Tracking your fitness has never been easier, thanks to the ANT+ compatible watches. Before we proceed any further let’s discuss what is ANT+ technology and why your smartwatch should have it.
ANT+ is a proprietary technology developed by ANT Wireless which is a division of Garmin Canada. It basically allows users like you to connect their smartwatches to all the ANT+ compatible devices. Therefore, you can connect your treadmill, heart rate straps, cycling pedaling cadence, and other similar sensors to your smartwatches.
However, not all watches support ANT+ accessories, in fact, most smartwatches support Bluetooth-only devices. One of the perfect examples of that is the Apple Watch which doesn’t support ANT+ accessories. Only a few watches come with ANT+ support that’s why I have found the 7 best ANT+ watches and smartwatches for you.
Quick Links To The Specific Parts Of The Article:
Best Watches With ANT+ Comparison Table
IMAGE | PRODUCT | SPECIFICATIONS | VIEW ON AMAZON |
Cheapest ANT+ Watch  | Coros PACE 2 |
| |
Best ANT+ Garmin Watch For Cycling  | Garmin Forerunner 945 |
| |
Best Coros Watch With ANT+ Support  | Coros Vertix |
| |
Affordable Garmin Fitness Ant+ Compatible Watch  | Garmin 245 Music |
|
Best ANT+ Smartwatches & Watches
1. Coros PACE 2
The first smartwatch on our list is from the new and upcoming brand, Coros. Since its inception in 2016, the brand has come a long way and is one of the go-to wearable choices for athletes. And, the reason for that is the plethora of sports and fitness profiles this watch comes with.
Now, what makes it special is the fact that this smartwatch supports ANT+ and Bluetooth accessories. Therefore, you can connect your ANT+ heart rate strap to the watch, foot pod, or Bluetooth accessories to the watch. It will help in getting accurate data for adequately analyzing your sports performance.
Accessories like a foot pod can help track your running power which is a useful metric for any runner. To simply put, you can track how much power you are spending while running. It can help you adjust and create a better marathon or running plan as simply relying only on the heart rate sensor to determine your preparedness isn’t ideal.
Besides that, the watch comes with built-in GPS so you can also go cycling wearing the watch, leaving your phone behind. Don’t worry about the battery dying on you as the watch offers 30 hours of continuous GPS recording.
After completing your cycling, various crucial metrics like elevation gain, the time elapsed, calories burned and more can be seen on the Coros App. However, what makes it the best ANT+ watch is the fact that you can sync your activities to third-party apps like Strava. Therefore, you can join communities, compete with friends, and do more with the watch.
Besides sports tracking, the watch also offers various health and wellness features. Features such as sleep tracking and nutrition reminders to take your proteins are also available on the watch. All in all, this is the cheapest ANT+ watch on the list with multi-sports tracking. At the price of around $200, this watch is definitely worth the price.
2. Garmin 245 Music
If you want an ANT+ smartwatch that can do sports tracking and more then take a look at Garmin 245 Music. As the name suggests, the watch comes with music playback and storage support. Therefore, users who have premium Spotify and Amazon accounts can download music on the watch itself. After that, you can connect your Bluetooth earphones to the watch and listen to the music on the go.
Coming to sports tracking, Garmin watches are probably one of the best watches any triathlete can buy right now. Not only do you get unmatched sports activity analysis on the app but you also get support for third-party accessories.
For instance, you can also connect Garmin Running Dynamic Pod clip-on fitness tracker with the watch to track more fitness metrics. It allows athletes like you to find out their cadence(steps per minute), stride length, vertical oscillation, and even track ground contact time while running. Armed with this information, you can focus on areas you need to improve.
You can also share your fitness vitals like heart rate with other fitness accessories like Peloton bikes. Meaning your watch will transmit your heart rate in real-time to other Bluetooth or ANT+ accessories you might have.
Besides sports, the watch offers sleep tracking which allows you to track your REM, deep and light sleep cycles. It would help you track your sleep and help in cultivating good sleeping habits.
This Garmin ANT+ smartwatch also offers various smart features such as call, text, and notification alerts. Therefore, you can leave your phone in the gym locker without worrying about missing any text or important alert.
Moreover, Garmin 245 Music watch comes with an incident detection feature that sends SMS with your location to your emergency contacts in case the smartwatch detects a hard fall. It can be especially useful for those users who like adventure sports like skiing, mountain biking, and so on.
