+1 on the Oura ring. I know he said no subscription. But I went on the same quest last year and there simply wasn’t anything worth having that didn’t have the subscription model. And I think $59/year is fair for the services I get.
I have a white gold wedding band and just got a silver Oura ring and switched it out. It’s now my wedding ring that I was wearing anyway, and it gives me all the information I needed. The app is crazy intuitive, even noticing when you’re displaying signs of being sick. It knows before I do, gives me a notice, and reduces my activity goal for the day based on it.
I wear a Garmin Forerunner 55 for runs and workouts and my nice watches the rest of the time.
I’m a big fan.
I've had my ring for years, since Oura 2. I bought for sleep and love it for sleep. I just upgraded to the 4 because my battery was dying quickly. Customer service is great. Movement tracking throughout day is nice, but i use my Garmin for workout tracking. I have an eight sleep mattress and don't even look at the sleep stats on it because oura is my main tool. The relaxed time or what's called on the ring is very telling for me. If I'm off or having some bad days I look at for sure my green relaxed time or whatever is down. The ring data matches how I feel most or a lot of times. I love it. It's my sidekick.
When I first got my Oura (back when v2 first came out?) they said that you had to wear it for at least a week (maybe a month??) until it could calibrate correctly to your body.
Just saying that 1 week might not be sufficient to track any kind of accuracy (in *any* product).
However... A week should be sufficient time to see if the device can be continually worn *comfortably*.
If they're both comfy, I say stick with them for at least a month and then start seeing how the data compares.
Hell, throw in a third device for good measure! (Pun intended.)
And as someone else said, they may just classify the sleep stages differently too. So it might be better to look for overall trends in your sleep/activity habits, rather than focus on the specific numbers themselves.
Good luck and thank you for sharing your experience!
If you can get one. I’ve had such an awful purchasing experience that I’m pretty much giving up buying it. I really liked the gen 2 but for the cost and the battery losing charge so quickly coupled with the app. I don’t see it worth the money. If their customer and Amazon partnership was more human and could resolve an easy order issue I would recommend it. But amazons sent me the wrong size and now my FSA funds are tied up for 14 days since they can’t do a simple size exchange.
This is an incredible breakdown—thanks for doing the heavy lifting on this! HRV tracking is such a nuanced area because of how different brands handle sampling frequency and "noise" filtering. In my testing, while the Apple Watch is often the most precise for raw RMSSD data, I find Garmin and Oura's overnight trends to be more actionable for gauging daily recovery. Consistency is really the key here; once you have a solid 3-week baseline, those relative trends matter far more than the absolute numbers. It's also worth noting that wrist-based optical sensors have improved massively, though they can still occasionally struggle with "crossover" noise compared to an ECG chest strap. I recently did a deep dive on how these HRV metrics actually translate to recovery and sleep quality on my site: [https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/sleep/](https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/sleep/)
Also of course the oura sponsored report finds it the best, and I found its sleep tracking to be amazing. The problem was battery life and the added membership while lowering the warranty I do a full breakdown at [https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/gear/oura-ring-gen-1-2/](https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/gear/oura-ring-gen-1-2/)
I feel your pain on the Apple Watch battery—12-hour hikes are exactly where it taps out. For those long days, Garmin is definitely the move. If you want a screen that looks as good as your Apple Watch but lasts for days of GPS tracking, the Epix is incredible. If you want absolute maximum battery life and prefer a screen that's easy to read in direct sunlight, the Fenix is the king. Whoop and Oura are solid for recovery data, but they won't help you navigate a trail. Forth is interesting for lifting, but for your big outdoor days, a Garmin is the best all-rounder. I actually recently did a deep dive on this exact debate on my site if you want to see the full breakdown: [https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/gear/](https://tobyonfitnesstech.com/gear/)
Top Fitness Trackers on Reddit
1
Garmin
Forerunner 255 Series
86% positive of 466 users
Long battery; but wrist HR tracking is inconsistent.
AncientCityTime
