A few years ago, a friend of mine bought a Rolex Submariner. It cost him roughly the same as a decent used car. He showed it to me with the kind of pride usually reserved for newborn babies and championship trophies. It was beautiful, I’ll admit. The weight of it, the way it caught the light, the satisfying click of the rotating bezel — there’s a reason people have been obsessed with luxury watches for centuries.
He then asked me what I was wearing on my wrist. I looked down at my Garmin Fenix strapped on like a chunky piece of tactical gear and said, “This thing told me my VO2 max dropped because I skipped leg day.”
He wasn’t impressed. But here’s the thing — I wasn’t trying to impress anyone. I was trying to stay alive and healthy. And between his $10,000+ timepiece and my sub-$1,000 smartwatch, one of us was getting real-time heart rate data, sleep quality scores, blood oxygen readings, training load analysis, and a gentle but firm nudge to stop sitting on the couch.
No disrespect to the Submariner. But it can’t do any of that. It sits there, looking gorgeous, being expensive, and telling you what time it is — which, let’s be honest, your phone already does for free.
Health Is Wealth (And I Mean That Literally)
I know “health is wealth” sounds like something your tita would embroider on a throw pillow. But after the last few years of my life, I don’t just believe it — I’ve lived it.
During my writing hiatus from this site, something shifted in me. I got serious about fitness. Not “I should probably walk more” serious. I mean genuinely, deeply, borderline-obsessively serious. I started running. Not the casual jog-around-the-block kind of running. The kind where you wake up at 4 AM, lace up in the dark, and question every life decision that led you to this moment — only to do it again the next day because you’re completely hooked.
Since my last post on this site, I have completed two full marathons and one ultramarathon.
Let me repeat that for the people in the back, because honestly, I still can’t believe it myself. An ultramarathon. That’s anything beyond the standard 42.195 kilometers of a regular marathon. My legs have covered distances that would make a GPS tracker file a formal complaint.
If you had told the 2019 version of me — the guy who wrote about smartwatches while sitting comfortably at his desk — that he would one day run beyond marathon distance, he would have laughed, closed his laptop, and gone back to reviewing Raspberry Pi accessories.
But here I am. And my smartwatches were there for every single kilometer.
My Smartwatch Journey: The Sequel
Long-time readers of TechSource might remember my 2019 article, The Essential Smartwatch: From Motorola MOTOACTV to Apple Watch, where I traced my wearable history from that bulky but lovable Motorola MOTOACTV ($300, shattered after one waist-high drop — rest in peace) to the original Pebble (great battery, terrible Bluetooth connection) to the Apple Watch Series 2 Nike+ that became my daily companion.
In that article, I wrote: *“I will probably stick to wearing smartwatches until my heart rate per minute goes zero.”*
Well, I’m still here, my heart rate is very much not zero (especially during hill repeats), and my smartwatch collection has evolved significantly since 2019. My current daily rotation consists of two watches that represent the best of two very different philosophies in wearable tech:
The Garmin Fenix is my dedicated running and outdoor watch. If the Apple Watch is a Swiss Army knife, the Garmin Fenix is a machete that also happens to have a heart rate sensor. It’s built for endurance athletes who need their watch to last longer than a weekend camping trip. Battery life? We’re talking weeks, not hours. During my ultramarathon, this thing tracked every step, every elevation change, every heart rate spike when I questioned why I voluntarily signed up for this — and it still had juice left at the finish line. The GPS accuracy is surgical. The training metrics (VO2 max, training load, recovery time, race predictor) have genuinely helped me become a better runner. It’s not the prettiest watch on the shelf, but when you’re 35 kilometers into a race and need to know if you’re about to bonk, aesthetics are the last thing on your mind.
The Apple Watch Ultra is my everyday smartwatch and my second running companion. Apple basically looked at the regular Apple Watch and said, “What if we made this, but for people who do extreme things?” The Ultra has the best display I’ve ever seen on a smartwatch — bright enough to read in direct Philippine sunlight, which is saying something. The health features are comprehensive: ECG, blood oxygen monitoring, sleep apnea detection, irregular heart rhythm notifications, and now high blood pressure alerts. The integration with my iPhone is seamless in a way that only Apple can pull off. I use it for notifications, calls, Apple Pay, music on my AirPods, meditation with the Breathe app, and yes — running. Its GPS has gotten remarkably accurate, and the battery life, while nowhere near the Garmin, has improved enough that I can get through a marathon without it dying on me.
