Best Kids Smartwatches Tested 2026

As a mom to three kids ages 8 to 13, I know that giving a smartwatch to a child is convenient for busy families—as long as it’s a good one. There are many cheaply made devices that just add to parents’ frustration. To find the best smartwatches for kids, we tested 17 models with kids in elementary and middle school over the last few years. The just released Verizon Gizmo Watch 4 is my top pick for the best smartwatch for kids, while the updated Apple Watch SE 3, the brand’s entry-level model, is my pick for more social and independent tweens and teens.

Below, you’ll find a review of each of these three winners, plus details on how we tested kids smartwatches and a guide to choosing the right watch for your child.

All The Best Features, Plus A Seamless Operation

Verizon’s Gizmo Watch has long topped this list as the best kids smartwatch because it offers just what parents need, namely, easy setup, decent tracking of your child’s whereabouts and simple communication over text and phone. Plus it has extras to keep kids interested, like a few games (that can be disabled), a step counter, calculator, stopwatch and a camera for selfies or video calling from their wrist.

This July, Verizon released the Gizmo Watch 4, the first update to this popular kids smartwatch in three years. After testing the new watch (our third Gizmo), my family found it’s a welcome upgrade thanks to an increased battery life of up to 36 hours, so you can often get two school-days worth of use out of it, and it doubled the allowed contacts to 40. It’s also now swim-ready with a 5ATM rating, and there are new activity tracking options, too.

Verizon also launched a new, more comprehensive companion app for its Gizmo Watches, called Verizon Family. Compared to the previous Gizmo app, this new iteration has additional features, broader parental controls and alerts across additional devices. This is where you set downtimes and school modes for the watch, as well as see your child’s location, add reminders and to-dos, tweak various settings like volume, and add contacts. Your messages with your kids show up here, too.

Not For Older Kids Or Teens

The Gizmo Watch 4 is the perfect smartwatch for a young kid who needs to say in communication with their caregivers. However, if you have an older tween (ages 11 and up) or an especially social kid already begging for a phone, I’d recommend you consider the entry-level Apple Watch SE. The main reason is that as their friends start to transition to Apple Watches and iPhones, kids with a Gizmo could be left off the group chat if their buddies don’t download the companion app from where all messaging flows. That said, the Gizmo Watch’s ubiquitousness in elementary school means that younger kids can have a robust group chat with other friends who also possess a Gizmo, especially versus a less popular kid smartwatch.

I found the GPS tracking on the Gizmo fairly reliable but certainly not perfect. I had to hit refresh sometimes to get an accurate position on my children, but it placed them within the right building nearly 100% of the time, especially when they weren’t on the move. It is slightly less accurate than the TickTalk smartwatch’s tracking and on par with the Find My location tracking in the Apple Watch, especially in more rural settings or even crowded indoor settings. Caregivers can set up virtual boundary zones, so the watch alerts you when your child leaves school (or whatever zone you’ve set) to walk home or to a friend’s house.

The Apple Watch SE with cellular is a smart choice for older children, especially tweens and teens. It’s also good for families who are already in the Apple iOS ecosystem—iPhone families, basically. Kids are able to easily pair their AirPods with their watch and parents can add Apple Pay for cashless, after-school spending if they want (I send my kids their allowance this way), as well as track them via the device and easily set parental controls after setting up their child’s Apple account.

More Seamless Communication And Setup For Apple Families

The Apple Watch SE is the brand’s most inexpensive base model, but it’s plenty powerful for kids. It has all the features they need, including texting, calling, fitness tracking, Siri and music. There’s no camera here, but many other fun features to explore. My 12-year-old son has worn the Apple Watch SE (second gen) for two years, and over the last couple of months, I’ve tested the new Apple Watch SE 3 with my teen daughter who has used it to stream music during workouts and homework, track her sleep, runs and bike rides, and answer messages and calls from friends. The Apple Watch SE is now powered by the S10 chip, which is also in the Apple Watch 11 and Ultra 3.

