Best Hiking Watch – Expert Review

5/5 Overall Rating
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The Garmin Instinct 2 is a tough and rugged hiking watch that is also perfectly suitable for everyday wear. It includes a multitude of useful features, such as a wrist-based heart rate monitor, barometer, compass, GPS, altimeter, thermometer, and TracBack feature.

It has a sturdy and durable build and is water resistant to up to 100 meters. With a Chroma display, you will be able to easily see your data at any time of the day and in any level of sunlight.

The GPS feature is quick so you don't have to wait around for a few minutes before you get on your way.

You'll also never get lost with its TracBack and bread crumbs feature that is helpful when you're in faraway remote places with little to no signal.

The Garmin Instinct tracks your steps, calories, heart rate, and even the quality of your sleep!

When paired with a compatible smartphone or other type of device, you will be able to receive Smart Notifications from the Instinct 2 and track your personal data through the Connect IQ app.

There is also a Move Alert feature, which will vibrate and alert you when you've been sitting down for too long.

This is a very useful feature for when you have long hours at the office, as it will give your brain a break as you get up and move for a little while and help increase your productivity.

The Garmin Instinct 2 is the ideal hiking watch with plenty of amazing, useful features to use.

4.5/5 Overall Rating
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The Suunto Traverse is a daily watch, designed for outdoor use but with a sleek look so that it can be worn on your everyday travels as well. It has a modern, lightweight design with great display.

Its features include GPS, an altimeter, barometer, compass, speed and distance tracking and a flashlight mode.

It's a great watch for fitness training and hiking but has limited battery life so if you need a watch that's going to last more than 2 weeks without a charge then this probably isn't the best choice for you.

The Suunto Traverse has a linked altimeter and barometer that has 3 profiles to choose from: automatic, altimeter, and barometer.

In automatic mode, the watch will switch back and forth between altimeter and barometer depending on whether you're moving or standing still.

The Traverse logs all your trip data so that you can see your total ascent/descent details as well as your speed.

It has all the typical timekeeping functions, which include stopwatch, timer, an alarm and GPS time.

Sunrise and sunset times help you to set your alarm for when you need to wake up as well as help you determine how many hours of sunlight you have to keep travelling.

It also tracks weather trends and gives storm alerts so that you can find shelter in time. The Suunto Traverse has a very useful flashlight function, which puts the backlight on full brightness so that you can find your essentials in the dark.

With GPS capability and Glonass networks, the Suunto Traverse helps you keep track of where you're going and can be used to plan your routes. It has features to help you find your way back to the start of your route, log Points of Interest, check coordinates, and more.

You can sync your Traverse watch with the Suunto Movescount app on your phone in order to create and plan routes, push notifications and incoming calls to your watch, and transfer your data wirelessly once you've completed a trip.

The Movescount app allows you to see all the details of your hike, as well as summaries, fitness patterns, calories burned etc.  

4/5 Overall Rating

The Suunto Core is an excellent outdoor watch with many useful functions. It comes in a number of different colour variations so you can choose the style that will suit you the best.

It has an altimeter, which tracks your ascent or descent and tells you what your current elevation is. It measures your elevation every 3 feet or 1 meter, and can track your overall height climbed in the altitude log even if your trail has many ups and downs.

This function is linked together with the barometer, which calculates the pressure as you ascend or descend instead of just the weather pressure. This allows for more accurate readings as long-term trends are determined.

While there is no GPS, the Suunto Core has a compass function that allows you to navigate your way safely through the great outdoors. It also features sunrise and sunset times with 400 locations to choose from.

All you need to do is select the location closest to you and set your alarms accordingly so that you can wake up as the sun comes up.

The Core also has a thermometer, which works best when you've taken the watch off of your wrist for a little while to avoid interference from your body heat. It has storm alarms that warn you when a storm is approaching so that you can find shelter.

The Suunto Core has a relatively easy user-interface which you get used to as you use it more.

There are multiple menu pages that you have to go through to find certain functions or logs but the more you do it, the quicker you find what you're looking for.

You can set a daily alarm with the Suunto Core, however it isn't very loud. It has a water resistance up to 30 meters and can accurately tell you your depth up to 10 meters.

4/5 Overall Rating

The Timex Ironman R300 watch is a more basic watch for hiking that focuses less on navigation, but more on the smaller features. It a great introductory watch for people new to hiking and is great value for money.

It's shock- and water-resistant up to 100m. It features a stopwatch, timer, alarm and hydration alerts. The alarms can be set to vibrate, make a sound, or both, so you can choose which is more likely to wake you up.

The hydration alert is an excellent feature if your main use for this watch is hiking. It'll alert you to when you should have a drink of water so that you stay hydrated on your hike.

While it doesn't have many features, if you're looking for something simple to track the time and wake you up in the mornings then the Timex Ironman watch will suit you just fine.