Get ready to smash your fitness goals this year with our pick of the best new fitness trackers and smart watches for women…
Since 1965, when Dr Yoshiro Hatano invented the Manopo-kei, or ‘10,000 steps meter’, the wearable fitness technology market has been growing rapidly. Nowadays, fitness trackers and smart watches allow us to carefully monitor every aspect of our health and fitness, from our heart rate and blood pressure to our stress levels and sleep quality. Several smart watches and fitness trackers, designed specially for women, even track our menstrual cycles for us, sending helpful (albeit often unwelcome) reminders for when your period is due.
With so many options out there, it can be tricky to know which fitness tracker or smart watch is right for you. Should you opt for a simple tracker that simply monitors your daily steps and activity levels? Or should you go with a top-of-the-range high tech watch that monitors every aspect of your health and wellbeing?
Below, we’ve rounded up 8 of the best new fitness trackers and smart watches for women, with a wide range of different capabilities, styles and price points, to help you decide…
8 best smart watches and fitness trackers for women 2022
Garmin Venu 2 Plus (£399.99)
Key features:
- Take calls from your wrist
- Use your smartphone’s voice assistant to send texts
- Up to 6 days of battery life
- 24/7 health monitoring, including heart rate, stress, respiration, and sleep tracking
- Mindful breathing exercises
- Menstrual cycle tracking
- Over 25 built-in sports apps
- Workout plans (across strength training, cardio, yoga, Pilates and more)
- Contactless payments
- Extra premium features for an added cost, including on-screen animated workouts
Track your stress, monitor your energy levels and take calls with the Garmin Venu 2 Plus (£399.99), which boasts the unique function of letting users take calls from their wrist and use a smartphone’s voice assistant (such as Siri) to send texts. Joining a suite of smart all-day wear smart watches and fitness trackers from the brand, the Venu 2 Plus has 24/7 health monitoring features, including heart rate, and all-day stress and menstrual cycle tracking for women.
It also comes with over 25 built-in indoor and GPS sports apps, such as running, cycling, swimming and hiking, plus built-in music and Garmin’s LiveTrack safety tracking, which lets user’s friends and family track their outdoor activity. Plus, it comes in a wide range of sleek styles and colours.
The Amazfit GT 3 Series Smart Watches (from £149)
Key features:
- 24/7 health monitoring, including blood oxygen, heart rate, stress and sleep tracking
- Upgraded version of Zepp Health’s smart biometric tracking technology
- Built-in sports mode to track activity
- 12 day battery life (or 21-day on the GTR 3)
- Built-in Alexa voice assistant for hand-free use
- Extremely slim and lightweight
Kickstart your healthy new year by investing in a smartwatch. The Amazfit GT 3 series is the brand’s latest generation of fitness trackers and smartwatches and comprises: the GTR 3 Pro (£179), the GTS 3 (£149) and the GTR3 (£149). Now featuring the upgraded version of Zepp Health’s smart biometric tracking technology, these watches offer 24/7 health monitoring for your blood oxygen levels, heart rate, stress levels, sleep quality and more.
All three new smart watches in the series offer impressive battery lives, with the GTS lasting up to 12 days before charging and the GTR lasting a whopping 21 days! These smart watches are also great fitness trackers, thanks to the 150+ built-in sports modes which recognise 8 different sports.
XMOVE Activity Tracker (£49.99)
Key features:
- Counts steps
- Monitors sleep quality
- Allows you to compete with other family members
- Connect your phone to view messages and reminders
- Compatible with the GOPLAY activity platform
- Budget-friendly
Founded to help children balance screentime and physical activity through use of its kid-friendly smart watches, Xplora has now launched an activity tracker for adults. Available in four colours, the XMOVE (£49.99) allows parents to track the number of steps each person is taking, and you can even get competitive with other family members when using it. You can also measure the quality of your sleep, then assess it on the app. Plus, at only £49.99, this is a great, budget-friendly option for a fitness tracker.
Garmin Lily (£179.99)
Key features:
- Small, sleek and lightweight design
- Elegantly patterned touchscreen watch face
- 24/7 health monitoring, including heart rate, stress, energy, respiration and activity tracking
- Menstrual cycle tracking
- Mindful breathing exercises
- Easy to transition between fitness and everyday wear
The new Garmin Lily (£179.99) takes the high-tech practicality of smart watches and fitness trackers for women and turns it into an elegant wristwatch that you can wear for all occasions. The sleek design is lightweight and dainty, with a patterned watch face and the choice between a silicone or leather strap, making it perfect for sweaty workouts, day-to-day life or fancy events!
