While we all share some common priorities in a smartwatch, women have a few unique features to look for. Sure, having a somewhat smaller lens face and a slimmer wristband is nice, but the real differences that set the best smartwatches for women apart are ones you can’t always see, like dedicated cycle tracking and other health and safety features. It can sometimes feel overwhelming to choose among the various options when shopping for a smartwatch, particularly when there are several important factors to consider before you drop any amount of money on a wearable. After all, you’re probably going to be wearing the device every single day.

When considering which smartwatch is best for you, you’ll probably look at the operating system, battery life, applications, features, and arguably two of the most important factors: comfort and fit. While most smartwatches are designed for anyone to use and not gender-specific by any means, a lot of popular smartwatches can be too bulky and are designed to fit the average man’s wrist. However, with women in mind, we’ve found some of the best smartwatches for comfort, fit, and dedicated women’s health features.

The best smartwatches for women

With a sleek and stylish design with multiple colors, and a neutrally neither-feminine-nor-masculine approach, women have a lot to like about this particular smartwatch. With an LTE connection (assuming you have a compatible carrier), you won’t be disconnected from your friends and family even if you leave your smartphone at home while jogging or hiking. The included silicone band is soft and comfortable, and there are plenty of other compatible bands made from different materials to ensure the Pixel Watch 2 fits in anywhere for just about any occasion. However, the Pixel Watch 2 uses proprietary Google bands, so you may find your options to be more limited while shopping.

Built-in Fitbit health and exercise tracking, combined with accurate and reliable sensors, ensure that your most important fitness and health data will be consistently tracked and organized. The Google watch’s Fitbit app helps track everything from macros to sleep trends, but also provides menstrual cycle and fertile window predictions based on date-based information you feed into the app.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 fixes much of what the original Pixel Watch offered when it launched, especially when it comes to design and integration with Android devices. The Pixel Watch 2’s AMOLED display and Corning Gorilla Glass protection make it all visible and durable, including water resistance up to 50 meters. You just have to consider the more exposed bezels on this watch compared to others; the glass edges could be more prone to scratching. On the bright side, an aluminum body replaces the stainless steel of the original, lightening the load on your wrist.

The Pixel Watch 2 runs on Wear OS, and while version 4 isn’t the big leap version 3 was, a major change is how much easier it is to migrate the watch from one phone to another. Fitbit comes preinstalled, giving you the activity and sleep tracking metrics it’s always been known for, plus a free six-month trial of Fitbit Premium to gain access to all the additional tracking and content available through it. Beyond that, you get Google’s own apps, like Wallet, Google Assistant, and Google Maps to make this Google-centered smartwatch a real powerhouse.

Let’s say you want a smartwatch that you can wear for an outdoor run. You want the watch to constantly monitor your heart rate during the run, and notify you when your heart rate gets high. And not only that, you want the watch to use GPS to map out your outdoor run, and communicate your health stats while running to the companion app in real time. And then, just for good measure, let’s say you want the watch and its companion app to create training plans and recovery time recommendations based off your run and other activity trends.

That smartwatch exists. It’s the Venu 3S by Garmin, a smaller version of the Venu 3. This watch offers a 41mm lens face, a perfect happy medium size for average female wrists. A 10-day maximum battery life (in general smartwatch mode, results vary when you activate satellite positioning or stream music from the watch) means you can keep it on even overnight to gather important details about your sleep, including time spent awake or in REM, which Garmin then compiles into a sleep quality score every morning for you to glance at or review more in depth.

The Venu 3S may be a bit overkill for women who mostly work out indoors, like weightlifting at the gym or running on a treadmill, where GPS tracking isn’t necessary. But since it supports all of Garmin’s specialized sport tracking, including running, cycling, and golf, this is a premium smartwatch for highly active and outdoorsy ladies.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 is refined from the Galaxy Watch 5 to specifically target a more comfortable fit for users. As many women already know, finding the right smartwatch that fits properly can be a struggle, but the Galaxy Watch 6 makes this a top priority, ensuring more accurate readings by the sensor and a proper fit around the wrist.

Those industry-leading sensors mean that the Galaxy Watch 6 offers some of the most accurate temperature readings you can get from a consumer-grade wrist wearable. Samsung even offers a feature that predicts your upcoming cycle through minute fluctuations in your skin temperature — changes so small they’re less than half a degree. (Of course, this information should supplement other family planning and conception strategies depending on your goals, and always consult a physician for the most effective fertility solutions.)

