, critics note that Fitbit’s app ecosystem has far fewer watch apps than Apple’s. Meanwhile, some stats and A.I.-driven recommendations require a $10 per month Fitbit Premium subscription, and there’s no cellular version of the watch that can connect without being paired with a phone.

An alternative for Android users

While the Fitbit Versa 3 is a worthy choice for Android phone users, its square design and lack of a few key options, like cellular connectivity, may be a turn off for some consumers.

A more expensive alternative is the $400 Samsung Galaxy Watch3. The big sales pitch for this bulkier, round watch is a rotating bezel that can be used to spin through options and menus in Samsung’s Tizen software, instead of just relying on side buttons and taps on the screen for controls like rival devices.

Like the Apple Watch and the Versa 3, Samsung’s watch has a color always-on screen (though some reviewers have dinged it for reducing the watch’s claimed two-day battery life).

It also matches rivals with GPS, heart-rate tracking, sleep tracking, and wireless payments. The selection of apps is decent, and there are models with cellular connectivity. Separating itself from the Apple Watch, the Galaxy Watch3 offers thousands of third-party watch faces and includes Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant. Bixby may not be at the level of Alexa or Google’s assistant, but it’s been improving over the past few years. The Galaxy watch’s blood pressure measuring app is available in most countries, but isn’t offered in the U.S.

For big budget traditionalists

Some shoppers may have a bigger budget or want a smartwatch that’s more like a traditional watch. Garmin’s line of sporty smartwatches are mostly round, which is a good start, and the company ups the ante in looks and premium materials with its high-end MARQ collection.

Each of the seven watches in the group, which cost from $1,500 to $2,500, is made with titanium and filled with customized functions and apps to meet the needs of a specific activity.

The “driver” version, for example, includes detailed maps of 250 famous car racetracks and offers sophisticated lap timing readouts. The golfing version is programmed with 41,000 courses around the world and has a virtual caddy app that suggests which club to use based on current conditions. There are also a variety of specialized map and tracking apps to aid the user’s putting and driving. I have found the screen less bright than that of rival watches, however, which is a pretty serious failing on such an expensive smartwatch.

The MARQ collection watches also have typical features of rivals like heart-rate monitoring, wireless payments, and music apps. Having a particularly bountiful year? Garmin sells five of the watches in the collection as a limited-edition boxed set for $10,000.

About the Author
By Aaron Pressman
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

jh
AINvidia
Jensen Huang just used his first ever X post to warn the AI industry not to make the mistake that software narrowly avoided in the 1980s
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
2 hours ago
pjm
EnergyData centers
The AI boom’s hidden electricity bill — and why you’re paying it
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 24, 2026
3 hours ago
j
AINvidia
Nvidia, Microsoft lead call for open-weight AI models after Kimi
By Michael Shepard and BloombergJuly 24, 2026
3 hours ago
Anthropic debuts Claude Opus 5 with feature that lets users toggle between cost and capability
AIAnthropic
Anthropic debuts Claude Opus 5 with feature that lets users toggle between cost and capability
By Emily ForliniJuly 24, 2026
3 hours ago
grandparents grandkid on a tablet
AIGoogle
Kids don’t ‘Google it’ anymore. AI chatbots taught them to ‘search it up’ instead
By Catherina GioinoJuly 24, 2026
3 hours ago
EU says TikTok failed to shield minors’ accounts from adults, exposing kids to predators
CybersecurityTikTok
EU says TikTok failed to shield minors’ accounts from adults, exposing kids to predators
By Sam McNeil and The Associated PressJuly 24, 2026
6 hours ago

Most Popular

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
Big Tech
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
By Sydney LakeJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
Economy
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
By Eleanor PringleJuly 24, 2026
13 hours ago
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Economy
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 23, 2026
1 day ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
2 days ago
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
Personal Finance
Spain lifted the World Cup, but the IRS still gets a cut of its $50 million pay day as players, coaches and refs all face complex U.S. “jock taxes”
By Joshua HongJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 24, 2026
11 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.