The best smartwatches for women: Beautiful, stylish and smart options

If we had tried to compile a collection of the best smartwatches for women two years ago, it might have consisted of a string of angry emojis and not much else. Times have changed, and there are plenty of smartwatches that women are now able to wear proudly in public.

Men’s watches have a pretty set style, but most of the smartwatches and non-screen hybrids here come in a range of designs, sizes and finishes or even the option to go bespoke with your own concoction. Alas, many companies still haven’t been able to (or care about) getting all the flagship sports and tech features into smaller sizes. But times are changing.
We’ve picked out our current faves and you can see our reviews below for more detailed views on features, design and performance.
However, if you’re in a rush – here’s our current top smartwatches for women to save you scrolling…
Best smartwatch for women 2019
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Apple’s 4th smartwatch features the most dramatic design changes to its smartwatch since it first launched, and the vast array of customisation options means it’s fit for any style.Best Wear OS watch for women
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There’s a sequel incoming for this slick-looking Wear OS model – but it still remains a great option for Android-users and the price is pretty good too.
Sporty and stylish smartwatch
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The Versa proves that Fitbit does indeed know how to make a great looking smartwatch – despite the absolute horror-show that was the Ionic. As expected, the fitness features are top-notch too.Samsung’s top smartwatch
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With an emphasis on health and fitness, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is also a gorgeous piece of high-end tech, with a superb display, a great bezel-control system and an ever-growing supply of great apps.
Best smartwatches for women…Apple Watch Series 4The Apple Watch is our current top pick of smartwatches – our Wearable of the Year, in fact – and still probably the best full-blooded smartwatch for iPhone-owning women.
The latest Series 4 gives the design a long awaited overhaul but the result is actually that it’s now bigger, at 40mm and 44mm sizes. That’s awesome for all the new watchOS 5 features but if you want something smaller, don’t forget you can still buy last year’s now cheaper Series 3, which sticks with the more compact 38mm and 42mm sizes.
As a fitness tracker and health device, it’s improved loads and the current feature set includes waterproofing and swim tracking, built-in GPS and LTE for making calls and more when you’re away from your phone. The headline feature for Series 4 is built-in ECG, but that’s going to take time to roll out to you if you’re not in the US. So another reason to consider the Series 3. However, it does have features like fall detection.
Though it looks nothing like a traditional wristwatch, the Apple Watch is still the most flawlessly finished smartwatch we’ve seen and can look quite chic nestled on a wrist stacked with bracelets – and luckily there’s a huge market of Apple Watch straps to choose from.
Wareable verdict: Apple Watch Series 4 reviewFrom £399, Amazon | apple.comFitbit VersaAfter a rocky start with the Ionic, Fitbit’s venture into smartwatches is much stronger with the Versa. Its second smartwatch isn’t just better looking, it’s smaller too, making it more suited for women. This was a major problem with the Ionic, which was too large for many wrists and employed a very angular, arguably ugly design.
The Versa runs on the same software as the Ionic, meaning you’ll have access to the app store and catalogue of watch faces, but in a smaller package. There’s a vibrant 300 x 300 pixel resolution display topping out at 1,000 nits, and with 50m water resistance it can be taken swimming (you can track pool workouts). Plus Fitbit’s female health (period) tracking, which is open to all users of the app, can actually be viewed onscreen on the Versa.
Where it differs from the Ionic feature-wise is the lack of built-in GPS. You’ll still be able to track GPS, but it’ll need to be paired with your phone to do so. You can still load on tracks and play offline playlists from Deezer and (for US users only) Pandora, so it’s still a pretty good independent workout companion. Just be warned if you’re buying this in the US: only the Special Edition version comes with Fitbit Pay installed. Also take note: the Fitbit Versa Lite Edition is inbound, which cuts music support and a couple of other features, but maintains the same design – for a cheaper price.
Wareable verdict: Fitbit Versa review£199, Amazon | fitbit.comMichael Kors Access Runway The Access Runway, Michael Kors’ third Wear OS smartwatch for women, is a lovely alternative to the Apple Watch that works with iPhone and Android.
It won’t beat the Versa for activity tracking but otherwise it’s a beautiful, comfortable to wear all-rounder that gives you alerts, apps, Google Pay and a selection of custom Michael Kors watch faces. There’s also built-in GPS, heart rate tracking and a swimproof build though, as we say, in testing there’s still work to be done on making this an everyday smartwatch you can work out or play sports with.
It’s a 41mm watch, with a 1.19-inch 390 x 390 AMOLED touchscreen display, so still slightly oversized, but it looks good on the wrist. You can get both stainless steel and leather straps for the Access Runway and it’s also available in a slightly more expensive Ceramic model. Most importantly, you’ll actually want to wear it.
Wareable verdict: Michael Kors Access Runway review£249, Amazon | michaelkors.comSamsung Galaxy Watch Look, we’re not saying girls can only wear rose gold watches, but the 42mm Samsung Galaxy Watch in rose gold finish is really rather nice. Also available in a larger 46mm model, the Galaxy Watch is Samsung’s new flagship and it shows. The smaller watch features a lovely 360 x 360 AMOLED screen, waterproof design and pretty much every feature you could think of in Tizen 4.0.
Aside from being let down on apps, this could be a neat choice for Android owners who aren’t convinced by Wear OS. Notifications, solid fitness and sports tracking and thoughtful design – like that rotating bezel – all help the Galaxy Watch to stand out in a sea of smartwatches.
