It’s never been easier to track your health, fitness, and ride data. While any smartphone will do the job, the spectrum of dedicated health and fitness gadgets is now also increasingly large. And while some of us will always feel more comfortable with a dedicated bike computer bolted to our handlebars, others are finding that a watch with a brain can provide all the data they need.
Fitness trackers and sports watches have evolved at a striking pace. Previously little more than slave units for your smartphone, today they’ll measure everything from your heart rate to the quality of your sleep while offering features like standalone GPS tracking or the ability to direct you through preset workouts. Some will even display maps and harvest data from your power meter.
Useful for any number of activities, many can also be mounted to your handlebars. This means that if you’re happy to put up with a smaller screen, you could save yourself from having to shell out for two devices with similar attributes; this is good news for keen runners, swimmers, hikers, or triathletes and most will track a huge number of other sports and activities too.
With the market increasingly split between potentially computer-killing sports watches and simpler sports trackers, we’ve rounded up a few of our faves from both categories.
Cyclist’s pick of the best cycling watches
- Polar Grit X2 Pro
- Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Solar
- Wahoo Elemnt Rival
- Coros Vertix 2S
- Garmin Forerunner 965
- Fitbit Charge 6
- Apple Watch Series 10
- Withings Scanwatch 2
- Garmin Forerunner 55
- TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro
- Huawei Watch 4 Pro
Related questions you can explore with Ask Cyclist, our new AI search engine.
Why trust Cyclist’s advice?
Here at Cyclist, we review a wide range of bikes and everything that goes with them and help you to keep abreast of the latest fitness trends too. While a cycling computer offers great on-bike data collection and display, it’s the ability of a smartwatch or fitness tracker to fill in the information about your non-riding time, which makes it a valuable tool for the athlete.
So we look to evaluate and review the latest wearables, as well as bringing you news of launches and our assessment of how different models perform. If you’re looking for the best smartwatch or fitness tracker for cycling, we’ve got you covered.
The best cycling watches 2025
Polar Grit X2 Pro: Best multisport watch for battery life
£649 | View offer
The adventure-specific traits of Polar’s Grit X2 Pro will particularly appeal to outdoor types. Ideal for adventuring in rugged bits of the world, one of its most impressive features is the ability to divide your efforts between uphill and downhill via its Hill Splitter function.
Generating automatic splits when the gradient changes, it means you won’t need to remember to hit any buttons at the base of the climb to see your progress. A bonus for forgetful types is its ability to provide alerts as to when you should be eating and drinking based on the data it’s gathered during your session. Also universally useful is the watch’s ability to warn its wearer of incoming weather fronts.
Dual band GPS ensures accurate position tracking. Paired to route-planning app Komoot it’ll also provide turn-by-turn instructions.
More prosaically the Grit X2 Pro offers all the conventional sports watch features you’d expect, like heart rate tracking, power meter-compatible Bluetooth connectivity, and the ability to guide you through suggested workouts every day. Including plenty of cycling-specific functionality, just be aware there’s no ANT+ link if you’re running older sensors. Further slight connectivity downsides include the lack of some smartwatch features, meaning no contactless payments or skipping tracks on Spotify.
Powering the Grit X2 Pro is a durable battery. Imparting life of over 40-hours in training mode with GPS and wrist-based heart rate, this can be extended to six days in power saving mode.
With a medium-sized 1.4-inch screen and weighing just 79g, the whole assembly is wrapped up in a particularly solid and weatherproof package, which we think is also very nice looking.
Battery life: 40 hours (GPS and HR), 6 days (HR Only), GPS: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth only, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes
- Buy now from Polar (£649)
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Solar: The best watch if money is no object
£650 | View offer
It’s fair to say that aside from a few eager challengers – Wahoo Fitness, we’re looking your way – Garmin is the king of the cycling GPS computer. No surprise, then, that the GPS specialist has created an extremely good GPS sport watch for cyclists.