Still Plenty Of Parental Controls

Purchase the GPS + Cellular version of the Apple Watch for your tween or teen, so they can operate it without the need for their own phone. Guardians set up a child’s Apple Watch right from their iPhone and the Apple Watch app. With the Apple Watch SE cellular, kids receive their own phone number and can connect with anyone, not just other Apple Watch owners, meaning they can now join all those group chats and place calls to anyone they like. This was a nice step up for my son when he transitioned from the Gizmo Watch to the Apple Watch. I will warn you that as he approaches teendom and being more social, he’s starting to chafe at the limitations of the screen size and difficulty of texting longer messages on such a tiny screen.

There are plenty of parental controls available in the Apple Watch app and in your iPhone Settings under “Family” and “Screen Time” after you add your child and their Apple ID in as a family member. You can set it so every contact must be approved by you with a parental pin number, as well as a Schooltime mode (this is accessed via the Apple Watch app), downtimes, time limits on apps and websites and more. The “Find My” iOS tracking feature helped us locate my son’s watch when he accidentally left it behind at a store, and it’s what I use whenever I want to find his location in town, at soccer practice or at a friend’s house.

It is a pricey gadget for a young kid who isn’t mature enough yet to not lose or break it—and all the extras like health tracking and even Apple Pay—are unnecessary and too complex for kids under age 10. I recommend protecting the watch face with an inexpensive screen protector (my kids scratched each and every watch they tested within days, including the Apple Watch). The setup was relatively seamless for us, although there are always some bumps with setting it up for someone else, and I often find the most friction once I get to the carrier portion of the setup. The new Apple Watch SE 3 seems to have a longer battery life, as we can get through about a day and half with it even with my daughter’s heavy use of music streaming and texting.

The TickTalk 5 kids smartwatch is most similar to the Verizon Gizmo among the watches we tested, but with a few differences. It gives kids the ability to text, leave voice messages and calls approved contacts via the watch and a companion app. Parents get all the best features of a kids smartwatch too: They can track their child via GPS, as well as set up parental controls like quiet times for school or sleep. But the TickTalk’s standout feature is that kids can text any approved contact, not just those with the companion app, opening up more—and easier—communication options.

Loads Of Kid-Friendly Features—And Customization

While TickTalk doesn’t let kids connect to the internet or download social media, it has plenty of unique and fun things for them to do, including free music streaming from iHeartRadio with family-friendly tunes and podcasts. The TickTalk 5 lets kids take photos with the 5MP camera, send unique GIFs, join group chats with pre-approved contacts and send animated e-greeting cards. Plus, the watch’s entire design is cheerful and kid-friendly. The user interface is filled with cute characters and cues that offer clear directions, making it generally easy to use.

One drawback to so many options is that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. But the ability for guardians to toggle many features on and off allows for the ultimate watch customization. There aren’t any actual games on the TickTalk, but there is a calculator and fitness tracking. When my younger daughter tested the TickTalk 5 at age 8, she really missed game access, especially when she had a long bus ride to a particular summer camp.

It’s also a thicker, tougher looking watch compared to the other smartwatches, but my son liked its look at age 9. But my daughter found the more rigid band uncomfortable and preferred the softer silicone style of the Gizmo. She also missed having a keyboard to craft her own messages to me versus using the preset ones and the voice messages.

TickTalk 6 Launching Now

This week (after completing this current round of testing and updates), we learned that the TickTalk 6 watch is launching in September 2026. You can join the waitlist for it now, and we plan to test it as soon as we’re able. Company representatives say it will include a number of software and hardware updates, including a better camera and video calling, enhanced battery and a slimmer design.

The Other Kids Smartwatches We Tested

Over the past two years, we’ve tested more than a dozen smartwatches to find the best ones for kids. Here are some of those we tested that didn’t make our shortlist of top recommendations.

