Smartwatches are the latest wearables that have taken the tech world by storm. Spurred by a rapid rise in sales in recent years, the smartwatch market comprises many players with Apple being the dominant one with around 50% share. However, there are many smartwatch brands that are slowly catching up and upping the ante on Apple. We have done a rundown on some of the best smartwatch brands in the world currently.
These smartwatch players comprise tech titans, fitness tracking brands, and traditional watchmakers such as Casio and Tag Heuer. While some of these brands such as Apple and Garmin have their own smartwatch operating systems, others rely on third-party OS. So are are you ready to find out the best smartwatch brands that are ruling the roost? Without further ado, let’s get started.
20 Best Smartwatch Brands of 2023
1) Apple
Since their entry in the smartwatch market in 2015, Apple has established itself as the biggest smartwatch brand insofar as both volume and value are concerned. Apple’s watches are well-designed, elegant, fitness oriented and replete with tech fandangle.
The Apple watches run on the traditional Apple WatchOS which offers a speedy user interface. You can find all staple Apple apps such as Apple Music, Apple Health, Apple Pay, and Siri voice assistant integrated with all Apple smartwatches.
What’s more, for fitness freaks, Apple has introduced a whole range of features such as an electrocardiogram, blood oxygen sensor and altimeter on its latest Series 6 watches. On the downside, Apple Watches only work with iPhones but that still doesn’t take away from the fact that Apple is one of the best smartwatch brands in the world.
2) Garmin
Touted as the second biggest smartwatch brand after Apple, Garmin has a 9.4% stake in the smartwatch market. They are a renowned fitness tracker brand that has a solid footing in GPS electronics. Interestingly, their own smartwatch operating system, Garmin OS, offers optimal UI experience and battery life.
Their line of smartwatches is equally impressive with the Vivoactive 4 having a durable battery life of 2-3 days with regular use, and some nifty features to toot such as NFC payments, GPS connectivity among fitness sensors.
3) Fitbit
A brand synonymous with fitness trackers, Fitbit watches offer a ton of fitness savvy features especially sensors of all kinds including stress monitor and ECG. Like the first two entrants on our list of the best smartwatch brands, Fitbit relies on their own Fitbit OS which proffers offline music playback and messaging features. Interestingly, Fitbit was recently acquired by Google who have their own WearOS.
4) Huawei
Arguably the largest smartphone maker in the world, Huawei only recently climbed up to the third place in the smartwatches market with an 8.3% share. They too have their own smartwatch operating system called Lite OS that comes with a durable battery life. Smartwatches with Lite OS don’t currently support third-party apps and only offer limited support for all Huawei-only apps.
5) Samsung
Tech titan Samsung has been making waves with its Galaxy series smartphone tech and rightly so its smartwatch sales account for 7.2% share of the market. Samsung’s smartwatches come with their archetypal rotating bezel which comes in handy for quick navigation between menus and messages.
Again, like most watches on our list of the best smartwatch brands, Samsung has their own open-source platform called Tizen that is predominantly used in their smartwatches and other IOT devices from Samsung such as smart TVs and fridges.
6) Amazfit
The super affordable Amazfit watches from Xiami have a remarkable durable battery life that can last anywhere between 5 and 40 days depending upon the model. However, as a trade off the functionality is somewhat limited compared to other smartwatches on the market.
While their Amazfit Bip model may have the best battery life around it doesn’t offer notifications, third-party integration and users will have to depend on being tethered to a smartphone.
7) imoo
imoo is a Chinese smartwatch brand that accounts for 5.1% share of global smartwatch market. The brand is owned by the parent company of Oppo and OnePlus and their area of expertise are kid’s smartwatches. Despite their surge in the Chinese market, imoo are considered to be one of the best smartwatch brands in the world.
Their latest flagship wristwear, the Z6, is features a front and rear camera and an accompanying app that lets parents assign set controls on what their kids can do on the watch.
8) TicWatch (Mobvoi)
Powered by their distinct dual-screen technology, Mobvoi’s TicWatch sports an always on digital display thanks to an LCD screen that sits on top of an AMOLED screen. What’s more, the dual display doesn’t drain the battery at all. In fact, their latest model, the TicWatch Pro 3 can last up to 3 days with heavy usage and up to 5 days with light use.
TicWatch features GoogleOS and boasts a nifty heart rate monitor, NFC tech, GPS, third-party apps and Snapdragon 4100 processor with 1GB of RAM.
9) Fossil Group
Traditional watchmaker, Fossil, forayed into manufacturing smartwatches under their own range such as Skagen, Michael Kors brands using Google’s WearOS as their operating system some time back. Since then, they have emerged as one of the best smartwatch brands in recent years. According to recent 2020 estimates, Fossil had a 2.1% share of the smartwatch market
While the hardware in each of these smartwatches is almost identical, each Fossil smartwatch features a different OS aesthetic hence keeping up with each brand’s style.
