After surpassing the Swiss watch market in recent years, the Apple Watch is now also making its presence felt in the field of sports watches.
Hugely popular sports app Strava recently released the 2024 edition of its Year of Sport: Trend Report and revealed that the Apple Watch was one of the most popular uploading devices on the platform.
The report, which collected user data from activities uploaded between September 1, 2023 and August 30, 2024, pulled out data on the most popular smartwatches used to upload activities. The Apple Watch Series took the top spot for running uploads, with the Apple Watch SE in second place and the Garmin Forerunner 245 in third.
Interestingly, there was no mention of a Google Wear OS smartwatch like the Pixel Watch 3, which speaks to Google and its hardware partner’s attempts to get its sports tracking up to speed.
A Garmin watch took the top spot for the 2023 edition of Strava’s annual report, where only the most popular upload device was revealed. That was the Garmin Forerunner 235, the predecessor to the Forerunner 245. The presence of the Apple Watch this time over Garmin will be music to the ears of those at Apple headquarters and not so much to Garmin and other more established sports watch makers.
As someone who’s tested virtually every Apple Watch since the very first time – and that includes the latest Watch Ultra 2 and Watch Series 10 – it’s no big surprise that Apple’s smartwatch is getting a lot of rave reviews on Strava. Especially when you look at some of the other data captured in the Strava report.
For the casual or new runner who has caught the running or run club bug, I can see why the Apple Watch would be a natural fit
Mike Sawh
Why the Apple Watch wins for runners
Running is really enjoyable and according to Strava it is the fastest growing social sport on the platform. It brings people to the sport who would not normally think of taking an evening or morning 5km run with others. Strava states that running clubs are up 59% from the previous year. Strava also stated that 5k runners tended to opt for an Apple Watch, while those running longer distances strap on a Garmin instead.
Having participated in quite a few runs organized by running clubs over the years and seeing these clubs flood my Instagram feed this year, I know that many of these club runs tend to max out at the distance of 5 km. After glancing at the wrists of many of these runners, the Apple Watch seems to dominate. If I’ve stepped to the limit of a half-marathon or marathon race, there have certainly been a few more Garmins.
For the casual or new runner who has caught the running or run club bug, I can see why the Apple Watch would be a natural fit. One thing that Apple has an advantage over dedicated running watches is the ease with which you can use them to track a run or workout.
Especially if you use the native Workout app for that. Apple’s Watches are now more capable than ever at tracking your workout, but it’s also easy to bypass the more advanced features like building custom interval workouts or using the Virtual Pacer to keep that experience simpler.
If you haven’t taken up running full-time yet, the Apple Watch offers a great balancing act between tracking workouts and being useful outside of workouts. The two Watch elements work together, rather than feeling like a more disjointed experience.
This is where most sports watches and other smartwatches catch up to Apple with that seamless ability to go from recording your lunch run to effortlessly switching into work mode or doing things like taking over your workout playlist.
Apple’s Watches are now more capable than ever for monitoring your workout
Mike Sawh
Apple Watches are also just good at reliably tracking runs. This is especially true for the last few generations of the Watch Series and the Series SE. My general running and racing tests with the Apple Watch Ultra and Series 10 specifically showed that Apple also has a watch that can rival the very best sports watches in areas like GPS accuracy and tracking metrics like heart rate.
Another factor here is that Apple ships more watches than Garmin and other watch brands, which simply means there are more Apple Watches on people’s wrists. In August this year, market analysis firm Canalys revealed data on global smartwatch shipments in the second quarter of 2024, with Apple having a 49% market share, Samsung 15% and Garmin next 11%.
Does this mean that the Apple Watch is the watch of choice for runners and that Garmin’s future is doomed? Well, not quite, but it’s more of a testament to the progress it’s made in turning its smartwatch into a true sports watch alternative. Now, if an iPhone owner were to ask me if there’s a smartwatch good enough to track runs, I’d happily recommend the Apple Watch, which wouldn’t have been the case if we were talking about the Apple Watch Series 5 or older had.
As Strava’s report suggests, Garmin is still favored for longer distances. Battery life will undeniably be a factor here, plus the richer training and analysis features offered straight out of the box on most of the dedicated running watches that are in and around the price of Apple’s Watch range. This upload data also only covers running, with cycling activity uploads dominated by Garmin devices.
The data will simply make it clearer to brands that have made it their business to track indoor and outdoor workouts that Apple, whether for the casual fitness enthusiast or the more die-hard fan, is making its mark and no longer lagging behind the competition.
Check out the best current prices for the Apple Watch Series 10:
$349
$349
$349
399
$399
$399.99