Meet the best wearables of the year
It’s time, once again, to reveal the very best in all things wearable tech from the past 12 months. The judges’ votes have been counted, and we’ve debated long into the night to come up with our standout devices of 2018.
Scroll down below to find out the Award winners and Highly Commended wearables, platforms and startups that get our seal of approval for their achievements in raising the bar. You can also check out the Wareable Tech Awards 2018 shortlists to check out the other nominees.
A massive congratulations to all Wareable Tech Awards 2018 winners. For those that didn’t win this year, we look forward to seeing how you make our job of picking the best more difficult next year.
Agree or disagree with our winners? Let us know in the comments section below.
Wearable of the Year
The big one. The year’s standout wearable was closely fought between two smartwatches. But it was the Apple Watch Series 4 that ultimately came out on top. While the Series 4 brought about the most dramatic design changes to Apple’s smartwatch since it launched in 2016, it was addition of lifesaving features like ECG and fall detection that ultimately swayed it for the team and the judges.
The Highly Commended nod went to the Fitbit Versa, which proved that the fitness tracking heavyweight does know how to make a great smartwatch that will only get better.
Fitness Tracker of the Year
While Fitbit didn’t win the big one this year, it did walk away with the award it also secured with the Alta HR last year. The Fitbit Charge 3 was our pick for Fitness Tracker of the Year thanks to its Versa-inspired look, waterproof design (finally) and its showcasing of the best of Fitbit’s fitness tracking features.
The Highly Commended gong goes to the Motiv Ring, a fitness tracking smart ring that offers a stylish alternative to monitoring your health from a wrist-based tracker.
Sports Watch of the Year
There are two reasons for Garmin to be cheerful as the Fenix 5 Plus series picked up Sports Watch of the Year, as well as Highly Commended for the Forerunner 645 Music. The 5 Plus family of watches built on last year’s outdoor watch, adding more smartwatch features including Spotify offline playback and tracking features like routable TOPO maps.
The 645 Music was the first ever Garmin watch to bring a built-in music player to the party and is an all-round top option for runners.
Fashion Tech of the Year
In a strong category of good-looking nominees, Fossil Group’s Gen 4 smartwatches, which include the Michael Kors Access Runway and Skagen Falster 2 secured the Fashion Tech of the Year award. We finally got the smarter features like Google Pay that we’ve been craving, without sacrificing design.
Highly Commended went to Swedish hybrid smartwatch makers Kronaby, who continue to launch elegant watches for men and women, adding innovative connected features in a subtle way.
Smartwatch of the Year
For Smartwatch of the Year, it once again came down to those two heavy-hitting devices that battled for the big gong and, once again, it was the Apple Watch Series 4 that got the nod from the judges and the team. Adding features like ECG and improved sports tracking won it this big award.
Highly Commended went to the Fitbit Versa, Fitbit’s second smartwatch that has continued to improve over the course of the year into one of the best smartwatches you can buy.
VR/AR Innovation of the Year
For the best in VR/AR Innovation, the Oculus Go was our outright winner. The standalone VR headset offers an immersive experience closer to high end headsets for considerably less, a key factor that helped the Go pick up the top prize.
Highly Commended went to Magic Leap One as the secretive startup finally launched its first augmented reality wearable, giving us a taste of what’s to come from the ambitious outfit.
Speciality Sports Wearable of the Year
Speciality Sports Wearable of the Year went to Stryd and its running power meter that’s helping to usher in a new metric, looking set to change the way runners of all abilities think about training for their next big race.
Under Armour’s Hovr Sonic Connected running shoes was given the Highly Commended nod for bringing improved and insightful smarts to its smart running shoe collection.
Platform of the Year
Strava is our pick for the Platform of the Year, as the social network for athletes continues to build a platform with the aim of creating a vibrant community for runners, cyclists and even gym lovers to keep motivated.
The Highly Commended nod goes to Zwift, the virtual training platform with wearables at the heart that opened up to runners this year and continues to go from strength to strength.
Health Tech of the Year
It’s another win for Apple as the introduction of ECG on its Watch Series 4 for serious health monitoring picked up Health Tech of the Year.
The Highly Commended award belongs to L’Oreal’s My Skin Track UV wearable, which wants to keep you safe in the sun and even keep tabs on pollution and pollen levels.
Breakout of the Year
Our Breakout of the Year award is for a startup that’s doing big things in the wearable space. This year’s award goes to Motiv for its smart ring that continues to prove the the form factor is ripe for innovation, having added features like Alexa support while improving the fitness tracking experience from the finger.
North (formerly known as Thalmic Labs) and its Focals smartglasses that will help everyone forget about Google Glass picked up the Highly Commended award.