GPS watches have become an essential adventure accessory these days. Head out on any outdoorsy adventure and you’re sure to see numerous wrists proudly emblazoned with chunky, brightly-coloured timepieces. Hikers, runners and cyclists are all using them – it’s the tech-centric, gadget-loving way of things nowadays. But why have GPS smartwatches become so popular?
It’s partly about fashion – they looks stylish and contemporary. But ultimately it’s more about functionality. GPS watches are incredibly useful in a practical sense. They can help if you’re hopelessly lost, enabling you to navigate back to safety or pinpoint your exact location. They improve your physical performance by tracking your fitness goals and motivating you to push harder, faster and higher. And they can keep you connected, with social media notifications, Spotify integration and weather alerts.
Related: Best Hiking Apps
Not all smartwatches are created equal, however, and it’s common sense to pick one designed with your favourite activities in mind. We’ve tested these watches with hiking primarily in mind, however, there’s a whole bunch of options here that would suit running, cycling, and even skiing too. Whatever your priorities, there’s a smartwatch out there for everyone in our round-up of the best outdoor watches for this year.
The Best GPS Watches for Hiking 2025
We’ve hiking hundreds of miles to find the best GPS watches out there, with a wide variety in terms of price, features and styles. Our main gear testers so far have been Will Renwick, Amy Marwick, Jordan Tiernan, Holly Burns, Jamie Burns, Dave MacFarlane and Mike Brindley; all lifelong outdoor enthusiasts in their own ways. Here are our category winners, following our rigorous testing process:
- Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar – Best Overall GPS Watch for Hiking
- Garmin Fenix 6x Pro – Best GPS Watch for Durability
- Garmin Instinct 2 Solar – Best Value GPS Watch for Hiking
- Polar Grit X2 Pro – Best GPS Watch for Fitness Tracking
- Suunto Race S – Best GPS Watch for Trail Running and Fast Hiking
Editor’s Note: This article was updated in October 2025 to ensure that all of the products are still available for purchase. After many months of testing, the Suunto Race S watch was also added into this list at number five due to its impressive performance with one of our testers.
1. Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar
Best GPS watch for hiking overall, according to our tests
Price: £545
Weight: 74g
Best for: Outdoor adventure and activity and general fitness
Key attributes: Very long battery life, excellent mapping
This watch from Suunto is totally unbeatable when it comes to battery life. Using it with all systems go, you’ll get up to 85 hours out of it and you can even get more than a year’s worth of charge out of it if you use it as economically as possible.
OM editor and gear tester Will recently used this watch out in the Highlands. He said, “What stood out about the Vertical Titanium Solar was just how handy and user-friendly the mapping is. It offers route following and tracking on detailed maps that demonstrate trails, contour lines and important landmarks. I’ve found it to be highly accurate too, with dual-frequency GPS/GNSS satellite connectivity that gives you extremely accurate positioning, even in high up or particularly remote places.” The mapping software is free and its tiles, along with any pre-planned route you want to follow, can all be downloaded for offline use.
With a built in heart rate monitor and all the training metrics you’d expect from a watch at this price point, you can use this to track and record over 90 different sports and activities, covering everything from hiking, running and cycling to cross-country skiing, cricket and more. We also liked this for its durability; Will put it through a demanding few days in the mountains and it ended up without a single scratch. He also said, “I think it’s also worth commending Suunto for making this using 100% renewable energy and for offsetting 100% of the carbon emissions created in its production.”
Selected for our Outdoor 100 – read our full Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar review.
Buy the Suunto Vertical Titanium Solar GPS watch: £545 at Amazon.co.uk
2. Garmin Fenix 6X Pro
Selected as the best GPS watch for durability, following our tests
Price: £480
Weight: 82g
Best for: Multi-sports, mountain pursuits, running, hiking
Key attributes: Long battery life, TOPO mapping, full health & fitness tracking, music storage.
