The trend for Fitness trackers and smartwatches has exploded in recent years, as these products have developed and improved. From the early days of the Apple Watch to the growing options for Android OS based smart watches, there are more great smartwatches to choose from than ever before.
While the essential usage remains their ability to tell the time at a glance, these cool wristwear items, even budget smartwatches, are feature packed with everything from health monitoring to incoming call and message notifications.
When it comes to finding a smartwatch, we don’t all want to shell out top dollar. But luckily there are a huge range of cheap smartwatch brands to choose from.
But don’t assume that cheap means low quality. As we’re about to see, many of these budget smartwatches are great value and offer benefits from great battery life to many features.
Disclaimer: Yes, this article does contain affiliate links, which means we make a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.
Why Should You Buy a Smartwatch?
Like smartphones, smartwatches add a new dimension of usefulness to our lives. Mostly these devices are sold as fitness Tracking devices, thanks to the usually high volume of health monitoring features. These range from a classic heart rate monitor to sleep tracking or even blood oxygen monitoring.
But they offer more than being a time piece and a suite of health features.
- Convenience: Ever been in a situation where you found it painstakingly inconvenient to pull out your smartphone? Well, with your smartwatch strapped on, checking emails, texts, or receiving calls is a breeze.
- Fitness: As we’ve mentioned, the fitness tracking element is one of the most popular reasons to buy a budget smartwatch. As we’ll see below, most smart watches and fitness trackers offer a huge array of features.
- Control and Access to Music and Payment: Like your smartphone, you can also use your smartwatch to use NFC for payment. Or to control your music player.
- Style statement: And yes, smartwatches are an increasingly trendy accessory that matches every outfit in your wardrobe, enhancing your persona.
OK, so now you know why you might want to invest in a smart watch. But what are the best cheap smartwatch brands?
If you’ve looked at sites like Amazon, you’ll have noticed that there are tons of brands – some with unpronouncable names. Which should you actually buy? Are any of these budget smartwatches actually going to work with your Android phone or Apple device?
We’re going to focus specifically on the best cheap smartwatch brands, and suggest a couple of their best models for you to check out.
The Best Budget Smartwatch Brands for Men
Fitbit
Fitbit is a leading name in the smartwatch industry, and for good reason. Known for their sleek designs, optimum functionality, and focus on health and fitness, Fitbit appeals to the health-conscious stylish man.
The Fitbit Versa 3, priced at around $200/£150, is a worthy contender. Embodies a vibrant, large display, coupled with a light yet robust design. Notably, the always-on display ensures time and fitness stats are just a flick of your wrist away.
Added bonuses include tracking a plethora of workouts, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and a built-in GPS. Fitbit also use Amazon’s Alexa as their voice assistant, so you can use the many benefits of this personal assistant on the go too.
There is also a new Fitbit Versa 4 available, which adds additional fitness tracking features.
However, Fitbit also offer a huge range of fitness trackers from under $100 and upwards. We like Fitbit for their good build quality, decent battery life and great variety of fitness tracking features.
Samsung
Widely recognized for their premium Android smartphone technology, Samsung’s smart watch offerings are unsurprisingly top tier offerings. And although they’re not the cheapest smartwatch brand on the market, there is undeniably quality in both build quality, functionality and style.
Their flagship is the Samsung Galaxy watch series. And the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, demonstrates the brand’s focus on user experience combined with an elegant aesthetic. In fact, this premium watch is one of the best on the market with a near unbeatable suite of features.
The premium features are reflected in the price of around $529/£459 on Amazon.
Features include an ECG monitor, fitness tracking capabilities including heart rate alerts, NFC payments, waterproof certifications, phone integrations and hands free capabilities for Samsung or Android users. One thing that might let Samsung down is the fairly average two-day battery life. Many other brands offer battery life well in excess of 7 days or more.
If you’re looking for a cheap alternative to the premium Samsung Galaxy watch 6, there are some great options such as the Samsung Active, or some of the older yet still great value models such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch models 3 or 4. Both of these offer great functionality and features at half the cost of the newer flagship models.
Huawei
Huawei, a major player in the tech industry, also offers an excellent range of relatively cheap smartwatches and fitness trackers. Its smartwatches offer polished, minimalist designs along with advanced health tracking. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that some of the Huawei smart watches are some of the best looking on the market, with undeniably premium appearance for a relatively budget price point.
The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, priced around $300 or £245, is a standout. Alongside fitness tracking, it includes 100 workout modes, heart rate tracking, and amazing two-week-long battery life.
Even the older Huawei GT Active smart watch is a great looking smartwatch with excellent features and two week battery life. And at under $200, or around £150, it’s also a total bargain.
Ticwatch
While you might not have heard of Ticwatch, the brand is known for offering great value. In fact, Tikwatch marries robust features with reasonable pricing, with the Ticwatch fitness tracker starting from around $50 or £45 on Amazon.
The Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra, is the brands frontrunner frontrunner. With a cool and stylish design, the budget smartwatch boasts durability, a 45-day battery life(!!!), IP68 waterproof rating, & detailed fitness tracking features. Add in a speaker for music and calling, NFC functionality and GPS tracking, and you can see exactly why Ticwatch are favorably received as one of the ‘best smartwatch brands.’
The Ticwatch 3 Pro Ultra is just $300 or £280, which makes it comfortably in the best cheap smartwatch category, but very much in the premium product tier.
Amazfit
While it might sound like Amazfit are an extension of Amazon, in fact they are a completely independent brand. They’re actually owned by Zepp Health who also make smartwatches for a number of other brands. But Amazfit are definitely an Android smartwatch brand to consider.
Amazfit capitalizes on offering feature-rich smartwatches while maintaining affordability, with their excellent Bip 3 smartwatch coming in at around $70 or £50. With it’s Apple Watch styling, this fitness smartwatch packs a ton of functionality at a very low price.
Their premium model, the Amazfit GTR 4, in fact, turns heads with its premium style design and lighter-than-feather weight. It’s packed full of features that you’d find on a watch more than twice its price, including GPS tracking, over 150 sports modes, NFC, waterproof functionality and much more. All this for $200 or around £165 on Amazon.
I’ve actually been using an Amazfit Bip 3 and can testify to the brands excellent build quality, functionality and general smart watch credentials.
Garmin
When looking for best cheap smartwatches, you’ll also come across Garmin. This establish brand might be best known as being the forerunners in GPS navigation systems back in the day, but they also offer one of the best Android smartwatch brands.
Appealing to the outdoorsy and fitness folks, Garmin offer a strong line up of quality smartwatches. Their pricing also varies from $100-$800 or more, with choice for both an affordable smartwatch and a more premium options.
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar Edition is crafted for those adventurous types who love the great outdoors. The solar charging functionality flaunts a battery that could last up to 14 days. Add the health tracking features, and it’s a serious contender for best smartwatch for men constantly on the move!
With a price tag of around $750, or £680, it might not suit everyone. But as we mentioned, Garmin offer affordable smartwatches with some of the best prices for premium wearable tech.
The Garmin Forerunner 55 is a serious piece of fitness tracking, coming in at $189 or £129. Track all your fitness essentials such as heart rate, sleep quality and blood oxygen measurements.
Or checkout the Garmin Venu series for even more choice and fitness tracking durability.
Sekonda
Classic budget watch brand Sekonda are also making some great Android smartwatches. The Sekonda Motion is a very affordable watch and fitness tracker, with Apple Watch styling, coming in at around $75/£59 on Amazon.
For that price, you get all the fitness tracking essentials such as heart rate monitor, sleep tracking and fitness monitoring, plus music control and phone notifications.
The Sekonda Mens 45mm Smartwatch offers more classic Swiss Watch styling. With core functions like sleep and activity tracking, plus call and message notifications, they’ve made a mens fitness tracker effective without breaking the bank.
Xiaomi
Another well known Chinese brand, Xiaomi are best known for their affordable smartphones, but also offer a great line up of some of the best budget smartwatches.
Xiaomi strikes a great balance between price, performance, and aesthetics. In fact their Mi Smart Band series are a seriously good value fitness band, coming in at well under $50 for what is a very feature packed device. For under $50, you can track more than just steps, with the Smart Band also allowing sports tracking, heart rate monitoring, 14 day batter life, and great colourful screens.
If you’re looking for something a little more stylish, the Xiaomi Mi Watch S1 looks great, and offers a great range of functions for a cheap smartwatch, including a strong battery life.
Where to Buy Smartwatches for Men?
If you’re looking for a great of the best cheap smartwatch brands for men, we recommend visiting Watches2U.com.
They offer a wide range of the best budget smartwatch brands including brands not mentioned on this list such as:
- Fossil
- Ben Sherman
- French Connection UK
- Skagen
- Head
All of these are great options for a budget smartwatch, whether for yourself or as a gift. Take a look at Watches2U.
Wrapping Up
Smartwatches are no longer just about wearing a tech gadget for the sake of it. Be it achieving your fitness goals, staying ahead in professional life, or dialing up the fashion quotient, finding the best smartwatch brand can amplify your daily tasks’ efficiency by multiple folds. Indulging in one is a commitment to enhancing the quality of life with the wonders of technology at your wrist.
Use this guide as your navigational compass on your voyage of choosing the best smartwatch for men! Be it Fitbit, Samsung, or any brands that we’ve wandered through in this journey, defining your needs will help you land on the perfect shore. Stay stylish, stay fit!
Read our guide to budget watches that look premium.
The post The Best Smartwatch Brands for Fit and Stylish Men appeared first on Global Playboy.
