Best Smart Watch for Remote Workers and the Home Office

At a home desk a watch does four jobs. It lets you take or dismiss a call without reaching for the phone, it holds back notifications while you concentrate, it runs timers, and it nudges you when you have sat through most of an hour. How often it needs charging decides whether you keep wearing it.

Your phone settles most of the choice. An Apple Watch needs an iPhone, and the Google and Samsung watches need an Android phone. Garmin, Withings and Amazfit work with either.

We went through each maker’s own pages for what its watch says it does on those counts. We have not handled any of these watches, so what follows is what each maker states.

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The watches compared

Prices are the makers’ own US store prices for the cheapest version, rounded. Battery figures are the makers’ claims.

What a watch does for a working day

Calls and notifications

Every watch here shows who is calling and what a notification says. The difference is whether you can talk into it.

Apple’s user guide says you can answer on the watch and talk through its built-in microphone and speaker, cover the display to silence a call and send it to voicemail, or reply with a text. Google says the Pixel Watch 5 makes and receives calls through its own speaker and microphone when the phone is nearby, and without the phone on the LTE version. Samsung says the same of the LTE version of the Galaxy Watch9. Garmin’s Venu 4 and the Amazfit Bip 6 take calls too, through the paired phone.

Two watches leave the talking to the phone. Garmin’s spec sheet for the vívoactive 6 lists no speaker or microphone. The Withings ScanWatch 2 shows incoming calls and app notifications on its small display and goes no further. One catch on both Garmin watches: replying to a text, or rejecting a call with a text, works with Android phones only.

If calls fill most of your day, a watch speaker is a stopgap. Our guide to the best speakerphones for a home office covers the better tool.

Timers and focus modes

Apple’s guide says the Apple Watch can run several timers at once, each for up to 24 hours, and that Siri will label one if you ask. Garmin lists a timer and an alarm clock on both its watches, and says the Venu 4 will start a timer by voice. On the Pixel Watch, Google says alarms set on the phone can be synced across so that both devices go off.

Apple has the fullest answer to interruptions. A Focus, as Apple describes it, lets through only the notifications you have chosen. The watch comes with Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep and Work. Switching one on at the wrist switches it on at the iPhone, and a Focus can run to a schedule. A Work Focus set for office hours is the feature a remote worker would use most, and Apple explains the setup in its guide to Focus on Apple Watch.

Samsung’s watches have Do not disturb, which its support page says silences every notification except alarms, and the setting can be synced between phone and watch. Google describes a Bedtime mode on the Pixel Watch 5 that mutes notifications and can sync with the phone. That one is built for sleep more than for work.

Reminders to move

Google’s is the most specific. A reminder to move, by its help page, cues you to walk at least 250 steps in the hour, and it arrives ten minutes before the hour ends if you have not. The default hours are 9am to 6pm and you can change them. The same page notes that the reminders are off by default on the Pixel Watch 4, so look for the setting on any Pixel Watch. Google’s reminders page has the steps.

Apple’s Stand ring counts the hours in which you have stood and moved for at least a minute, and the watch tells you when you are falling behind your goals. Garmin calls its version move alerts: a message on the watch after a period of inactivity, listed for both the vívoactive 6 and the Venu 4.

Battery

The watches split into two camps. The Apple, Google and Samsung watches are stated in hours, from 18 to 40, which means a charger on the desk and a top-up most days. The others are stated in days, from 10 to 35. A working week is five days, so on the makers’ figures each of those clears it at least twice over.

With an iPhone

Apple Watch SE 3, about $250

The cheapest Apple Watch covers all four desk jobs, because calls, Focus, timers and activity reminders come from watchOS, the software the current Apple Watches share. It comes in 40mm and 44mm. Apple gives it up to 18 hours of normal use, or up to 32 in Low Power Mode, and says it needs an iPhone 11 or later running iOS 27. This is our pick for an iPhone owner. Apple Watch SE 3 on Amazon

Apple Watch Series 12, about $400

The extra $150 buys a larger watch, in 42mm and 46mm, and a longer day: up to 24 hours of normal use and up to 38 in Low Power Mode. Apple says 15 minutes on the charger adds up to 12 hours. Pick it if 18 hours would not get you from one morning to the next. Apple Watch Series 12 on Amazon

With an Android phone

Google Pixel Watch 5, about $400

Google’s own watch works with most phones on Android 12 or newer. The 41mm is about $400 and the 45mm about $430, and Google says the charging dock takes it to 50% in about 15 minutes. LTE adds $100. Google says the cheaper version stays connected over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, which is all a desk at home asks of it.

