The best kids smartwatches in 2024, tried and tested

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Smartwatches are much more than just phones on your wrist, many models offer extensive activity tracking features including sleep, steps and more helping you to build healthy habits with your children. It is worth noting, though, that some smartwatch interfaces put a heavy emphasis on burning calories and losing weight, something we've taken into account when building this list to ensure that the technology helps children foster a healthy relationship with fitness.

Best kids smartwatches at a glance

Best smartwatch for older kids: Fitbit Ace 3, £45
Best smartwatch for younger kids: VTech KidiZoom Smart Watch Max, £24.60
Best smartwatch for Apple users: Apple Watch SE, £199
Best budget-friendly smartwatch: Tikkers Plain Blue Interactive Watch and Headphones, £34.99
Best smartwatch for playtime explorers: Garmin Vivofit Jr. 3, £75.99

Like all tech these days, there are hundreds of options available to buy across a range of prices and platforms making it hard to know exactly what to get.

That's why we scoured the market and enlisted some of our parent testers to try and find the best options currently available and give you an idea of what to look out for when buying.

Best kids smartwatches

1 Fitbit Ace 3, £45

Best smartwatch for older kids

Age: 6+ | Battery Life: Up to 8 days | Sleep Tracking: Yes | Water Resistant: Up to 50m

Pros:

Budget-friendly
Good battery life
Compact size
Great for fitness tracking

Cons:

Difficult setup process
Certain features require use of the app

If you're looking for a low-cost smartwatch for a slightly older child then the Fitbit Ace 3 is a great pick. Parent tester Sami found the design particularly notable with it's compact size and customisable straps and watch face.

As you might expect, the Ace 3 is fantastic for fitness tracking with a simple menu, high quality screen and all the metrics you'd need.

Setting up the Ace 3 isn't the easiest process and requires use of the smartphone app. As Sami noted during her testing, "it took me quite a few days and reading quite a lot of the FAQs to work out how to set up the account first before even getting anywhere near getting the watch attached to my [Google] account."

Setup isn't the only place where you'll need to consult the app. Setting an alarm requires you to use the Fitbit app on a smartphone making this a better option for kids who already have a smartphone as opposed to a standalone smartwatch.

That being said, the smart and comfortable design, solid fitness tracking features and reasonable price make the Fitbit Ace 3 a fantastic pick for the active teenage in your life.

Available from: Amazon, Argos, Currys, Very

2. VTech KidiZoom Smart Watch Max, £24.60

Best smartwatch for younger kids

Age: 4-10 years | Battery Life: 1-2 days (based on our testing) | Sleep Tracking: No | Water Resistant: Splashproof

Pros:

Surprisingly good camera
Fun, educational games
Reasonable price
Robust, child-friendly design
Great screen
Step-counter

Cons:

Not always easy to use when on wrist
Might not be suitable for smaller children
Battery doesn't last as long as others on the market

Parent tester Laura, who tested the VTech KidiZoom Smart Watch Max with her 5-year-old Milo, was a huge fan of this feature-packed, well-designed smartwatch.

"This watch has brought lots of joy to our little one," she noted, "We continue to explore the watch and find more and more features that he enjoys. His older brother who is 8 has been very keen to get one himself as he thinks that the games and activities on the watch are fun too!"

As with other VTech products, the KidiZoom Smart Watch Max is designed with education in mind providing a series of fun, child-friendly games that help kids learn and stay active.

As Laura noted, "the wide range of activities and games, particularly the interactive physical games. My son has particularly loved the maths games! It’s made it very easy to practice maths in a fun way every day."

Despite a pretty sparse manual, the KidiZoom Smart Watch Max is relatively easy to set up with clear instructions.

Overall, the KidiZoom Smart Watch Max is a great, low-cost pick that provides a comfortable design, loaded with great games, customisation options and more.

Available from: Amazon, John Lewis, Very

3. Apple Watch SE, £199

Best smartwatch for Apple users

Battery Life: Up to 18 hours | Sleep Tracking: Yes | Water Resistant: Up to 50 meters

Pros:

Fantastic build quality
Great range of apps
Wide array of health tracking features
Customisable straps and watch faces
SOS and Find My

Cons:

Still very expensive

If you're a family of iPhone users then there really isn't a better smartwatch pick than the Apple Watch SE. The budget model in the Apple Watch line-up, though it is still significantly more expensive than many picks on this list, is a beautifully designed, durable smartwatch that's perfect for active families.

The Apple Watch SE is the first watch on this list that could be used in place of a smartphone. It comes with all the communication features you'd need to keep in touch with your child and, thanks to Apple's Family Sharing features, you can control the content your child has access to.

It has all the fitness and health tracking features you'd expect including sleep tracking and heart rate tracking as well as the ability to track swims.

Overall, if you've got a particularly active child who plays a different sport every night of the week and you use an iPhone already, then the Apple Watch SE is well worth the money.

Available from: John Lewis, Very, Apple, Amazon

4. Tikkers Plain Blue Interactive Watch & Headphone Set, £20

Best budget-friendly smartwatch

Age: 6+ | Sleep Tracking: No | Water Resistant: Yes

Pros:

Can be used smartphone-free
Array of educational games
Comes with headphones

Cons:

Minimal customisation options
Not the most appealing design

If you're looking for a more basic, yet still quite feature-rich, smartphone for your younger child then the Tikkers Plain Blue Interactive Watch is a great pick.

It might not have the most appealing design or customisation options, but it does include all the features you'd expect at a very reasonable price. With a step counter, stopwatch, calculator, voice recorder and in-built selfie camera, the Tikkers smartwatch is punching well above its weight in terms of its feature set.

It also includes a range of educational games including one to help your child learn how to tell the time, making it a great first watch.

There are a range of parental controls available to help keep your child safe and manage their screen time when using the smartwatch.

Overall, what the Tikkers Plain Blue Interactive Watch lacks in design and build quality (and in its name, honestly), it more than makes up for with its features and child-first user interface.

Available from: Very, Argos

5. Garmin Vivofit Jr 3, £49.99

Best smartwatch for playtime explorers

Battery Life: Up to 1 year | Sleep Tracking: Yes | Water Resistant: Yes

Pros:

Wide range of colours
Fantastic battery life
Swim-friendly

Cons:

Small display

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 3 is a great way to gamify your child's activity and make getting outdoors and exploring that bit more fun.

The smartwatch comes in a wide array of colourful designs including Star Wars, Disney Princess and Marvel options.

As with other Garmin smartwatches, you get a range of activity-tracking features including the ability to unlock themed adventures, games and icons through playtime. You can track everything from steps to sleep, helping to foster a healthy relationship with fitness.

Parents also have access to the Garmin Jr. smartphone app, through which they can control what content their children have access to, as well as the ability to assign chores and give rewards to their child.

Overall, while the Garmin Viviofit Jr. 3 isn't the cheapest smartwatch on our list, it is a robust and well-designed fitness companion for your child with some particularly great parental control options.

Available from: Garmin, Amazon

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