Best Golf GPS Watches 2025: Our picks at every price point

Despite a stubborn group of golfers who will swear up and down that rangefinders are still the best distance tool in golf, GPS watches are very slowly starting to supplant the more traditional tool as the most popular choice for the everyday golfer.

Having hit the market for the first time more than a decade ago, Golf watches have, alongside other smartwatches, evolved to become essential everyday accessories for thousands of people, helping them not just dial in their game, but keep their life off the course a little more organised as well.

Golf GPS watches are now more diverse than ever, ranging from simple golf-centric timepieces intended just for a life on the course, to multi-functional lifestyle tools that also track wellness, have smart organisational facilities, integration with your phone, and a slick sense of style go alongside all the features.

But which one should you choose? With dozens of models to choose from ranging from around the hundred quid well into the thousands, we thought we'd break all our favourite choices down for you, starting with the model we think strikes the perfect balance for what we want from a golf watch in 2025.

The best golf watch for 2025

Garmin Approach S50

Key Features

• Golf GPS with 43,000 pre-loaded courses
• Green distances and plays-like yardages
• Garmin fitness features and wellness tracking
• AMOLED display

Pros

• Great balance of golf and lifestyle features
• Not too expensive
• Low profile on the wrist

Cons

• Some of the more advanced golf features require a membership

Price: £379.99

Garmin has by far the most extensive golf watch range of any brand in this line-up, and thanks to its long history making GPS systems for just about every industry that needs it, the best rep for delivering accuracy every time.

And while it would be tempting to put one of their higher-end watches in this position, for us, the S50 delivers the best balance of functionality and value for money out of any watch on this list right now.

As a golf watch, it has all the tools required of the discerning modern golfer. It comes with 43,000 courses pre-loaded on its GPS, has a full AMOLED screen that holds up in the sun, customised distances to the front, middle and back of every green, and plays-like distance based on slope data. 

The battery life is ample in GPS mode, lasting 15 hours when out on the course and well over a week during day-to-day use.

It is worth noting, however, that some of the more advanced features require a Garmin Golf membership—although this isn't a bad option given the subscription effectively gives it almost all the features of the S70, a watch that retails for over £100 more.

Importantly, however, the S50 also introduces a suite of features designed to aid wellness off the course as well, with heart rate tracking, the ability to log runs and workouts, along with sleep and stress tracking. 

If you've used fitness watches before and want to upgrade to something with full golf functionality that won't break the bank, this the Approach S50 strikes the perfect middle ground.

The best high-end golf watches

Apple Watch Ultra 2

Key Features

• Full integration with your iPhone
• Host of different apps
• Built-in fitness and wellness tracking

Pros

• Really the ultimate smart watch
• Now has some clever golf-specific features
• Pairs with every GPS and scoring app under the sun

Cons

• Expensive
• Battery life is still short compared to most GPS watches

Price: £799

We're all familiar with the virtues of the Apple Watch by now. The ultimate smart watch for Apple loyalists, it delivers a seamless ecosystem that pairs with your iPhone and acts, effectively, as a smaller version on your wrist. You can make and receive calls with it, send messages, track your health and fitness and otherwise run your life off of it.

The Ultra 2 is the classic Apple Watch's bigger, beefier and arguably more stylish brother, with a brighter screen, double the battery life, and more capability for water sports if that's your thing.

Apple have also introduced some clever golf-specific features to the Apple Watch in the last couple of years. The upgraded accelerometer and gyroscope in the Ultra 2 allows the watch to track key swing metrics when paired up with an app like GolfShot, including tempo, rhythm, backswing, transition, and wrist path.

The Apple Watch also syncs up with all the best golf apps on the market, making tracking distances and scoring your round from your wrist a breeze.

TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 Golf Edition

Key Features

• High-res AMOLED screen built into a luxury titanium body
• GPS tracking at over 40,000 courses
• Full shot tracking functionality

Pros

• Very stylish
• Top-tier GPS and software
• Build quality is second to none

Cons

• Can only be used with TAG's native software
• Hasn't had an update in a while
• It's a £1,300 smartwatch
• Probably too big to be truly unisex

Price: £1,300

Luxury swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer raised many an eyebrow when it dropped the Connected Calibre a few years ago, with many wondering whether people would be willing to stump up luxury watch money on a smartwatch. Given it's still around, it's safe to assume they're still selling a few.

The 4th generation of the golf edition, itself now a few years old, remains one of the strongest standalone golf watches out there, and by far the most luxurious with its titanium body and bright, hi-res screen.

In the background, the Connected Calibre E4 Golf runs off Google's Wear OS software, making its everyday smartwatch functionality crisp and clearn, while the integrated Golf software, while not interchangeable, is fantastically well-equipped, with full 2D GPS maps of over 40,000 courses built in and full shot tracking functionality from tee to green.

It does bear repeating, however, that this is still a very pricy bit of kit for the average golfer—especially given it's a model that's now going on for three years old. And despite TAG's claims that this is a unisex golf watch, it's fair to say that the 42mm diameter would probably make it too large for most women to wear comfortably.

