Watches with outdoor-specific features are very popular these days, and with the development of technology, watches have made great strides in combining design with practical technology.
A good mountaineering and hiking watch can not only display the time and date, but also provide you with important information you need for outdoor sports, such as altitude, location, air pressure, sunrise/sunset time, etc.
It helps you navigate, plan your trip, monitor your physical condition, and alert you to the weather.
The best watch for hiking in 2021
1、Garmin Fenix 6:
Garmin Fenix 6, powerful for: hiking, mountaineering, trekking, climbing, cycling, swimming, running, backpacking and everyday use.
The Garmin Fenix 6 watch was launched in 2019, replacing the wildly popular Garmin Fenix 5 watch.
It's basically a smartwatch with a color display designed for harsh outdoor conditions.
The watch is made of very sturdy materials – the bezel is made of stainless steel, titanium or DLC steel, while the lens is made of sapphire glass (PRO model).
As a result, the watch has excellent wear resistance and durability.
Still, the design of this watch makes it elegant enough to wear it without hesitation in business meetings.
The Garmin Fenix 6 watch is equipped with a 3-axis compass, altimeter, barometer and thermometer.
For more accurate temperature readings, you can connect it to an external temperature sensor (Garmin Tempe).
The compass and altimeter are automatically calibrated via GPS.
Gps-enabled features include the watch automatically setting the time based on your location, and of course, navigation and tracking capabilities.
You can import routes and points of interest, and the watch will give you directions.
You can save activities and access detailed information about each activity through the Garmin Connect app (desktop or mobile).
Fenix 6 watches can be synced with smartphones (garmin Connect mobile app for iOS and Android phone devices) to display text, alerts, emails, and other notifications.
The Garmin Fenix 6 watch is available in two different models (Base version and PRO version) and in three different sizes: the 42mm, 47mm and 51mm PRO models.
The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro is a premium GPS watch with powerful features, music, graded adjusted pace guidance and pulse oximeter, and in addition to the above features, support Wi-Fi, music, and maps – it can display topographic maps, which is very useful for navigating in the wilderness.
2見 Suunto 9 Baro:
The Suunto 9 Baro is also suitable for: hiking, mountaineering, climbing, cycling, swimming, running, backpacking and everyday use, and is one of the most competitive opponents of the Garmin Fenix 6.
Equipped with a stainless steel bezel and a color touchscreen, the Suunto 9 Baro is also equipped with buttons, making it easy to use if you're wearing gloves.
The watch is equipped with GPS, altimeter, barometer, thermometer and compass.
Navigating the path with the Suunto 9 Baro watch is very simple, as waypoints and routes can be easily imported from the Suunto app, and you can easily plan your route before your hike.
You can also find existing routes for other Suunto app users and import them into your watch – especially if you use the heat map feature to show popular routes within a given area.
The Suunto app also provides complete data on exercise (showing exercise results by parameters such as duration, distance, calories burned, etc.).
The Suunto 9 watch can also track walking distance, find directions back to the starting point, display current speed and much more, as well as a wrist-based heart rate monitoring sensor.
A Bluetooth connection connects your watch to your smartphone and receives notifications from your smartphone on your watch.
The Suunto 9 watch can also be used without a barometer, but for hiking and backpacking, the Baro version is still recommended, because the Baro version is also equipped with sapphire glass, which has good wear resistance.
3、Polar Grit X：
The Polar Grit X watch was released in early 2020 and is quickly popular with hikers, backpackers and climbers due to its attractive design and advanced features.
The Grit X is a versatile sports watch, like the Suunto and Garmin watches mentioned above, which feature a rugged design that meets military standards (MIL-STD-810G) in terms of durability.
It supports GPS, altimeter, barometer, thermometer and digital compass, has a navigation function, and can be enabled in various sport modes.
You can import directions to your watch through the Polar Flow platform, which can connect to the Komoot app, which means that the Komoot route is automatically synced to your watch.
Polar Grit X watches are available in three different versions: Grit X, Grit X Pro and Grit X Pro Titan.
The Grit X Pro model features scratch-resistant sapphire glass lenses and several additional features.
It supports an Outdoor Dashboard that displays altitude maps, compasses, coordinates, and sunrise/sunset times, and pro models also support trackback.
The Titan model has all the features of the PRO model, but is made of a stronger, lighter material.
In addition, long battery life, wrist-based heart rate measurement sensors, and military-grade durability are all advantages of polar Grit X.
The downside is that the watch doesn't have a storm warning or a barometer for predicting the weather (which may change with future updates).
4、Suunto Ambit 3 Peak：
The Suunto Ambit 3 Peak watch is also an excellent choice for hikers and climbers, as it has excellent functionality and durability for: hiking, mountaineering, trekking, climbing, climbing, swimming, running and everyday use.
Compared to the above watch, suunto Ambit 3 does not support GLONASS satellites, but the price is also cheaper and slightly easier to use (the interface of the watch is very user-friendly).
The Suunto Ambit 3 watch comes with GPS, altimeter, barometer, thermometer and compass.
Since it uses a high-performance GPS antenna, it has excellent GPS reception capability and supports navigation and tracking.
The watch can be synchronized with the Suunto app (for analysis and planning) and can display real-time GPS data (e.g. speed, distance, altitude gain, etc.).
The Ambit 3 is Suunto's first Bluetooth-compatible watch, so when you install the Suunto app, it can easily connect to your smartphone and display incoming and outgoing calls, messages, and other notifications from your phone.
In addition to the Peak version, the Suunto Ambit 3 watch is available in three other models, called the Ambit 3 Vertical, Ambit 3 Sport and Ambit 3 Run.
But the features described here are the Suunto Ambit 3 Peak version, and in addition, some Suunto Ambit 3 Peak watches are equipped with sapphire glass.
5、 Casio Pro Trek PRW-2500T-7:
The Casio Pro Trek PRW-2500T-7 is a very durable non-GPS watch with many useful features for: hiking, mountaineering, trekking, and everyday use.
The watch is equipped with a digital compass, barometer, altimeter and thermometer.
The watch uses a solar rechargeable battery that can be used for 5 months without any light exposure, so you will hardly feel the pressure of battery life.
The Casio Pro Trek PRW-2500T-7 receives calibrated radio signals up to 6 times a day to maintain accurate time.
The compass supports magnetic declination correction and has bearing memory.
Barometer displays trend graphs and helps you predict the weather.
The Casio Trekking Watch is also equipped with a pressure change indicator that warns you in the event of a major change.
More basic features include a stopwatch, countdown, calendar, and alarm.
The disadvantage is that without GPS, it is impossible to monitor heart rate.
This selection of the best hiking watches includes four GPS-enabled watches and one without GPS-enabled watches.
While GPS does have its advantages, some hikers prefer watches without GPS, mainly because of longer battery life, lower prices, simpler user interfaces, etc.
While there is no GPS, these watches basically have a compass, altimeter and barometer – features that are also essential for hiking, mountaineering and other activities.
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