The Garmin Fenix 6X Pro might seem eye-wateringly pricey, but this watch really is an all-singing, all-dancing multi-sport champion with an impressive suite of outdoors tools, bucket loads of premium features and an impressive design. It’s packed full of sensor tech, including built-in heart rate monitoring, GPS/Galileo and GLONASS satellite support, barometric altimeter, compass, gyroscope, blood oxygen sensor and thermometer. And essentially is designed to streamline your life on the trail, be that full-colour Europe-wide TOPO mapping for navigation support or health and fitness insights like Pulse Ox Acclimation to keep tabs on your blood oxygen saturation (SATs) levels while you’re ascending.
At 83g, the 6X is a chunk of a watch with a large 51 mm case size – the largest in the whole Fenix lineup. That’s made up of a large titanium bezel to protect the 280 x 280 pixel Corning® Gorilla® Glass DX or sapphire crystal watch face, depending on which model you go for. Battery life is impressive with 21 days in smartwatch mode, 72 hours of tracking in UltraTrac GPS tracking and up to 56 days of GPS tracking in Expedition Mode that takes a new GPS fix every hour to save juice. Music lovers will enjoy the onboard storage for 2,000 songs storage and it also plays nice with Garmin’s InReach satellite communicators.
Our tester Jamie Barnes (outdoor photographer and filmmaker) said, “It’s been extremely useful for keeping track of my daily exercise and making sure I reach my targets. Its rugged design and durability also means I’ve been able to use it during all my regular outdoors activities with no fear of it being damaged by the elements. It’s a pricey bit of kit, but worth the investment if you can see yourself using all of its features.”
It’s worth bearing in mind that there’s now a newer version of this, called the Fenix 7x Pro, and this offers all of the same features but with added training tools and a new touch screen.
Chosen for our Outdoor 100 – read our full Garmin Fenix 6X Pro review.
Buy the Garmin Fenix 6X Pro GPS watch: £480 at Amazon.co.uk
3. Garmin Instinct 2 Solar
Selected as the best value GPS watch for hiking
Price: £219
Weight: 52g
Best for: Off-grid adventures, multi-day adventures
Key attributes: Solar charging, GPS tracking
In a new watch design from Garmin, the Instinct 2 Solar has a very impressive battery life. A step up from its previous incarnation, this watch offers unlimited battery life even while using its Smart features (providing you’re able to capture enough sun to provide charge, of course). It’s remarkable how long this thing can last, even without solar charging, you’ll get up to 28 days of full functionality, and as many as 32 with Expedition GPS Activity (again, indefinite with solar). If you’re using the GPS at its most accurate, with frequent satellite positioning, then the charge should last up to 48 hours. That’s over a 50% increase from the original Instinct Solar. These times are all assuming all-day wear with 3 hours per day outside in 50,000 lux (bright) conditions.
The watch is equipped with a GPS device that makes use of GPS, GLONASS and Galileo system of satellites (standard from Garmin), meaning you’ll be able to track all of your activities including trail running, hiking, ski touring, among many others. On top of this, the Instinct 2 Solar is also carrying a wrist-top heart rate monitor (chest heart rate sensor can also be purchased separately for accurate readings) and improved smartphone pairing thanks to the Garmin Connect+ app. You can check the day’s total ascent / descent, view your route fully mapped on your phone, receive texts, notifications, and even stream music from the Garmin. It’s all contained within a rugged shell that’ll withstand pressures equivalent to a depth of 100 metres.
Gear tester Will said, “It’s quite remarkable just how long this thing can last, even with GPS tracking, and that’s why, as an outdoor enthusiast who likes to hike and wild camp for days at a time, completely away from civilisation, it has a heck of a lot of appeal.”
Read the full Garmin Instinct 2 Solar review.
