Garmin recently introduced of the Forerunner 645, an advanced running watch with the ability to store and playback music. This made us curious how many other GPS sports watches had music capabilities, and it turns out there's a bunch, and a few can even stream music as you run.
Here's our roundup of music-equipped sports watches that let you leave the phone at home...
Polar M600
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your running watch had all of the capabilities of a full-blown smartwatch? The Polar M600 is exactly that: a powerful GPS sports watch with a built-in heart rate monitor that runs on a powerful smartwatch operating system. One of the big advantages of this is that the M600 can store and playback music.
While it is possible to use this watch if you have an iPhone, it's a lot more capable if you have an Android phone. Namely, the ability to store and playback music isn't available if you use an iPhone. If you're on Android, it can store around 2.5 GB of music, and it pairs with a wide variety of Bluetooth headphones and speakers.
Pros:
- An excellent sports device with full smartwatch capabilities
- Easy auto-sync integration with SportTracks
Cons:
- It's rather large in size
- More useful with an Android device, as opposed to an iPhone
Garmin Forerunner 645 Music
Since this watch was the inspiration for this article, it had to be included. This is the first Garmin with support for the storage and playback of music. It's something that many loyal users wanted for a long time, and it's finally here. We covered the main features of the Garmin Foreunner 645 in a separate post, but it basically boils down to this: it's an advanced running watch with some multi-sport features (such as pool swim tracking), but it's most notable skill is music.
You must load your tunes (or podcasts and audio books) onto the watch when it's attached to your computer via USB. You can then play them back while you're working out and listen on paired Bluetooth headphones. The 645 will remember being paired to multiple sets of headphones, which is a nice feature. It has support for Deezer and iHeartRadio, but it cannot stream music from these services, only sync playlists when connected via wire.
Pros:
- Has advanced running features like Running Dymanics
- Easy auto-sync integration with SportTracks
Cons:
- It's a high-end sports watch with a matching higher price
- No music streaming support
Apple Watch
If a smartwatch is what you're after, then the Apple Watch is definitely worth considering. It's widely considered the best of the breed in smartwatches, and it's decent for sports and activity tracking as well. Every version of this watch features a built-in heart rate monitor and the ability to store and playback music. More advanced versions feature built-in GPS and swim tracking.
The drawbacks of Apple Watch are its limited battery life, its reliance on a touchscreen for operation in sports mode. It lacks a seamless auto-sync solution with SportTracks, but apps like HeathFit make it easy to send workouts to SportTracks. To load music onto the device you either need to subscribe to Apple Music, or have an iTunes music library. If you have the LTE Apple Watch and an Apple Music account, you can stream music without a phone.
Pros:
- Waterproof versions record underwater heart rate, stroke rate, and more
- LTE version can stream music
Cons:
- Limited battery life and touchscreen make it less than ideal for sports
- No auto-sync with SportTracks, but there are many ways to easily use it with our platform
TomTom Spark 3 Cardio + Music
With its built-in heart rate monitor, easy-to-use operation, 3 GB of music storage, and budget-friendly price, there's a lot to like about the TomTom Spark 3 Cardio + Music GPS watch. On top of that, it features direct auto-sync integration with SportTracks. There are people on our team that use this watch, and they're very happy with it.
TomTom goes as far as including wireless Bluetooth headphones with some bundles of this watch, making it dead simple to get out there running with tunes. Another advantage is that there are two different sizes of this watch available to accommodate different sized wrists.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use operation, budget-friendly price
- Easy auto-sync integration with SportTracks
Cons:
- It's not clear how commited TomTom is to the fitness market
- Limited to playing only MP3 and AAC files
More options...
Fitbit Ionic - A capable smartwatch with a focus on fitness, and the ability to stream music with some services. It's possible to export workouts from Fitbit and manually upload them to SportTracks, but this isn't the most convenient workflow.
Samsung Gear S3 and Gear Sport - Both of these smartwatches have access to Spotify (which is currently a Samsung exclusive), but they suffer from poor GPS and pacing accuracy.
New Balance RunIQ - This smartwatch offers music capabilities for Android users, but suffers from poor software implementation and inadequate battery life.
LG Watch Sport - Features built-in LTE (for phone calls and data), NFC (to use Android Pay), GPS, and a heart rate monitor. However, it is excessively large and has stiff, non-replaceable wrist bands. It can stream music, but getting a snug fit is impossibe if your wrists aren't thick enough.
Thanks for checking out this post! If you have any questions, we would love to hear them below...