Phone-Synced Rugged Watches

Then a friend pointed out the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier watch to me. Yes, it is a mouthful of a name, but I started checking into it; a couple Google searches, some reviews read online, and a search to get an idea of cost on Amazon. In the process I found a lot of other rugged smart watches that would sync with my iPhone. We’ll get to those in a minute.

I found a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier that was reconditioned and decided it was worth the price (just about $100). I ordered it, received it and set it up. That was three months ago (as I type this) and it’s put up with everything I could throw at it and then some. Full disclosure: some features do sync with the Apple iPhone; others require you to download the Samsung app. One of the things I enjoyed about my Apple watch was that it tracked activity and exercise and synced that with the iPhone health app. Samsung has a health app as well and I ended up downloading that to my phone along with the Samsung Galaxy watch app. As a result, I can get messages, weather updates, calendar reminders, call alerts and more on my watch. It has built in GPS and does a good job of tracking my activities. It is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance. Wanting to wear it swimming and doing outdoor work where it might get wet, I looked that up: it means the watch can survive submersion to a max depth of 1.5 meters (5 feet) for up to 30 minutes. I’ve worn mine showering and swimming with no issues so far. It has easily changeable bands in various materials from rubber to nylon to metal. You can also customize the watch face with a few hundred options that are free to download through the Galaxy Watch app.

As mentioned above, other manufacturers also make rugged smart watches. Some of the others I looked at include the Garmin Instinct and the Suunto Core. They are all sufficiently rugged and track activity levels while providing the convenience of connection. Prices range from $100 to $500 depending on manufacturer, model, etc. and you should be sure to check if the watch will sync with your phone via Bluetooth. Some are OS specific. I’m happy with my Samsung Gear S3 Frontier so far, especially since it was so cost-effective as a refurbished watch. If you’re in the market for a smart watch, add the word “rugged” to your search and double check OS compatibility.