As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy something through a link on this page, I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what I recommend and it does not change your price.
How to pick
Your watch has to match your phone, and that decision is made for you: Apple Watch needs an iPhone, Galaxy and Wear OS watches need Android. There is no crossing over, so start there. On what they are actually for, the fitness tracking is what gets advertised and the health features are what matter. Fall detection and emergency calling are the reason I recommend these to older clients at all: a watch that notices you have fallen and calls for help when you cannot reach a phone is a genuinely different thing from a step counter. Heart rate warnings have caught real problems in people I know. The trade off nobody mentions in the adverts is charging. Most of these need charging every day or two, which is a habit to build, and there are watches that last a week if that matters more to you than apps. I wear an Apple Watch daily, though mine is an older Series 7 than the ones below.
What I recommend
If you have an iPhone
Apple Watch only works with an iPhone. There is no way round that.
Apple Watch SE 3
Keeps the features that matter, including fall detection and emergency calling, and drops the always on display and some health sensors. For most people, and especially for an older relative, this is the sensible buy.
- Keeps fall detection and emergency calling
- Considerably cheaper than the Series
- Same everyday experience for most uses
- No always on display, you raise your wrist
- Missing some health sensors
- Same daily charging
Apple Watch Series 11
The one most people should buy. Fast charging, always on display, and the full set of health features including fall detection and emergency calling. Around 24 hours of battery, so it becomes a nightly charging habit.
- Fall detection and emergency calling, the feature that matters most
- Full health tracking including heart warnings
- Fast charging, so a short top up goes a long way
- Best app selection of any watch
- Needs charging every day
- Only works with an iPhone
- Expensive
- Screen scratches if you knock it, a case is worth it
Apple Watch Ultra 3
Multi day battery, a much tougher case, and outdoor features. Bought by hikers and divers, but the real appeal for many people is simply not charging it every night.
- Multi day battery life
- Far tougher, genuinely hard to damage
- Brightest screen of any watch
- Excellent for hiking and swimming
- Very expensive
- Large and heavy on a smaller wrist
- Most of the outdoor features go unused
If you have an Android phone
Samsung's watches work best with a Samsung phone but will pair with most Android handsets.
Samsung Galaxy Watch
The Android equivalent, and the one I wear alongside the Apple Watch. Good health tracking, including sleep and heart monitoring, and it pairs neatly with a Samsung phone. Battery is around a day or two.
- Best Android watch experience
- Good health and sleep tracking
- Works with most Android phones
- Rotating bezel on some models is genuinely useful
- Some features only work with a Samsung phone
- Will not work with an iPhone at all
- Battery still needs charging every day or two
- App selection is thinner than Apple's
If you only want the health features
Cheaper, simpler, and the battery lasts a week rather than a day.
Fitness tracker band
A band rather than a watch. Steps, heart rate and sleep, a battery that lasts a week or more, and far less to learn. Worth considering for someone who would find a full smartwatch overwhelming, though most lack fall detection, which is the one thing worth checking.
- Battery lasts a week or more
- Much cheaper than a smartwatch
- Far simpler to use
- Light and comfortable to sleep in
- Most have no fall detection, check before buying
- No emergency calling
- Small screens are hard to read
- Notifications are limited
Related reading
Setting one up for a parent?
The health and fall detection features need configuring properly to be any use, and emergency contacts have to be right. Happy to set that up so it actually works when needed.