Garmin, Xiaomi, Huawei... these are my favorite smartwatches for under 200 euros

Garmin, Xiaomi, Huawei… these are my preferred smartwatches under €200 July 18, 2026, at 6:26 a.m. You’ve been looking for a watch for weeks and have probably experienced this: you start searching for one that tracks your workouts well and end up reading about rotating bezels, dials, and payments with your wrist. None of them do both perfectly, at least without moving into higher-end models. So I've ranked the six that I would choose, starting with Garmin and ending with Xiaomi. The fun lies in the fact that each one chooses wisely what to give up, and in knowing which sacrifice you might find acceptable before paying. What really measures a watch when you go below high-end The criterion for ordering them is this: here, the good one isn’t the one that lists the most features in the box, but the one that knows in which areas it can fall short without you caring. Almost all count steps and read heart rate on the wrist, and that’s called health tracking. Measuring is another thing. Measuring is how long it takes for the GPS to lock in when you’re already at the doorstep with your foot on the step. It's whether the route stays clear between eight-story buildings or draws a zigzag. And it's telling you the contact time with the ground, which is the number that spikes when you're struggling in the 15th kilometre. Then there's battery life, which in the window display always refers to days in power-saving mode and not the ones it lasts with GPS turned on three times a week. With these three questions in hand, the six sort themselves out naturally. Amazfit Active 3: maps without taking out your phone Running through an area you don't know, turning where it shouldn't, and ending up with your arm stretched out looking at your phone. The Active 3 has maps built-in, without needing a subscription, and guides you through turns while your phone stays at home. It measures seriously: lactate threshold, running power, contact time with the ground. These aren’t numbers to brag about, they’re the ones that explain why you hit the floor on Sunday in the last part of the pace. The brand promises 12 days of battery life, and the actual figure ranges between nine and twelve, depending on how much GPS you use. The steel case and sapphire crystal withstand the rub of the pull-up bar without getting scratched. Xiaomi Redmi Watch 6: charges and you forget Here the level of metrics drops and the days increase. The Redmi Watch 6 packs 550 mAh into a thickness of 9.9 mm, and its autonomy is its main selling point: they talk about 24 days, and with normal usage you end up at ten or fifteen without remembering the charger. The 2.07-inch screen is the largest in the group, and the 2mm bezels are the trick for fitting into a watch that doesn’t bulk. For checking your pulse at a glance during intense movement, it’s appreciated. Now the small print, which in this case is large: NFC is present, but not with your bank. It depends on Curve, a third-party app that asks for photos of your ID, and quite a few people haven’t had it work yet. If you buy it to pay with your wrist, don’t buy it. For everything else, it’s the most affordable of the six and even comes discounted. OnePlus Watch 2: full Wear OS Wear OS is almost never included in this price range, and the Watch 2 brings it complete: Google Maps on the wrist, Play Store, assistant, and the apps you already use on your phone without strange adaptations. It lasts 100 hours, which for a watch with Google inside isn’t standard. The 32GB storage is enough to carry music along and run outside without a phone, although its 80 grams become noticeable on the wrist after a while. Huawei Watch GT 6: the one that fits best At 51.4 grams and a 1.47-inch screen, the GT 6 is the one that fits best in the group, and the one you put on Monday and still forget by Friday. The voice assistant responds without taking out your phone, and the GPS is integrated, so for regular outings you don’t need anything else. It’s a watch for daily wear, not for pushing it in a workout test. Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic: leaves without the phone Of the six, this is the only one that leaves the house with its own line. It includes LTE: you close the door with the watch and it’s done, with calls, data, and location working. The rotating bezel seems like a detail of style, and it is, but it also...