Heart rate monitor watches, also known as smartwatches, can provide a wealth of health and fitness information and insights for the wearer, making it easier than ever to optimize one’s health. The best heart rate monitor watches not only track your heart rate, but also monitor things like stress levels, workout intensity, step count, sleep habits, and more. Some even have specialized features, such as tracking specific sports or workouts, target zone alerts, GPS tracking, and music streaming. A good heart rate monitor watch can give you a comprehensive health report right at your fingertips.
To find the best heart rate monitor watches, we spoke with experts, including personal trainers and a medical doctor, to learn more about what key features to look for when shopping. Then, we tested 18 options from top, trusted brands, using the watches in our daily routines, while sleeping, and during workouts. Throughout our testing process, we evaluated each device for its ease of setup and use, comfort, accuracy, and value to find the top options on the market.
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Easy to use interface
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Comfortable, waterproof design
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Accurate activity tracking
Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, steps, calories burned, sleep, and more | Battery Life: 5-6 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 164 feet (5ATM) | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.9/5
Who It’s For
Best for fitness enthusiasts and athletes who want an everyday watch offering comprehensive tracking features.
Why We Love It
Our top pick, Garmin’s Vivomove Sport Watch, stood out among the heart rate monitor watches we tested for its waterproof, comfortable design, user-friendly interface, and accurate activity tracking. In tracking mode, we noted the watch face changed to clearly show the stats it was tracking, such as heart rate and step count. The watch goes beyond basic features and also tracks metrics like sleep, calories burned, respiration, menstrual cycle, and more. Plus, the watch gives you daily goals and challenges to keep you moving.
In testing, the watch proved easy to set up and connect to our phone. We used it to track running, walking, and strength training workouts. We appreciate the ability to manually start and stop the tracking feature, which we feel keeps it very accurate. This watch was so comfortable we often forgot we were even wearing it, and thanks to its waterproof design, we could wash our hands and do dishes without removing it. We also love that you can customize your watch with three face colors and over a dozen bands.
Potential Flaws
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This watch comes with a specific charger, which could be an inconvenience if forgotten during travel or on the go. However, the extended battery life makes this a minor concern for us.
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This watch doesn’t include advanced features like Apple Pay or Google Pay, like some other watches at similar price points.
Meet Our Tester
Our tester notes that wearing this watch has helped improve their overall health, as it encourages them to move (especially when they’ve been seated for too long), and features an activity tracker that provides a clear goal and challenge for the day.
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![Garmin Vivomove Sport Watch]()
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The Garmin Vivomove Sport has a comfortable design and user-friendly interface.
Credit: Verywell Fit
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![Garmin Vivomove Sport Watch]()
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The Garmin Vivomove Sport is easy to set up and very accurate for activity tracking.
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Running cadence detector feature
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Lightweight, sleek design
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Battery life of up to 18 days
Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, steps, calories burned, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 18 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 164 feet (5ATM) | GPS: No | Our Overall Rating: 4.2/5
Who It’s For
Best for budget-conscious users who want a low-profile watch for basic workout tracking needs.
Why We Love It
Amazfit’s Band 7 Fitness Tracker delivers plenty of data at a budget-friendly price. From activity tracking to monitoring sleep quality, we found the metrics to be very accurate during testing. We liked the running cadence detector feature that allowed us to practice training at different paces. The watch also includes tracking for biking, swimming, jump roping, gym workouts, and even includes an elevation tracker for outdoor workouts.
The sleek design of this watch was lightweight and comfortable, and it was no worse for wear when we grazed it against fitness equipment, proving its durability. Its button-free design prevents it from catching and snagging, and we also appreciate that it charges quickly, with a battery life that can last up to 18 days, depending on usage. We think this watch is a great value for basic tracking needs.
Potential Flaws
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While we love the sleep tracking feature, the display brightness can’t be changed, and we found this a bit disruptive at night.
Most Valuable Insight
“The metrics I’ve gotten from this watch have been very accurate and have helped me with refining my levels of exertion for runs.” —Jeff C., Verywell Fit product tester
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![Amazfit Band 7]()
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The Amazfit Band 7 tracks heart rate and sends alerts for any abnormal readings.
Credit: Verywell Fit
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![Amazfit Band 7]()
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The Amazfit Band 7 is lightweight and comfortable with a long battery life of 18 days.
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Lightweight, comfy design
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Automatic workout detection
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Easy to use
Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, steps, calories burned, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 7 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 164 feet (5ATM) | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.4/5
Who It’s For
Best for outdoor exercisers who want to plan and track routes for running, cycling, or hiking.