10) Timex
Popular watch maker, Timex is a household name. However, the brand didn’t pay much attention to the burgeoning smartwatch market and only recently release a string of affordable digital smartwatches.
Their latest flagship smartwatch model is in the Metropolitan range and comes with a round and square design. It offers fitness tracking, notification mirroring, and a decent battery life of up to 12 days. Interestingly, they have also launched Ironman smart edition watches which are an ode to their earliest sports watches line.
11) Withings
French brand Withings is known for their hybrid smartwatches that use analog watch parts as well as smart technology to monitor health, fitness and provide notification alerts. Withings watches are known for their durable battery life.
Their flagship Withings HR smartwatch can easily last up to 20-30 days on a single charge. Interestingly, you can use the analog part of the watch for many years even if the smartwatch battery runs out.
12) Motorola
Considered by many as one of the best smartwatch brands on the market, Motorola released their first line of smartwatches way back in 2014 with the Moto 360 and featured Google’s WearOS. Since being acquired by Lenovo, the Moto 360 is still going strong.
It boasts Qualcomm’s 3100 processor and comes equipped with a heart rate monitor, GPS, and offline music playback. Although, despite its relative experience and early entry in the market, Motorola hasn’t released any new models recently.
13) Coros
With a background in sports tech smartwatches specifically meant for sportspersons, Coros delivers highly accurate GPS and heart rate trackers in their line of smartwatches that come integrated with Strava.
Coros watches are known for their rugged design making them an excellent wrist companion for endurance exercise regimen. A durable battery life that can last days, or even weeks makes Coros smartwatches a serious contender if you are looking for sporty timepieces.
14) Suunto
Another top-notch brand famous for making sports dive watches and precision instruments, Suunto offers seamless fitness tracking and free offline maps that automatically download when you enter a new area for a tether free experience. What’s more, Suunto watches rely on WearOS platform for Google Pay and Google Assistant integration.
Their watches are known for providing accurate tracking for more than 70 different sports. The Suunto Spartan Sport is one of the most popular smartwatches for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts.
15) Tag Heuer
Renowned brand, Tag Heuer, the makers of luxury Swiss watches have introduced their new line of smartwatches sporting WearOS, the staple operating system platform on many other smartwatches. As one would expect, Tag Heuer smartwatches are high-end and come at a mid tier price point.
A premium design, and custom watch faces make Tag Heuer one of the best smartwatch brands in the high-end four figure price range.
16) Polar
The booming sports and fitness-focused smartwatches gets another fillip with Polar, a watch brand intrinsically designed to give athletes a reliable way to track their training sets. Their flagship device, the Polar Vantage V2, provides GPS, accurate heart rate monitoring, and more nuanced features for swimmers, runners, and cyclists.
All of their watches run exclusively on the Polar Flow OS platform which collects all their fitness data into a central dashboard accessible on desktop and mobile.
17) Casio
Japanese watchmaker, Casio is a household name famous for its watches, calculators, musical equipment and more. Their G-Shock, and Pro Trek watch lines have helped them foray into the uncharted smartwatch market. Both of these watch lines run on WearOS.
Their Pro-Trek line of watches sport dual screens akin to the TicWatch to salvage battery life which has been a cause of concern on many smartwatches with WearOS integration.
18) Movado
Luxury American watchmaker, Movado ventured into the smartwatches market with their Connect range of timepieces. Interestingly, Movado watches sport a signature metallic dot at the 12 o’clock position that comes with beautiful custom pre installed watch faces.
The latest smartwatch, Movado Connect 2.0, runs on Google’s proprietary WearOS platform and features a lush and elegant interface that looks quite distinct.
19) Tissot
Popular Swiss watchmaker, Tissot under the aegis of The Swatch Group arrived a bit late to the smartwatch game, with their first smartwatch announced towards the end of 2020. Interestingly, Tissot’s smartwatch runs on a hybrid OS of their proprietary Swiss Autonomous Low Power System platform, a.k.a. SwALPS. It is a stark departure from most smartwatches that prefer Google’s WearOS as their platform.
Furthermore, their latest smartwatch features a solar charger with a durability of up to 6 months on a single charge in connected mode.
20) Alpina
Geneva-based Swiss watchmaker, Alpina has their own line of smartwatches. With the introduction of their flagship AlpinerX smartwatch, they have launched a hybrid smartwatch with an analog watch face and a small screen just under the watch hands for displaying data collected by the onboard sensors.
The Alpiner X syncs time with your smartphone and automatically adjusts as you travel across different time zones. With a waterproof rating of up to 100m, Alpina has designed its flagship smartwatch for adventure sports enthusiasts.