Buy the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar GPS watch: £219 at Blacks.co.uk
4. Polar Grit X2 Pro
Our favourite GPS watch for fitness tracking, according to our tests
Price: £570
Weight: 79g
Best for: Multi-activity outdoor use, fitness tracking
Key attributes: Long battery life, easy app integration, advanced fitness tracking, easy to use
Outdoor photographer and keen outdoorsman Dave MacFarlane has been using the Polar Grit X2 Pro over the past few years and says it really stands out for its usability. He reports, “I’ve been using this watch for mountain hikes, lake swimming, sea kayaking and gravel biking for the past few months and while many other smartwatches on the market struggle to last a full day on a single charge, the Polar Grit X2 Pro can easily go for several days (and I mean a week) without needing to be recharged.”
He continues: “One impressive new feature that I like is the sleep tracking capability that’s linked with the light-based heart rate sensor. Your sleep quality is tracked over the course of the night which I’ve found has started to build my awareness of how well I’m sleeping and what affects this. This then syncs to the Polar Flow app where you can start to build a record over time and integrate the data into your fitness regime.”
“Overall, this is a top-notch smartwatch that easily holds its own with others at this price point. With its impressive battery life, user-friendly interface, and advanced fitness tracking features, the Polar X2 Grit surpasses many other watches on the market in terms of usability and functionality. I think it’s a fantastic choice that will enhance your everyday life in more ways than one.”
Read our full Polar Grit X2 Pro review.
Buy the Polar Grit X2 Pro GPS watch: £570 at Amazon.co.uk
5. Suunto Race S
Selected as the best GPS watch for trail running and fast hiking
Price: £290
Weight: 60g
Best for: Trail running, fast hiking
Key attributes: Compact, comfortable, easy to use topo mapping tools, customisable sport modes, great value for money
Outdoor gear tester Amy Marwick took the Suunto Race S GPS watch for a spin over the past year and was impressed: “I tested the Suunto Race S ski touring in the Cairngorms, running the trails of the Highlands and Pentlands, and hill training in the Peak District. Sessions ranged from a couple of hours to full-day missions, always using GPS and navigation features and charging it overnight. I also used it for the start of a 16-week trail marathon training program which gave the ideal opportunity to test its features.”
She continues, “the Race S is a brilliant entry point smart watch. It’s intuitive enough for beginners but has a deep feature set for when you’re ready to get more technical. For data lovers, this watch tracks just about everything: VO2 max, recovery status, heart rate, stress scores, and training load (which you can keep track of in the app). And for those who want to take a deep dive into training, there are training programs and workouts that you can download from SuuntoPlus, or you can connect the watch with a partner service like Intervals.icu or RunMotion Coach, and increase its functionality twofold.”
“If you need more battery life or memory for multi-day epics, the standard Suunto Race might be a better fit, but for most day and weekend missions, the Race S delivers all the essentials at a lighter weight and lower cost. Compared to some other Suunto watches, it’s built with slightly less rugged materials but all the core features are still there. Last but not least, did I mention, it looks great!”
Read our full Suunto Race S watch review.
Buy The Suunto Race S GPS Watch: £290 at Amazon.co.uk
Best of the Rest
6. Coros Apex 2 Pro
Price: £450
Weight: 53g
Best for: Outdoor adventure and activity and general fitness
Key attributes: Very long battery life, comfortable strap, komoot and strava compatibility
From our experience using the Coros Apex 2 Pro, we’d say the audience it really suits are runners, hikers and cyclists who want something to be able to track their fitness and training and to navigate with as well. It’ll provide them with pretty much all of the features people expect from a top of the range GPS watch, including heart rate monitoring, in-depth fitness and sleep tracking (including blood oxygen level checks) and in-built training plans too.
The battery life on this is very impressive. In fact, excepting solar powered watches, this is a leader in the field, offering 30 days of regular use from one battery charge. With GPS functions on the go, you’ll still get an impressive 75 hours from it.
The mapping and navigation took us a bit of time to get our heads around, but once we were up and running, it proved to be reliable, functional and very accurate, using a whopping 5 different satellite systems. It’s integration with Strava and komoot is a big boon too.
