If you love hiking or trekking, then simply any old wearable won’t do. You will need to look for a device that offers a basic set of features that can help you during a trek. For starters, it needs to be rugged enough to take a few bumps and scrapes that might happen during your hike. It should also offer an altimeter and a barometer aside from a built-in GPS. The altimeter will accurately track elevation changes, while the barometer will inform you of the local weather and possibly even warn you of any chance of thunderstorms. Other features to look for in such a wearable is a built-in compass, water resistance, and long battery life, which should be pretty self-explanatory. With this in mind, here’s a look at some wearables that you can consider buying from Amazon if you plan on hiking or trekking.
The Garmin Fenix 6 may not be the cheapest device in this list, but it makes up for that by offering a whole host of features and abilities. The wearable features a steel body and offers features such as ClimbPro ascent planner. This feature can be used on downloaded courses and offers real-time information on current and upcoming climbs. This includes gradient, elevation gain and distance. In order to ensure accurate tracking, the Garmin Fenix 6 uses GPS, GLONASS and Galileo positioning system. As for battery life, Garmin claims that the device can offer 14 days in smartwatch mode and 36 hours in GPS mode. There is also a special ‘Expedition Mode’ that promises weeks of battery life.
The Casio Pro Trek Smart WSD-F20 offers a very unique dual-layer display, which makes it stand out from other wearables available in the market. There is a monochrome LCD superimposed with a colour LCD. The monochrome display shows the time, while the colour display most of the other functions. This setup not only allows for better battery life but also lets the user see the time and other notable functions such as GPS location simultaneously. Speaking of GPS, users have the option to download maps for offline use, which can be quite handy. Of course, the wearable offers a range of other features as well. These include a 50m water resistance and a MIL-STD-810G certification for ruggedness.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch can be a pretty good option for those users looking for a more functional device that can not only be used for hiking and trekking, but also for most other use cases. The device features an altimeter and a barometer, which obviously come in handy when hiking. It should be noted that the Samsung Galaxy Watch is also a full-blown smartwatch, so users can download apps and also answer calls through the wearable. Another feature is the rotating bezel, which makes it easier to navigate the UI.
The Suunto Core Regular Black offers hikers and trekkers a relatively affordable way to get their hands on a wearable focused on their prefered activity. The Core Regular Black may look a little too simple with its monochrome display, but it packs all the main features that one might want during their trek. The device can inform users about the temperature, altitude and can also warn if it detects a storm approaching. Other notable features include times for sunrise and sunset. Suunto notes that the Core Regular Black can also be used to measure depth when snorkelling.