• Pinwheel Watch (Score 3.5/5): My 7-year-old found this silicone watch band comfortable to wear and enjoyed using it, including texting me and her older sister who has an iPhone (most kids smartwatches require all contacts to either have the same device or download the app to communicate with them). It has a camera and games (both of which can be removed), as well as GPS tracking and calling. It lacked a step counter, which our tester missed given every other family member has one, and I found the interface both on the watch and in the app overly complicated at times. It took just a smidge longer than necessary to find things and to set up various customizations like the downtimes. At some point, the band broke off and we couldn’t reattach it, which was disappointing, because my youngest daughter wore it normally and is careful with her tech. Calling and texting was laggy at times, possibly because its T-Mobile network does default from 4G to 2G as needed.
• Google Fitbit Ace LTE (Score: 3.5/5): Our 11-year-old tester found this fitness-oriented kids smartwatch the most comfortable to wear and its movement games engaging. Although it doesn’t have a camera, it has all of the usual kid smartwatch features like texting and calling up to 20 contacts via the Fitbit Ace app, GPS tracking for parents and a mode to turn it off during school. It could be a solid choice for families who want their kids to move more but I personally didn’t love this emphasis, because my kids are already active. Another parent tester said the battery life was average, needing a daily charge, and the interface required a bit of a learning curve.
• Cosmo JrTrack (Score: 3/5): We tested the JrTrack3 and the new JrTrack 5, but it neither model won over either tester. It has all the features typical of kids smartwatches—texting, calling, GPS tracking, a camera and parental control of contacts—but we couldn’t get over the difficult app navigation for parents.
• Garmin Bounce Kids Smartwatch (Score: 3/5): This is another fitness-oriented kids smartwatch that also allows texting, GPS tracking and voice messaging. But it isn’t designed as a full-fledged communication device and so our tester gave it a middling score and complained about its overall interface. However, it’s battery life was great and it is swim ready.
• Gabb Watch (Score: 2.5/5): We tested the Gabb Watch 3 for several months. It was challenging to set up and had the worst battery performance among the watches tested. It often died before the end of the school day. The step counter was always wildly inaccurate. It doesn’t have any games, a camera or the internet, which might appeal to some families. The lack of features turned my kid off, so they wouldn’t wear it.
• T-Mobile SyncUp Kids Watch (Score: 3/5): We tested the first version of the T-Mobile SyncUp watch and liked it overall for video calling, texting and decent GPS tracking. The kids liked its dinosaur game and flashlight. Another tester enjoyed the SyncUp Kids Watch 2, but found the new app experience frustrating as do many online reviewers. Because of the number of complaints about the new parent app management, we’ve lowered our rating on the SyncUp 2.
• Bark Watch (Score: 3/5): The Bark Watch can place calls, send texts, take photos and parents can track location and approve contacts in a parent companion app. There is no access to social media or the internet. Where it differs from other kid smartwatches is that the company offers monitoring of your child’s texts, scanning them for bullying, self-harm talk and more, and then alerting parents. Our tester thought this could be useful for a child who has faced a particular challenge or bullying but noted that the watch is geared toward younger kids. The battery lasted an impressive two days, tracking was accurate and the watch comfortable. Our tester was frustrated with the setup. The watch appears designed to work best when paired with the brand’s phone, and in fact, the app continued to prompt our tester to set up the phone, which he hadn’t provided to his child.

What We’re Testing Next

The TickTalk 6 is launching this September and we plan to test it as soon as possible.

We panel-tested about a dozen smartwatches by putting them to work in real-life situations on the wrists of our own children. This means that as parents, we unboxed and set up each watch. We downloaded the parent companion apps and fussed with parental controls. We set up virtual boundaries, so we knew when our kids left school or a friend’s house, we customized the preset text messages to suit our needs, and added in appropriate quiet or school mode downtimes for each.

Our kids told us how the watches felt on their wrists and if the style worked for them or not. They also shared their complaints about the smartwatches’ limitations, from battery life to lame games to issues with communicating the way that they wanted.

Throughout testing and wearing, we kept notes on battery life, how easy each watch interface and app was to use, both for the kids and parents, and we verified how well the advertised features worked, such as GPS tracking.

I personally tested nine watch models with my three children who ranged in age from 5 to 13 during the duration of this testing project. I also relied on other parent and kid testers who shared feedback on additional smartwatches.

How To Pick The Best Kids Smartwatch For Your Child

There are a few things to be aware of when selecting a smartwatch watch for your family. One of the first things to consider is whether or not your child is mature enough to wear a smartwatch. Catherine Pearlman, author of the book First Phone, says every kid is different, but there are some readiness signs.