Between the two, I’ve found the perfect combo. Garmin for serious training and races. Apple Watch Ultra for everything else and casual runs. It’s like having a pickup truck and a sedan — different tools for different jobs, both essential.
What Your Rolex Can’t Tell You
Let me be clear: I’m not here to trash luxury watches. They are works of art. The craftsmanship of a Patek Philippe or an Omega Speedmaster is genuinely awe-inspiring. The mechanical movements, the hand-finished components, the heritage — there’s a reason the luxury watch market is worth over $33 billion and growing. If you can afford one and it brings you joy, by all means, wear it proudly.
But let’s have an honest conversation about value.
A Rolex Submariner costs anywhere from $9,000 to $15,000 depending on the model and availability (good luck getting one without a waitlist, by the way). For that price, you get an exquisitely crafted timepiece that tells you the time, the date, and how deep underwater you are. That’s essentially it. It looks incredible doing those three things, but functionally, that’s the extent of it.
Now consider what a quality smartwatch under $1,000 can do: continuous heart rate monitoring that can detect atrial fibrillation before you even feel symptoms. Blood oxygen readings that might catch respiratory issues early. Sleep tracking that reveals patterns you never knew existed. ECG readings right from your wrist. Training load analysis that prevents overtraining injuries. GPS tracking accurate enough for navigation in remote areas. Fall detection that automatically calls emergency services. Satellite SOS messaging when you’re off the grid. Blood pressure trend monitoring. Stress tracking with guided breathing exercises. And, oh yeah — it also tells you the time.
The smartwatch market has reached roughly 455 million users worldwide. There’s a reason for that. These aren’t just gadgets anymore. They’re health instruments that happen to go on your wrist.
I’ve read stories of people whose Apple Watch detected an irregular heartbeat and sent them to the doctor, where they discovered a serious cardiac condition they had no idea about. That’s not a hypothetical — it’s happening regularly enough that cardiologists are starting to take smartwatch data seriously. There are runners who caught early signs of overtraining syndrome because their Garmin showed declining HRV trends over weeks. There are people with sleep apnea who had no clue until their watch flagged it.
Your Rolex will never do any of that. It will sit beautifully on your wrist, hold its value, maybe even appreciate over time — but it will never tap you on the wrist and say, “Hey, your heart just did something weird. You should get that checked out.”
The Marathon Runner’s Perspective
Running marathons and an ultramarathon fundamentally changed how I think about what I wear on my wrist. When you’re training for distances that take your body to its absolute limit, data isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.
During my marathon training, my Garmin Fenix became my coach, my nutritionist’s assistant, and my ego-checker all in one. The training load feature told me when I was pushing too hard (often) and when I could push harder (rarely, because I was already pushing too hard). The recovery advisor gave me honest assessments of when I was ready for another hard session. The race predictor — while sometimes hilariously optimistic — gave me target paces to work toward.
During the actual races, having real-time data was invaluable. Heart rate zones kept me from going out too fast in the early kilometers (the number one mistake new marathoners make, and I speak from painful experience). Pace tracking helped me maintain consistency. And the GPS breadcrumb trail meant I always knew exactly where I was on the course, which is surprisingly reassuring when you’re deep into kilometer 38 and your brain starts suggesting that maybe you took a wrong turn and this road actually leads to nowhere.
My Apple Watch Ultra served double duty as my everyday health monitor. The sleep tracking helped me dial in my recovery during high-volume training weeks. The HRV trends gave me a general sense of whether my body was adapting or just surviving. And the heart health notifications gave me peace of mind that all this extreme exercise wasn’t secretly wrecking my cardiovascular system (spoiler: it wasn’t — running is good for you, in case you needed another reason).
Could I have run those marathons without a smartwatch? Of course. People ran marathons for decades before wearable tech existed. But would I have trained as efficiently, recovered as smartly, or avoided as many potential injuries? Absolutely not.