The list of features on the Fenix is seemingly endless, from basic heart rate tracking to pulse oximetry, safety beacon feature, mapping and ANT+ and Bluetooth compatibility with a near-infinite variety of components, including power meters. The Fenix 7 Pro is still a very good cycling watch, but there's also the newer (and even pricier) Fenix 8, which has the option of either an Amoled screen or solar charging and some other potentially interesting additions for cyclists, such as contours on its maps.
The Fenix 7 has a touchscreen and the Pro version even has a built-in flashlight in the glass, while solar charging is an option to extend battery life. It also has the level of phone connectivity that we'd expect from a top smartwatch, displaying messages, voice call prompts and app notifications and a top-notch smartphone app back-end in Garmin Connect.
With almost all the features of a Garmin cycling computer and Garmin’s neat handlebar adapter that means the watch can be mounted to the handlebars, it essentially offers all the advantages of a top GPS bike computer while also being a versatile and hugely functional smartwatch.
There's a choice of three case sizes (42, 47, and 51mm, designated 7S for the 42mm and 7X for the 51mm size), which dictates the legibility of the display. The more oversize the watch on your wrist, the more readable it’ll be on the bars.
The downsides? It is a tad pricey, and it is bulkier and heavier than some of Garmin’s alternatives such as the Forerunner. That may be less of an issue for cyclists than triathletes, though.
Using the multi-band GPS tracking that Garmin uses in all its computer ranges, you can be sure that all your rides will be tracked with startling accuracy.
Battery life: 36 hours (GPS), 16 hours (GPS and Music), GPS: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth & ANT+, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes
Wahoo Elemnt Rival: the best minimalist tri-sport GPS watch
£200 | View offer
Having created lots of fans with its Elemnt cycling computers, it was only a matter of time until Wahoo followed Garmin into the wearables market. Despite the radically different format, many recognisable features carry over.
Likely to find its way primarily onto the wrists of triathletes, the Elemnt Rival can automatically detect which leg of the race you’re on. Equally clever, but requiring a bit more investment, it can also automatically connect to your Wahoo bike computer, so the details from your entire race to that point instantly pop up on your head unit as you transition from each sport.
Being Wahoo, the app-based set-up and customisation are characteristically easy. Once achieved, the Elemnt is designed to be as simple to use as possible. Medium in size, it should be readable with even its maximum of six data fields displayed. Using reliable buttons rather than a touchscreen, these let you navigate through all the functions, and review some saved stats, although in-depth analysis is better reserved for your phone or laptop.
A sports-focussed watch, the Elemnt Rival doesn’t do sleep tracking or let you shuffle through your Spotify playlist. And although you’ll get things like smart notifications, step counting and calorie burn, it is, as the box suggests, all about swimming, cycling and running. Somewhat austere, it also does without navigation or guided workouts.
Instead focussed on monitoring your efforts in real-time, to this end it’ll link up with sensors via both Bluetooth and ANT+. Pairable with your existing heart-rate strap, the Elemnt also includes an in-built LED heart rate monitor, so you might find yourself happy relying on just the watch. Any data captured by either the watch or any paired sensors can then be sent straight to your platform of choice.
Undercutting Garmin’s offering in terms of price, Wahoo bills the Elemnt Rival as being ‘radically simplified’. Meaning it’s worth digging into the spec list to see if your needs are covered, otherwise it promises easy operation along with the presence of another big player in the wearables market.
Battery life: 24 hours (GPS and HR), 14 days (stand-by), GPS: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: both, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes
Coros Vertix 2S: the best challenger
£600 | View offer
Not yet hugely well-known in the UK, Coros is better recognised in the US. Making multisport watches popular with runners, climbers and other rugged outdoor types, its top-of-the-line Vertix 2S nevertheless has plenty of features that will suit cyclists, triathletes or general exercise enthusiasts.
