The Massive 2025 Sportswatch Year in Review with DesFit

It’s December – and you know what that means: It’s time for the annual (and sprawling) – Sportswatch Year in Review video! This marks the 6th year in a row for this annual video, where Des of DesFit, and I sit down and pick apart how the year went for sports watches.

While we’ve been doing this a number of years, this year by far the biggest jump in watch numbers – with over 30 devices on the table (usually we’ve floated around 20ish watches/devices). As with last year we saw more companies transition (fully) to AMOLED, but also had some interesting surprises (good and bad), and expansions of things like flashlights and more. Like past years, we do include non-watch wearables when they’re meaningfully notable to the market (such as some bands).

Here are all the chapters in the video, diving into each of the watches or major announcements individually. You can click on any of these to be taken right to that section.

0:00 Intro
2:45 Garmin HRM 200
3:51 Garmin Instinct 3
11:47 Beats Powerbeats Pro 2
14:31 Amazfit Active 2
16:10 Garmin Vivoactive 6
19:18 Garmin Tactix 8
20:35 Garmin Connect+
22:41 Suunto Run
25:56 Garmin Forerunner 570
31:58 Garmin Forerunner 970
35:58 Garmin HRM 600
39:34 Polar Grit X2
44:25 Garmin Venu X1
50:52 Whoop 5.0
55:44 Amazfit Helio Strap
58:52 Garmin Index Sleep Monitor
1:00:52 Samsung Galaxy Watch 8/Ultra
1:03:50 Polar Loop
1:09:35 COROS Nomad
1:11:45 Google Pixel Watch 4
1:15:49 Suunto Race 2
1:17:04 Garmin Fenix 8 Pro
1:22:12 Garmin Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED
1:27:15 Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro
1:30:24 Apple Watch SE 3
1:31:52 Apple Watch Series 11
1:32:56 Apple Watch Ultra 3
1:34:52 AirPods Pro 3
1:36:33 Garmin Instinct 3 Crossover
1:38:38 Suunto Vertical 2
1:41:36 Garmin Venu 4
1:44:17 Oakley Meta Vanguard
1:47:10 COROS Apex 4
1:47:48 COROS Pace 4
1:48:41 2025 State of Sportswatches

At just under 2 hours in length, these videos are somewhat designed to be put on in the background – akin to a podcast (like the FIT File Podcast). Thus, feel free to just listen in the background while pretending to do work. Thus far, the formula seems to be popular!

As usual, for each watch, we talk through what worked well, and what didn’t work. As well as how we think things might change going forward (both at the product level and industry level).

Give it a watch (or a listen), I think you’ll find it a bit addicting, especially if you’re a sports tech or watch geek. And if you enjoy this sort of thing, again, check out the FIT File Podcast as well, new episode dropping shortly there as well!

Thanks for watching!

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