The Real Flex in 2026
There’s been a cultural shift happening, and I think it’s worth talking about. For decades, the ultimate wrist flex was a luxury mechanical watch. Wearing a Rolex or an AP Royal Oak signaled success, taste, and financial achievement. And to some extent, that’s still true in certain circles.
But increasingly, especially among younger professionals and the health-conscious crowd, the flex is shifting. Wearing a Garmin Fenix or an Apple Watch Ultra increasingly signals something different: that you take your health seriously, that you’re active, that you value function over fashion, and that you’re the kind of person who runs ultramarathons on weekends instead of just brunch.
I’m not saying one is better than the other as a status symbol. I’m saying the definition of “valuable” on your wrist is expanding. A $15,000 watch that holds its resale value is valuable in one sense. A $900 watch that catches a heart condition early or helps you train for a marathon without injury is valuable in a completely different — and arguably more important — sense.
Besides, luxury watchmakers are clearly paying attention. TAG Heuer has their Connected line. Louis Vuitton made a smartwatch. Even the traditional watch industry recognizes that people increasingly want their wrist wear to do more than look pretty and tick. The smartwatch market is projected to be worth over $218 billion by 2033. That’s not a fad. That’s a fundamental shift in what people expect from a timepiece.
My Wishlist for the Perfect Running Smartwatch
Since I’m a part-time tech blogger and it’s basically my civic duty to complain about things I want improved, here’s what I’m still waiting for:
1. Longer battery life on Apple Watch.
The Ultra gets about 36-42 hours of normal use and roughly 14 hours with continuous GPS. For a marathon, that’s fine. For an ultra? You’re sweating — both literally and about battery percentage. Garmin’s weeks-long battery life puts Apple to shame here. The day Apple Watch hits even 5-day battery life, the Garmin might get nervous.
2. Better smartwatch features on Garmin.
Garmin’s fitness tracking is world-class, but its smartwatch experience still feels like it’s from 2019. The app ecosystem is limited, notifications are basic, and the touchscreen responsiveness could use work. Garmin knows it’s a sports watch first and a smartwatch second, but closing that gap would make it unstoppable.
3. Non-invasive glucose monitoring.
This is the holy grail of wearable health tech. Several companies are working on it, and rumors have circulated about both Apple and Samsung exploring this. For the millions of people managing diabetes — and for athletes who want to optimize fueling during endurance events — real-time glucose data on the wrist would be revolutionary.
4. Better integration between watch ecosystems.
I run two watches because neither does everything perfectly. In a dream world, the Garmin’s battery life and training metrics would merge with the Apple Watch’s smart features and health sensors into one device. Until then, I’ll keep looking like the tech equivalent of someone who carries two phones.
So, Should You Buy a Rolex or a Smartwatch?
If you have the budget for a Rolex and you genuinely love horology, buy the Rolex. Life’s too short to not enjoy beautiful things, and a well-made mechanical watch is undeniably a work of art. Just know what you’re getting: a gorgeous conversation starter that tells time.
But if you’re asking me what’s more *valuable* — as in, what provides more tangible benefit to your actual life — the answer is the smartwatch, and it’s not even close. For under $1,000, you get a personal health monitor, fitness coach, communication device, navigation tool, and potential life-saver strapped to your wrist. That’s not marketing hype. That’s what these devices actually do, every single day.
Health is wealth. I didn’t fully understand that until I started running seriously, started pushing my body to its limits, and started relying on the data from my wrist to do it safely and effectively. My Garmin Fenix and Apple Watch Ultra have been with me through training runs at dawn, marathon finish lines, and one very long ultramarathon that I’m still not entirely sure I completed voluntarily.
My traditional watches? They’re still in my closet. Right where I left them in 2011 when I bought my first MOTOACTV. They look nice. They don’t do anything.
In the old article, I wrote that I’d stick to wearing smartwatches until my heart rate hits zero. After two marathons and an ultra, that statement is even more true today. Although, if my smartwatch has anything to say about it, that heart rate is going to stay well above zero for a very long time.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a training run to get to. My Garmin is already judging me for sitting this long.
— Jun
