Best budget smartwatches: cheap wearables under £100 and £200

Smartwatches are becoming increasingly popular, and there's a wider range of price points available so you're more likely to find one that suits your budget. 

However 'cheap', when it comes to smartwatches, is a relative term. Smartwatches can cost well over £600, so we're counting 'cheap' as products costing up to £200 - the lower realms of prices you'll find for a decent model.

This excludes super-cheap smartwatches found on online marketplaces for less than £3, which may seem tempting, but you should treat such products with extreme caution. Ultra-cheap smartwatches can be uncomfortable, awkward to use, inaccurate and, in a worst case scenario, expose your data to hackers. 

Browse the best smartwatches to see which come out on top, or check our guide to the best smart rings.

Best cheap smartwatches: budget wearables under £100 and £200

You're unlikely to find a top-rated smartwatch for less than £100, other than in a sale, and you may need to sacrifice a little in terms of features, flexibility and performance. We've picked models that still score well overall, so you can see what £100 or £200 will get you and any downsides to be aware of.

We rigorously test smartwatches for usability, accuracy and smart functionality to find the best model for you. Only logged-in members can see our recommendations in the table below. Join Which? to get instant access.

Some smartwatches under £100 earn our Great Value endorsement. Check out all our smartwatch reviews and use the Great Value filter.

If you're willing to up your budget, you'll find a far bigger range of smartwatches for less than £200, including some Best Buys. You'll often get a better build quality and a sleek design for the extra money, along with more advanced features, such as dedicated exercise modes. You should expect built-in GPS for a smartwatch over £100, too. 

Just want to know which smartwatches came out best in our tests regardless of price? Head to our smartwatch reviews and use the Best Buy filter.

Can you get a cheap Apple Watch?

You won't be able to buy a new Apple Watch that anyone would describe as cheap, but the Apple Watch SE is pitched as a cheaper alternative to Apple's flagship Series models. 

Check our Apple Watch reviews to find the best, or head to our guide on which Apple Watch to buy to read about the key differences between each one.

Should I buy a cheap smartwatch?

Yes – if your wants are fairly modest: steps, heart rate and notifications, for example.  If you have specific requirements – say, you're a runner or you want the health features like fall detection – you might not get what you're looking for at a budget price. 

If buying a budget smartwatch, do check our smartwatch reviews to make sure you're not buying one that struggles to track accurately: something we do see more often at the cheaper end of the spectrum. Great Value smartwatches combine decent performance with a cheaper than average price. 

Or you could consider a fitness tracker instead: fitness trackers are typically more basic and cheaper than smartwatches, unless you're comparing a high-end fitness tracker with a basic smartwatch. Check out our fitness tracker reviews.

Cheap Smartwatches from Amazon and other marketplaces

If you've shopped around for a cheap smartwatch on an online marketplace, such as Amazon or eBay, or seen them on deal websites such as Groupon, you might be wondering why you should pay more than £20.

There are a wide range of brands doing the rounds at tantalisingly cheap prices. Many of these have lots of positive customer reviews and some may even be labelled with an endorsement such as Amazon's Choice. But we don't recommend buying one. In December 2022, we tested 12 cheap smartwatches and fitness trackers sold online and found worrying security flaws, including:

• Excessive location tracking – To comply with GDPR laws, data should be collected for a clear purpose. Eight of the watches we tested were tracking precise coordinates instead of general whereabouts. Supposedly, this precise tracking was for weather reporting – but the devices tracked positioning even when the weather app wasn't in use.
• Data not being stored securely – A smartwatch we purchased on AliExpress stored all data on infrastructure controlled by the seller, instead of on the watch or phone.
• Lack of encryption – we found smartwatches that weren't encrypting user data when sending it to and from their back-end services. If a hacker intercepted the data, they’d be able to read it.

Our testers also noticed they seemed to be tracking heart rate or steps when just placed on a table, casting doubt over their effectiveness. Many of these affordable devices seem to be packed with features, but rarely look or feel as high quality as they might appear on a product photo. They can also be frustratingly awkward to use and inaccurate.

For more on security flaws found in smartwatches, read our full cheap smartwatch investigation.

Which brands make cheap smartwatches?

Most smartwatch brands have a decent selection of cheaper options. Find out more about the main players and use the links below to see our filtered reviews.

Cheap Amazfit smartwatches

Amazfit is lesser-known brand than the likes of Apple, Fitbit, Garmin and Samsung, but is making a name for itself at the cheaper end of the market. Not all of its smartwatches are cheap, but it does offer a range of comparatively cheap ones. Some of its smartwatches adopt a square-faced design reminiscent of the Apple Watch, others have a round face more akin to a traditional watch.

• Read all our Amazfit smartwatch reviews.

Cheap Huawei smartwatches

As with Amazfit, not all Huaweis are cheap: some go up to nearly £600. But Huawei does produce a good number of smartwatches for under £100 and under £200.

• Read all our reviews of Huawei smartwatches.

Cheap Garmin smartwatches

Garmin is one of the most popular smartwatch brands and has a wide range of models at different price points. These include pricey, more specialist smartwatches, costing upwards of £400, but you can find some cheaper options.

Its Forerunner range, which, as the name suggests, is aimed at runners and offers features such as preset training plans, can be quite expensive. But it also makes smartwatches that are all-rounders. 

• Head to our full set of Garmin smartwatch reviews.

Cheap Fitbit smartwatches

Fitbit is well known for its fitness trackers but it also makes smartwatches, often costing less than £200. Models in Fitbit's Sense range have an all-round health focus.

• Check out all our Fitbit smartwatch reviews.

Cheap Xiaomi smartwatches

Like Amazfit, Xiaomi wearables have become more upmarket over the past few years, although they're still cheap compared to many other brands. Xiaomi makes smartwatches with both a round and square face. 

• Browse all our Xiaomi smartwatch reviews.

What to look for in a cheap smartwatch

Shape and style

A basic but important first question to ask is what sort of watch are you looking for? Designs are usually square or circular, some come with thick bezels and others adopt a more slimline approach. Settle on your preferred style to narrow down your initial options. Some watches look beautiful online but cheap and plasticky in person – our reviews reveal when that's the case. 

Size and weight

This applies to any watch, not just cheap ones. It's often difficult to tell how big a watch is from a photo. Pay careful attention to the watch face size and dimensions – including weight. Some smartwatches can be quite large and chunky, which is fine if that's the style you like, but may be uncomfortable on smaller wrists.

Removable strap

Most smartwatches come with removable straps – which is important because it means you can change it if your strap breaks or degrades over time. It also allows you to switch up your style for different occasions. If you're buying a discounted older watch, then it's worth checking if the strap is removable. 

Key features (eg: heart-rate monitor, GPS)

Check to make sure the features you really want are included. Every watch should have the basics, such as a step counter and notifications and, these days, a heart-rate monitor. But a few still don't have built-in GPS, so that's worth checking for. The presence of heart-rate monitoring also doesn't guarantee it's accurate - use our reviews to find the ones proven to record info accurately in our tests. 

Pick the perfect smartwatch - read our guide on the best smartwatches.

Looking for more great tech that won't break the bank? Head to the best cheap laptops