Pick this watch with any Android phone that is not a Samsung. Google Pixel Watch 5 on Amazon

Samsung Galaxy Watch9, about $380

The 40mm is about $380 and the 44mm about $410, and LTE adds $50 to either. Samsung’s US page gives the battery only as a capacity, so the 30-hour figure is from its Singapore spec table, with the always-on display.

Samsung’s footnotes say several features, Vitals and Heart Health Score among them, need a Samsung Galaxy phone. So pick this one if your phone is a Samsung, and the Pixel Watch 5 if it is not. Our guide to the best Wear OS watches compares the two in more detail. Samsung Galaxy Watch9 on Amazon

A week or more between charges

Garmin vívoactive 6, about $300

Garmin states up to 11 days in smartwatch mode, or 5 with the display always on. It shows notifications and your calendar, and has the timer, alarm and move alerts covered above. Calls stay on the phone.

This is the pick if charging every day would put you off wearing a watch at all. Garmin vívoactive 6 on Amazon

Garmin Venu 4, about $550

The Venu 4 adds the speaker and microphone, so a call can be taken on the watch with the phone paired, and it takes voice commands. Garmin states up to 12 days for the 45mm and 10 for the 41mm. It costs about $250 more than the vívoactive 6, and for desk work the calls are what that money buys. Garmin Venu 4 on Amazon

Withings ScanWatch 2, about $370

A watch with real hands and a small display set into the dial. Withings states up to 35 days per charge. It shows incoming calls and app notifications and has no speaker, so it suits someone who wants to see who is calling and little else.

Watches of this kind have a guide of their own: best hybrid smartwatches. Withings ScanWatch 2 on Amazon

Amazfit Bip 6, about $80

The cheapest watch here. Amazfit states up to 14 days with typical use and 6 with heavy use, and lists Bluetooth calls. Pick it to find out whether a watch helps your working day before spending more. Amazfit Bip 6 on Amazon

What happened to the old list

The 2020 version of this page named five watches, and all five have been overtaken. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Active 2 has given way to the Galaxy Watch9, the Fitbit Versa 2 to the Versa 4 on Google’s store, and Huawei’s Watch GT 2 to the GT 7 Pro. The Amazfit Verge is not on Amazfit’s US store. Fossil, which made the Gen 5 Carlyle, said in January 2024 that it was leaving the smartwatch business.

Which to pick

• You have an iPhone: the Apple Watch SE 3.
• You have a Samsung phone: the Galaxy Watch9.
• You have another Android phone: the Pixel Watch 5.
• You do not want to charge it every day: the Garmin vívoactive 6, or the Venu 4 if you want calls on the watch.
• You want to spend as little as possible: the Amazfit Bip 6.

Quick answers

What is the best smart watch for remote workers?

The one that matches your phone. With an iPhone, the Apple Watch SE 3 at about $250. With Android, the Pixel Watch 5 at about $400, or the Galaxy Watch9 if the phone is a Samsung.

Do smartwatches have timers?

The ones we checked for it do. Apple says its watch runs several timers at once, each for up to 24 hours, and Garmin lists a timer on the vívoactive 6 and the Venu 4.

Can you make phone calls with a smartwatch?

Yes, if it has a speaker and microphone. The Apple Watch, Pixel Watch 5, Galaxy Watch9, Garmin Venu 4 and Amazfit Bip 6 do. The Garmin vívoactive 6 and the Withings ScanWatch 2 show the call and leave the talking to the phone.

Which smartwatch needs charging least?

Of the watches here, the Withings ScanWatch 2 at up to 35 days, then the Amazfit Bip 6 at up to 14 and the Garmin Venu 4 at up to 12, all on the makers’ figures.

Prices move, so confirm on the maker’s store before you pay.