Since the introduction of the Fitbit in 2009, this new wearable Smart Watch has taken the country by storm. These days, it seems everyone is sporting one of these little gadgets on their wrist or clipped to a belt. People who use them love them, too. Give them a chance and they’ll talk your ear off about how many steps they’ve taken that day, how much weight they’ve lost, how their resting heart rate has improved, and on and on.

While there are plenty of worthwhile fitness trends, most come with a steep price tag. Most New Smart Watch range from $60 for a modest clip-on to $220 for a bulky band aimed at hardcore athletes. At those prices, many people who haven’t jumped on this New Smart Watch bandwagon yet are wondering: Are these gizmos worth the money?

How Smart Watches Work

This New Smart Watch has a variety of different functions, and some of them work better than others. Here’s a rundown of what fitness bands can do as well as the technology behind them:

• Count Your Steps. Pretty much every Smart Watch contains an accelerometer, a device that measures how fast something is changing its speed or direction. Using this tool, the tracker can count the number of steps you take as well as measure your movements from side to side or up and down.

• Measure Other Movements. Fancier trackers also contain various other sensors to track your movement. For instance, they can use a gyroscope, which can spin in any direction around a fixed axis, to figure out whether you’re sitting, standing, or lying down. A barometer, which measures atmospheric pressure, can calculate your altitude to determine how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed. And a tiny GPS unit can track your location, which is handy for recording your route on a long run or bike ride.

• Check Your Vital Signs. Many Smart Watches contain a heart rate monitor to measure your pulse, both during exercise and while at rest. Some can also detect your skin temperature and level of perspiration. They combine this data with your pulse rate to figure out just how hard you’re working out.

• Keep Track of Calories. Some Smart Watches use your heart rate to estimate how many calories you’ve burned during the day. A few also come with an app that lets you record how many calories you consume. That way, you can track calories consumed against calories burned to help with weight loss.

• Monitor Your Sleep. Many Smart Watches can supposedly track how well you’re sleeping. They detect motion while you’re lying down to figure out when you’re awake, lightly asleep, or in deep sleep. However, this function doesn’t work all that well. The devices often claim that you’ve slept either more or fewer hours than you really did.

• Sync With Other Devices. Smart Watches often work with a smartphone app. These apps can track your activity and sleep over time to help you form healthy habits. Some trackers can also pair with other devices, such as a “smart” bathroom scale or a heart rate monitor.

• Send You Messages. Another way Smart Watches work with your phone is to alert you when you have new messages. They can notify you about incoming calls, texts, e-mail, and even social media posts. Also, some trackers send you messages of their own. For instance, they can send a “move alert” to let you know when you’ve been sitting still for too long. They can also send you messages of praise when you hit an activity goal. In many cases, you can use your tracker to share reports of your activity with your friends online. This can lead to friendly competition that can motivate you to work harder. A few trackers can even share health info with your doctor. Sharing your progress is a proven way to achieve your goals.

Not all trackers have all of these functions, however. In general, they fall into two main types. Basic “all-day trackers” keep track of your daily activity, such as steps taken, calories burned, and periods of activity and sleep. Fancier “training trackers” do all this and also add more features for hard-core athletes. They track your heart rate and breathing, the miles you’ve logged, your speed, and even your altitude – a nice bit of info for cyclists and skiers. Some of them even provide music to go with your workout.

Benefits of Smart Watches 

Why do people love their Smart Watch so much? The main benefit, most of them will tell you, is that wearing the tracker motivates them to be more active. For many people, exercise is more rewarding when they can see numbers in black and white telling them how well they’re doing. They get more excited about hitting a specific target, like 10,000 steps per day, than about the vague goal of being healthier.

Smart Watches are designed to encourage this kind of thinking. They send messages to cheer you on when you meet a goal, giving you an ego boost. Plus, you can share the messages with your friends to let them know how active you’re being. For many people, this brings out their competitive instinct.

Studies on Smart Watches

Still, it’s not clear how good a job Smart Watches do of making people more active. Studies on the subject show mixed results.

For instance, a 2015 study in the American Journal of Public Medicine (AJPM) gave New Smart Watch to one group of overweight women and pedometers to another group. The women who used the trackers increased their levels of exercise by about 38 minutes per week. That’s far less than the goal of 10,000 steps per day they were aiming for, but it’s more than twice what they were getting before. The control group didn’t increase its exercise levels at all.

Other Benefits of Smart Watches

Smart Watches can help you in other ways, too. For instance, you can use them to:

• Understand Your Overall Health. Using a Smart Watch can help you figure out if you’re getting enough steps every day to be healthy. You can use it to see if you’re getting enough sleep or to measure your resting heart rate.

• Measure Progress Toward Goals. If any of these numbers isn’t what you’d like it to be, you can take steps to improve it – and the New Smart Watch can help you see how the numbers change over time. This can help you figure out which strategies work or don’t work for you.

• Train More Effectively. If you’re trying to lose weight, a Smart Watch can show you when your heart rate is in the ideal zone for exercise. This can help you get the most benefit out of your workouts. If you’re a serious athlete, a Smart Watch can track your speed and distance traveled, so you can see how well your training regimen is working.

Try Today for Just the Price of Shipping

If you think a Smart Watch sounds useful, but you’re just not sure you’ll get your money’s worth out of it, there’s a way to try it out without breaking the bank. The company that makes the best Smart Watch has a limited time promotion for the next 2 weeks where they are giving away their New Smart Watch for FREE! All you have to do is cover the price of shipping.

The only catch is that they’re only giving away 100 per day, so you need to act quickly if you want to claim your free New Smart Watch.

You can get yours today by clicking here.

Final Word

The real bottom line is whether a Smart Watch will improve your health. Will you work out more when you’re wearing it? Will you eat better or sleep better at night? If a tracker can motivate you to make these positive changes when no other tool can, then it’s a good buy.

If you decide to splurge on one of these devices, make sure you get real value out of it. Wear it every day so you can get an accurate picture of how active you are. Be truthful when entering details like your height, weight, and daily diet.

And finally, focus on long-term trends, not each day’s numbers. Instead of worrying about whether you can make it to 10,000 steps today, look at whether you’re getting more exercise overall than you did a few weeks or months ago. If you did, that’s something to celebrate.

Do you use a Smart Watch? If you do, would you say it was a good investment?