The smart watch allows you to track your heart rate, stress, energy, respiration, activity and your menstrual cycle. There are also helpful mindfulness exercises, complete with on-screen animations to help you time and control your breaths.
Galaxy Watch4 (£249)
Key features:
- 24/7 health monitoring with the Samsung BioActive Sensor
- Check your blood pressure and measure ECG
- Holistic sleep analysis with advanced insights from the National Sleep Foundation
- Monitor your body composition, including body fat percentage, skeletal muscle, body water and more
- Compete in fitness challenges with friends and family
- Track workouts and activity in over 90 different sports and disciplines
- Sleek design with choice of silicone and leather bands
Galaxy Watch4 (from £249) is a fitness tracker with all the bells and whistles. Not only does this watch track your workouts and physical activity in over 90 different sports, it also offers an extensive range of health monitoring features, from checking your blood pressure to measuring ECG.
It also allows you to monitor your body composition – something we’ve never seen in a smart watch before. At the press of a button, you can discover your body fat percentage, skeletal muscle, body water and more in just 15 seconds. This is sure to be a super handy feature for hardcore fitness fans.
Furthermore, this watch also takes sleep tracking one step further by measuring blood oxygen levels and snoring patterns while you sleep, to offer a more holistic approach. Plus, you’ll also receive advanced insights from the National Sleep Foundation to help you improve your sleep quality.
FitBit Versa 2 Smartwatch (£105.90)
Key features:
- 24/7 health and fitness monitoring
- Personalised insights
- 20 different exercise modes
- Daily ‘readiness’ scores to recommend workouts or rest periods
- Built-in Alexa voice assistant
- Set reminders, timers and exercise routines
FitBit has created some of the most popular smart watches and fitness trackers to date, and it’s not hard to see why people love them. Perhaps the best smartwatch for beginners, the FitBit Versa 2 (£105.90) delivers tons of insight and suggestions about your exercise regime. And, for around £100, the Versa 2 is significantly cheaper than competing smartwatches from Apple, Samsung and Garmin.
Part of the Fitbit fitness range, the Versa 2 tracks fitness data 24 hours a day, seven days a week to give users powerful, personalised insights into how your body responds to exercise. As well as offering 20 different exercise modes, users get daily readiness scores that recommend different routines or rest periods.
You also have access to voice commands via the watch’s built-in Amazon Alexa. You can check the weather before you head out on a run, set up reminders, timers and exercise routines and more – all by just speaking a few words! The Versa is available in several different colours, including elegant Rose Gold and sleek Black Carbon.
Apple Watch Series 6 GPS 40mm (£284.80)
- 24/7 health and fitness tracking
- Sensor cluster allows for accurate heart rate, blood oxygen and ECG monitoring
- Sleep routine scores
- Entertainment and messaging apps
- Water resistance up to 50m
- Sleek and sophisticated design
No Apple fan will be disappointed with the Apple Watch Series 6 (£284.80) thanks to its combination of sophisticated health tracking features with a subtly glamorous appearance that screams classic Apple chic. This smartwatch is as suitable for a dinner party as it is for a racetrack!
The Apple Watch Series 6 debuted a totally redesigned backplate with eight discrete sensors. This sensor cluster measures a user’s heartbeat more accurately than older Apple Watches but it also allows for blood oxygen and electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring. Both of these metrics are key indicators of overall health, so they’re useful statistics for anyone to know.
Offering plenty of other tracked wellness statistics – from sleep routine scores to elevation calibration for running – as well as dozens of entertainment, messaging and security apps through Apple WatchOS, this is one smart smartwatch!
Xiaomi Mi Band 6 (£33.94)
Key features:
- Sleek design
- Budget friendly
- 14-day battery life
- Water resistance up to 50m
- 30 pre-programmed exercise routines with automatic activity detection
- Measures steps, heart rate and calories
Most smartwatches cost at least £100, but consumers can find real bargains with fitness trackers. One of the best for under £50 is the Mi Band 6 from Xiaomi (£33.94). This small fitness band sports an AMOLED display that’s as bright as a smartphone, water resistance up to 50m and a phenomenal 14-day battery life.
Although significantly cheaper than other products on this list, the Mi Band 6 doesn’t scrimp on what’s truly important: the fitness features. It comes with 30 pre-programmed exercise routines with auto-detection, so it’s not a disaster if you forget to select a mode before your workout. Not only that, it automatically measures step counts, heart rates and calories throughout the day, so you can track your daily activity even on a rest day!