Why We Love It
With integrated GPS, Fitbit’s Charge 5 Watch allows you to track your routes, distance, and pace with accuracy—making it an ideal choice for runners, hikers, cyclists, and outdoor enthusiasts. Tracking activities proved easy with a simple press of a button, and the watch often detected workouts automatically, making it even easier to track. This feature helped us keep better track of our workouts and rest. We also appreciated the weekly email report, helping us identify areas that needed our attention.
The watch offers basic functions, including tracking calories burned, sleep scores, heart rate, and more. It feels super comfy on our wrists. During testing, we barely felt it, and it never got in the way. The lightweight, sweat-resistant band made it easy to wash hands or shower, and it didn’t irritate our skin. We also appreciate the seamless connection to your phone via Bluetooth, providing convenient access to text and call notifications. And it uses features like Find My iPhone and integrates with the Fitbit app.
Potential Flaws
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During testing, we noted that the calories burned during some exercise activities appeared to be higher than what would be considered realistic.
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We found the watch froze occasionally mid-use, requiring a restart. However, after the restart, it functioned well with no further issues.
Meet Our Tester
Our tester loves this watch, noting that its performance was stellar, with a barely-there feel. Specifically, he loves that he can do CrossFit moves, including power cleans, pull-ups, snatches, and hand-stands, without it getting in his way.
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Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, steps, calories burned, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 10 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 164 feet (5ATM) | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.3/5
Who It’s For
Best for exercisers that want a simple activity tracker watch, and like access to more in-depth data.
Why We Love It
Fitbit’s Sense 2 Watch proved incredibly straightforward to set up and use during our testing. Its lightweight design made it comfortable to wear—it never pinched or irritated our skin. And we like that it’s water-resistant. The watch itself provides plenty of data, covering fitness tracking, step counts, oxygen saturation, stress notifications, sleep scores, and more. And, for even more in-depth analysis, we appreciate the intuitive app that does a deep dive into each metric.
We were particularly impressed with how quickly it charged to full battery and found the extended battery life to be phenomenal. We really appreciated not having to charge it every day. Plus, we love that you can customize both the watch face and band to fit your lifestyle and preferences.
Potential Flaws
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While we love the compatible Fitbit app, we noted the watch doesn’t connect to some other popular third-party fitness apps.
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We noticed the step count was inaccurate due to arm movements being counted as steps.
Most Valuable Insight
“It was clean, clear, and concise, and showed me all of the stats I wanted to see in real time. It also allowed me to easily track other things, like my mood and food intake.” —Kimberly Z., Verywell Fit product tester
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![A person interacting with a smartwatch displaying the time and fitness data on their wrist]()
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Credit: VeryWell Fit
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![A woman performing a yoga tree pose outside in a sunny location wearing workout clothing and a smartwatch]()
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Credit: Verywell Fit
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Vibrating alarm
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Soft and lightweight
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Good value
Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, steps, calories burned, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 10 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 164 feet (5ATM) | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.7/5
Who It’s For
Best for users wanting to improve sleep habits, and overall health and wellness with accurate tracking.
Why We Love It
Fitbit’s Inspire 3 Fitness Tracker offers plenty of helpful features, like activity tracking, monitoring step counts, calories burned, and heart rate zone minutes. But what we most appreciate about this watch is the sleep data it provides. It accurately tracks each sleep stage, detailing the duration spent in each and providing an overall sleep score. We especially appreciate the vibrating alarm and the feature that allows the watch to wake you at your lightest stage of sleep, within 30 minutes of your set alarm.
The Fitbit app also allows you to monitor stress levels, daily readiness for exercise, and even suggests workouts and meditations based on the collected data. This watch is lightweight and barely noticeable on our wrist. We like how soft and easy to clean the silicone band is. It never pinched or irritated our skin, even while we were sleeping. This watch helped us refine and set more attainable fitness and sleep goals, and we think it’s a great value at a fair price.
Potential Flaws
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During testing, we noticed arm movements not associated with walking were sometimes mistakenly counted as steps, resulting in slightly inaccurate step count data.
Meet Our Tester
Our tester particularly loves this watch’s soothing, vibrating alarm, which they prefer over the more intense one on their phone.
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Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, respiration, VO2 max, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 11 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 50 meters | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.8/5
Who It’s For
Best for runners or other endurance athletes who need accurate distance tracking and training support.
Why We Love It
Garmin has long been a preferred choice for runners, and Garmin’s Vivoactive 5 Smartwatch is our top choice for runners for its exceptional accuracy and wealth of high-tech features. During testing, we found the distance tracker to be very accurate based on mile marker signs along our running route. We also really appreciated the customizable pace alert feature that made it much easier for us to reach our racing goals. There are also in-app training plans available to help you reach your goals for different activities.
We used the watch for a variety of activities and loved the seamless integration with training apps, like Runna. We also liked the feature that customizes the metrics for each type of activity. For example, the watch displayed breaths per minute when we were tracking a yoga session. The Garmin app offers fitness challenges and rewards to help keep you motivated. We feel this watch is well worth the money for all its high-tech features, customization, and connectivity.