You’re also going to get a quality build with the Galaxy Watch 6, using a sapphire crystal glass display for increased durability and a much improved larger battery to keep you going all day long. While these upgrades may seem minor to some, for many Galaxy Watch users, these are exactly the upgrades we’ve been asking for.

The Galaxy Watch 6 also includes a handful of useful applications and a ton of fitness tracking features to help you stay on top of your health and fitness. You can also take advantage of the in-depth sleep tracking and sleep coach to ensure you’re getting the most out of your sleep. The Galaxy Watch 6 is a premium smartwatch at an affordable price — and with the color options to choose from and the availability of additional bands, you’re always going to find something that feels great and looks great too.

The Fitbit Versa 4 is largely an activity tracker in the form of a smartwatch, enabling users to focus more on their health and fitness regimens while wearing it. It comes in four stylish colorways, including a couple of softer-hued models. The pink sand/copper rose and beet juice/copper rose options that have some fashionable cachet to them. It’s not big or bulky, so will fit nicely on smaller wrists, and you can expect some durability with the IP67 protection from dust and water.

The Versa 4 won’t give you access to third-party apps, so the watch maintains a focus on activity and health tracking using Fitbit’s own interface. Built-in GPS helps a great deal in tracking exercises with all the location and route data intact, while a Fitbit Premium subscription can provide training and workouts to follow when you have goals to reach. There’s integration with Alexa and Google Assistant, plus the ability to see incoming phone calls and text messages.

You don’t get the ECG and deeper stress tracking features in the Fitbit Sense 2, but you will get menstrual tracking, skin temperature variation, and blood glucose tracking. On top of all that, the Versa 4 can last up to six days on a single charge, so you won’t be charging it all the time.

Naturally, we love all things Android, but when a good smartwatch comes along, we have to give it some recognition and the Apple Watch Series 9 fits the bill, especially for users looking for easy-to-use and secure women’s health tracking support. If you already use an Apple ecosystem, then the Apple Watch Series 9 is a natural extension. You can unlock your iPhone and Mac devices, easily access Apple Pay, and ping your phone when it’s been misplaced. Don’t count on these perks if you’re an Android phone user, though, because all those features are iPhone-only.

The Apple Watch doesn’t emulate a classic, round timepiece the way other watches do, so if you’re a gal looking for something fashion-forward, you’ll either want to explore other options or try dressing the Apple Watch up with one of many third-party bands and cases.

The Apple Watch’s consistency is easy to trust, especially for period- and fertility-tracking in the Health app. Newer Apple Watches (series 8 and up) can use fluctuations in your body temperature to predict upcoming cycle windows, like ovulation. (As we mentioned when we discussed the Galaxy Watch 6, you shouldn’t use a consumer-grade body temperature tracker for your sole pregnancy or birth control planning. Consult your physician for the best course of action and use your Apple Watch for supplementary data.)

We also like that Apple’s phones and smartwatches communicate seamlessly to transfer and organize health data and trends, whereas if you use a third-party watch with your iPhone, you won’t get this nice harmony of devices. And further, Apple has a pretty solid reputation (so far) of resisting outside pressures to share its users’ data, so if privacy and security with your menstrual health data is a concern to you, the Apple Watch may be a good way to go.

In terms of hardware quality, the Apple Watch Series 9 is built to withstand the rigors of daily life and exercise. It’s got the same crack-resistant display, dust resistance, water resistance, and swim-proof ratings the previous Series 8 had. Where Apple also excels is with the combination of third-party app support, various health sensors, and fitness tracking. Key features like Crash Detection and Fall Detection also return, helping automatically contact the appropriate emergency response when you’re unresponsive.

The Garmin Lily 2 is an improvement over the previous version, offering women a small and stylish smartwatch made for smaller wrists. It features a touchscreen with a hybrid display that keeps things simple and gets into the details only when you need to know. You give up on a color screen, which may be a deal-breaker if you really want that, but the monochrome display and subtle embossed designs on the lens face create a more understated smartwatch visual appeal if you don’t like the in-your-faceness of full-color watches. Plus, lower display demands mean a longer battery life; you could go a week without charging the Lily 2’s battery easily.

The Lily 2 has its limitations, since it’s neither a GPS nor LTE enabled smartwatch, but it can tether to your phone for location services. This makes it a great choice for women who work out mostly indoors, like at home or a gym, and don’t need the mapping or safety features afforded by a smartwatch with an independent GPS connection. New activity tracking options that weren’t on the original Lily include dance fitness activities, like afrobeat, Bollywood, EDM, hip-hop, and zumba, while Garmin’s companion app keeps all of your fitness data organized. Plus, there are stress tracking, meditation, and women’s health features available, along with crash and fall detections to alert friends and family to track your location and get help.

