Smart Watches
Browse used smart watches for sale from riders across the UK. These are wrist-worn GPS units that record rides using their own satellite receiver and barometric altimeter, pair with ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors, and keep counting steps and sleep between sessions. The category suits riders who want one device for cycling, running and everything else, rather than a dedicated bar-mounted computer.
What is a cycling smart watch?
It is a GPS recorder you wear, with the sensors and screen shrunk to fit a wrist. The dividing line within the range is battery life and materials: the Garmin Forerunner line and similar mid-range watches give a day or two of mixed use and a plastic bezel, while the Garmin Fenix and Coros Vertix families add sapphire glass, metal bezels and solar charging to stretch continuous GPS recording into tens of hours. Multisport modes, which let you switch from swim to bike to run in one file, are the other thing that separates the tiers.
Smart watch or bike computer?
A bar-mounted unit gives a bigger screen you can read at 20mph, proper turn-by-turn mapping and a battery that survives an audax; a watch gives you one device that also logs your swim lengths and your sleep. Riders who only ride are usually better served by the computers and GPS units, and triathletes and runners get more from the watch. Running both is common, with the watch broadcasting wrist heart rate to the head unit.
Does a smart watch work with heart rate straps and power metres?
Most sports watches read ANT+ and Bluetooth sensors, so a chest heart rate monitor will pair and restore the accuracy a wrist optical sensor loses during hard efforts and cold starts, and a power metre will show watts and feed the watch's training load figures. Check the sensor list for the exact model before buying: some lifestyle-focused watches read Bluetooth only, and a few will not record cycling power at all.
What should I check when buying a used smart watch?
Battery is what ages. Ask the seller what a full charge gives in GPS mode and compare it with the claimed figure, because a four-year-old watch often holds around half of what it did new. Look at the charging contacts on the caseback for green corrosion from sweat, check the strap lugs and quick-release pins for cracks, and tilt the watch to the light to see scratches on the optical heart rate glass, which scatter light and skew readings. Scuffs on a plastic lens polish out; a chipped sapphire crystal does not.
How much should a used smart watch cost?
Sports watches drop quickly as new generations land, and a two-generation-old model with honest battery figures is the sensible buy at roughly half of new. Buy new if you plan to swim in it, because water resistance depends on gaskets and adhesive that no seller can test and no listing photo will show.