The best fitness watches 2016 - reviewed

What’s the story?

A cheaper alternative to Withings’ standard Activité, the Pop is a traditionally styled ticker with an analogue approach to activity tracking. In the bottom right of the face there’s a hand that tells you how close you are to hitting your daily target, which you set in advance via the Withings Health Mate app. That’s also where you can find your in-depth tracking and sleep stats and compare them with your Pop-wearing friends. The straps are interchangeable, meaning you can clip in new colours or, in theory, have one custom made. At a glance it could just be a normal watch – and that’s a good thing.

Is it any good?

The Pop’s colourful face is clear and uncluttered, which makes for great contrast against the white hands. It’ll detect more vigorous movement and log it as running, giving you credit for that desperate dash to the bus stop. It’s waterproof too, and will automatically pick up swimming, although that’s where its tracking skills end. Still, it’s accurate and the battery lasts months, making it a wearable you can really live with – with just enough smarts to satisfy those who don’t devour data. It’ll never be a full-on sports watch, but it will track you in style.

What’s the story?

Unlike most fitness watches, which require the user to tell them the activity they’re about to embark on in order to track it effectively, the Basis Peak captures a continuous stream of movement and physiological data and automatically identifies what you’re up to without asking – it’ll even know when you’ve nodded off at the end of the day. On the back is an optical heart-rate tracker, and it can take the temperature of your skin. It’ll connect to your phone for call, text, calendar and email notifications, but with its monochrome screen it’s more Pebble than Apple Watch.

Is it any good?

The Peak’s auto detection works very effectively; the only problem is that it struggles to tell the difference between pausing to tie a shoelace and a genuine, premature wheezing breakdown. That means it often chops your runs into smaller chunks, making it hard to compare times on your regular route. Even with its always-on heart-rate monitor, the battery will last the best part of a week, although for an accurate pulse you do need to crank up the strap tension. Phone notifications are unobtrusive but limited to basic functionality.