Breaking into the running watch market is not easy. Garmin has had a stranglehold on the area for many years, and if anyone seems most likely to topple them from their perch, it’s the likes of Apple with sporty smartwatches.
It is to Coros’ credit, then, that it has managed to make a significant impact with runners since the original Coros Pace launched in 2018. The brand makes some of the best running watches available, especially at the cheaper end of the spectrum where Coros often outguns Garmin by offering more features at a lower price.
We’ve tested every single Coros watch released to date, including all models of the Pace, Apex and Vertix lines, and so feel confident we can steer runners towards the best Coros watch for them, whatever your budget.
Who Are The Run Testers?
We are a group of experienced fitness and tech journalists who have been testing and reviewing running watches and all manner of other kit for over a decade. How much longer than a decade, we’d prefer not to say, but we’re no spring chickens.
That means we were among the first people to try out the original Coros Pace, and we’ve tested each and every watch from the brand launched since, right up to the latest models in the Pace 4 and Apex 4. All of our reviews are completely impartial and based on running hundreds of miles with the watches and comparing them to the best devices available from other brands.
Best Coros Watches For Running 2026
Since the Coros line-up is relatively small, you’ll find our thoughts on all of the watches available now below, including older models like the Coros Pace 3 alongside the latest and greatest picks.
Our favourite Coros watch overall is the Coros Pace 4, which is light, accurate and great value, but those who need more adventure-ready devices for their runs will be better-suited by the Apex 4, Nomad or even the top-of-the-range Vertix 2.
Check out the best Garmin running watches
Coros Pace 4
Price: £229/$249 | Size: 43mm | Battery Life: 20 days (watch), 24 hours (multi-band GPS)
The Pace 4 is one of our favourite watches available from any brand, offering all the features runners need and more at a great price in a lightweight, attractive package. It’s not the hardiest watch in the Coros range, but the plastic case feels sturdy enough, and it’s one of only two AMOLED watches available from the brand at the moment, along with the Pace Pro, which offers maps as a key upgrade on the Pace 4.
We’ve tested the Pace 4 for months alongside much more expensive watches and its GPS accuracy has thus far proved impeccable, and the heart rate tracking is mostly reliable too, though we’d pair a chest strap for the most accurate results.
Your runs feed into the same extensive training analysis you get on all Coros watches – the Pace 4 offers everything you get on the top-of-the-range Vertix 2S on this front – which is useful in tracking your fitness and judging your training load.
The Pace 4 is therefore great for runners of all levels, being affordable and easy to use if you’re new to the sport, while also having enough depth and reliability for keen athletes. The battery life is also strong for a small, AMOLED watch, with the Pace 4 lasting us four to five days when running every day with the screen always-on.
Read our full Coros Pace 4 review
Coros Apex 4
Price: £389/$429 (42mm); £429/$479 (46mm) | Size: 42mm & 46mm | Battery Life: 15 days/24 days (watch), 34 hours/53 hours (multi-band GPS)
The Apex 4 is the mid-range Coros watch and aimed more at trail-runners and adventurers than the road-focused Pace 4. As a result it has a more durable design with a metal bezel and a sapphire crystal screen. It also comes in two sizes – 42mm and 46mm – and is the only Coros watch that does offer two different sizes at the moment.
Along with the extra durability, other notable upgrades on the Pace 4 are the longer battery life and offline maps you get on the Apex 4. To achieve its impressive battery life the Apex 4 has a memory-in-pixel (MIP) display rather than an AMOLED one, and we found this screen a little dull at times, but it is generally clear and easy to read when outdoors and the larger model lasted us over two weeks even when tracking runs most days.
The Apex 4 caters to a slightly different audience than the Pace 4 and is just as accurate, so if you prefer its more rugged design and long battery life, or need its maps, it’s a worthwhile upgrade, though you should also consider the outdoors-y Coros Nomad. The Apex 2 and Apex 2 Pro are also still available, but we found their GPS less reliable than on other Coros devices and think the Apex 4 is a worthwhile upgrade.
