5 Best Smartwatches for Kids 2024 – By Experts

Nowadays and with the increasing popularity of smartwatches, there are plenty of options on the market for every age, gender, and need.

Smartwatches are a good way to keep a to-do list, feedback on an activity, and easy communication close by as it’s right on your wrist.

If you’re in the market looking for the best smartwatches for kids to encourage your child to move more and get more done while keeping an eye on them, look no further.

I’ve gathered the best smartwatches for kids on the market right here on this list with a detailed buying guide that helps you figure out what you might need in a smartwatch for kids.

List of The Best Smartwatches For Kids:

1. Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 – Best Budget Smartwatch for Kids
2. Amazfit Bip Smartwatch – Best GPS Smartwatch for Kids
3. VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX2 Black – Best Gaming Smartwatch for Kids
4. VTech Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper – Best Smartwatch for Star War Fans
5. VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX2 – Best Smartwatch for Photography Enthusiasts

Comparison Table

The 5 Best Smartwatches For Kids in 2024

2. Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 – Best Budget Smartwatch For Kids

A smartwatch with a battery life that lasts a whole year isn’t something you’ll easily find on the market. Especially not one at such an affordable price and great functions.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 comes with the basic step-counting and active minutes tracking. To be all-inclusive, it also comes with sleep-tracking capabilities.

To be more appealing to kids and toddlers, it comes with themes from Star Wars, Disney, and Marvel, with every tracker coming with a unique themed band and watch face.

Once it’s paired with a phone, your child can start a themed adventure on the app that’s related to Marvel, Disney, or Star Wars. So, whatever it is that your kid is into, it’ll be there to motivate them.

In addition, the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is water-resistant down to 165 feet and comes with a durable and flexible rubber band. There’s also a classic band if your child is older or prefers the classic look.

The watch introduces a fun reward system that encourages children to hit their daily activity goals. The rewards even get bigger as they hit more targets. There’re a whole story and a themed game that enables them to unlock watch faces and more badges.

Moreover, it comes with multiple friendly competitions that allow children to compare their progress to family members or other friends to see who took more steps, which is an ideal way to motivate kids as well as help them form tighter bonds.

For a parent, it’s an awesome pick as it allows you to set and track chores, whether installed ones or ones that you make up. These include getting dressed in the morning, making the bed, or brushing teeth. The more chores your child gets done, the more coins they get to be able to exchange for rewards.

Last but not least, the Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 can function an entire year on the coin cell battery before it needs replacement.

Bottom Line

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is an amazing smartwatch. It doubles as a super effective fitness tracker as it works on both the productive and healthy aspects of your child’s life. It also comes at a very reasonable price for its functions and an unbeatable battery life.

See also: The 6 Best Smartwatches for Women

2. Amazfit Bip Smartwatch – Best GPS Smartwatch For Kids

One of the best smartwatches for kids out there, in my opinion, is the Amazfit Bip.

Not only does it come with all-day heart-rate monitoring and activity tracking, but it also has a wide array of features that make it stand out in comparison to other products on the market.

It’s equipped with a GPS feature that allows you to track your child’s location in real-time and to keep your mind at peace with knowing their whereabouts. It also delivers one-way notifications for SMS messages, incoming phone calls, and emails, which keeps your child up to date with any communication attempts on your end.

It’s also water and dust resistant, with an IP68 rating, so your child can hop in showers or take a dive into the pool without worrying about taking it off first.

At only 1.12 ounces, the Amazfit Bip is pretty lightweight and doesn’t feel bothersome to your child when they wear it all day long.

Finally, the Amazfit Bip comes with superb 30-day battery life. And if your child doesn’t use the watch that often, it can easily last up to 45 days on a single charge.

Bottom Line

The Amazfit Bip is an amazing GPS smartwatch. It has health-tracking functions, real-time location tracking, is water-resistant, and quite durable. While its display can be improved a bit, it’s still one of the most solid choices you can make.

3. VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX2 Black – Best Gaming Smartwatch For Kids

Coming with plenty of educational tools, interesting features, and a special design, the VTech KidiZoom DX Black is a great way to get your young one started with smartwatches.

This watch comes with a soft and comfortable band that’s flexible enough to fit wrists of all sizes.

The VTech KidiZoom DX Black comes with 3 fun activities, 5 built-in games, and 3 action challenges that any 4 to 9-year old would love and that make use of the built-in smart motion sensor. It also comes with a download center called “Vtech’s Learning Lodge” that is constantly updated with downloadable content.