There are a variety of colors to choose from, and each color sports a unique lens design print (don’t worry, the design doesn’t impose on your view of the watch face itself). You can easily switch out the silicone sports band for a more sophisticated leather one, made even easier now because more standardized lugs make it much easier to swap out for other bands.

Outdoor runners, both male and female, look for a few unique features in their smartwatches. Many runners prefer to leave their phones at home, in order to be as unencumbered as possible. In this case, a watch with satellite positioning is a must, so you can map your outdoor runs, walks, and hikes. While some women who frequent their local jogging paths may also want to see a watch with LTE connectivity so you can phone a friend or the authorities in the event of trouble, if you’re not quite as concerned in this regard, check out the Coros Pace 3.

While it’s worth pointing out that the Pace 3 isn’t all that feminine of a watch from a traditional visual appeal standpoint, it’s still more than capable of being your outdoor running companion, even with some give and take in its features. Unfortunately, this Coros watch doesn’t support third-party app use, so it won’t communicate with your favorite health and wellness apps, like Drip for women’s health or Strava for cycling and running.

On the other hand, the Pace 3 will dilligently map out your runs, jogs, and walks with its built-in GPS, and a special transreflective screen prevents direct sunlight from washing out your watch’s display. Plus, with its battery life, you won’t have to worry about dropping this watch on the charger more than every week or two, depending on how often you use the GPS.

The Withings ScanWatch Light offers a lot of the health- and wellness-focused features of other smartwatches, without the conspicuous digital face and constant barrage of notifications. It will still track all of your important health trends, like cardiovascular health, steps, and breathing, and allows for goal-setting and sleep quality statistics through the companion app.

While probably not as intuitive as the trackers from our top options like the Apple Watch Series 9, Withings’ menstrual health tracking feature will let you track symptoms and rate pain, or note the start of your period on the app or directly through the watch. It’ll also provide cycle forecasts and other important information in a clean, easily digestible way. We also really appreciate that Withings will show you how your cycle impacts your sleep and other activity trends, and uses that information to suggest exercises and routines to support your wellbeing during a menstrual cycle.

Plus, the ScanWatch Light comes in a gorgeous array of soft colors, including an eggshell white, sage green, and cornflower blue. A 37mm lens face means this watch won’t look cartoonishly massive on your wrist. You may find the very small digital display hard to read at times, but this is still a preferred option for minimalists that want to stay in tune with their health.

How did we pick the best smartwatches for women?

Small lens faces and appealing band colors are great and all, but there’s much more to a smartwatch being ideal for women than a flash of rose gold — though we did try to keep our picks on the smaller side.

We prioritized watches with strong health and wellness tracking, either through native apps or third-party app support. Accurate and reliable temperature tracking was also important for this guide, since many women use body temperature tracking as an aid to family planning and fertility tracking.

We also made sure to include watches with LTE connectivity, so you can quickly answer calls or messages from friends, children, colleagues, and spouses, and have some peace of mind knowing that making an emergency call is possible even if you don’t take your phone on an outdoor run.

And lastly, build quality, compatibility, and operating systems are still a priority no matter who a smartwatch is for. You want to think about how you’re going to use the smartwatch; basing your smartwatch choice on your lifestyle allows you to get the most out of your device without spending extra on unnecessary features you won’t use. All things considered, the best smartwatch for women is the best smartwatch for your lifestyle.

Smartwatches for different lifestyles

Old-school analog watch wearers are increasingly looking at smartwatches as worthy of strapping on their wrists. You just have to decide which one is worth wearing, especially when facing an extensive list of factors to consider.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 is easily the best overall pick, thanks to Fitbit’s built-in health and wellness tracking. With a comfortable fit, sleek glass lens, and LTE connectivity to keep you connected to important people, the Pixel Watch 2 has a lot to offer loyal Pixel Watch users or new converts. Whether upgrading from its predecessor, switching from a different brand, or starting out with your first smartwatch, you can’t go wrong with the Google Pixel Watch 2.

If the Pixel Watch hasn’t grabbed your attention enough, the Garmin Venu 3S is sure to be everything you’re looking for and more. This premium smartwatch improves upon its predecessor, outshining competitors in many areas, notably its battery life and onboard music storage. If you’d rather keep things simpler, the Fitbit Versa 4 is a more fitness-focused smartwatch on its own. The Versa 4 is more affordable than most smartwatches without compromising on crucial elements such as battery life and durability.