Your Child’s Age And Maturity

While Pearlman generally says kids ages 9 and up might be ready for a smartwatch, this can depend on the family’s needs—and the individual child’s maturity. “Sometimes there’s pressure like, ‘Well, we should just get a watch now.’ I still think it’s important to think about each kid and each family situation and to make sure that this is the right time to introduce it,” she says. “Because once you start with the watch, then comes the phone.” She says it’s good to see if the child has the right level of responsibility and is able to put screens down before you give them a phone or a watch. Even in the same family, the right age for a watch may be different among siblings.

Pearlman says that kids who can follow directions and aren’t too distractible make good candidates for a smartwatch. They need to be able to follow safety rules and guidelines, like not accepting calls or messages from strangers and not sharing personal information. “A 6-year-old is not going to be able to do that, right?” Pearlman says. “But maybe a 9-year-old can.”

The smartwatches designed specifically for kids work better for younger kids, because they have fewer features, easier navigation and don’t give young children access to things like the internet and social media.

Consider How You Plan To Use It

Taking the time to decide how you want your family to use the smartwatch helps your determine the right features to prioritize. Many families just want a way to track kids—for example when they’re walking home from school, in a carpool or on the bus.

“There are some kids who walk home from school and their parents would feel more comfortable knowing where they are en route, but they don’t want to get them a whole phone,” says Pearlman. “There are some kids in divorced families where the non-custodial parent at the time would like to be able to reach the child. And in those scenarios I think it works really, really well.”

Personally, I found smartwatches great for allowing my older kids a bit more freedom without the issues that come with a smartphone. For example, I felt comfortable letting my fourth and fifth graders walk to town from school (it’s a 5-minute walk) with friends while wearing a watch, and they could call or text me when they were ready to be picked up.

Pearlman notes that today’s generation of kids are growing up without as many basic independent living skills. “We need to start backing off and letting them walk to the store, letting them go to their friends’ houses, letting them walk to their piano lesson,” she says. “I think the watch actually helps parents say, ‘OK, you can do it, but at least I’ll know where you are and if there’s an emergency, you can contact me at any time.’”

Watch Features

Consider whether you are shopping for a mature tween or teen who needs a more full-featured smartwatch or if you’re shopping for a younger “big kid” who isn’t quite mature enough to handle an Apple Watch. Identify which features you want, such as a texting and calling, a camera, access to the internet, contactless payment, GPS monitoring, certain parental controls, fitness tracking, Bluetooth pairing and games.

Parental Controls

Before purchasing a kids smartwatch, consider whether or not you as the caregiver are ready to supervise your child’s use of the watch and whether or not you’re capable of putting good practices in place, including parental controls.

“Smartwatches for kids have a lot of safety features. But to be quite honest, not every parent is amazing at implementing those safety features,” Pearlman says. So it’s important to ask: “Are the parents ready to do the education? Are the parents ready to do the supervision?” If the answer is yes, select the watch that is easiest for you to manage.

“Parents have to first pick the right watch for their kid,” Pearlman advises. “Don’t be afraid to get the most simple watch or a more advanced watch if you’re ready to teach the features and you’re ready to supervise.” All the smartwatches I included in this guide offer robust parental controls that I found manageable to implement as a working mom with three kids.

Why Trust Forbes Vetted

We care deeply about testing consumer tech in real-life settings to ensure our picks improve or support our readers’ busy lives and don’t create more challenges.

• Forbes Vetted has reviewed dozens of tech items designed for kids, including the best iPads for kids, the Skylight Buddy and the Kindle Colorsoft Kids.
• The author of this story, Rose Gordon Sala, is a journalist with a decade of experience covering parenting, kids and family topics. She recently wrote about the rise of landline phones for Gen Alpha kids.
• The editor of this story is Margaret Badore, senior baby and kids gear editor. She has 18 years of experience as a journalist and is also a mom of three. She oversees the kids and baby gear section of Forbes Vetted.

Our Expert

• Catherine Pearlman is the author of First Phone and a licensed social worker who works with families on setting screen time limits and introducing smartphones or smartwatches. She shared top tips for choosing a smartwatch for your family, as well as when and how to know if your child is ready.