The two-day battery life is excellent and beats the Apple Watch, plus for things like heart rate and stress tracking it could make more sense than a designer Fossil Group wearable. The only downsides? Bixby is still terrible compared to Google Assistant and Siri and we had some trouble with the built-in sleep tracking too. If you’re after something smaller or sportier, pay the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Active some consideration too.
Wareable verdict: Samsung Galaxy Watch reviewFrom £279, Amazon | samsung.comHot smartwatch deals Wareable may get a commissionSkagen Falster 2If you’re in the market for a really good Wear OS watch with NFC payments and beginner-friendly HR and sports features, the minimalist 40mm Skagen Falster 2 is a good option. You’re getting the standard Wear OS experience, and most of the custom faces that are aimed at minimum designs to optimize battery life don’t actually improve battery life.
However, this is easily one of the most stylish and best looking smartwatches you can get. It’s sleek and small and elegant – plus it’s now swimproof as a bonus. It’s not explicitly designed for women, but its unisex appeal makes it a strong contender regardless.
Wareable verdict: Skagen Falster 2 review£299, Amazon | skagen.comBellabeat TimeBellabeat has made its name with stylish activity trackers, and now it’s pushing into the world of smartwatches with the hybrid Time, which is more focussed on general wellness than exercise.
Yes you get activity and sleep tracking, but the watch also tracks stress, meditation, hydration and menstrual cycles via the smartphone app as well as Bellabeat’s proprietary stress-predicting algorithm. Plus, it’ll send you a vibrating notification on your wrist when you’ve been stationary for too long.
The watch comes in silver or rose gold, with a stylish and minimal design which should fit most wrists. Since it uses a quartz movement and is also a regular watch, you’ll get six months of battery life too, which is another major bonus over the screened-up smartwatches in the list.
Wareable verdict: Bellabeat Time review£169, Amazon | bellabeat.comFossil Q NeelyFossil’s slim hybrid smartwatch, the £159 Q Neely, keeps things simple and stylish. It’s seriously light, small at 36mm, fairly slim at 12mm and comfortable to wear on the wrist. Plus it looks almost identical to a non-connected smartwatch.
As well as activity and sleep tracking, which you can monitor in the Fossil Q app, you can also set up vibration alerts, which you can allocate to a number on the watch face too. So if you get a WhatsApp, the watch hands on the 40mm watch face could move to the 1 o’clock position, for instance – though this does take a few days to get to grips with but then.
Also nice (and more straightforward) are the features you can set up for the three buttons on the right hand edge – remote selfie, remote music controls etc. Just be careful with the 16mm leather straps as they get dirty quickly – we’d suggest splashing out on the metal band.
Wareable verdict: Fossil Q Neely reviewFrom £149, Amazon | fossil.comKate Spade Scallop 2Kate Spade’s first Wear OS watch was a Wareable fav, and now there’s a second version on the scene, which maintains the stunning looks while bringing its features in line with the rest of the Fossil family.That means the latest Wear OS, a heart rate sensor, built-in GPS, NFC for Google Pay and 3ATM water resistance for swimming. Cosmetically, not a lot has changed here: there are new straps and dials to play with, and a new shortcut button that’s been added just below the crown. The “Choose your look” micro app returns, helping you match the perfect watch face to your day’s clothes and accessories. In terms of tech, the Scallop 2 features a round 2-inch AMOLED display, with no flat tyre ­– although it still manages to pack in an ambient light sensor, which regulates brightness to save on battery life.
Hands on: Kate Spade Scallop 2 reviewFrom £279, Amazon | katespade.comMichael Kors Access Sofie 2The original Michael Kors Sofie smartwatch is a little long in the tooth, so for 2019 the company is giving it an update with a suite of new features. It’s still a dressy, blingy full screen smartwatch, with a nice slim pavé bezel and 41mm case in a range of finishes. However for 2019 that case is now waterproof to 3ATM, while MK has also added a heart rate monitor and NFC for Google Pay.We were huge fans of the original, and the new model (which we’re yet to put through our rigorous testing) looks like it’s only an improvement. Still the same old Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset however. Expect this one to arrive in the summer, otherwise you can check out our review for the Sofie 1 below.Wareable verdict: Michael Kors Access Sofie reviewOriginal model from £349 Amazon | michaelkors.comTag Heuer Connected Modular 41Sure, it’s not the small 39mm version that Tag Heuer promised, but the latest Tag Heuer Connected Modular is still good enough and small enough for women’s wrists.
It helps that Tag Heuer went ahead and fixed some of the problems with its larger brethren. It now sports a gorgeous 1.2-inch AMOLED screen that goes up to 350 nits. Thanks to Intel’s Cloverdale Peak processor and 1GB of RAM, it’s both a performance beast and futureproofed. And of course, you get all the customisation you’d want from a Connected Modular.
Wareable verdict: Tag Heuer Connected Modular 41 reviewFrom £1,050, tagheuer.comMisfit PathMisfit Phase was the company’s first dip into the hybrid scene, but it’s followed up with the similar-but-not-completely-identical Misfit Path. While the Path shares the same DNA as the Phase, there are a few notable differences, including the round markers around the face and the 36mm size – for comparison, the Phase is 41mm.
The Path will alert you to notifications, but unlike the Phase it doesn’t use the colour wheel to signify what they’re for. Instead, it just uses hand movements and vibrations to give you alerts, which can be customized in the app settings.
One of the side buttons can also be dedicated to a special smart feature of your choosing, like remotely controlling your phone’s camera. The watch is waterproof to 50 meters too, with a six-month battery life to boot. One big plus compared to the rest on the list – that affordable price.
From £135, Amazon | misfit.com