To conclude, I would say this is a great ANT+ smartwatch from Garmin that makes almost zero compromises. Whether you want to track your runs, listen to music, connect accessories, the watch will be able to do that and more. At the price of around $300, this watch is a steal in my opinion.
Note: Sometimes Amazon is shipping the APAC variant of the Garmin watch instead of the ROW variant. APAC variant is meant for use in the Asian market therefore isn’t serviceable by Garmin US. Plus, the APAC variant always gets the updates and features late when compared to the ROW variant. That’s why I recommend ensuring that you received the ROW variant of the watch upon receiving the watch.
3. Coros Apex
While feature-rich ANT+ smartwatches are great but they usually compromise on the battery department but not this one. Coros claims that a single charge will offer whopping 24 days of battery life in regular mode. And, you can even track your entire hike with this watch as it can do continuous GPS recording for up to 25 hours. So battery without a doubt is one less thing to worry about with this watch.
Since it’s a watch from Coros, you get support for both ANT+ and Bluetooth accessories. Therefore, you can connect the watch to Stryd Power meters which can help you in analyzing your running form, running power, and various other crucial metrics.
However, if you don’t have any extra money for a Stryd Power Meter right now then I am happy to report that watch offers its own running metrics. Useful metrics like cadence, total ascent/descent, ground time, L/R balance, heart rate, and more are available on the watch itself. You can further customize what metrics you want to track in the Coros app.
Moreover, the watch comes with a built-in Coros trainer which can analyze your run and alert if you are pushing yourself too hard. It can be a pretty useful feature as pushing yourself to the limit can cause injuries.
Plus, as you will use the watch, the Coros trainer would get better at predicting your performance limit. The watch uses your VO2 max data and heart rate data to predict the energy spent on the run and the rest required to recover it.
Not just runs but you can also log your strength training, create personalized training exercises, or track other activities like cycling, swimming, and so on. To conclude, I would say this is one of the best ANT+ smartwatches that is reasonably priced and fully featured. You can connect a power meter, heart rate strap, or any other accessories to this ANT+ watch.
4. Garmin Forerunner 945
Do you want a watch that meets all your sports and fitness needs? Then Garmin Forerunner 945 multi-sports watch is all you need. Whether it’s tracking your swim, cycling, rep count in the gym, golf, table tennis, or any other activity, it can do it all.
Moreover, Garmin Forerunner 945 offers the best in class accuracy when it comes to activity tracking. Not only that, but you also get in-depth performance metrics for all your sports activities in the Garmin Connect App. The watch can also monitor VO2 max levels which help you understand your cardiovascular fitness. A good score after prolonged activity would indicate your ability to perform at peak performance for a longer period of time.
Not only runs, but you can also track your cycling using the watch by selecting the cycling profile on the watch. Once enabled you will be able to see the distance covered, timer, pace, average speed, track location, and more in real-time. If you want even more accurate data then you can also connect the Garmin speed and cadence sensor to the watch.
While cycling, don’t worry about the watch not being able to track your location as it supports GLONASS, GPS, and Galileo navigation systems. Also, the watch can track up to continuous 10 hours of GPS activity on a single charge making it perfect for long cycling sessions. In my opinion, this is one of the best ANT+ watches available for cycling available in the market. And, it won’t be wrong to say that this watch is a great alternative to a cycling computer.
Besides sports and fitness, the watch also comes with various smartwatch features. First and foremost is Garmin Pay which allows you to make contactless payments using the watch. So you can leave your phone and wallet behind to make payment on the go. Secondly, the watch comes with music playback and download support through Spotify, Amazon Prime, and other similar services.
Garmin also offers various women-specific features such as menstrual cycle tracking and pregnancy tracking. Along with that, you get information relating to nutrition, women’s health, and more. These are just some of the many features this watch has to offer and I assure you that you won’t go wrong with this one.
Note: Sometimes Amazon is shipping the APAC variant of the Garmin watch instead of the ROW variant. APAC variant is meant for use in the Asian market therefore isn’t serviceable by Garmin US. Plus, the APAC variant always gets the updates and features late when compared to the ROW variant. That’s why I recommend ensuring that you received the ROW variant of the watch upon receiving the watch.
5. Coros Vertix
If price is not an issue for you then I would recommend checking out the Coros Vertix watch. This is the flagship watch from Coros that has all the features an athlete or adventurer might need. First and foremost, this watch offers the best in class battery life and a single charge would last you 45 days on normal usage.
