As you prep for your holiday shopping, it’s important to find the best, most fitting gift for each special person on your list. A smartwatch is a versatile gift because as long as you know what phone they use and which ecosystem they’re in (iPhone or Android), virtually everyone can benefit from a smartwatch. To find the perfect match, you just need the right knowledge about the latest and greatest, what features they’d value, and the style that will suit them. That’s where we come in.
We’re here to help with a breakdown of the best smartwatches to gift everyone on your list. It might be a teen looking for a smartwatch to assist with their busy school days. Or a fitness enthusiast wanting to keep on top of workouts. What about an adventurer seeking out a smartwatch to meet their discerning needs? Even grandma can benefit from health, wellness, and safety features in the latest smartwatches. There really is a model for everyone.
Why a smartwatch is the perfect gift for just about anyone?
Smartwatches are about way more than just phone notifications on your wrist. In fact, that feature is arguably secondary to all the great fitness, health, and wellness features they offer. Even if someone doesn’t actively work out every day, they might want to track light activities like walks or winter skating with the kids. Smartwatches track crucial health data as well, like heart rate, sleep duration and quality, body temperature, stress, blood oxygen, and more. These are insights anyone can benefit from having, even if they don’t exercise.
For women, many smartwatches track things like menstrual cycles. Plus, they serve as convenient portals to your mobile wallet, weather apps, live translations, navigation, alarms, notifications, and more. And some have safety features that can help you in the event of an accident or emergency.
The best smartwatches to gift
Ready to choose? I have reviewed dozens of smartwatches over the years from all the top brands. Based on my extensive research and experience, here are the top picks to consider this year for everyone on your list.
Best smartwatch for women: Garmin Lily
Specially designed for ladies, the Garmin Lily smartwatch is among the best fitness watches for women. It boasts a feminine design and comes in soft colors, like Coconut and Lilac. Designed to resemble a fashionable wristwatch, it packs tons of health, wellness, and fitness features inside. You can track activities, calorie burn, heart rate, sleep, and more. Women will especially love the menstrual cycle and pregnancy tracking. Runner-up: Google Pixel Watch 4 is sleek and sexy, too, perfect for smaller wrists.
Best smartwatch for iPhone users: Apple Watch Series 11
The latest from Apple, the Apple Watch Series 11 is the perfect companion for an iPhone user. It has features you won’t find in the Apple Watch SE 3, like heart rate notifications and longer battery life. Seamlessly pairing with iPhone, you get a slimmed down look with more screen compared to the Series 8 and older models, longer battery life as noted, a more durable screen, and all the goodies that come with watchOS 26. These includes things like Workout Buddy, wrist flick gestures, and Liquid Glass effects. The new sleep score feature provides even more useful data about your sleep quality to help you improve. Runner-up: Apple Watch Series 10 is similar in feature set, updateable to watchOS 26, and will save you a few bucks if you’re on a tight budget.
Best smartwatch for Samsung Galaxy users: Samsung Galaxy Watch 8
The newest model in Samsung’s line, the Galaxy Watch 8 pairs beautifully with a Samsung Galaxy phone. You can track everything under the sun, plus you get Gemini assistance right on your wrist. Need to know what temperature to set the oven at for green beans, or how much water your tomato plant needs? Just ask! Thin and lightweight with a bright screen, it has features like running coach, enhanced sleep tracking, energy score, and more. Runner-up: Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 is a generation down but still a solid choice worth considering if you can find a good deal.
Best smartwatch for men: Garmin Instinct 3 Solar
If you’re looking for rugged fitness watches for men to replace a sports watch, the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar is a good option. The multisport watch does everything a standard smartwatch can do and adds solar charging capability. This means you could theoretically enjoy infinite battery life with continuous sun exposure. With a 10ATM rating, you can confidently swim with it, and it’s extra durable with thermal and shock resistance as well. With multi-band GPS and safety features like incident detection, it’s the perfect upgrade for the guy on your list, a good smartwatch gift for dad, husband, brother, son, or friend. Runner up: Garmin fenix 8 Pro is a pro-level smartwatch for serious users.
Best smartwatch for teens: Fitbit Sense 2
The combination of affordable price, basic features, and the user-friendly Fitbit app with the option to set up a child account makes the Fitbit Sense 2 the perfect smartwatch for teens. Working with both iPhone and Android, teens can use it for morning alarms, schedules, notifications, and to monitor stats like sleep. They can track activities like school sports and leverage Alexa voice assistance for homework help. The generous six-day battery life is appreciated for busy and active students as well. Even without a Fitbit Premium subscription, it’s a good, basic watch for teens. But it comes with a six-month trial to enjoy. Runner-up: Apple Watch SE 3 has almost everything the Series 11 has for a cheaper price, and it works with Apple Watch For Your Kids. You can set it up connected to your phone if they don’t have one.