Coros Nomad
Price: £319/$349 | Size: 48mm | Battery Life: 22 days (watch), 34 hours (multi-band GPS)
The Coros Nomad is another watch built for adventures in the great outdoors, with a rugged, mostly plastic design that is reminiscent of a Casio G-Shock or Garmin Instinct watch. It’s not specifically designed for runners – it has several fishing modes that we’ve yet to use ourselves – but still offers the reliably accurate tracking and useful training analysis you expect from Coros.
That means if you love its look and prefer it to the smaller Pace 4, the Nomad would be a great option for runners, and it offers offline maps at a lower price than the Apex 4. We also found the MIP screen clearer on the Nomad than on the Apex 4 during runs under cloud or tree cover, perhaps because it has a glass display, rather than sapphire crystal.
We prefer the sleeker Pace 4 design ourselves for running, and it’s a cheaper watch, but the Nomad did impress us during testing so we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it if you prefer its looks, and it offers great battery life too thanks to its MIP display.
Coros Vertix 2S
Price: £599/$699 | Size: 50mm | Battery Life: 36 days (watch), 43 hours (multi-band GPS)
The Vertix 2S sits at the top of the Coros line-up, with the main reason for its high price being its incredibly durable design and long battery life. It’s more focused on adventurers than runners, but if you absolutely hate having to charge devices and don’t mind strapping on a chunky watch, it could well be worth a look.
As ever, you’re getting reliable tracking and training analysis, though it’s worth noting the Vertix 2S doesn’t outperform the cheaper Coros watches on these fronts. It does outlast them though, with the Vertix 2S routinely going three or four weeks between charges even with heavy use.
The Vertix 2S has a titanium case and sapphire crystal and a MIP display which once again isn’t the brightest. Its durable design means it can withstand temperatures from -30°C to 50°C, which isn’t all that useful in our runs, but impressive nevertheless.
If you’re a runner who also climbs mountains, then the Vertix 2S could be the Coros for you, but for most people we think its overkill, and we’d also like to see an AMOLED model available at the top of the range to challenge the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro.
Coros Pace 3
Price: £199/$199 | Size: 42mm | Battery Life: 15 days (watch), 15 hours (multi-band GPS)
The cheapest Coros watch currently available, the Pace 3 is set to be discontinued in the coming months after the launch of the Pace 4, but could be worth grabbing now if you want a real bargain. It’s a very small and light watch with a MIP display, which we don’t like as much as the AMOLED screen on the Pace 4, but otherwise the Pace 3 largely matches up well with its successor.
It’s a good entry-level option and can handle the training load of experienced runners logging hundreds of miles a week as well, with the battery lasting five or six days for us when training outdoors every day. We even used the watch to track a 50-mile ultramarathon without any battery or accuracy fears.
Along with the AMOLED display, the Pace 4 also has an extra button, which is useful for switching displays during runs to show a breadcrumb trail or music controls, along with a mic and longer GPS battery life. We reckon the Pace 4 is worth the upgrade, but the Pace 3 is still a great value watch.
Coros Pace Pro
Price: £299/$299 | Size: 46mm | Battery Life: 20 days (watch), 24 hours (multi-band GPS)
Last but by no means least, the Coros Pace Pro is the bigger brother of the Pace 4, and while it costs a little more it could be worth picking up before it’s fully discontinued this year because it offers maps as a big extra feature compared with the Pace 4.
The Pace Pro is also a slightly larger watch with a larger AMOLED display (1.3in vs 1.2in), and we found it offers a little more battery life with general use in our testing too. It doesn’t have the Pace 4’s action button or mic, but otherwise it matches the new watch’s feature-set and if you value the on-board maps, the Pace Pro is a worthy upgrade for £70/$50 more.
For a more comprehensive look at how the three Coros Pace watches compare, check out our video looking at the pros and cons of each.