Garmin MARQ Golfer Gen 2

Key Features

• Garmin's most detailed golf GPS functionality
• High-end Titanium and carbon finishes
• Combines Garmin's high-end golf and fitness products into one package
• Truly looks like a high-end watch

Pros

• Excellent golf functionality
• Build quality and materials are second to none
• Excellent battery life

Cons

• It's somehow more expensive than the TAG

Price: £1,999

Garmin's MARQ range is its answer to the ultra-luxury smartwatches slowly starting to infiltrate the market, and it bears repeating from the outset: this is a Garmin watch, and it costs £2,000. That, as we already mentioned, is more than a TAG Heuer, which is never something we thought we'd say.

So what makes the MARQ so special? Garmin puts it forward as the brand's ultimate modern tool, with all the functionality of its highest-end golf watches combined with the form and function of its best fitness and lifestyle models. It comes in a sleek package with a smart silicon band, a pristine titanium case (with the option of carbon fibre or Damascus steel for a few hundred quid extra), a domed sapphire glass lens, and the best screen/battery combo on the market, lasting more than two weeks with normal usage on a single charge (and 10 hours with the GPS on). 

As a golfing unit, the MARQ Golfer provides pretty much exactly what you'd get from the S70, including the ultra-detailed maps, pinpoint accuracy in yardage and GPS readings, and the ability for the watch to sync up with a Garmin rangefinder to provide gappage and club recommendations. Garmin have also been kind enough to throw in three of its Approach CT10 sensors, which aid with shot tracking and scoring.

While all this is impressive, there's not much escaping the fact that the S70 can do all these things as well. For a quarter of the price. But if money is no object and you want all the bells and whistles in a luxurious package, this could be up your alley.

The best mid-range golf watches

Garmin Approach S70

Key Features

• Garmin's most precise golf functionality
• Real-time GPS with 43,000+ detailed course maps
• Pairs with a Garmin rangefinder to provide a true caddie on your wrist

Pros

• Comes with Garmin's high-end golf features included in the package
• Battery life and screen are excellent
• Buttons add functionality and prevent having to fiddle with the touchscreen

Cons

• Still quite expensive
• Bulkier than the S50

Price: £499 (42mm), £549 (47mm)

Yes, £500 for what we deem a 'mid-range' watch is a lot, but the Garmin Approach S70 is really the pinnacle of the company's golf-oriented watch range, which warrants including it.

The Approach S70 delivers all the features of the S50 and more, with the advanced golf features, more detailed mapping and other insights like wind data and real-time club suggestions that would normally require a subscription included in the watch out of the box. 

Like the S50, it's also a fully functional fitness and lifestyle watch, with a full host of the wellness tracking features that make Garmin beloved of fitness fanatics worldwide. The AMOLED touch screen is also among the best in its class, delivering incredible detail with additional buttons that make navigating the UI even easier

The larger processor, buttons and battery means it sits slightly larger on the wrist, with the option of both 42mm and 47mm models available, but it's still not too cumbersome to bother most. Still, whether or not all this warrants the extra £120 is entirely up to you.

Shot Scope X5

Key Features

Pros

• Incredibly in-depth performance analytics
• Excellent GPS
• Really good host of golfing insights
• Sleek aesthetic

Cons

• Battery only lasts one round
• Touchscreen is a little tricky to use at times
• Functionality outside of golf is limited

Price: £279.99

If you're after a tool watch that makes getting better at golf as simple and intuitive as possible, the Shot Scope X5 will likely be right up your alley.

As a feature-laden golf watch, it's almost unrivalled at its price point, with a full suite of statistic tracking, GPS course mapping with dynamic distance readouts. Shot Scope also provide 16 tracking tags in each box, so you can get precise distances and insights into how every club in your bag is performing for you. It really is incredibly smart.

There are, however, a few bugbears we picked up in our own testing. The touchscreen, while bright and easily readable out on the course, doesn't operate with quite the smoothness of some of the bigger tech players in the space. And while Shot Scope markets it as a premium lifestyle watch, its features beyond golf are pretty threadbare for a watch that costs almost £300—with just the time and a step counter included when not in GPS mode. 

Apple Watch Series 10/Apple Watch SE

Key Features

• Most of the health and lifestyle features of the Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Dedicated golf features and integration with lots of GPS apps
• You know what an Apple Watch does by now

Pros

• Syncs up with most golf apps
• Probably the most intuitive smart watch on the market off the course
• Sleek and stylish on the wrist

Cons

• That pesky battery
• Needs an iPhone to really function properly

Price: £399 (Apple Watch), £219 (Apple Watch SE)

Now in its 10th edition with an 11th on the way (meaning you can currently get one for £100 below retail), the Apple—along with its cheaper little brother the SE—continues to enjoy an army of loyal devotees thanks to its seamless integration into Apple's phone, tablet and computer ecosystem. 

For most Apple users, it's by far the most convenient lifestyle and fitness watches around, and as a golf watch it's pretty well-equipped as well, with all of the features and integration we listed above in the Ultra 2. Paired with an app like GolfShot, Hole19 or 18Birdies, it'll deliver just about all the insights you need out on the course with a smooth, intuitive UI custom made for the watch.

