The best smartwatch for women
It doesn't get better than the Apple Watch Series 4. The new slimmer body and bigger screen make it sleeker and more stylish than ever before. The unique modern design works for both men and women. The smartwatch comes in 40mm and 44mm styles to fit wrists big and small. You can buy it in several finishes to match your style and there are dozens of Apple-made and third-party watch bands to make the Watch your own.
No other smartwatch offers this much variety and customization, especially when it comes to female-friendly options. The Apple Watch is the only smartwatch I've ever worn regularly each day for months on end. I've reviewed dozens of Android Wear watches, and although many of them are nice looking as well, they're not as fully featured or easy to use as the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch boasts cutting-edge smartwatch tech including mobile payments with Apple Pay, stand-alone GPS, full waterproofing up to 50 meters, and thousands of apps. The user interface is very simple and attractive. It's easy to use and it has advanced, easy-to-use fitness tracking features, thanks to a plethora of sensors and an excellent heart rate monitor.
The Series 4 now has several new health-focused features, which are very intriguing, including the ability to detect when you fall and even alert emergency contacts if need be, as well as an electrical heart rate sensor that works with an app to alert you to heart health issues. The electrocardiogram (ECG) app has been certified by the Food & Drug Administration, but it's not out yet.
You can also get an LTE version of the Series 4 for standalone smartwatch functions like calls, texts, and internet access. That way, you can leave your phone at home when you go out on a run or a long hike.
The LTE connection will cost you about $10 a month at most carriers, and the LTE model does cost more. There's a non-LTE version, too, if you're not interested in the new feature. Most people probably don't need LTE, frankly, unless you regularly go on hikes or long runs and you don't want to be weighed down with your phone. Still, it's a nice option to have.
The Series 4 lasts a full day on a charge, but you can get more out of it if you don't get notifications from every app on your iPhone.
Tech reviewers across the board from call it the best smartwatch you can buy — period. Digital Trends even gave it a rare perfect score. While other companies struggle to pack tons of tech into bulky smartwatches, Apple effortlessly offers all the tech you need in the most compact and attractive smartwatch you can buy.
Pros: Gorgeous larger screen, slimmer watch case, haptic feedback from the crown, great watch faces, tons of band options, lots of apps, new health-focused features
Cons: Expensive, battery life is short, only works with iPhone
Buy the Apple Watch Series 4 at Macy's for $399+The best smartwatch for women with feminine details
Most smartwatches are still more unisex than specifically made for women. Even though Fossil, Skagen, and Apple make very convincing unisex watches that women can actually wear, none of them are unapologetically feminine. If you, like me, have been waiting for the day when you can look at a smartwatch and say, "Oh my God! It's so cute!" your day has come.
The Kate Spade Scallop 2 is fully and completely designed for women. The round metal watch casing is relatively slim, very sleek, and absolutely adorable because it has the cute little detail of scalloping around the watch face.
The watch faces themselves are classic Kate Spade designs. You get a sultry winking moon face with perfectly curled lashes, calling you a leading lady; cute bubbly balloons for a digital watch face with numbers; a speeding cab that reassures you that you'll be there in a New York minute; and a daisy that loses petals as the time ticks away in a classic game of "He loves me; he loves me not."
The cute scalloped silicone band in black or a leather band in blush pink and the well-made, slim metal bracelet style watch band complete the feminine look. It is these little touches that make this watch so fun.
Underneath all the fun design is WearOS (formerly Android Wear) with all its skills and limitations. Like all the other WearOS watches in our guide, you can pair it an iPhone or Android device to get apps and all your notifications.
The second generation Scallop even has GPS, NFC for payments, and a heart rate monitor, making it more high tech than ever.
Pros: Adorable design, feminine watch faces and casing, cute straps, subtle details for fun, GPS, NFC, heart rate monitor
Cons: A bit expensive
Shop all Kate Spade Scallop Smartwatch styles for $275 and upThe best smartwatch for women with a classic design
If you're an Android user who wants a female-friendly smartwatch, you're in luck. Over the past few years, fashion brands and watchmakers have started making great WearOS smartwatches. Fossil's smartwatch line continues to grow each year, and the new Q Venture HR is its fourth-generation model.
The improvements are immediately obvious: The watch casing is smaller and less bulky and the touchscreen looks more refined. There's also finally a heart rate sensor, GPS, and NFC for mobile payments.
Fossil offers several different finishes for the Q Venture's watch casing. I love the simple rose gold casing and tan leather strap option, but you can also get one with a bedazzled ring around the watch face. There's also a rose gold metal bracelet strap or one that mixes rose gold with a bold navy color.
Women who are less into trendy colors can obviously go for the more traditional finishes like the silver and gold. If you don't like any of the included straps, Fossil and other brands sell dozens of 18mm watch straps you can choose instead to really make the Q Venture your own.
