What fitness features does a smartwatch have?

Smartwatches are tremendously helpful gadgets, pairing well with a smartphone and offering great convenience and health monitoring benefits. Fitness features are common on premium smartwatches, and you may be considering purchasing a smartwatch based on a need to track your exercise, steps, or active minutes in the gym.

The exact features that you get vary from model to model. We’d recommend checking for the features you’re after on a specific smartwatch that you may be considering purchasing. However, there are some key fitness features that you can reasonably expect from premium models offered by major smartwatch manufacturers, such as Apple, Google and Samsung.

Let’s talk about some of those key fitness features and ultimately decide on if you should make a smartwatch your exercise companion. Keep in mind that features vary between models and manufacturers, both in name and how they work, so take this article as general advice.

Exercise tracking

Many smartwatches have dedicated tracking modes for different types of exercise, helping you get a more accurate picture of your activity. For example, choosing “cycling” instead of “running” helps your watch recognise the way you’re moving and track your activity accordingly. While your smartwatch can automatically keep track of steps and active minutes throughout the day, selecting a specific workout like “rowing” or “hiking” gives you more detailed and accurate insights into how you’re moving. This kind of deep functionality would suit somebody chasing their personal best or pursuing a weekly activity goal.

Heart rate monitoring

Some premium smartwatches can passively track your heart rate, but to get a more accurate read-out, some also offer apps where you can view the live data. Some watches offer notification services for when your heart rate goes above or below a certain threshold. You may be interested in this feature if you’d like to monitor your heart rate often, or if you’d like to see your peak rate when active versus your peak rate when idle.

Sleep tracking

Sleep tracking is a common feature in smartwatches, monitoring your resting hours, your movement and so on. It’s a particularly useful feature, with many smartwatches offering useful insight into your sleep and recommending if you need to adjust your sleep schedule. You might want to consider using a smartwatch to log your sleeping habits if you’re waking up feeling drowsy, or if you’d like to make improvements to your wellbeing overall.

Step tracking

Less intensive than the dedicated exercise tracking features mentioned earlier, premium smartwatches tend to offer basic step tracking to measure how many steps you’re putting in every day. It’s a pretty convenient way of keeping an eye on your daily exercise, particularly if you are looking for fitness features and want a simple way to begin your smartwatch fitness journey.

This kind of tracking is particularly useful if you’re trying to more passively manage your weight, but is also worth keeping your mind if you’re trying to hit a step milestone every week.

Water and dust resistance

Water and dust resistance, often represented through an ‘IP’ rating, is a manufacturer’s way of indicating how well a device is protected against exposure to fresh water and dust.
Premium smartwatches tend to have an IP68 rating, indicating a high level of resistance, though we’d recommend checking with the manufacturer to get a better idea of what they have rated their smartwatch as capable of withstanding. You should keep the IP rating in mind when choosing a smartwatch, to ensure that it’s durable enough for the type of exercise you regularly do. Alternatively, if you’re not really the type to do intense outdoor exercise, perhaps the IP rating wouldn’t be too important to you.

Should I buy a smartwatch to stay fit?

A smartwatch can be a tremendously useful tool to get fit with, and with many premium smartwatches offering a great range of fitness features, you might find having a wrist-bound exercise tracker to be particularly handy as you get your daily hours in at the gym or park. Optus offers a wide range of smartwatches, and you can check out our range below.

Keep Optus Number Share in mind

Keen on staying connected, but want to leave your phone at home when exercising? Consider Optus Number Share. Optus Number Share gives you the flexibility to share one mobile number between compatible devices on eligible plans. Enjoy the ease of taking your smartwatch while leaving your phone behind.

_{Terms & conditions}

_{Optus Number Share: Compatible connected wearable devices use Number Share functionality to access the Optus Mobile Network. The wearable device is not the same as a mobile phone and some network functionality is not available on these devices. Call quality may not be of the same standard as a mobile phone and may drop out in certain areas. Requires a compatible wearable device and compatible mobile phone with selected operating systems. Only available if you have or sign up to an eligible mobile phone plan and use your phone to sign up via the app. You phone must have Voice over LTE (VoLTE) functionality which must be enabled on your device. If you cancel your Number Share Bolt-on or your mobile phone plan to which the bolt-on is attached, the number sharing functionality will not be available on your wearable device. Number sharing functionality is only available for use in Australia. Optus Number Share is a month to month option which is normally $5/mth, but is available at no additional cost on the Watch plan when purchased with a compatible wearable device. You will be automatically charged via card on your monthly invoice date. You must maintain your card payment details or your add-on will be cancelled.}