Potential Flaws
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This watch face is fairly large compared to some other watches, so it takes some getting used to.
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During our test, we noted that the automatic activity detection feature was not always accurate, sometimes mistaking tasks like cleaning for swimming.
Most Valuable Insight
“I was able to achieve my fitness goals much more easily when using this watch. The more accurate distance tracking helped a ton, and the pacing data made it really easy to hit my goals in my races.” —Anja V., Verywell Fit product tester
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Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, stress levels, sleep, menstrual cycle, and more | Battery Life: Up to 10 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 50 meters | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.8/5
Who It’s For
Best for regular exercisers who want plenty of activity options and the convenience of minimal battery charging.
Why We Love It
If you’re active and on the go, you don’t want to have to stop and charge your smartwatch. That’s why we recommend Amazfit’s Active 2 Smartwatch. During our testing period, we only had to charge this watch twice. We wore it daily for running, outdoor cycling, walking, and more, including while using the GPS feature. It can track over 160 types of activities, ranging from walking to HYROX to snowboarding.
We love that the watch is lightweight and very comfortable to wear. The band is ventilated, so our skin never got sticky or clammy. And the display screen is bright and large enough to show a lot of data. The accompanying app tracks tons of data, goes more in-depth, and is very customizable. We think this device offers excellent smartwatch capabilities at a budget-friendly price.
Potential Flaws
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During our test, we found that some of the sensor readings, like sleep monitoring and stress scores, were not very accurate. Since the app’s fitness measurements are based on this data, they may be less useful than some other watches.
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Setting up can take a while due to the numerous customization options.
Meet Our Tester
Our tester was incredibly impressed with this watch’s battery life, noting that the battery lost about 7% of charge per day, plus an additional 4% over the course of a 1-hour workout with GPS tracking, allowing him to use the GPS every day and only have to charge the watch every 8 to 9 days.
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Tracks 150+ activities
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Ventilated, easy-to-clean band
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Reflective display for bright light viewing
Key Specs
Metrics Tracked: Heart rate, step count, sleep, and more | Battery Life: Up to 6 days | Waterproof: Yes, up to 50 meters | GPS: Yes | Our Overall Rating: 4.5/5
Who It’s For
Best for exercisers who need basic tracking features and want a watch that looks stylish at work as well as in the gym.
Why We Love It
With a large, easy-to-read screen and multiple band color options, Polar’s Pacer Pro Advanced Sports Watch is stylish as well as functional. It provides accurate tracking of over 150 sports and activity options, and includes helpful fitness tests, breathing and meditation features, as well as fitness challenges. The watch helped us stay more active and mindful, and enhanced our workout routine by promoting consistency.
The watch is super lightweight—sometimes we even forget we’re wearing it. The band is ventilated, durable, and easy to clean. We had no issues whenever we rinsed it with water after an intense workout. The screen has a reflective color display, which allows you to see it in bright light without having to squint. This watch is sleek and stylish, and offers plenty of fitness tracking features at a budget-friendly price.
Potential Flaws
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This watch doesn’t have a touchscreen, so learning to navigate the button combinations took some time and may not be intuitive for those accustomed to touchscreen-style devices.
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This watch doesn’t offer as much customization as some other watches on our list.
Most Valuable Insight
“I really liked how the watch face and strap felt on my wrist. It’s super lightweight, and there were moments I genuinely forgot I was wearing it. Whether I was working or training, it never pinched, tugged, or irritated my skin.” —Peter K., Verywell Fit product tester
Heart Rate Monitor Watches We Also Tested
We tested 16 heart rate monitor watches, but only 9 watches earned ratings high enough to be included on our list. These three watches had some features we liked but they ultimately failed to meet our standards.
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We found Garmin’s Instinct 2 Watch comfortable, and easy to set up and use. However, its price tag puts it at the high end of heart rate monitor watches and compared to other watches on our list, we can’t justify the Garmin’s expense.
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We liked Amazon’s Halo Fitness Tracker’s budget friendly price and comfortable feel. But during weeks of rigorous testing, we found it difficult to use and didn’t trust the reliability of it’s data.
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We liked the elegant design of Withings’ ScanWatch 2, as well as it’s advanced sleep monitoring and other health metrics. However, it’s limited workout tracking capabilities and awkward notifications setup made us consider whether it was worth the price.
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What to Look for When Shopping for Heart Rate Monitor Watches
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Metrics: It’s important to determine which metrics are important for you and evaluate the heart rate monitor’s ability to track the ones you want. Most devices monitor basic metrics like heart rate, steps, calories burned, stress levels, and sleep patterns. Some watches offer advanced tracking capabilities, including oxygen saturation, recovery metrics, and more.
