5 of the Best Multisport Watches for Competitive Triathletes

Read about 5 of the best multisport watches before your next purchase

With so many multisport watches on the market, it can be difficult to choose one that best fits your needs. Triathletes need a watch that can track swimming, cycling, and running. Ideally, it can track all three sports combined in a single event. The price spectrum for a triathlon-specific watch can range from $200 to $700+ and there’s no shortage of options. To help narrow the scope, we’ve chosen 5 of the best multisport watches that provide everything competitive triathletes need to train smart and race their best. Check out 5 of the best multisport watches below and order yours today with the available link!

Garmin Forerunner 745 Triathlon Watch

The Garmin Forerunner 745 is perhaps the most popular triathlon smartwatch that seamlessly tracks swim, bike, and run activities in a consecutive, user-friendly way. Even more ideal for triathletes and endurance athletes is the Forerunner 745’s capabilities to measure key performance metrics like VO2 max, cycling power, cadence, stride length, ground contact time, and overall training load.

Water rating: 5 ATM / Up to 50 meters
Weight: 47 grams
Battery life: Smartwatch mode Up to 1 week
GPS mode: Up to 16 hours (with music up to 6 hours)
Display resolution: 240 x 240 pixels

Breakdown

The Garmin Forerunner 745 is a perfect alternative for athletes who want all the features of the Forerunner 945 but without directional map guidance and not quite as long battery life. As with many of Garmin’s advanced smartwatches, the Forerunner 745 provides valuable metrics for distance athletes, such as aerobic and anaerobic feedback (which is especially useful for those training half-Ironman distance, full Ironman, and ultra-distance events). It’s also equipped with heart rate variability (HRV), which provides a real-time assessment of your body’s ability to train or race.

If you’re looking for the best triathlon watch for the cost, the Garmin Forerunner 745 caters to all the data junkies’ needs at a sub-$500 price tag. Not only is it a robust multisport watch that packs an altimeter and global navigation satellite system (GNSS), but it’s equipped with Garmin’s array of lifestyle features, like music, safety tracking, Garmin Coach, Garmin Pay contactless payments, and smart notifications like emails, texts, and alerts.

COROS PACE 2 GPS Sport Watch

The COROS PACE 2 is an entry-level multisport watch that is designed with triathletes in mind. As a high-performance option that’s priced in the sub-$200 range, the PACE 2 is exceptionally lightweight and long-lasting. It can last up to 20 days before needing a charge.

Water rating: 5 ATM / Up to 50 meters
Weight: 35 grams
Battery life: Smartwatch mode: Up to 20 days
GPS mode life: Up to 30 hours (UltraMax GPS mode up to 60 hours)
Display resolution: 240 x 240 pixels

Breakdown

COROS PACE 2 is an impressive display of engineering that provides uncompromised performance in harsh conditions. Not only does it track performance metrics for swimming, cycling, and running workouts, but the watch’s Tri-mode tracks all three of these disciplines consecutively, which for the price, makes it one of the best multisport watches for triathlon events.

COROS PACE 2 is a beautifully-designed triathlon watch that offers modern aesthetics. The screen size is large enough to see metrics at a glance easily but isn’t as bulky as other popular multisport watches. The silicone watch band option delivers a 50% weight reduction, making it great for shorter, time-trial events, and long-course racing.

Polar Vantage M Triathlon Watch

If you’re looking for a lightweight multisport watch with a minimalist look and feel, the Polar Vantage M offers entry-level pricing with top-rate performance. GPS-enabled and designed specifically for triathletes, you can track open water swimming, cycling, and running workouts. You can even track complete triathlon events with a single push of the button.

Water Rating: 3 ATM / Up to 30 meters
Weight: 45 grams
Battery life: Smartwatch mode Up to 5 days
GPS mode life: Up to 30 hours
Display resolution: 240 x 240 pixels

Breakdown

The Polar Vantage M doesn’t stop at being a top-tier multisport watch. Athletes can track up to 130 different activities and 20 sport profiles along with customizable personal metric settings for each. The Polar Vantage M simplifies quantifying your training and seeing exactly how your workouts affect your body.

Polar’s Training Load Pro monitors the level of stress your training puts on your cardiovascular system (Cardio Load), including how strained you feel (Subjective Load). Triathletes who use a power meter can even see “Muscle Load” data. This is especially beneficial for high-intensity sessions, like short intervals sprints, and hill training.

Suunto 9 Baro GPS Multisport Watch

Touted for its GPS-enabled long battery life and atmospheric tracking capabilities, the Suunto 9 Baro is a high-performance multisport watch that’s designed for endurance athletes who demand longevity, accuracy, and versatility from their gear.

Water rating: 10 ATM / Up to 100 meters
Weight: 81 grams
Battery life: Smartwatch mode Up to 14 days (Battery Saver mode 34 days)
GPS mode: Up to 120 hours
Display resolution: 320 x 300 pixels

Breakdown

Delivering features like race pacing, power cycling, barometer, elevation, navigation/orientation, weather, and GPS-enabled features, the Suunto 9 Baro is more than any triathlete needs. But for those who do more than triathlon, the Baro supports those who participate in ultrarunning, mountain and road bike cycling, extreme multisport events, mountaineering, and various multiday affairs.

The Suunto 9 Baro delivers the features you’d expect in a mountaineering-caliber “ABC watch” (Altimeter, Barometer, Compass), but it also tracks over 80 different activity profiles. When it comes to performance features, the Suunto 9 Baro is unquestionably one of the best multisport watches for serious endurance athletes who want accurate, in-depth data without the clutter of lifestyle features that other smartwatches deliver.

Garmin fenix 6S Pro Multisport Watch

The Garmin fenix 6S Pro is the pinnacle of a high-performance multisport watch that provides everything you need for triathlon and beyond. Offering highly-resilient and sophisticated engineering designed for mountaineering, climbing, swimming, cycling, running, skiing, and even golfing, the Garmin fenix 6S Pro is a versatile multisport watch. It’s been tested to U.S. military specifications for thermal, shock, and water resistance.

Water rating: 10 ATM / Up to 100 meters
Weight: 61 grams
Battery life: Smartwatch mode Up to 9 days (Battery Saver mode 34 days)
GPS mode: Up to 36 hours (with music 10 hours)
Display resolution: 240 x 240 pixels

Breakdown

Providing a visual navigation system directly from the watch’s interface, the fenix 6S Pro leverages multiple GNSS (global navigation satellite systems) to track activity in most remote environments where GPS alone might not reach. You can see topographical maps and Garmin’s Trendline™ feature. This offers popularity routing to help you find the best local routes and pathways for training and expeditions alike.

The Garmin fenix 6S delivers a robust combination of multisport watch and smartwatch all in a single device. Besides lifestyle features like hydration tracking and advanced sleep monitoring, you can also view triathlon-specific metrics like Garmin’s PacePro pacing guidance, heat- and altitude-adjusted VO2 max, running dynamics, and recovery advisor.

The best multisport watch will always depend on individual preferences. Many successful triathletes only care about tracking swim-bike-run activities. Others like to have HRV, pulse oximeter, VO2 max, GNSS, altitude, and other advanced parameters. Investing in a multisport watch that caters to your unique needs takes considering your training and racing demands. You should factor in how much you’re willing to spend too. In the ream of triathlon, simple multisport watches can be found for under $200. But for something high performance, you can expect to pay closer to $400-500 on up.