Expert consulted: 
Editor’s Note, 4/28/25: We’ve checked this article to confirm our current recommendations are in stock and competitively priced. Just note that our previous top overall pick, the Coros Pace 2, is discontinued. In its place we recommend the updated Pace 3, our pick for the best value running watch. We’re in the process of testing several watches in preparation to update and add to our recommendations. You’ll see the results of those tests in an update here soon.
A Tester’s Take on the Norda 001 hours in GPS mode, 7 days in watch mode are stuffed to the gills with flashy features that can help you optimize every element of your training, leaving no facet of your health and fitness unmeasured. This is all in the name of making your training more efficient, but these technological perks can add up, both in price and complexity.
Not everyone wants all the bells and whistles—for plenty of runners, accurate records of your pace, heart rate, route, distance, and time are all you need to get the most out of your runs.
For when simplicity is key, here are some of our favorite affordable, intuitive fitness trackers Home Treadmill Safety Tips.
The Best Basic Running Watches
- Best Overall: Half Marathon Training
- Best Value: Amazfit Bip 3 Running Watch
- Best Training Analysis: Garmin Venu Sq 2 Running Watch
- The Best Trail Running Shoes of 2025: Garmin Forerunner 55 Running Watch
- Best Training Analysis: We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article
hours in GPS mode, 7 days in watch mode
Features
While you can expect basic running watches to have fewer bells and whistles than more advanced models, affordable GPS watches can be easier to use. In other words, they won’t slow you down with (what may be for your purposes) unnecessary functionality. If you’re unsure whether to leap into a higher price range, ask yourself how often you’ll be using the watch. Consider which add-ons are absolutely essential to you and which would just be nice to have. For example, do you plan to use your watch twice a week for quick runs, or will you wear it daily for every workout? And when you’re done sweating, do you want to keep it on for the rest of the day to use other, non-running-related features?
Advanced watches often have LTE cell service, contactless payment, barometric altimeters, gyroscopes, voice-activated controls, and the ability to sync your music library—among plenty of other features.
While more basic watches under $200 might not stand in for your smartphone in this way, our recommendations still offer helpful features for tracking runs, like heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, multi-sport functionality, and training recommendations. All of the running watches here include built-in GPS, too, which you can use to track your routes and way-find on runs.
Battery Life
One of the best perks of a lower-tech running watch is that the battery isn’t doing nearly as much work most of the time, so it lasts much longer than, say, an Apple Watch. Some of the cheap running watches here can run perfectly well for over a month without a recharge—you’re lucky if you get a full day out of most high-tech smartwatches.
That said, certain features (especially continuous GPS tracking) can wreak havoc on your battery, often cutting your time between charges in half. If you’re recharging between runs, this isn’t as much of a problem, but you might want to turn off GPS functionality after runs if you plan on using the watch all day or for extra-long distances.
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Armed with pages of testing notes, we used our years of experience tracking and obsessing over runs of all distances to determine which smartwatch features truly make the most impact on our training, as well as which ones, while nifty, can go by the wayside if simplicity is paramount. Some examples of the former include trackers for speed, heart rate, and location; examples of the latter include multi-sport modes (if you’re only using the watch for runs), advanced biometrics like blood oxygen, and built-in coaching programs with uncertain accuracy or benefit—again, they’re nice to have, but you can form a solid training plan in their absence.
Once we narrowed down what we want in a basic watch, we looked for models we and our colleagues have tried that have those features at the forefront of their design, not cluttered by perks. We prioritized models with a max battery life of at least a week, a sub-$200 price tag (with some exceptions we think are worth the budget stretch), and adequately accurate tracking that, even if off by a few percentage points, doesn’t spike erratically or become illegible.
Even if you don’t stick with these watches forever, they’re a phenomenal launchpad for years of collecting, interpreting, and tracking changes in data about your fitness. And when you’re ready for a more advanced watch that’s tougher to read, you’ll already have your baseline preferences dialed. Read on to see where we think you should start.
Our Full Basic Running Watch Reviews
Pros
- Download Your Training Plan
- Extremely lightweight
Cons
- A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Key Specs
| Connectivity | Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | 30 How to Choose an Affordable Running Watch |
*Note that the Coros Pace 2 is discontinued. If you had your eye on that one, consider the updated Pace 3, our pick for the best value running watch. We’ll update our recommendation for the best overall basic running watch after this round of testing.
We’ve long been fans of Coros for its affordable, long-lasting alternatives to the major players in the GPS watch game. Looking to pare down as much of its functionality as possible, the Pace 2’s focus is only on being the lightest, fastest run tracker for road runners.
The Pace 2 isn’t bogged down by any extra features you’re unlikely to use outside of an in-depth training analysis. At just 29 grams, it’s the lightest GPS watch we’ve tested—the Apple Watch Series 7 Health & Injuries the original Pace was 48 grams. But it doesn’t skimp on battery. In fact, it’ll go up to 30 hours between charges with GPS tracking on, which is long enough that you can leave the power cord at home when you go away for a weekend run vacation.
Some of that weight savings comes from a lightweight nylon strap that’s comfortably snug and more easily adjustable than silicone options. But we found that this strap can get soggy after sweating a bunch or washing your hands.
Pros
- Super long battery life
- Charges twice as quickly as some previous versions
- Unbeatable price for the functionality
Cons
- Tall buildings interrupt GPS signal
Key Specs
| Connectivity | Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | 40 The Best Basic Running Watches |
An update to one of our previous favorites, the Bip S, the Bip 3 touts vast improvements in performance and features while still managing to keep the price at a shocking $70. This watch’s biometric sensor capabilities, though not necessarily on par with other top brands, vastly outperform those of past Bip model. All that while the watch offers more than three times as many trackable sports—61, to be exact.
