Polar Ignite 3

£289 / polar.com

Polar, like its old rival Garmin, has had to deal with the onslaught of fitness-tracking smartwatch newcomers… and the Ignite 3 is its response. It’s a training watch that also has its sights set on the crowd who choose Pilates over two-day ultras as their way of staying fit.

This is a Polar that wants to strike a much better balance between being something you’d want to wear in the gym and looking good outside of it. A big part of that lies with a new AMOLED touchscreen display that matches up with a steel bezel and removable 20mm strap, making the latest model more visually appealing than previous Ignites.

Beneath that attractive exterior lie the sensors and smarts to track over

150 activities – and this is the first Polar to feature a dual-frequency GPS mode, giving you an accuracy boost on outdoor sessions where tall buildings and big trees can get in the way of plotting routes. DANCING IN THE SPARK

The Ignite 3 includes some of Polar’s most inventive workout features – like Fitspark, which will suggest a detailed workout based around strength, cardio and supportive work based on your history. And away from daily activity tracking,

Polar makes a big play on sleep: it’ll give you some of the most reliable nocturnal stats, and use them to tell you how sleep boosts energy levels along with advising you when to turn in for the night.

The result is a Polar watch that looks the part and offers strong fitness tracking and motivating features, while offering enough smarts to make it handy to have around.