Strava unveils the most used connected watch for sport in France

By establishing itself as the ultimate interface for connected sport, Strava collects a lot of data on the uses of athletes. Which allows him to make a recap 2024 very interesting, capable of projecting societal trends in relation to sporting practices – something that events from Spotify, Apple Music or Deezer, dedicated to music, cannot do.

We learn, for example, in a study consulted by Numerama that Boomers and Generation X are the most fans of connected sports, ahead of Millennials and Gen Z. The older we get, the more we notice the effects of time on our body, the more we talk? Maybe. This year 2024, Strava also tells us that women “ were 20% more likely than men to win a crown », this little challenge proposed by the application to put users in competition.

But there is also technological information behind Strava’s feedback, since the application uses, among other things, connected sensors to feed the timelines of athletes. A good opportunity to see which products are most used for sport over the past year and compare France to the rest of the world.

The Apple Watch is not alone on the podium

When it comes to equipping yourself with connected watches, France is not very original. For many years, Apple has exploded the sports watch market, taking the top spots in the rankings. In France, we find ourselves with the Watch Series (all generations combined) and the Watch SE (all generations combined) in places 1 and 3. And it is grandpa Garmin which comes between the two Apple ranges, with its Forerunner 245. When we compare this ranking to the world ranking, it is a simple inversion between the Forerunner 245 and the Apple Watch SE, which takes the top 2 place in the world.

Too quick a reading could say that French people have habits linked to longer races, even alpine races or trail running. Strava also specifies that “ 5k runners opted for an Apple Watch, while long-distance runners favored the Garmin Forerunner.” But our knowledge of the market would rather lead us to say that we have before us a smoothing linked to the age of the products.

First of all, Strava does not distinguish between Apple Watch versions. But the presence of the Forerunner 245 in the ranking, released in 2019, leads us to believe that athletes do not necessarily re-equip themselves every year. Garmin’s watch, like Apple Watches, fell in price as new versions were released: older, cheaper watches were preferred to newer watches. Personally, before switching to the Apple Watch Ultra released in 2022, I did my sport without the slightest problem with an Apple Series 4, released in 2018 and still excellent.

Still in France, we can note a habit which tends to consider Strava as an accessory: while in the world, the majority of users go directly through the application, in France, we find ourselves with 61% of people who upload their efforts using a third-party tool. Whether it’s an app or a product.