Golf is one of those sports both young and old can play, but it’s also one that takes considerable time to learn and improve. With that in mind, it’s no surprise golf watches are out there now as a sub-category of smartwatches unto themselves, equipped with specialized features to help golfers of all stripes hone their game.
The options also continue to increase in number and sophistication, almost standing in as virtual caddies on your wrist for every hole. This list covers great options to help you do just that.
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Source: Garmin
Garmin Approach S62
Best overall
Tee off wearing one of these golf watches
Garmin Approach S62
Best overall
A virtual caddie on your wrist
The Garmin Approach S62 may not be Garmin’s top-of-the-line golf watch, but it comes close with the long list of features available to utilize before, during, and after every round. It also offers non-golf tracking features that make it a more versatile smartwatch.
- Plenty of golf game analysis tools
- Solid GPS performance
- Non-golf health and fitness tracking
- Maps could use a refresh
- Still pricey
The Approach S62 is no longer Garmin’s top-of-the-line golf watch, but once you consider bang for your buck it remains the best you can wear during any round. Much of what is available in the more recent Approach S70 (below) also applies here, even if the maps look a little dated and the watch’s display is neither AMOLED nor quite as easy to see in brighter sunlight. It only comes in the one 47mm size, so probably veers more toward men, but at least you have black and white variants to choose from to match your glove.
Key features, like PlaysLike, Virtual Caddie, and Green View bring a lot to the fore in preparing for each hole, letting you know what to expect or contend with whilst going for the green. The Approach S62 tracks all pertinent data related to your game, making it easier to analyze afterward, especially when it comes to drive distance and putting stats. There’s just so much to wade through in the watch and the Garmin Golf app.
That said, the Approach S62 isn’t just a golf watch since it can also track health and fitness features, including a huge list of workouts and training, along with heart rate and sleep tracking data. Pair it with the Garmin Connect app and you can keep tabs on all those details as well. Not to mention smartphone notifications can pop up on the watch as well. Battery life is rated at up to 14 days, but you can probably get through a few rounds with GPS on before you need to charge it back up again.
Garmin Approach S70
Premium pick
Take a swing on any fairway
The Garmin Approach S70 comes in two sizes to appeal to all golfers, loaded with information from over 43,000 courses and intuitive features to help raise your game to new heights. Keep track of your score, know which club to use, and even use this golf watch to track other exercises as well.
- Premium build quality and design
- Plenty of useful golf features
- Not just a pure golf watch
- Not entirely like other Garmin smartwatches
The Garmin Approach S70 is a fully-loaded golf watch laden with features that aim to cover everything you would need before, during, and after playing a round. There are 42mm and 47mm variants, offering two distinct sizes appealing to a variety of wrists, plus the S70 marks the first time Garmin uses an AMOLED display in the Approach line. It also sports better graphics, making for more detailed maps for the 43,000+ courses available to download onto the watch from the Garmin Golf app. More than that, the watch acts like a virtual caddie on your wrist through PlaysLike, which helps calculate changes in wind, elevation, flag distance, and hazards as you go through the front, middle, and back of the green.
The more you play while wearing it, the more it knows how to inject your data into each round, like how it pins where the ball is likely to land based on your average driving distance. Even better, the Approach S70 keeps track of how far every drive goes, making it easier to locate the ball in case you’ve hit an errant stroke or ended up in a hazard. That it suggests clubs to use for certain shots and situations adds another real-time element that can prove a valuable edge, though tournaments won’t let you use it.
On top of its seemingly endless golf features, the Approach S70 also works just fine as an exercise smartwatch, with over 1,000 unique workouts, plus ones specific to playing golf that will help build strength and form to up your own game. It even has the same Body Battery and sleep tracking health features seen in other Garmin watches. They just aren’t as front and center on this one. Battery life also holds up well, giving you a good week of battery life if you mix things up with GPS and golf tracking.
Bushnell Ion Elite GPS Watch
Best value
Paying less, playing more
$189 $200 Save $11
Bushnell is better known for its laser rangefinders but the Ion Elite GPS Watch takes its expertise to the wrist through a golf smartwatch. It’s not going to run like a typical smartwatch in some cases, but taking it on any course gives you plenty to work with on a budget.
- Impressive accuracy
- Bright and vibrant display
- Considerably cheaper than premium options
- Low battery life
- Not as deep for non-golf features
Bushnell is no stranger to golf gear, so the Ion Elite GPS Watch makes for an interesting option compared to more expensive choices. The 46mm size is large for the average smartwatch, but for golf watches, it’s very much in the same ballpark. A color touchscreen helps a great deal in visualizing the information and data points the watch displays, which includes Bushnell’s own Slope technology to figure out slopes and elevation on every course. HoleView and Shot Planning offer settings to plan out every shot based on distance and other factors, whereas GreenView and Green Mapping help you learn a course and move the pin onscreen for more precise approach shots and putts.