It’s also the ideal method of teaching your kid how to tell the time as it comes with 50 built-in 3D clock faces and a “Time Master” feature that teaches them how to tell the time when they check it.

Furthermore, the VTech KidiZoom DX Black comes with a pedometer that does the basic step-counting, though it isn’t 100% accurate. Working with the motion sensor, these two encourage kids to be more active and exercise more.

Moreover, it’s equipped with an impressive dual-camera system that enables the child to take 0.3 MP selfies of themselves or 640 x 480-pixel pictures of whatever they point their arm at through the side camera. The camera comes with multiple fun photo filters, effects, and frames that keep your child entertained.

It also has a video-recording option with 320 x 240-pixel or 160 x 120-pixel, 60-second videos. You can use the micro USB 2.0 cable to connect to your PC and copy the data onto it.

As for parental control, the VTech KidiZoom DX Black allows you to control how long your kid can spend playing games. You can choose between a 30, 60, or 90-minute limit. You can also freeze games on the watch remotely to stop your child from playing games during school hours.

In terms of battery life, the VTech KidiZoom DX Black gives you a decent degree of control. The battery can last a day on heavy usage, 2-3 days on typical usage, and can go for 2 weeks on low usage. Naturally, playing games and recording videos will drain battery life faster.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with GPS and is only splash-proof.

Bottom Line

The Vtech KidiZoom DX Black is a good choice if your kid is between 4 and 9. At that age, they can do with only a simple interface, some games, and dual cameras. There isn’t a huge need for GPS, but lacking sleep-tracking and water resistance reduces the value of this otherwise great gaming smartwatch.

Read also: The 5 Best Smartwatches for Men

4. VTech Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper – Best Smartwatch For Star War Fans

This one is a little specific to children who are huge fans of Star Wars. It gives you plenty of Star Wars-themed screens to change between and keep the background dynamic. There’s a pedometer that keeps track of how many steps the child takes throughout the day.

The mini button on the side sends you to a menu when you press it through which you can access the camera on the top to take photos and videos with Star Wars effects and filters. You can also access the accelerometer with different lightsabers that you can choose between -including sound effects.

It comes with a voice recorder that can alter the sound of recordings and add fun effects.

As for the design, the VTech Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper is made of plastic, and is a bit large with a 1.44-inch screen, but it’s also lightweight enough for a child to wear all day.

Other functions include an alarm, a timer, a stopwatch, a calculator, and a calendar. It takes only 3 hours to fully charge.

Finally, it has 3 built-in games. Blast Asteroid and Asteroid Battle, mixed-up and rotation puzzles, and a memory game where you have to find a fighter.

Bottom Line

While the VTech Star Wars First Order Stormtrooper may not have many features, it’s a pretty affordable and convenient way to provide your child with a smartwatch like mom and dad and keep them very entertained.

5. VTech KidiZoom Smartwatch DX2 – Best Smartwatch For Photography Enthusiasts

Like the DX Black, the DX2 comes with dual cameras that enable your kid to take pictures, videos, and selfies using either the front camera or side one located on the edge of the device.

With 256 MB of storage, there’s plenty of space for your kid to save many photos and messages.

This watch comes with a square case and durable metal edging that has two mechanical control buttons through which it can be controlled, and one of them controls the camera.

It comes with an elastic silicone band that’s comfortable and conveniently suits different wrist sizes.

Moreover, the VTech KidiZoom DX2 comes with an innovative augmented reality game through which the child can catch monsters from the device in real life.

It also has some entertaining puzzles that work on developing your child’s logical thinking. You can even download games from your computer.

It’s both fun and convenient method to communicate with your child and keep them entertained. It’s equipped with an alarm clock, stopwatch, timer, calculator, a calendar, and can be customized with one of the 55 available screen layouts.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a compact smartwatch that has fun games, tracks steps, and can connect to a smartphone, go for the VTech KidiZoom DX2.

What Are The Benefits of Buying a Smartwatch For Kids?

There’s a two-fold benefit from children wearing smartwatches. The first one has to do with the child and the second has to do with the parents.

For the Child

1. Teaches Them to Depend on Themselves

A smartwatch typically doubles as an activity tracker which reminds your child of their tasks and the goals they have yet to achieve. Moreover, some of them have reminders of to-do lists as well as bedtimes. All these things teach the child to depend on themselves to finish what has to be done throughout the day.

2. Provides a Channel of Connection to the Parents

Between the ages of 5 and 8, kids are a little too young for a whole smartphone of their own, so a smartwatch is a good alternative. Especially those who have messaging features that help kids develop stronger bonds with their young ones.