The most notorious bugbear for the Apple Watch is, and likely always will be, its battery. Even outside of operating as a golf watch, its day to day job of delivering you notifications, tracking your health and staying constantly connected with your phone means the Apple Watch runs out of juice quickly—and even more so out on the course with the GPS turned on. While Garmin's golf watches will last over 2 weeks in standard mode, the Apple Watch likely won't run for more than 2 days between charges.

The best budget golf watches

Golfbuddy Aim W12

Key Features

• GPS readouts of 40,000 courses with hole flyovers, mapping, and green undulation readouts
• LED touchscreen with touch-to-target distance readouts 

Pros

• Incredibly detailed mapping for the price
• Green undulation maps are a game-changer at the price point
• Touchscreen makes getting precise yardages a breeze
• Bright and legible

Cons

• Battery life is fine, but not spectacular
• On the more expensive side for a non-smart watch

Price:

Probably the most feature-packed watch you can get for under £200, Golfbuddy's Aim W12 ticks just about every box you the modern golfer could hope to get from a GPS watch in its price point, and then some.

Its GPS distances and live hole mapping feature a level of detail normally only available in watches twice its price, with touchscreen functionality allowing you to get precise distances to different points on the course. It also provides readouts of green undulations, allows you to track shot distances, and has a step and calorie tracker for when you're not out on the course.

The battery life is around 10 hours when in GPS mode, which is fine but might require recharging more than you'd like if you're out on the course frequently. It's also not really a smart watch in the strict sense of the word, which might be a draw back if you're gearing up to spend that kind of coin on a gadget.

Outside of that, however, we think it's by far the best entry-level option out there—even if it is a little more expensive than its rivals.

Garmin Approach S12

Key Features

• Accurate GPS mapping of 42,000 courses
• In-built scoring
• Handy green and course mapping
• Pairs with the Garmin app for more precise readouts and green data
• Works with Approach CT10 club tracking sensors 

Pros

• Can be bought cheap as chips
• GPS readouts are accurate and reliable
• Slim profile
• Good features for the price

Cons

• Black and white screen is a bit dated

Price: £179.99

Garmin's Approach S12, and its predecessors, have been the near-universal entry point into golf watches for some time now, and there's a reason for that. Despite the RRP, they're frequently available for little over £100, have all the precise GPS distance readouts you'd expect from a Garmin watch, and have an interface that makes going about your round and scoring an absolute breeze.

It's also surprisingly intuitive for what looks at first glance like a simple black and white GPS watch. The redesigned screen is brighter and crisper for better legibility in the bright sun. And you'll likely mostly be using it to get distances to the hole, it also provides dogleg, hazard and layup distances, as well as front, middle and back green mapping so you can plot your way around the course with confidence.

The battery life lasts around 30 hours, which is ample given you'll almost certainly not be wearing it much off the course. And while the simple readout might be a bit spartan for some, it's still by far the easiest option to recommend if you want a golf watch that's cheap and simple.

Shot Scope G6

Key Features

• GPS with full hole maps of 36,000 courses
• Digital scorecard
• Hazard, layup and dogleg distances

Pros

• The cheapest watch around with full hole mapping
• Sleek looks and a bright, colourful screen
• Easy and intuitive to use
• Outstanding value

Cons

• Shot tracking is pretty limited
• No touch screen

Price: £179.99

The Shot Scope G6 is a recent sequel to the G5—a watch we loved and that's still readily available at a great price, featuring an improved display for legibility in bright sun and, finally, one that covers the entire face of the watch instead of reading as a square display in a circular housing.

Beyond this, much of the features are the same, which isn't a bad thing. It's a functional, well-equipped and highly accurate GPS watch, with live hole mapping functionality that sets it apart from many other watches at its price point.

It really only functions as a watch when not on the course, but given the price and how intuitive it is during your round, there's very little to dissuade us from recommending the G6 if live hole mapping is an essential feature for you.

Bushnell iON Elite

Key Features

• Display's Bushnell's patented slope compensated distances
• GPS data for 38,000+ courses with shot planning and dynamic green mapping
• Pairs with the Bushnell app to provide insights into your game

Pros

• GPS data from the very best in the business
• Sleek design
• Easy to set up and use

Cons

• Very much just a golf watch

Price: £189.99

Bushnell has more than what you could call a cult following among pro golfers. In fact, more than 97% of tour pros favour the global brand for their rangefinders and other distance tools, so every investment in a Bushnell product comes with plenty of peace of mind.

And while Bushnell is less well known for its GPS watches, they do make an entry that's well worth considering if you're looking for a golf watch with pure functionality and no frills.

The watch harnesses Bushnell's industry-leading distance finding technology, providing GPS data for more than 38,000 courses around the globe, exclusive slope-adjusted distances on every shot, and the ability to map and plan shots across your round with dynamic green mapping. It also allows for on-wrist scoring and integrates seamlessly with the Bushnell app to provide real-time insights into your game.

That is, however, largely the limit of the iON Elite. The software and battery are set up purely for golf, and while it'll last two full rounds on a single charge, there's not much to warrant wearing the Bushnell off the course, which might make its £190 RRP seem a little steep.