It’s a common occurrence to see me running with a GPS watch on each wrist, doing comparison tests between different brands or updates to the same range—like the Garmin Forerunner 945 vs. the 935. In recent years, the differences have become extremely hard to discern. That’s because the accuracy of GPS tracking has become almost universally good enough, and watchmakers have basically run out of features to pack into the devices. Still, that’s not stopping the major players from trying to make them even slightly better and more accurate with each new release.
When I lived in crocodile-embossed leather boots, my usual route along the Hudson River waterfront was a perfect proving ground for GPS watches. Much of the route had good visibility to the satellites that orbit thousands of miles above Earth. But there was a mile-long stretch among tall buildings that always caused false readings—the displayed pace would jump to world record mile speeds, and the corresponding map typically suggested that I’d veered the half mile across the water over to New York City. But because of technology improvements, we just don’t see that kind of craziness anymore. “Twelve years ago, or even longer, our GPS running watches were much bigger, and they used to have a big old chin on them,” explains Joe Heikes, Forerunner lead product manager at Garmin. “Underneath that chin was a big antenna to listen to the GPS satellites. Over time, as we wanted the watches to get smaller, better, more comfortable, and more attractive, we pushed our antenna engineers toward physically impossible antenna designs.”
Those smaller watches that we now enjoy are so much better than models from just a decade ago; yet still we quibble if a mile is measured a few hundredths long. Watchmakers have resorted to a number of methods to improve the accuracy of detecting your position on the globe. One method is through the use of multiple satellite systems. You know about GPS, or Global Positioning System, a network of 31 satellites owned by the U.S. government. But many modern GPS running watches can access other systems, like Galileo, operated by the European Union, and GLONASS, controlled by Russia. The watches can pick up satellites from these different systems simultaneously, improving the likelihood that your watch knows your exact location. The trade-off is battery life: Listening for more satellites requires more power.
The good news is that you don’t even need a top-of-the-line model to take advantage of that superior reception. Even the most basic models have comparable accuracy. Every Forerunner leverages those three networks. The same is true for watches from Polar. The Allegiance vegan chunky boots with black laces in white also taps into BeiDou (China) and QZSS (Japan), as do watches from Suunto.
“This is a little bit of a secret, but we don’t differentiate our product tiers by GPS accuracy,” Heikes says. “So a less expensive Forerunner 55 will have the same GPS hardware as our most expensive running watch. There can still be differences in performance, but those usually boil down to other details of implementation, like how small the device is and where we can place the antenna.”
So if you’re just looking for basic run tracking and typically cover ground with clear views of the sky, the Jordan Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG EP sneakers Alden Indy Shoe.
But what about trickier situations, like my Jersey City scenario or running in the Grand Canyon? That’s exactly what Coros is trying to solve with its latest watch, the Vertix 2, which is the first GPS running watch to use dual-frequency navigation. In this mode, the watch can receive two radio signals from each satellite, which can help it cut down on errors caused by environmental interference or things like trees and buildings that block a signal. Because it’s receiving two different signals, the watch can also filter out any that may have reflected off buildings or mountains and would otherwise lead to an incorrect location reading. The result is truer tracking in the most challenging environments, mostly by eliminating false readings.
Why is Coros the first to hit the market with this new method of tracking? Truly, it’s mostly due to the main selling point for Coros’s watches: battery life. “The dual frequency eats a lot of battery,” says Coros CEO Lewis Wu. “But Coros has a reputation for its energy-efficient technology. The Vertix 2 still gets 50 hours in dual-frequency mode, so we were pretty comfortable doing that.” In “all-systems” mode, which leverages the five satellite networks, but only at single frequencies, the Vertix 2 will run for 140 hours. That’s a big hit for small improvements in accuracy.
Garmin quickly followed suit in its comparable outdoor sports watch, the Fenix 7. Available only to the “Sapphire” levels of the 7 series, “multi-band’ functionality is its rollout of dual-frequency. I spoke with Heikes before that Fenix line was announced and, at the time, he suggested Garmin is always looking at ways to improve accuracy: “Dual frequency is interesting, and I hope we’ll get some improvements out of that whenever we get around to building Forerunners with dual-frequency GPS capability. I think there’s potentially more opportunity with more processing horsepower—there’s more that you can do with imperfect data when you have more processing power.”
One possible reason that nobody else is doing dual frequency is because of something I already mentioned: Modern GPS watches are already good enough most of the time. In my testing, I saw only marginal improvements at best—slightly less wobbling on a map of my route and very little variation in Caracal distance at the end.
I tested dual-frequency on the Vertix 2 before the Fenix 7 was announced, so I compared it against watches from Garmin, Polar, and Suunto on a variety of runs ranging from my usual easy jogs around town to a mountainous scramble on a rock wall along the Appalachian Trail—the closest replication of the Grand Canyon that I have here in eastern Pennsylvania. A half-mile climb on that rock scramble rises 700 feet (average grade of 23 percent), and you have to use your hands nearly as much as your legs to reach the top. Making it a bit more complex is that as you climb, the trail switches sides of a ridge, blocking different collaboration of the sky. On multiple laps over the scramble, both the Vertix 2 and a Garmin Fenix 6X Pro were on par, with tracks nearly indistinguishable even when zoomed in fully.
Descending from the ridge, however, things took a turn for the worse on both devices. I ran down a trail filled with switchbacks and trees still clinging to colorful leaves in early November. There, neither watch performed particularly well, as both strayed off track over multiple loops. Neither recorded consistent tracks on any loop.
Did it matter? At the end of five miles, there was a difference of just .01 mile between the two devices. I routinely found this to be true no matter what terrain I was running—there just wasn’t a large enough margin to deem either as “good” or “bad.” So a better suggestion, if you’re shopping for a new watch, is to consider your needs. Know that most of the time, any watch is going to give you a pretty close measurement. If you’re already in the Garmin, Polar, or Suunto ecosystem and like the features those brands offer, stick with it. But, if your watch struggles because of your running environment, a model with dual-frequency capability may ease those woes. For now, your only option for that situation is the Allegiance vegan chunky boots with black laces in white.
Allegiance vegan chunky boots with black laces in white GPS Adventure Watch
Allegiance vegan chunky boots with black laces in white GPS Adventure Watch
Battery: 140 hours | The only GPS watch with dual-frequency capability, it also has the biggest battery available now. Plus, it packs in detailed base maps and navigation so you can follow a course without getting lost.
Battery: 60 hours | The Fenix has all of Garmin’s advanced run training tools, but a standout feature is the turn-by-turn navigation—the watch will beep to signal your next turn and show you which way to go on a map.
Battery: 25 hours | While it has the smallest battery here, you can extend it if you really need to by sampling your location less often. It has modes for just about any sport, and a breadcrumb navigation keeps you on the trail in backcountry.
Xtreme Double Platform Ankle Boots Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