The Bushnell Golf Mobile app handles all these details when you sync your data over, letting you see how you’re doing from an empirical perspective. You just won’t get anything else from it as far as health or fitness tracking, so the focus here is decidedly on how you fare on the fairway. Given its focus on golfing, 12-hour battery life might feel perfectly fine for getting through a round of 18, but it is generally much shorter than other golf watches routinely offer.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Golf Edition
Not just for golf
Samsung’s golf watch is a real hit
$335 $500 Save $165
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Golf Edition is a unique variant from Samsung because it is essentially a regular Watch 5 Pro with golfing features aimed at improving your game every time you’re ready to play.
- Useful exclusive golf features
- Wear OS compatibility and more
- Tough and durable build
- Not as deep as other golf watches
- Battery life won’t match other models
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Golf Edition is an interesting option because it strives to deliver the best of both worlds. On the one hand (or wrist?), you have all the features that come with otehr Samsung watches, like Wear OS, Samsung Pay, third-party apps, tight phone integration, and all the health and fitness tracking settings. On the other, this particular variant adds all the golf-centric features not available in the regular Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. It comes preloaded with the Golf Buddy Smart Caddie app that has a shortcut icon on the default watch face, which opens up a slew of options, like downloadable course maps, scoring, and shot tracking to gauge performance in an easy-to-understand chart.
You won’t necessarily get the same granular detail more elaborate golf watches give you, be it slope information on every course or precise data on hazards and lay-ups that might not dive as deep. In that regard, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro Golf Edition is more of a hybrid smartwatch rather than a true golf watch, but there’s plenty to like, and with the ability to install third-party apps, you could theoretically further increase its usability. Battery life will have a hard time keeping up, though, maxing out at about three days on very moderate usage, whereas a full day at the course with GPS on will really tax the overall charge.
Voice Caddie T9 Smart Golf Watch
Holding steady
All about your golf game
$249 $350 Save $101
There is no doubt what the focus is with the Voice Caddie T9 Smart Golf Watch, and this golf-cetnric smartwatch is loaded with features to track shots and putts, while also helping understand the green to increase your score over time as you wear it.
- Automatic shot and distance tracking
- Color screen and easy software
- Practice modes help off the course
- Not as advanced as other golf watches
- Not ideal if you want other smart features
The name really says it all when it comes to what the Voice Caddie T9 Smart Golf Watch is all about. There are, however, some very basic activity tracking features as well, like steps, calories, and distance.
When it comes to golf, there’s plenty to work with as you go through every hole, where it tracks a number of different details and metrics along the way. It knows each time you hit the ball, recognizing which shot you’re on for each hole, while vibrating reminders tell you to input your score when you’re moving to the next one, though it is capable of doing it automatically through the “Shot” and “Putt” spots visible on the bezel. What’s neat is you can input penalties as you go to see them later, so you know where you went wrong on a particular hole rather than just seeing a single number representing the entire round.
The Voice Caddie T9 introduces a new Practice Tempo Mode that measures the tempo of your swing whether you play on a course or hammer balls at a driving range, allowing you to set your own full swing, approach, and putting targets and try to match them. Through all these features, battery life lasts up to 10 days in regular mode, and potentially getting through 27-36 holes with GPS always on.
TecTecTec ULT-G Golf GPS Watch
Budget choice
Don’t break the bank on this one
The TecTecTec ULT-G Golf GPS Watch keeps things simple with a monochrome screen and limited inputs to maintain focus on the course, and you don’t have to pay as much to make use of it.
- Easier to set up and start
- Lightweight and comfortable
- Excellent battery life
- No color and no touchscreen
- Limited features and compatibility
The TecTecTec Ult-G Golf GPS Watch is as simple as it gets for what a golf watch can look and function like. Despite not sporting the most ruggedized or advanced materials, it should feel sturdy and tough on your wrist, and the monochrome screen is all business displaying the key details. It supports over 38,000 courses globally — all free to download — tracking shot distance and hazards for each one. The feature set doesn’t extend much further from there owing to its budget-friendly price. You won’t get the club selection or other helpful tips and deep features seen in other models, so if you want something basic, this is it. And if you want a fitness tracker, this is definitely not it.
There is the TecTecTec GPS app to collect all the data from your play, so you can always look back at your figures and stats anytime you want to reference them. The lack of extravagant features bodes well for battery life, where the Ult-G can last up to 2.5 rounds of golf before you need to recharge.
The best golf watches to raise your game
Golf stands out as a unique sport in that it’s among the very few manufacturers cater to with specialized smartwatches. They continue to get better and more sophisticated, standing out as virtual caddies on your wrist to help you better understand the course, your own performance, and how your game evolves over time. How far you want to go with that will largely determine which one you wear.
The Garmin Approach S70 is the best example of an advanced golf watch right now, simply because it has a long list of features that should appeal to even the most professional golfers. It overtook the Garmin Approach S62, but that golf watch is still more than viable as an alternative if you want a lot to work with, but can’t quite justify paying the premium for the S70.
You don’t have to break the bank at all if you want some help on your wrist while playing a round. The Bushnell Ion Elite GPS Watch comes from a brand that knows about golf and it keeps thing simple enough to focus on the game without a hefty price tag to match.
Garmin Approach S62
Best overall
The best golf watch available
The Garmin Approach S62 may not be Garmin’s top-of-the-line golf watch, but it comes close with the long list of features available to utilize before, during, and after every round. It also offers non-golf tracking features that make it a more versatile smartwatch.
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