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Activity: Whether you plan to use your watch as a training tool for things like marathons or want to monitor your exercise routine, such as your EMOM workout, the ability to track data for various activities is key. Many watches offer settings for a variety of activities, like swimming, outdoor cycling, yoga, weightlifting, and more, says certified personal trainer Laney Morse, RDN, LDN, CPT. Carefully consider the activities you plan to track and check that the watch you’re considering aligns with your preferences.
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Features: Apart from heart rate and activity tracking, many watches boast additional features like GPS, cellular connectivity, music streaming, and coaching. Additionally, many heart rate monitor watches come with companion apps. You should always check whether accessing specific data and features requires a premium membership and a monthly fee.
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Battery Life: If you’ve ever headed out for a workout only to realize your watch is dead, you know how important a long battery life (and quick charge) can be. Devices with lots of connected features, GPS, or music streaming will typically have a shorter battery life, whereas those with fewer features may last longer between charges. Battery life can also be dependent on the features being used, so consider your needs when shopping.
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Connectivity: Consider the extent of connectivity options that the smartwatch offers. Certain features, like music streaming or messaging, may require a cellular plan or a connection to a smartphone within close proximity to the watch. While many features can function without cellular connectivity, exploring this aspect could be worthwhile if you want a comprehensive, all-in-one device.
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How We Tested the Heart Rate Monitor Watches
To find the best heart rate monitor watches, we tested 18 options from top, trusted brands, wearing them while sleeping, working out, and during our daily routines. When testing heart rate monitor watches, we evaluate each one based on the following key criteria.
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Ease of Setup: First, we set up each watch according to the manufacturer’s instructions. During this process, we ask things like: Is it easy to customize the watch’s settings? How seamlessly does it connect with outside apps? How long does the entire setup process take? Is the process intuitive or clunky?
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Comfort: We evaluate how each watch feels on our wrist while wearing it during workouts, daily activities, and sleep. Is it lightweight or bulky? Does it pinch, tug, or dig into our skin? Is the band easy to adjust?
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Ease of Use: Next, we assess how easily the watch tracks heart rate, workouts, and other metrics. We note how simple it is to access all recorded data. If there is an accompanying app, we note how easy it is to navigate and access information. We prioritize heart rate monitor watches that actively improve our general health, fitness, and well-being.
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Accuracy: An unreliable heart rate monitor isn’t very helpful. We evaluate the accuracy of each watch by asking things like: Are the numbers consistent with our daily activity? Does the fitness tracking start and stop with each workout? Do stress and sleep patterns align with our expectations?
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Value: To give each device a value score, we wait to look at its price until the end of the testing period. Then, we consider if the price reflects the watch’s features and overall performance. We prioritize options for our list that we think are reasonably priced for the value they provide.
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Our Experts
We consulted experts during our research, testing, and reporting process. The following experts helped us refine our testing process and provided valuable insights into key factors to consider when purchasing a high-quality heart rate monitor watch. While we select products independently, expert input influences our decisions.
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Laney Morse, RDN, LDN, NASM-CPT, registered dietitian, NASM-certified personal trainer, and owner of WWL Nutrition
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Sabrina Sarabella, MS, NASM-CPT, NASM-certified personal trainer, group fitness instructor, and founder of Sarabell Wellness Consulting
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Noelle McKenzie, ACE-CPT, ACE-certified personal trainer and co-founder of Leading Edge Personal Trainers in New York, New York
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Neel Chokshi, MD, MBA, director of the Penn Center for Digital Cardiology and medical director of the Penn Sports Cardiology and Fitness program
Frequently Asked Questions
Are heart rate monitor watches accurate?
Yes, heart rate monitor watches can be pretty accurate, but their reliability varies. If exacting precision is important to you, consider a heart rate monitor with a chest strap.
Can a smartwatch detect heart problems?
Many watches provide valuable insights into heart health by indicating whether your heart rate is above or below the optimal range during rest periods, says Sarabella. However, if you suspect any potential heart issues, consult your doctor immediately because relying on a smartwatch for monitoring is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
How should I wear a heart rate monitor watch?
The watch is most accurate when worn correctly and consistently. Place it just above where your wrist connects to the base of your hand—it should fit snugly but not be overly tight, says Morse.
Are heart rate monitor watches worth it?
Heart rate monitors can help you learn more about your health and optimize your training to reach your fitness goals. With a diverse array of options available at various price points and functionalities, there’s a suitable choice for everyone.
Why Trust Verywell Fit
Jen Zeltwanger, ACSM-EP, is an exercise physiologist and writer for Verywell Fit. She understands the importance of quality products that add value to your fitness routine. She is particularly focused on finding and recommending products for effective home workouts. She uses a heart rate monitor watch in her daily routine and during various workouts to help keep track of her health.
