It’s December – and you know what that means: It’s time for the annual (and sprawling) – Sportswatch Year in Review video! This marks half a decade in a row of this annual video, where Des of DesFit, and I sit down and pick apart how the year went for sports watches.
This year marks the 6th iteration of this, with some 20 watches and wearables this year, including one of the most diverse group of watches in terms of features, functionality…and price. We saw more companies begin (or complete) their transition to AMOLED, while others pushed into new product categories.
Here are all the chapters in the video, diving into each of the watches or major announcements individually. You can click on any of these to be taken right to that section.
0:00 Intro
2:24 Garmin Lily 2
5:55 Garmin HRM Fit
9:39 Garmin Forerunner 165
13:37 Polar Grit X2 Pro
19:35 Sennheiser Momentum Sport
25:34 COROS Vertix 2S
29:43 Suunto Race S
33:29 Samsung Galaxy Watch 7
37:25 Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
42:34 Suunto Ocean
46:16 Google Pixel Watch 3
55:39 Garmin Fenix 8
1:04:42 Garmin Enduro 3
1:07:43 Garmin Fenix E
1:11:49 Apple Watch Ultra 2 Black
1:21:47 Apple Watch Series 10
1:25:20 Amazfit T Rex 3
1:34:16 Garmin Lily 2 Active
1:38:45 Polar Vantage M3
1:41:26 COROS Pace Pro
1:46:02 What’s in store for 2025?
At just under 2 hours in length, these videos are somewhat designed to be put on in the background – akin to a podcast (like the FIT File Podcast). Thus, feel free to just listen in the background while pretending to do work. Thus far, the formula seems to be popular, with last year’s 2023 recap video at 345K views, 2022 video having topped 465K views, 2021 at 485K views, and 2020 at 443,000 views.
As usual, for each watch, we talk through what worked well, and what didn’t work. As well as how we think things might change going forward (both at the product level and industry level).
Give it a watch (or a listen), I think you’ll find it a bit addicting, especially if you’re a sports tech or watch geek. And if you enjoy this sort of thing, again, check out the FIT File Podcast as well, new episode dropping shortly there as well!
Thanks for watching!
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Another year with LTE a seeming dead end at Garmin. Any hopes for the future Ray?
Oops! Just got to that part of the video. From your mouths to Garmin’s ears!
I’d rather have Garmin put an InReach satellite radio in their watches (and make it subscription free) rather than LTE. I’m not sure that’s physically possible, though.
I also really hoped for a normal LTE watch from Garmin that would allow phonecalls and texts.
I switched from Garmin to Samsung Watch to have LTE calls, but it sucks as sport watch.
Probably the market for such a feature is not big enough for Garmin to consider it.
As runner, I give more value to keep my phone at home while running and being able to give a call home if I’m late, rather than a very good gps map.
Why no FitBit’s included?
(Sorry, initial response was to a different thread…)
In any case, for this post, Fitbit didn’t release/announce any devices in 2024. Albeit, except the Fitbit Ace kids watch, which, somehow, defying logic, we forgot to mention.
In terms of my thoughts on that:
– Interesting approach, focused on heavy gamification for kids, and a lot of work spent on the ‘worlds’ for the kids to play in.
– Terrible battery life, and oveheating issues
– Limited to the US only
– Includes support for Google Pay cards
– For our kids (I bought some and tested it for a while), it was *too* much gamification compared to their Garmin Bounce. Basically, the kids couldn’t stop playing with it. It became a constant distraction, rather than a motivator.
– Missing a lot of features at launch like geo fences, the ability for siblings to chat with each other, etc…
I think the device might work well to prevent slightly older kids having to jump to a cell phone, but for younger kids, I think it ends up just becoming another screen.
In my opinion, sports watches are at the pinnacle of tech. What they can do, in the words of Ray is Amazballs!
I wonder when we will start seeing camera on watch. Flashlight seems to be much appreciated now; I think this is next.