While we loved using this watch, those who like to use their watch for listening to music might want to look elsewhere as there’s no music app compatibility. You can upload mp3 files to it, but that’s a little old school.
Selected for our Outdoor 100 – read our full Coros Apex 2 Pro review.
Buy the Coros Apex 2 Pro GPS watch: £450 at Amazon.co.uk
7. Suunto 9 Baro
Price: £470
Weight: 81g
Best for: Multi-sports, skiing
Key attributes: Powerful battery, heart rate monitor, 80 pre-installed sports modes
The Suunto 9 Baro was a flagship model in the brand’s range of sports watches when it first came out. It’s slightly outdated now, with newer models available, but that means you can get it at a steal.
It’s a smartwatch that’s packed full of features that make tracking and logging your days out while hiking, running, climbing, or whatever else you like to get up to in the outdoors, not only extremely easy, but also enjoyable. The battery life is certainly Suunto’s main selling feature for the 9. A single charge can last up to 120 hours in the ‘Ultra’ mode which keeps up GPS tracking but deactivates wrist heart rate tracking. In ‘Endurance’ mode, battery life is 40 hours with full wrist heart rate and GPS tracking. With 80 pre-installed sport modes that are able to track over 50 different values such as heart-rate, GPS location and many others, there doesn’t seem to be an outdoor sport that this watch wouldn’t be able to track and give you essential feedback on. Running watches don’t always offer to carry GPS tracking, whilst traditional hillwalking watches don’t house heart rate sensors. The Suunto 9 offers both in a pretty sleek form factor.
Our tester Jordan Tiernan said, “I’ve been using the Suunto 9 over the past three months for tracking ski touring ascents, logging running progress and aiding hiking days both in Iceland and Norway. The watch has impressed me with its multi-day battery life, even when you’re using power-sapping tools such as GPS and heart rate.”
“I’ve also been using it to track any developments I’ve made on a specific hill-climb, or any decreases in my min/km time over a certain section of my training runs. I’d go as far as saying I’ve genuinely improved as a runner since I’ve been using it.”
Read our full Suunto 9 Baro review
Buy the Suunto 9 Baro watch: £470 at Amazon.co.uk
8. Polar Grit X
Our favourite GPS watch for fitness, according to our tests
Price: £300
Weight: 64g
Best for: Trail running, hiking
Key attributes: Lightweight, komoot integration, excellent for trail running
Well-suited to hikers and trail runners, the Polar Grit X is, in our opinion, a great looking GPS watch. The screen has lovely clarity and it’s actually brighter and clearer than previous Polar models. You navigate using the touch screen and buttons on the sides. At 64g it’s pretty lightweight and it’s passed a bunch of military-level grades so you can be sure the outdoor durability is there. Its waterproof to 100m too.
Related: Best Trail Running Shoes
With 130 different sports modes, including activities like open water swimming, road cycling and mountain biking, this watch has a bunch of very useful features that help you plan, perform and analyse your exercise. You get altitude measurements, barometric readings, weather forecasts and of course basic stats such as distance and pace. The hill splits feature is nifty too, automatically breaking down your performance going uphill and downhill. The watch also advises you on what you should be drinking and eating after each exercise, like your own personal nutritionist. Integration with navigation app komoot also enables you to follow a route via breadcrumb trails.
Our tester Mike Brindley said, “The interface is simple but effective, and with minimal introduction this watch is easy to navigate. For me it functioned primarily as a training aid, giving me a good idea of when I needed to push harder, and when I was slacking off, as well as gently guiding me towards a better sleep cycle.”
“Where the compact design does leave room for improvement is in processing and additional features. But in accepting that this is a watch (not a phone/GPS replacement), the Grit X excels at being something that’s practical and appealing, rather than over-complicated and unnecessary.
Read our full Polar Grit X review.
