GARMIN FENIX 5

With five buttons and no touchscreen, it takes time to learn how to access all of the Fenix 5’s features. After some frustrated fiddling on my first day, the screen flashed ‘high stress’ and offered me a one-minute breathing exercise.

The Fenix takes a minute to find a GPS signal, which is unfortunate if it’s 10°C outside and you run in shorts. But the navigation is exceptional – I entered my start point and how far I wanted to run, and the Garmin Connect app created a route based on popular runs in my area. The watch shows the route outline with no side roads or landmarks, so it’s easy to take a wrong turn, but the watch buzzes reassuringly when you get back on track.

The heart-rate data on the Fenix was accurate when tested against medicalgrade sensors. It calculates VO2max over a range of runs, so at first it gave me a flatteringly inaccurate reading, as well as an estimated marathon time of just under three hours, well outside the realms of possibility. But the longer I used the watch, the more accurate it became.

I could access all my data in the Garmin Connect app. It’s easy to use and a great time waster if, like me, you love exercise metrics. The watch tracks tonnes of different sports, including new crazes such as swimrun and paddleboarding. But some aren’t perfect, like the climbing tracker that powers off halfway up a pitch. On the extreme end, there’s a military-grade parachuting function, which unsurprisingly went unused. 9/10

Garmin Fenix 5

From £479.99, garmin.com