Apple and Garmin each make some of the best smartwatch models you can buy in 2025. While the new Apple Watch Series 11 is the best smartwatch for iPhone users, the rugged and long-lasting Garmin Instinct 3 is my personal favorite wearable for outdoor adventure tracking.
But which one is more accurate when it comes to keeping tabs on basic workouts, like walks and runs? I decided to find out by affixing the Apple Watch Series 11 to my left wrist and the Garmin Instinct 3 to my right wrist, before embarking on an hour-long walk through gorgeous Seattle, Washington.
Read on to find out which smartwatch wins — the Apple Watch 11 or Garmin Instinct 3.
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3 : Quick comparison
Both devices start at $399 and come in a range of sizes and configurations. The Garmin Instinct 3, for example, is available with either a bright and saturated AMOLED screen (shown above) or a less impressive Memory in Pixel (Mip) display that doubles as a solar charging cell.
As you might imagine, the Instinct 3 Solar boasts impressive battery life, up to 40 days in smartwatch mode or 150 hours with GPS tracking. However, the AMOLED models also offer great battery life at up to 24 days in smartwatch mode or 86 hours with GPS.
The Apple Watch Series 11 offers more modest battery life, at 24 hours per charge in smartwatch mode with the always-on display. GPS battery life is closer to 10 hours.
Garmin's watch comes in your choice of 45mm or 50mm, while the Apple Watch is available in 42mm or 46mm with cellular connectivity optional. The Garmin does not come with cellular.
The Instinct 3 is a chunkier device, with an oversized bezel for screen protection and 100 meters of water resistance. The Series 11 is sleeker for sure, but it offers little by way of screen protection and is only rated at 50 meters of water resistance.
While the Apple Watch offers a combo of physical controls and a touchscreen, the Garmin only has physical controls; 5 buttons in total.
Ultimately, the Instinct 3 is designed with outdoor adventurers in mind and is packed with workout training and recovery tools, but it lacks standard smartwatch features like web browsing, and third-party apps are limited.
On the flip side, the Apple Watch Series 11 is one of the most feature-rich smartwatches on the market, with apps and handy onboard tools galore; global tide tracking and on-wrist translations are two of my favorites. The Apple Watch also offers plenty of tools and insights into physical health, though the training features aren't quite as advanced as those on the Instinct 3.
However, when it comes to tracking a basic walking-based workout, both devices are more than capable with onboard GPS for location data and altimeters for elevation tracking. Plus, both boast highly accurate heart rate tracking.
The only real difference is that the Garmin has multi-band GPS compared to single-band GPS on the Apple Watch. This could give the former a slight advantage when it comes to distance and/or step-count data. Read on to find out if it does!
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3 : Walk test results
As always, for this walk test, I manually counted my steps using an old-school tally counter to mark every hundred steps taken. As a control for distance, elevation, and pace data, I turned to an old reliable: Strava on my phone.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Apple Watch 11 | Garmin Instinct 3 | Control |
|---|---|---|---|
Step count | 5,910 steps | 6,048 steps | 6,000 steps (manual count) |
Distance | 3.16 miles | 3.19 miles | 3.24 miles (Strava) |
Elevation gain | 295 feet | 256 feet | 251 feet (Strava) |
Average moving pace | 18 mins 27 secs per mile | 17 mins 05 secs per mile | 16 mins 50 secs per mile (Strava) |
Average heart rate | 126 bpm | 123 bpm | n/a |
Max heart rate | 153 bpm | 156 bpm | n/a |
Total calories burned | 402 calories | 387 calories | n/a |
Device battery usage | 3% | 2% | n/a |
In my roughly one-hour walk, I took exactly 6,000 steps. Much to my surprise, both the Instinct 3 and Apple Watch 11 calculated step count totals within 100 steps of my actual count. This is an impressive result.
That said, the Garmin was a little closer than the Apple Watch. For what it's worth, Strava has both beat with a total of 6,036 steps.
Distance data similarly matches up nicely, with the Garmin again being a tad more in line with the control data. The Instinct also calculated nearly the same amount of elevation gain as Strava. The Series 11, meanwhile, seemingly overcounted by a notable 44 feet.
From past tests, I've come to expect Strava to generate faster pace data than the smartwatches, and that was once again the case. Even so, Garmin's average moving pace is only 15 seconds off from Strava's. Apple, meanwhile, calculated a significantly slower average speed.
This may be a result of Apple providing an elapsed pace metric instead of a moving pace one. While Garmin and Strava provide both (moving pace is recorded above), Apple gives one number for average pace and doesn't reveal how it's calculated.
Finally, heart rate data and calories burned are close enough in my book. And as expected, the Apple Watch burned through a little more battery than the Garmin.
Apple Watch 11 vs Garmin Instinct 3 : And the winner is...
With a closer step count total, distance figure, and elevation data, Garmin wins this showdown between the Apple Watch Series 11 and Garmin Instinct 3. That said, both devices performed admirably, and I wouldn't hesitate to toss either on my wrist before embarking on my next outdoor workout.
What smartwatches would you like to see me test head-to-head next? Let me know in the comments below.
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