Moreover, it’s also a great tactical watch as it offers GPS location tracking for 60 hours continuously. While the battery life is good but smartwatches usually struggle to get good reception in forests and between high-rise buildings. That’s why Coros Vertix supports GPS and Galileo navigation systems. So you won’t have to worry about not getting reception while trail running, hiking, skiing, or other outdoor activities.
Now coming to connectivity, the watch supports ANT+ as well as Bluetooth accessories so you can connect all your compatible accessories to the watch.
While it is a great sport watch, but it is a well-suited watch for adventure sports like skiing, mountaineering, etc. And, you can see that by the rugged build quality and big dimensions of the watch. The sapphire glass on the watch makes it unscratchable so it is a perfect smartwatch for extreme sports.
Furthermore, Coros claims that this watch can withstand a low temperature of -20 to -30 degrees celsius. And, it also offers a water resistance capability to survive 150m underwater.
Besides good build, the watch offers various sports and fitness tracking profiles. This watch can track all your run, swim, cycling, strength training, and other sports sessions.
To conclude, I would say that this is a great Coros ANT+ watch which is perfect for adventurers. It has all the features Coros has to offer and more. Therefore, if budget isn’t an issue for you then I would recommend going with this good battery life smartwatch.
6. Garmin Fenix 6
I won’t be misleading you at all when I say that Garmin Fenix 6 is the best ANT+ compatible smartwatch that you can buy. The watch features a plethora of features that any sport or fitness nut may require. The watch can track all your running, skiing, swimming, snowboarding, cycling, and various other sports accurately.
Likewise, you can track your heart rate accurately by wearing an ANT+ heart rate strap or use a Bluetooth one as it supports both. So you can rest easy knowing that you will be able to track your vitals accurately. Similarly, the Garmin Fenix 6 can monitor your blood oxygen level which can come in handy while climbing or performing high-altitude sports. It can also tell how well you are adjusting to the altitude so you don’t push yourself unnecessarily.
You can also import Topo maps onto the watch so you can know your location in real-time while exploring the mountain. For avid skiers, the watch features built-in maps for 2000 locations. While exploring, the watch would also offer turn-by-turn directions which makes sure you only focus on the trip.
Moreover, it comes with a built-in ABC (Altimeter, Barometer, and Compass) which is a must-have tool for adventurers. The barometer can come in very handy as it can detect sudden atmospheric pressure changes. So watch would warn you of the potential storms when you would be out fishing or trekking up in the mountains.
After long-running sessions, the watch can tell you how much rest you would require to regain your peak strength. Once you are done with the activity, you can get various performance metrics on the Garmin Connect App. It can help you identify areas where you need to improve and also compare with your previous day’s performance.
7. Timex Trainer 2.0
If all you want is an ANT+ compatible watch that can connect with the HR strap to track your run then Timex Run Trainer 2.0 will be perfect for you. Simply wear the watch and it will start recording your pace, distance covered, and heart rate in real-time.
Moreover, the watch comes with built-in GPS so you won’t need to carry your phone to track your run. Not just an HR strap, this ANT+ watch also supports foot pods for more accurate data. After completing your run you can sync your workout information to PC or Mac to analyze your runs.
Furthermore, it also supports syncing of workout data to Strava, Endomondo, and MapMyFitness. The watch is also water-resistant up to 50m so water damage isn’t something you have to worry about. However, it should be noted that the watch doesn’t support heart rate tracking while performing swimming or other similar activities.
All in all, this great Timex watch with ANT+ support for runners but it’s expensive in my opinion. It can be a good watch for those who want a dedicated watch for their runs with no smart features to distract them.
FAQs
Which Garmin Watch Has ANT+ Support?
Garmin watches from Forerunner Series and Fenix lineup support ANT+ accessories.
Is ANT+ Better Than Bluetooth?
While Bluetooth technology is faster than ANT+ but it can only transmit data to one device at a time. On the other hand, ANT+ can broadcast your data to many devices at once. This unique quirk makes it ideal for athletes and fitness nuts.
Does Apple Watch Support ANT+ Accessories?
No, the Apple watches don't support ANT+ accessories.
Do Fitbit Watch Support ANT+ accessories?
Fitbit watches only support Bluetooth accessories.
