The Garmin Forerunner 935 won the Editor's Choice Award in 2018 and wins again in 2019, this time beating out some really tough competition. The Forerunner 935 has a very large palette of features but Garmin managed to package it all into a watch that is comfortable to wear for even the most petite of users. It's easy to set up and use, it's incredibly accurate, and its battery will outlast all but the most expensive competitors in GPS mode. Along with all that, it has a very comfortable wrist band and a screen that is easy to read while running. It is the perfect balance of features and fit, and that is why the Forerunner 935 keeps winning us over.

There aren't many downsides to the Forerunner 935, but they do exist. Chiefly, it's expensive, so if you're not looking to make a significant investment in a GPS watch, then this isn't the one for you. Some might also consider its feature list to be too extensive. There are much simpler models out there, so if you don't care about tracking your sleep data or navigating in the backcountry, you can get what you need for much less. But for the most comprehensive option available in a user-friendly design that was comfortable for all of our testers, look no further than the Forerunner 935.

The Garmin Fenix 5x Plus Sapphire is the king of GPS watches when it comes to features and navigation skills. It can help you avoid over-training, can help you improve your gait, inform you that you need to descend due to physiological changes when at high altitude, and even help you succeed on the golf course. It has so many features that it can support training in pretty much any sport you'd like. But, for us, its bulkiness and price keep it from beating out the Garmin Forerunner 935 for the Editor's Choice Award.

Across the board, we are examining small electronics doing big tasks. Manufacturers must balance criteria that are inherently at odds. Instrumentation, batteries, and screens take up space and mass. Athletes on the go have limited tolerance for bulk and have limited capacity for carrying or wearing a readily viewable device. For hundreds of years, people have carried information on their wrists. Other than in your eyewear (Prediction: OutdoorGearLab "smart sunglasses" review, coming 2020) this is the best place to collect data on your training. Whether you are running, skiing, swimming, or hiking, you don't want your wrist too weighed down. Suunto and Garmin have both shown that they can fit full-function, long-lived devices onto most wrists. Overall, the Garmin Forerunner 935 slightly edges out the Spartan for the Editors' Choice. The primary difference is in the Forerunner 935's integrated optical heart rate sensor.

For years and years, manufacturers of small electronic devices have been cramming more and more technology into wrist-mounted athletic monitors. With the early offerings of the Ambit family and its Garmin competitors, the market finally found out where "enough is enough." The Garmin Forerunner 935 has all the features you could envision, while the Spartan trims the fat just a little and cuts the price quite a bit.

The Garmin Fenix 5 is an outstanding GPS watch that was the clear winner of our Editor's Choice Award before the slightly more awesome Garmin Forerunner 935 came along and stole the title (little siblings, amirite?). While the 935 edged out the Fenix 5 in terms of weight, accuracy, and battery life in our tests, these watches are much more alike than they are different, and both have the most extensive range of features in our test group.

The Fenix 5 is a high-end watch, and its price reflects that, so those looking for an entry-level option should check out the Garmin Forerunner 35. If backcountry navigation is your top priority, the Suunto Ambit3 Peak is slightly burlier in that area. If you want all the functionality of the Fenix 5 in a lighter package, check out our Editors' Choice, the Forerunner 935.

Garmin hit the ball into the stands with the Fenix 5, but then they hit it out of the park with the Forerunner 935. The Fenix 5 is fully featured, has excellent battery life and is a snap to use, but as progress marches on in this category, there are now better options out there.

The Coros Pace is a new-comer on the GPS smartwatch market compared to the more established Suunto, Garmin, and Polar options. So it is a bit of a dark horse that we wanted to test after seeing it praised on various triathlon social media sites. Coros has since launched another watch, but the Pace has had some time for the bugs to be sorted out so we decided to stick with it for our first test of a Coros watch. Our take on the Pace — when you compare the price to the features, battery life and ease of use of the Coros, you have a very solid package and that is why the Pace won our top pick award for Hardcore Non-Techy Athletes.

The Coros Pace is a solid watch designed to save you time while performing the tasks you demand of it. It won a Top Pick award as the best watch for Hardcore Non-Techy Athletes because it is so user-friendly and fast. Whether we were syncing, getting GPS signal or updating the software, the Pace always performed its task rapidly. It does not offer a long list of features like the Garmin products do, but the Pace simply delivers the data you want, something that the tech world seems to have forgotten.