Best smartwatch for the elderly: Google Pixel Watch 4
The Google Pixel Watch 4 is a sleek smartwatch for just about anyone with an Android phone, ideally a Google Pixel phone. But there are some features that make it especially appealing for the elderly. These include Gemini right on your wrist so they can ask pertinent questions, like when they have to take their medication or what the weather is. There’s an ECG app that sends irregular heart rhythm notifications and alerts, safety check for sharing your location with emergency contacts if needed, fall detection, car crash detection, and emergency SOS alerts. There’s even offline Google Maps if they get lost and offline satellite communications. Runner up: Apple Watch SE 3 is an affordable option for older folks with iPhone that has premium health, wellness, and safety features.
Best smartwatch for kids: Garmin Bounce
Specifically designed for kids, the Garmin Bounce has built-in GPS and LTE. If you sign up for a plan, you can keep in touch with your kids through two-way texts and voice messages, even see their location. It has basic step and sport tracking apps along with the ability for kids to manage chores and get rewards, right from their wrist. Activate school mode when you don’t want them distracted and enjoy the up to two-day battery life. When they are permitted screen time after school, it has fun games, including a puzzle slider and math flash. Runner-up: Fitbit Ace 3 is more of a fitness band than a smartwatch but it’s an ultra-affordable model to get them started.
Best budget smartwatch: Amazfit Active 2
Amazfit has a reputation for offering fantastic smartwatches with premium features and reliable tracking at an affordable price. It’s a worthwhile alternative to the smartphone brands if you want something agnostic that works equally well with any phone. The Active 2 has Amazfit’s BioTracker technology for precisely tracking vitals like heart rate as well as sleep. Choose from more than 160 workout modes, and enjoy advanced features you’d typically only find in high-end smartwatches, like built-in GPS, incredible battery life (up to 10 days per charge!), 5ATM water resistance, and a large and bright AMOLED display. Runner-up: Samsung Galaxy Watch FE is a pared down version of Galaxy Watch for a lower price.
Best smartwatch for adventurers: Apple Watch Ultra 3
It’s a hefty investment, but for Apple iPhone owners who enjoy outdoor adventures like hiking and watersports, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is worth the investment. Now with built-in satellite communications for off-grid connection in the event of an emergency, you get the longest battery life of any Apple Watch, a more rugged and durable build with greater water resistance, advanced metrics, dual-frequency GPS, even a built-in flashlight feature. It’s the ultimate iPhone user’s watch companion. Runner-up: Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra is the alternative for Galaxy and Android phone users that has similar specs.
Phone branded smartwatches to match
If you have an Apple iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 11 is the Goldilocks option with everything you need for a reasonable price. For Samsung Galaxy, go with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8. If you own a Google Pixel phone, the Google Pixel Watch 4 is the best option as well as the best smartwatch for Android. For OnePlus phones, opt for the OnePlus Watch 3 or OnePlus Watch 2. For more details on the two main ecosystems, see our comparison guide between WearOS and watchOS.
Brand-agnostic smartwatches
If you want something brand agnostic, the three best brands to consider include Garmin, Fitbit, and Amazfit. Garmin has smartwatch lines geared towards specific activities, notably it’s Forerunner line for runners. For those who do a 5K every morning or are training for a race, the Garmin Forerunner 965 is the best Garmin running watch, a top pick with features specifically for runners and high marks across the board.
Fitbit is known for its fabulous sleep tracking along with the Fitbit app. While a lot of features are behind the Fitbit Premium paywall, you get a free trial with models like the Fitbit Versa 4, which is the more fitness-focused model when compared to the wellness-focused Sense 2. With Amazfit, when it comes to fitness, stick with the Active line, like the Active 2.
Find the right smartwatch for the person on your list
Whether it’s someone who is into adventure or just wants to track daily activity and/or health and wellness vitals, there’s a perfect smartwatch for them. To choose the right smartwatch, you first need to know what smartphone they have. Then, go from there. Consider what features they’d value most. Look within your budget. And of course, leverage our recommendations based on extensive experience with all these brands and many of these models.
Find the best smartwatches to gift everyone on your list at Best Buy.
