Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your smartwatch, or if you’re planning to buy your first one, you’re going to want to take advantage of the discounts from this year’s Labor Day deals. The good news is that you don’t have to wait – there are some early Labor Day smartwatch deals that you can already shop right now. We’ve rounded up our favorite offers below, and if you want to learn more about the different wearable devices and everything else that you need to know about smartwatch deals, keep reading until the end.

Best Labor Day smartwatch deals to shop right now

Garmin Forerunner 55 — $170, was $200

The Garmin Forerunner 55 on a white background.
Garmin

If you’re an active person and particularly enjoy running or swimming, you need one of the best Garmin watches. The Garmin Forerunner 55 is highly affordable while still boasting up to two weeks of battery life and Daily Suggested Workouts to help guide you on your fitness journey. GPS-based pace guidance is also provided while you run and you can easily figure out your race time predictions, all while keeping an eye on how intense your workouts are and what your fitness age is. Think of it as like a personal trainer on your wrist. I swear by all things Garmin when going for runs, as its insight is unparalleled and far better than a general smartwatch.

Fitbit Sense — $177, was $250

A carbon colored Fitbit Sense is worn on a mans wrist.
Fitbit Sense Fitbit

The Fitbit Sense is an attractive looking smartwatch that is also pretty smart, even if recent times have seen the launch of the Fitbit Sense 2. It tracks things like your heart rate and your skin temperature, but it also has an EDA scan app which detects electrodermal activity, aka your body’s response to stress. The built-in GPS is great for tracking all your journeys, and there’s battery life of over six days, which is very useful during a busy week of activity. The Fitbit ecosystem is an appealing way of seeing how you’re progressing, and you can even set up competitions with buddies. Best of all, like Garmin watches, the Fitbit Sense and the best Fitbits works just as well with your Android phone as it does iPhones.

Apple Watch SE 2 — $189, was $249

The app grid view on the Apple Watch SE 2.
Apple Watch SE 2 Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

When we reviewed the Apple Watch SE 2, we loved how it was “simple, cheap, and brilliant.” It’s even cheaper now and is an ideal smartwatch entry point for iPhone users. It tracks all your workouts along with how many steps you take each day, how many calories you burn, and how your heart rate is doing. As well as that, you can use it to take calls, send texts, or receive other notifications from your phone. There’s also Fall Detection, Crash Detection, and Emergency SOS so it keeps you safe at all times.

Apple Watch Series 9 — $359, was $429

A person wearing the Apple Watch Series 9, showing the Snoopy watch face
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

The Apple Watch Series 9 is a must-have for iPhone owners keen to be fitter. It’s the watch I spend my days with and I’m consistently pleased. It looks great and pairs well with the iPhone. It provides encouragement via its Activity Rings system and how it motivates you with monthly challenge badges. It tracks all your steps, along with your heart rate and all the essentials, and you can also take an ECG any time you need to. It’s that sweet combo of useful and simple, which means you can’t miss here.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 — $699, was $799

Someone wearing an Apple Watch Ultra 2, showing the Modular Ultra watch face.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends

The ultimate Apple Watch, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, is perfect for anyone with a super active lifestyle. Unlike other Apple Watches, it has battery life of up to 72 hours in low power mode or 36 hours when in regular use. It’s incredibly rugged and designed for hiking — or even diving thanks to its diving calculator app. It also has great features like Backtrack, which helps you retrace your steps when exploring somewhere new, while the precision dual-frequency GPS keeps you informed at all times. It also has Apple’s brightest Always-on Retina display yet, so it looks beautiful.

Apple Watch vs. Fitbit vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch vs. Garmin Watch

If you’re having trouble deciding what to buy for Labor Day among the best smartwatches, one of the most important factors is the smartphone that you’re going to pair it with. If you’re using an iPhone, then any model of the Apple Watch is a no-brainer, and if you’re on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, then you should go for a Samsung Galaxy Watch. There are workarounds to make the Apple Watch work with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone, and you can pair the Samsung Galaxy Watch with an iPhone, but it just makes sense to keep investing in the ecosystem of devices that you’re used to, as you’ll be unlocking synergies that won’t be possible if you go cross-platform.

The Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, however, lean more towards being wearable devices. If you want a simpler smartwatch that’s designed for fitness tracking, we highly recommend going for either a Fitbit or a Garmin Watch. Fitbit smartwatches favor the casual crowd with a more general focus on health and wellness, while a Garmin Watch is for hardcore athletes and fitness enthusiasts who want to drill down on their statistics as they aim for constant progress in their sport.

When do Labor Day smartwatch sales start?

Labor Day smartwatch deals will officially start on the weekend before Labor Day — so that’s Aug. 30, stretching towards the actual holiday on Sept. 2. That’s when all the popular retailers will roll out huge discounts on smartwatches from the top manufacturers. However, if you want to get your shopping done early, the good news is that there are already some Labor Day smartwatch sales that are happening right now, and we’ve rounded up our top picks above.

There’s going to be a lot more offers as Labor Day approaches, but if you want to spend the holiday with your loved ones, you won’t regret buying from the early Labor Day smartwatch deals. In fact, there’s even a chance that these prices are already the ones that you’ll see when Labor Day arrives, so you won’t be missing out on additional savings if you make your purchase now. You’ll also be avoiding the online congestion that’s surely going to happen over the Labor Day weekend, so completing your purchase for a smartwatch now may save you some headaches.

Should you shop Labor Day smartwatch deals or wait until Black Friday?

Some shoppers are going to skip the Labor Day smartwatch deals as they’re looking ahead to the potentially larger discounts on Black Friday for the wearable device that they want to buy. There’s certainly a chance that prices will get lower on Black Friday, as history suggests, but there are also a few reasons why you’d want to take advantage of Labor Day smartwatch sales instead.

First and foremost, there’s no telling what’s going to be offered on Black Friday, while the discounts that you can enjoy for Labor Day are already a real thing that you can pounce on right now if you shop the early deals. You may end up only saving a few more dollars if you wait for Black Friday, which wouldn’t feel too nice after months of waiting. There’s also the fact that getting a smartwatch now will feel much better as you can already start using it, so an extra discount on Black Friday may not matter much as you’ve already had good mileage on your wearable device by then. Feel free to wait for Black Friday if you can bear it, but buying from Labor Day smartwatch deals certainly has more merits than most people realize.






By Fiona