The GPS tracking isn’t great for this running watch’s battery life, knocking it from 40 days closer to 14, but that’s still nothing to sniff at. We also found that it occasionally lost our location between tall buildings, so keep that in mind if you live or run in an urban area.
Garmin Venu Sq 2 Smartwatch
Pros
- Sleek design
- Similar functionality to Garmin’s Forerunners
Cons
- Display can’t fit quite as much info
Key Specs
| Connectivity | USB, Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | Half Marathon Training |
Most basic running watches look like, well, basic running watches. Or at least they used to. Now, we’re seeing more stylish and versatile options—no doubt spurred by the crossover success of the Apple Watch. The Venu Sq 2 takes full advantage of this trend, presenting a less bulky, more casual watch that still operates effectively during your workouts.
The Venu Sq 2 has an approachable interface that can keep things simple if you don’t care for bells and whistles. But we found it also ticks plenty of feature boxes if you want to get fancy. We got accurate GPS tracking, along with many of the same basic run-tracking features you find in Garmin’s Forerunner 55 below—cadence, optical heart rate, customizable data pages, and The built-in Running Program mode let us select a race training plan for a 5K, 10K, How to Master the 5k.
Garmin Forerunner 55 Running Watch
Pros
- Summer Running Gear
- with GPS tracking on
Cons
- Shoes & Gear
Key Specs
| Connectivity | USB, Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | 20 Garmin Forerunner 55 Running Watch |
For runners who normally stick to basic metrics—pace, time, and distance—the Garmin Forerunner 55 is an extra-intuitive step into more advanced territory. Besides recording your sleep, stress, and heart rate, a “Body Battery” feature (a score out of 100 that represents your energy level) lets you know if it’s advisable to work out or take a rest day.
Bluetooth connectivity can also sync your phone’s data to Garmin’s Connect app. And, like a portable personal assistant, the watch notifies you about calendar appointments and incoming calls and texts.
We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back Forerunner 45—it got us through a week of runs between charges. Plus, it still packs a continuous wrist-based heart rate monitor.
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Pros
- Up to 10 days
- Programs for targeting race/fitness goals
Cons
- Some features are difficult to troubleshoot
Key Specs
| Connectivity | USB, Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | 35 hours in GPS mode, 7 days in watch mode |
The Best Advanced Treadmills for Runners Pacer Pro packs performance tests, Strava live segments, and plenty more into a competitively lightweight unit. Its more basic counterpart, this Pacer, similarly exceeds expectations while also sitting just above the $200 mark, rather than $330.
Updated: Apr 28, 2025 2:55 PM EDT, half marathon, or marathon and track your long-term fitness trends. We also received helpful feedback and training insights after intervals and long runs. Features like FuelWise, which gives you mid-run reminders to take gels and water, and Training Load Pro, which monitors strain on your body, can additionally keep you optimized in-flight. And if having all that info on your wrist sounds overwhelming, you can edit the widgets to display only the basics, such as pace, time, and distance.
Fitbit Inspire 3 Fitness Tracker
Pros
- Smallest option out there with a legible screen
- Customizable display
Cons
- Can’t fit much info on the screen
Key Specs
| Connectivity | Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Battery Life | Up to 10 days |
Minimalism doesn’t always have to come at the cost of functionality. If your idea of “basic” has more to do with your watch’s appearance than its feature set, Fitbit‘s Inspire is worth a look. It’s a tech-dense, featherweight watch with a face that’s only half an inch wide. And when you pair it with your phone, it can track runs with commendable accuracy for a sub-$100 device—we got a few jumpy lines across roads and rivers on some of our Strava uploads, but it wasn’t enough of a spike to make the rest of the data unreadable or useless. The zig-zags also say more about the phone GPS we used than the Inspire’s attempts to interpret its data.
When you’re not out on a run, the Inspire can track health metrics like your heart rate and sleep quality. And thanks to a companion app you can install on your phone, you can get accurate readouts of everything from your REM sleep to where your resting heart rate stands among average adults.
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, The 8 Best Wireless Headphones for Running Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article.
hours in GPS mode, 7 days in watch mode Runner’s World and the director of product testing. He has tested and reviewed running shoes, GPS watches, headphones, apparel, and more for nearly two decades. He regularly tests more than 100 pairs of shoes each year, and once had a 257-day streak running in different models. Jeff can usually be found on the roads, racing anything from the mile to a marathon, but he also enjoys racing up mountains and on snowshoes. When he’s not running, you’ll probably find him hanging from a ladder making repairs and renovations to his house (he’s also director of product testing for Popular Mechanics).
Amanda Furrer, Runner’s World test editor, studied journalism at NYU and writing at Emerson College. She has reviewed gear and covered other topics in the running space for almost 10 years. Since 2013, she has consecutively run the Boston Marathon. She also has a master’s degree in gastronomy from Boston University and was formerly a professional baker for two years before hanging up her apron.
Morgan is a gear editor who has been with Runner’s World Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The Warmup, a bygone version of the daily RW newsletter. Now, she tests and reviews anything you might find on runners’ feet-from crew socks and compression boots to carbon-plated super shoes.
A lifelong runner and shoe geek, Morgan has been chasing the perfect pair of kicks since she joined her grade school cross-country team. Since then, she ran as a Division I walk-on for the cross-country and track & field teams at the University of Delaware, where she studied English and Biology. She has one full marathon under her belt, and has raced more halfs and 5Ks than she can count.
