Smartwatches are great tools for staying on top of your notifications, tracking your activity, and more. However, nothing beats that classic look of an analog watch strapped to your wrist. Analog watches are simple, classy, and look much better than most smartwatches when you’re dressing up. If you want a wearable that looks like an analog watch but can also track your activity and give you notifications, look no further — we’ve rounded up some of the best hybrid smartwatches on the market.
See also: Best fitness trackers | Best Wear OS watches
Most of the hybrid smartwatches listed below can track your daily activity, sleep, and give you smartphone notifications. They’re not going to be the most powerful or feature-packed fitness trackers out there though, so keep that in mind when making your purchasing decision.
This month we removed the Misfit Path, Misfit Command, and Withings Steel HR to make room for the Skagen Holst, Skagen Hagen, Withings Steel HR Sport, Fossil Carlie, Fossil Neutra, and the Withings Move and Move ECG.
Garmin Vivomove HR
The best hybrid watch on the market is the Garmin Vivomove HR.
It might not be the prettiest hybrid smartwatch out there, but Garmin included some extra features to make this watch smarter than the rest. The Vivomove HR is a touchscreen device, complete with a small digital display that only appears when you turn your wrist. It supports vibration alerts for most notifications you receive on your phone, and it gives you the ability to control music that’s playing on your phone.
Related: Garmin Vivomove HR hands-on | Fitbit vs Garmin
It’s swim and shower safe, lasts up to five days on a single charge in smartwatch mode, and tracks your steps, intensity minutes, sleep, heart rate, and more.
Skagen Connected
Skagen Holst hybrid watch
Skagen has a number of great hybrid smartwatches under the Skagen Connected brand. The tried-and-true favorite at Android Authority is the Skagen Jorn, but the newer Holst colorways launched at CES 2019 are hard to pass up, too. For women looking for a great hybrid smartwatch, the Skagen Mini Hald is a great option.
No matter which model you choose, you’ll get three physical buttons on the side that can be programmed to control your phone’s music/volume, act as a camera shutter button, show the date or a secondary time zone, or show your daily step count.
In addition, the watches provide vibration alerts for text, calls, and emails, and they’ll keep track of your sleep if you choose to wear it at night. They even run on a standard CR2412 coin cell battery, so you won’t need to charge them.
Withings Steel HR Sport
The Withings Steel HR Sport is Withings’ beefiest hybrid smartwatch. In our opinion it’s not nearly the prettiest (see below), but it’s the most powerful by far.
Like the Steel HR before it, the Steel HR Sport has a small digital display that shows you your daily activity stats, heart rate, and smartphone notifications. It’s also water resistant down to 50 meters, records your VO2 Max, and lasts a whopping 25 das on a single charge.
Fossil Carlie and Fossil Neutra
Fossil Carlie hybrid smartwatch
Fossil has one of the biggest selections of hybrid smartwatches out there, and our favorites are the Fossil Carlie and Fossil Neutra.
Announced at CES 2019, both new hybrid smartwatches track your fitness, give you smartphone notifications, and have three customizable buttons on the right side of the casing.
The Fossil Carlie will appeal to people with smaller wrists. The stainless steel casing is just 37mm wide and supports 16mm interchangeable straps. It’s also one of the best looking hybrid watches we’ve ever seen.
Fossil Neutra hybrid smartwatch
The Fossil Neutra is a bit bigger at 37mm wide, though it also supports 16mm interchangeable straps. It offers all the same functionality as the Carlie model, just in a different form factor.
Withings Move and Withings Move ECG
Withings knocked it out of the park with its latest hybrid smartwatches, the Withings Move and Move ECG. Both hybrid smartwatches are on the cheaper side, but they shouldn’t be overlooked if you just need your basic activity metrics tracked.
See also: Withings Move review | Withings Move ECG hands-on
Neither device has a heart rate sensor, though they both offer connected GPS functionality. They’ll also keep track of your steps taken, calories burned, sleep, distance traveled, and elevation. Of course, the Withings Move ECG also has an electrocardiogram on board so you can keep track of your heart health.
The only downside is that neither device supports smartphone notifications. They’re basically just fitness trackers disguised as analog watches.
The standard Withings Move can actually be customized on Withings.com, allowing you to choose your own dial, watch face, strap, and case color. The Move ECG can’t be customized, unfortunately.
What do you think about our best hybrid watches list? Any others we should include? Let us know in the comments below!
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