Like every year, the social network Strava, intended for athletes, published its results for the year this Wednesday. In particular, we discover that the watch most used for sports monitoring… is not a sports watch.
In the same way as Spotify Wrapped, Strava has been offering its own sporting assessment for several years. The opportunity to discover, in a long survey, how the sporting practices of users around the world are evolving, but also the equipment they use.
Apple ahead of sports watches
It was this Wednesday that Strava unveiled the 2024 edition of its survey “ Year in Sport “. Like last year, the survey focuses in particular on the way in which people record their activities on the social network.
Strava tells us that 72% of users around the world record their activities directly from the mobile application, on their smartphone. However, 47% of them sometimes use another device, whether it is a bike computer or a connected watch. This proportion also increases on competition days. Indeed, for 5 km races, 76% of users use a GPS watch and this rate rises to 83%, 85% and 92% respectively for 10 km races, half-marathons or marathons.
The connected watch model most used for recording activities on Strava is, however, not necessarily the most anticipated in that it is not a watch dedicated to sport.
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The study reveals that the Apple Watch Series comes first, followed by the Apple Watch SE and, finally, the Garmin Forerunner 245. Last year, it was the Garmin Forerunner 235 which came first for running . In France, the 2024 ranking is however slightly different from the rest of the world with the Forerunner 245 in second position, ahead of the Apple Watch SE.
Garmin in the lead for cycling
For GPS cycling computers, this time it is Garmin which dominates the debates with its Edge 530 computer in first position, ahead of the Garmin Edge 830. To close the podium, Wahoo comes in third position with its Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V1. Here too, France stands out since third place is once again occupied by Garmin in France with its Edge 1030 Plus.
Overall, these are essentially versatile, previous generation or entry-level models which are logically positioned among the most used in the world. When it comes to running watches, Apple manages to do well with very effective GPS tracking, while Garmin GPS counters remain relevant even several years after their launch.
