WIRED’s 2026 guide for anyone hunting a budget smartwatch under $250 puts Nothing’s $79 CMF Watch 3 Pro at the top, with Apple, Garmin and Fitbit also making the cut. The list lands as WIRED says smartwatch prices have been pushed up by component costs and supply-chain pressure, which is a polite way of saying your wrist computer is now trying to cosplay as rent.
WIRED says its editors chose the products independently, while also disclosing that it may earn compensation from retailer links and purchases. That matters because this is a buying guide, not a lab standard, and the useful part is the specific trade-off each watch makes for the price.
What is the best budget smartwatch under $250?
WIRED’s top pick is the Nothing CMF Watch 3 Pro, listed at $79 from Nothing and $73 on Amazon at the time of the guide. CMF is Nothing’s sub-brand, and WIRED describes the watch as unusually feature-rich for the money.
The CMF Watch 3 Pro has a 47-mm case, a 1.43-inch AMOLED display, Bluetooth connectivity, IP68 durability, and compatibility with both iOS and Android through the Nothing X app, according to WIRED. Its battery life is rated at up to 13 days. Features include wrist gesture controls, an onboard microphone for calls, a flashlight, more than 120 watch faces, and a ChatGPT-integrated voice assistant. For the curious: an LLM-powered assistant generates responses by predicting likely text from a prompt, a process explained in our guide to how LLMs work.
WIRED’s testing also credited the CMF watch with a broad health feature set. Former WIRED editor Adrienne So compared its live heart-rate readings with an Oura Ring 4 and found they usually matched, according to the guide. The watch also includes dual-band GPS for outdoor tracking, workout summaries, breathing exercise animations and heart-rate measurement animations.
The cheap watch does not escape cheap-watch problems. WIRED says the case is metal but looks and feels closer to plastic, the app can behave unevenly, the running coach is less adaptable than rivals, and sleep tracking sometimes runs high by as much as an hour compared with other sleep trackers.
Apple, Garmin and Fitbit fill out the list
For iPhone users, WIRED’s affordable Apple pick is the Apple Watch SE 3 at $249 from Apple and Best Buy, with an Amazon listing shown at $250 after discount. WIRED calls it the best value in Apple’s watch lineup, especially for people replacing an older model or buying for parents or children.
The SE 3 uses Apple’s S10 chip and runs watchOS 27, according to WIRED. That brings sleep apnea notifications, skin temperature sensing, Siri-suggested apps in the dynamic app grid, Apple’s new Siri AI assistant, Workout Buddy without a nearby iPhone, fast charging, and an always-on Retina display rated up to 1,000 nits. WIRED says So got a full day of use with the always-on display enabled, although Apple’s rated battery life is up to 18 hours.
The omissions are classic Apple segmentation. WIRED says the SE 3 lacks blood oxygen measurement, ECG app support, hypertension notifications, the brighter 2,000-nit Series 11 display, and the UWB locator chip. It comes in 40-mm and 44-mm case sizes, supports 50-meter water resistance, and is iOS-only.
For runners, WIRED chose the Garmin Forerunner 165. It is listed at $250 from Garmin and $204 on Amazon after discount. WIRED says it suits beginners and buyers who want detailed running data without paying for a higher-end Garmin.
The Forerunner 165 includes an AMOLED display, touchscreen and button controls, multi-band GPS, a pulse oximeter, barometric altimeter, compass, ambient light sensor, training plans, and running metrics such as power and cadence, according to WIRED. Garmin advertises up to 11 days of battery life, while WIRED says So saw roughly a week.
The fourth pick is the Fitbit Versa 4, named WIRED’s best Fitbit smartwatch in the budget group. The guide lists it at $200 normally and $175 on Amazon after a 13 percent discount. WIRED’s featured list does not provide the same level of detail for the Versa 4 as it does for the Nothing, Apple and Garmin models, so the confirmed takeaway is narrower: it is the Fitbit option in a sub-$250 shortlist.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