With a very chunky battery life, map-based navigation and full-feature set, it certainly competes with bigger name watches in terms of both spec and pricing. Its design is based around a bright 64-colour 1.4" face with touchscreen functionality. This is paired with a more glove-friendly dial on the side that allows you to scroll through menus, plus buttons to select your choices.
Lighter than some, the Vertix 2S also uses titanium to good effect, resulting in a light-on-the-wrist weight of 70 grams. More heavyweight is the claimed battery life, with a two-hour charge imparting 40 days of regular usage or 22 hours in full dual band GPS mode with music.
Able to track more than 20 activities, unsurprisingly cycling is well up the list, with the Vertix 2S happy to work with most Bluetooth sensors. Data can then be sent onwards or analysed in Coros’s clean looking mobile or desktop app. Here you can also access training plans and individual workouts which you can then send to the watch.
Out in the wild, the Vertix 2S’s navigation feature presents your route on a full base map, with topo maps downloadable. The touchscreen then allows you to zoom in or out to see what’s ahead. Paired with the long battery life, this should suit it to more adventurous multi-day escapades.
Besides sports, the battery life of the Vertix 2S also means there's no reason not to leave the watch on for days at a time. Besides steps, it can also record a range of passive fitness tracker-type metrics, including those evaluating the quality of your sleep. It’ll even monitor your blood oxygen level ad includes an ECG. A less well-known name, but one well worth considering.
Battery life: up to 40 days, 32 hours GPS and music, GPS: Yes, Heart rate: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth only, Altimeter: Yes
Garmin Forerunner 965: Best sports watch for triathletes
£600 | View offer
Lacking some of the bulk of the Fenix and at 53g weighing less too, the Forerunner 965 offers much of the same functionality in a slightly more practical solution for cyclists and other users. It’s also a tad cheaper, although it substitutes a plastic bezel for the Fenix's titanium.
Aimed primarily at runners and triathletes, the Forerunner is a hugely versatile smartwatch. With many of the same training metrics as the Fenix, on-screen mapping, multi-band GPS, ANT+ and Bluetooth compatibility and even the same solar charging option as the Fenix, it has pretty much everything most riders would look for in a GPS computer unit.
On top of that its lightweight and slim build and integrated music playback make this a great option for running or swimming, and would no doubt be the favourite for triathletes.
Battery life: 31 hours (GPS), 8.5 hours (GPS plus music), 23 days (watch mode), GPS: Yes, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth, ANT+
Fitbit Charge 6: Best fitness tracker for cycling
£140 | View offer
The Fitbit Charge 6 provides plenty of features of use to cyclists in a slimline, budget package. With built-in GPS, although you'll not be able to navigate with the Charge 6 alone, you'll be able to see where you've been post-ride. Take your phone with you and the Fitbit 6 will use Google Maps for turn-by-turn navigation though.
The Charge 6 will track your heart rate and automatically work out that you've been cycling too. There are a whole load of fitness stats available, including pulse oximetry, ECG, skin temperature, resting heart rate, breathing, stress and sleep. In addition, you can use the Charge 6 to control music from YouTube on your phone.
It's a pretty comprehensive feature set for a low priced device, which will give you most of what you want to keep track of your cycling and off-bike fitness, although you're not going to be able to link up an HRM strap or other external sensors and you'll need to pay for a Fitbit Premium account to keep all the available features once the 6 months free membership has lapsed.
Battery life: 7 days, GPS: Yes, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes
Apple Watch Series 10: Best smartwatch for cycling
£400 | View offer
Apple is fairly good at tech. Extremely good, you might say. No surprise then that when it comes to wearable devices, the Apple Watch trumps pretty much everything made by more specialist brands.
The latest Series 10 Apple Watch is the best yet for sports tracking. Retaining the always-on screen – meaning you can see your sporting stats at a glance without having to turn your wrist to activate the display, it is thinner than its predecessor and has constant altitude monitoring.