Buy the Polar Grit X GPS watch: £300 at Amazon.co.uk
9. Coros Vertix 2
Price: £600
Weight: 89g
Best for: Multi-sports, skiing
Key attributes: Powerful battery, excellent skiing mode, rugged design
OM tester Jordan Tiernan tested the Vertix 2 on a recent hiking and climbing trip in Switzerland and was left impressed with the improvements Coros has made following the initial release of the Vertix Icebreaker. He said, “The first thing to note about this watch is the comfort. This is thanks to the extremely adjustable, and fairly stretchy, wrist strap that really lets you tune in your fit.”
He continues: “Comfort aside, I found the user interface on the Vertix 2 to be extremely easy to navigate around. The novel scroll wheel on the side of the watch really is an effective way to navigate through menus, widgets and to select the sport mode you’re after (of which there are 25 to chose from). I found the large screen to have plenty of room to present all my key tracking stats and data. While the ability to carry 8 different data fields on the single screen is great, I found that it could sometimes be too much data (especially when you’re quickly glancing at the watch during a run) – so it was nice to have to option to switch to the basic viewing modes.
“Last but not least: the battery. This thing is phenomenal in that regard. Throughout my two-week trip in Switzerland I didn’t have to worry about the battery once. Yes, I wasn’t GPS tracking most days, but it was great to have the confidence in knowing that I’ve got over twice the battery power than, say, a Garmin or Suunto. I’m looking forward to getting this thing out in the backcountry where I could see the GNSS chipset truly coming into its own out in a far-flung valley.”
Read our full Coros Vertix 2 review.
Buy the Coros Vertix 2 GPS watch: £600 at Amazon.co.uk
10. Casio G-Shock GBD-H1000-1 Heart Rate Monitor
Price: £380
Weight: 106g
Best for: Multi-sports, watersports
Key attributes: Sturdy and rugged build, scuba diving compatibility
Able to survive a lifetime’s worth of abuse in the outdoors, this G-Shock model is not only tough as nails – it’s also packed with everything you’d expect from a modern day smartwatch: GPS, wrist heart rate measurements, training analysis, training data (up to 100 runs), digital compass, altimeter, barometer and a thermometer. You even get ISO 200 water resistance built in – that’s an equivalent of 20bar pressure, or 290.075 psi – more than enough to bring with you on your next scuba diving adventure.
All of these features are powered by a battery that’ll last around 14-hours with continuous smartwatch use (GPS & heart rate tracking), an astonishing 12 months in regular watch mode without battery saving functions enabled, or 34 months with battery saving enabled. These astonishing figures are further boosted by solar power charging when you’re in clear sunlight.
Our tester Jordan said, “All in all, if you’re looking for a watch that you can simply depend on, I’d certainly recommend the G-Shock for you – the watch isn’t going to fail on you in environments where other more technical smartwatches will simply not cope.”
Read our full Casio G-Shock GBD-H1000-1 Heart Rate Monitor review.
Buy the Casio G-Shock GBD-H1000-1 watch: £380 at G-shock.co.uk
How To Choose A GPS Watch
Most GPS smartwatches enable you to keep a very close eye on your physical performance while out on an adventure, recording enough data to satisfy even the geekiest and most obsessive of fitness fanatics. You can track all the usual stuff: distance travelled, ascent, time and heart rate, choosing one of a myriad of workout modes such as running, cycling, hiking, skiing or whatever else you’re up to.
High-end watches also include technical measurements such as blood oxygen levels, barometer pressure and altitude. And then there’s all of the more lifestyle-y, everyday fitness-related features, such daily step counts, calories burnt, stress levels, and even a sleep monitor, which tracks both the length and quality of your sleep.
If you want to use your GPS watch for navigation while cycling and hiking, choose a timepiece with in-built mapping, or one that has integration with a mapping app such as komoot. These will give you turn-by-turn notifications and even allow you to view Ordnance Survey map tiles on-the-go.
If you’ll be off-grid for long periods, opt for a smartwatch with good battery life and solar charging, or if fitness tracking is your thing then choose a running-specific smartwatch that’ll give you all the stats you need.
