There’s a reason Garmin watches are so popular among sports and outdoor enthusiasts. Their devices are tailor-made for the active people on the planet. The ones who climb mountains, run marathons, swim across lakes and snowboard down slopes.

The company’s latest creation, the Fenix 5, goes further to meet those demands, and succeeds. Here are five awesome features which may just convince you that the Fenix 5 - available from Cotswold Outdoor - is the best wrist gadget for you.

1. Build

Being built for the outdoors means a case that’s not just durable, but one that’s tested to extremes. The Fenix 5’s fiber-reinforced polymer body is capable of withstanding pretty much anything you throw at it, especially the Sapphire edition with its Sapphire Crystal lens. It’s even water rated up to 10 ATM, which is the equivalent of diving down to 100m. In short - You’d have to try really hard to break it. Even then, you’d probably fail.

2. Multi-sport tracking

While you’ll often see avid runners with a Garmin watch strapped to their wrist, the watches are capable of much more than just tracking runs. As perfect as it is for that purpose, the Fenix 5 has tracking programs available for all kinds of exercises from indoor strength training and exercise machines to open water swimming, triathlon tracking and even skiing, snowboarding and golfing. This includes TruSwing, to help golfers improve their swings.

Part of what makes the sport tracking really useful though is that it measures your pace, heart rate and exertion, and can then tell you how intense the activity you’ve just done is and how long you need to rest before doing it again.

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Pocket-lint

3. Incredible app

Fitness apps normally show you a select amount of information, giving you mostly just the basics. Garmin’s Connect app is so detailed, there’s almost no metric missing. It gives you an overview of your sleeping pattern, including how much you moved in the night. It offers you the usual collection of steps, floors and heart rate but, more importantly, shows you how many “Intensity Minutes” you have remaining for the week. This is essentially a target set by the app that varies depending on your size, weight and your fitness, all of which is adapted as you exercise.

As well as being full of useful information, it syncs with all the important third party fitness apps like MyFitnessPal, Apple Health and Strava.

4. Battery life

Compared to traditional smartwatches, the Garmin Fenix 5’s battery life is incredible. Rather than just last a couple of days, the Fenix 5 can go two weeks between charges, or 24 hours of constant GPS tracking. That’s about six back-to-back marathons.

5. Phone-free fun

While it’s a great smartwatch capable of connecting with your phone for controlling music playback and viewing notifications, it comes alive when you leave the phone at home. Using built in GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning, it can track your routes accurately without your phone. And with its barometric altimeter, 3-axis compass and gyroscope, it can track how high your climbing, which direction you’re facing and how many steps you’ve taken. All with just a lightweight device that’s strapped to your wrist.

If you’re in the market for a high end sports watch with all the bells and whistles, you can pick one up from Cotswold Outdoor with prices starting at £500.