It’s also worth remembering that Apple has really invested in the optical heart rate monitor, boasting extremely high accuracy – so much so it's approved by the FDA as a medical device in the US. The ECG and blood oxygen saturation features could be useful for cyclists who are health-conscious.
There is also independent GPS tracking, as well as music playback without having to rely on your smartphone. Crash detection and emergency SOS are available, but you'll need your iPhone along or a cellular contract for these.
Then, of course, you can make calls and use Apple Pay. For riders keen not to dig their phone or credit cards out of the back pocket, that’s a big advantage. If you upgrade to the cellular version you could ditch the phone altogether when riding – making it possible to make and receive calls, but that does come at an extra cost.
The limitation of the Apple Watch is that unlike the Garmin Fenix, it won’t offer any compatibility with ANT+ based devices such as power meters and speed/cadence meters, although the majority of these broadcast on Bluetooth too, which is compatible.
The biggest advantage of the Apple Watch is access to a wide world of possibility in the App Store: Strava, Komoot, Cyclemeter or thousands of other options.
If you’re on a budget it’s worth knowing that most useful Apple Watch overhauls arrive via free operating system updates rather than tweaks to the hardware itself. This makes older watches a real bargain. If you want the greatest battery life and a larger screen, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 may be worth considering, despite its premium pricing.
Battery life: 18 hours (GPS), GPS: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth, Waterproof: Yes, Heart-rate tracking: Yes
Withings Scanwatch 2: Best hybrid fitness tracker
£320 | View offer
When I was a teenager everyone wanted a Casio Baby G. Most sports watchmakers seem to assume none of us has grown up since.
Withings is the exception. It may look like a normal wristwatch, but the Withings Scanwatch 2 is backed-up by some useful technical fitness-tracking features.
Fitness tracking is contained on a small, circular monochrome OLED screen, which shows up text notifications, heart rate info and more, and also allows you to track your cycling speed and distance, though it will rely on a smartphone GPS. On top of this, you get a pleasingly analogue watch face complete with ticking hands.
It’ll counts steps too, while its attendant app lets you choose six out of 30 activities to send over to the watch for real-time selection. Allowing you to review your progress via your phone, it’ll also give you an idea of how well you’re sleeping.
Just don’t be expecting to pair up any additional sensors or that sort of thing. However, while it lacks the functionality of more conventional sports watches, it can last up to 30 days between charges. Plus its styling is far more man-about-town than man-having-a-mid-life-crisis, so that’s a bonus.
Battery life: 30 days, Screen type: Monochrome OLED, Replaceable strap: Yes, GPS: Connected only, Heart rate: Yes, Altimeter: Yes
Garmin Forerunner 55: best value smart watch
£180 | View offer
If you want the fun of that Forerunner 965 for less than half the price, why not try the Garmin Forerunner 55?
A multisport watch fit for cyclists (as well as runners, swimmers and triathletes) of all abilities, it has built-in GPS with heart rate, fitness, respiration and stress tracking as well as Garmin Coach adaptive training plans optimised for your goals.
On top of that it has daily suggested workouts, GPS-based pacing guidance for training and race strategies, estimated finish times mid-workout and even recovery advice to know how long you should leave it before your next big effort.
It does most of what the 965 does, especially if you don't need music (which you don't if you're cycling outdoors), but at just £179.99 is a lot more bang for your buck.
Battery life: 14 days (smartwatch), 20 hours (GPS), GPS: yes, Heart rate: Yes, Fitness tracking: Yes
TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro
£330 | View offer
There's LED, there's OLED. then there's AMOLED. The TicWatch Pro 5's display is a 1.4" retina AMOLED, which stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode and is used in a lot of modern Samsung smart phones and the latest Garmin Fenix 8.
This technology allows for high quality displays while consuming a lot less power, which is part of why the TicWatch can last up to 45 days in Essential mode, even with an always-on display.