It's a chunky watch, which is great for women who like bigger watches. It's not as flashy as the Michael Kors Access Bradshaw smartwatch we'll discuss later on in this article, though. Even though it's stylish, this smartwatch is also waterproof up to 3 ATM, so you can swim with it on.
As for the tech inside, the Q Venture won't let you down. It runs WearOS (previously known as Android Wear) and works with thousands of apps on the Google Play Store. You can answer texts, interact with notifications, and choose your own watch face — just like you would on any other smartwatch. Fossil has lots of nice watch faces in feminine colors, too.
It'll work with both Android phones and the iPhone, but it's best with Android devices. When Android Wear watches are paired to the iPhone, a lot of functions no longer work, and you're left with a pretty watch that gives you notifications.
Pros: Classic watch design, stylish color options, lots of compatible watch straps, and it's compatible with iPhones and Android phones
Cons: It's a bit chunky, not as good with iPhone
Buy the Fossil Q Venture HR from Fossil for $255The best smartwatch for women with a minimalistic design
Skagen is known for its minimalistic design choices, and the Falster 2, its second smartwatch, is a prime example. The Falster 2 looks very different from most other smartwatches with its unique lugs and simple bands. It's also slimmer than the original Falster.
It's an interesting smartwatch, because it could easily suit men or women. I tried the Falster 2 on for size, and while it was large for my notoriously small wrists, it looked just fine on other women's larger wrists and on men. If you like bigger watches, it'll look right at home on you.
Just like all other WearOS (previously Android Wear) smartwatches, the Falster 2 works with both iPhone and Android devices. As always, WearOS is best with an Android phone. Some functions simply don't work as well when you pair this watch to an iPhone.
You can download thousands of apps from the Google Play Store and get notifications on your wrist. This second generation smartwatch also has GPS, NFC for Google Pay, and a heart rate monitor built in, so it's more fully featured and high tech than the original Falster. It's everything we wanted the original Falster to be.
Pros: Cool design, simple mesh band, suits women and men, WearOS, works with iPhone and Android, GPS, NFC, heart rate monitor
Cons: A bit pricey
Buy the Skagen Falster 2 on Amazon for $295The best smartwatch for women who care more about fitness
If what you really want is a great fitness tracker with a few key smartwatch features and not a techy smartwatch, the Fitbit Versa is a great choice. It's the best looking Fitbit smartwatch so far, and it has a nice Apple Watch-like design that looks great on women.
The Versa tracks your fitness metrics just like every other Fitbit. It has a built-in heart rate monitor and it uses your phone's GPS to track workouts. It doesn't have standalone GPS like the Apple Watch, though, so runners who like to leave their phones behind may be disappointed.
As a smartwatch, the Versa isn't as fully featured as the Apple Watch or WearOS watches, but it has more than enough smart features to keep most people happy — so long as you want a fitness tracker first and a smartwatch second. As a fitness tracker, the Versa is great. It has excellent pre-set workouts you can follow, you can swim with it on, it has a personal coach, tracks your sleep and activity, and you can see how your workout is going in real time for more than 15 types of exercise.
The Versa can hold about 300 downloaded songs and it works with Deezer or Pandora. Unfortunately, other music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are MIA. Again, this only matters if you leave your phone behind because otherwise, you just play music on your phone. You can also pair wireless headphones to the Versa if you do want to leave your phone behind.
The app and watch face selection is still fairly limited, but hopefully more developers will add apps as time goes on. You can get notifications for texts, calls, and WhatsApp messages on the Versa, which is a nice touch. Sadly, iPhone owners can't reply to messages on the watch, though Android users have the option to reply with a few canned responses.
From a distance, the Versa almost looks like the Apple Watch, but close up, it looks much more like the now-defunct Pebble Time Steel. The screen is more square in shape than the curvy rectangular Apple Watch, but it still looks quite nice if slightly less polished. The Versa is good enough looking that you could easily wear it to work or with a nice outfit.
The case is made out of aluminum and you can get it in silver, rose gold, or black finishes. Each Versa comes with both small and large silicone wristbands in either gray (for silver), black (for black), or pink (for rose gold). There are some special-edition bands, too.
You can also choose to buy additional wristbands made from leather, metal, or silicone. Those come in a variety of fun colors and styles. The only downside is that they cost extra.
I tested the silver Versa with the gray silicone wristband and a special Horween leather wristband. Both options looked great with the Versa, and I liked wearing the leather one for work and other nice occasions. The silicone one is perfect for workouts, yoga, and running because it can handle sweat without being damaged.
Pros: Good fitness tracking, heart rate monitor, uses phone's GPS, notifications, some apps, can choose your watch face, good looking
Cons: Bezel isn't as slim as it could be, few apps, no built-in GPS
Buy the Fitbit Versa from Fitbit for $199.95 Shop Classic Versa silicone bands for $29.95 Shop Versa leather bands for $49.95 Shop metal Versa bands for $99.95