3. Provides Good Entertainment

Child-oriented smartwatches come with several fun games that a child can play during their free time, whether on their own or with friends. These games usually integrate an element of education as well.

4. Pushes Them to be More Active

The fitness-tracking and activity-tracking features on the smartwatch are quite effective when it comes to encouraging your child to integrate more movement and activity in their day. Especially thanks to the reminders to move and daily goals that most of them are equipped with.

Moreover, the challenges between family members and friends are a great way to spark a sense of competition that makes them more inclined to hit their targets.

For the Parent

1. Allows Communication from Afar

If you get an LTE-enabled smartwatch, it’ll work as a smartphone through which you can text, call, or even video call your child and get in contact with them wherever they are, whenever. It’s a more secure method than owning their own smartphone as it remains on their wrist, so there’s less chance of misplacing or losing it.

2. A Sense of Safety

Smartwatches come with several security features, whether they’re for kids or adults.

Most of the time, they have location tracking that keeps you posted of your child’s whereabouts. Some even allow you to identify safe zones for your kids known as “virtual fences.” Once your child is out of this border, an SOS alert is delivered to you to notify you of any emergencies.

How To Pick The Best Smartwatch For Your Kids?

With children being the active and spontaneous creatures they are, you have to consider some features when you’re trying to pick out a smartwatch for kids.

GPS and Location Tracking

It might be a little stressful not knowing where your child is the whole day, so GPS tracking with real-time location info is a good way of putting your mind at ease. Ones that allow you to set safe zones are even better as you don’t have to keep checking where your child is, but rely instead on the alerts that get sent to you if they get out of the specified zone.

Communication

A reliable smartwatch for children should come with good communication features. This includes two-way voice and text messaging capabilities. An extra step would be having video-calling as well.

Many models feature these things, but choosing the ideal one can be a bit challenging due to the fact that you have to consider the camera, network type, screen dimensions, and most importantly, the battery life.

Battery Life

You can’t expect a smartwatch to come with battery lives that are as long as fitness trackers’ as they integrate plenty of sensors and features that drain battery such as GPS, LTE, smartphone notifications, messaging, and calling capabilities.

However, the longer battery life is better as it’d make you feel more secure that your kid’s smartwatch won’t die before they get back home. It also makes charging a less tedious job.

Build, Design, and Comfort

The best smartwatches for kids come with super durable and tough constructions to handle the rugged adventures a child would venture into. It’s recommendable that you get a waterproof smartwatch, with an IP68 rating.

Moreover, go for an elastic rubber band that feels comfortable on your child’s wrist. This ensures that your kid won’t want to take the smartwatch off and misplace it or even want to quit wearing it altogether.

Games

You should choose a smartwatch that comes with some fun games that enable your kid to be entertained and educated simultaneously. While this feature isn’t necessary, it’s a great way to keep your child motivated and encourage them to use their smartwatch more often.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How to Set Up Kids Smart Watch?

Setting up the smartwatch depends on the brand that you get, but generally, you should check if everything is included in your purchase like the battery, charger, and SIM card (if available).

Then, install the application of the smartwatch’s brand on your phone and pair the watch with the phone.

After that, you can manage more or less anything that has to do with the smartwatch from the compatible app.

Does a Kids Smartwatch Need a SIM Card?

Popular brands of smartwatches like Galaxy Watch and Apple Watch don’t require a SIM card to operate. However, if the smartwatch you get comes with GPS and messaging features, there’s a chance that you might need one.

Some of them come with a SIM card included in the package that you need to pay a monthly subscription for while some of them give you the freedom to buy one on your own.

Is an Apple Watch a Good Choice for Kids?

Probably not. All watches in the Apple Series come with advanced smart features and integrate so much technology that a child won’t need. Moreover, none of them integrate an element of fun education that may be considered child-friendly.

How to Choose the Right Smartwatch Size for Kids?

The best way is to use the traditional method of wrapping a thread around your child’s wrist and then measuring it to find out an approximation of their required size.

Final Thoughts

Although it was hard to pick out the best smartwatches for kids from all the choices available, those 5 recommendations were ones with loads of positive reviews and feedback.

The Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 is the ideal choice for someone who wants to get their child to be more active, healthier, and more productive. It comes at an affordable price and is packed with incredible features.

However, if you’re looking for a watch with GPS and location-tracking, you should opt for the Amazfit Bip.

Finally, if you’re looking for a smartwatch with a sleek design and a big screen on which your child can enjoy many games, I’d recommend the VTech KidiZoom DX Black. It’ll definitely distract your child with many cool effects and keep them entertained all day long.