Alongside that it's primed for fitness and health tracking. It can record a whole load of sports, including outdoor and indoor cycling - and even yoga - with a built-in GPS, motion tracking, altimeter, heart rate monitor and blood oxygen measurements. It also monitors your sleep, breathing, noise and stress levels for all-round health coverage.
It's run by Google's Wear OS and can be bought with cellular so you don't have to take your phone with you to use data and make calls and texts.
Battery life: Up to 45 days, Screen type: Retina AMOLED, GPS: Yes, Heart rate: Yes, Altimeter: Yes
- Buy now from Mobvoi (£230)
Huawei Watch 4 Pro
£450 | View offer
Mobile phone giant Huawei has decided that battery life is the best place to focus its efforts, and claims its Watch 4 Pro will go for three weeks between charges on its meanest mode or 4.5 days in standard mode with always-on display. The 4 Pro and standard 4 also support mobile phone calling and stand-alone navigation.
The 4 Pro is built of titanium with a titanium/leather strap, while the 4 is steel with a plastic one. Both have a 1.5" AMOLED colour screen. There's Bluetooth and NFC built in and the Watch 4 Pro charges wirelessly, while you can download a wide range of third party apps.
The Watch 4 Pro supports over 100 workout modes, including cycling, and provides daily tracking of your level of activity. There's a range of health stats built in as well, including built in HRM, an ECG and health trend analysis, as well as sleep tracking, with more in the accompanying Android/iOS app.
Battery life: 14 days, GPS: Yes, Heart rate: Yes, Bluetooth/ANT+: Bluetooth (to phone only), Altimeter: Yes
How to choose the right sports watch for you
What to look for
Cyclists’ needs for a watch or tracker are likely to be slightly different from the mainstream consumer – most likely runners and triathletes.
Features such as GPS, an altimeter, heart rate tracking and connectivity will be much more useful for cyclists who are keen to track rides and analyse training data.
Bluetooth and ANT+ compatibility will mean that a watch can use data from external sensors like cadence sensors or power meters. That sort of functionality means a watch can become a standalone alternative to a GPS cycling computer or relying on a smartphone app for activity and fitness tracking.
That said, simpler units that purely track heart rate, sleep and general movement will still offer useful data on training and general health. That may be a good supplement for a bike computer but unlikely to offer the same functionality, and will rely on a smartphone for most functionality.
Although not easy to spot, some smartwatches don’t offer compatibility with apps like Strava and MyFitnessPal. Many won't export gpx files for use with third-party training tools either.
Comfort is always important, so making sure a watch has an ergonomic fit and replaceable straps can be important. Some brands, such as Garmin, also sell handlebar mounts so the watch can be positioned in the same way as a cycling computer. However, this will of course sacrifice heart rate tracking, unless you wear a separate HRM strap.
Also make sure that the watch will be comfortable, particularly if you want to wear it 24/7 to track your sleep. Some models can be quite chunky, particularly on slimmer wrists. They're often available in multiple sizes though; the Garmin Fenix 7 is available as an S, which is smaller, and an X, which is larger, as well as the standard model, while the Apple Watch Series 10 comes with either a 42mm or a 46mm case.
Finally, keep an eye on battery life. For a long sportive where the GPS, heart rate, Bluetooth and ANT+ functions are all at work, you’ll need a sturdy battery life to avoid a power-down before the finish line.
How much do I need to spend?
If you want a watch with in-built GPS, which means you won’t rely on your phone for location data, then you’re looking at a minimum of around £80 to £100.
You can buy a simpler fitness tracker that connects to the GPS receiver in your phone for under £50 that will also record heart rate data.
Between £150 and £300 you can begin to expect a little more sophistication in terms of training metrics and features such as navigation and music playback.
To get a watch that will offer the most advanced features such as Strava Live segments, mapping, jaw-dropping battery life, pairing with power meters on top of working as a great smartwatch, you should expect to pay over £300.
Read our guide to the best bike computers with GPS if you're looking for a larger screen and cycling-specific functionality.
