Best Running Watch for High School Cross Country (2026): What I Bought My Kids
Q: My son and daughter both start cross country practice at their high school this week, and I want a running watch for each of them. Their coach is fine with music during daily distance runs as long as nobody is carrying a phone, so the watch needs to hold music and play it to Bluetooth earbuds on its own. Good battery life and easy charging matter too, because I have no idea how often a teenager remembers to charge anything. Cost is not the issue (but value is always appreciated). What should I buy?
A: I just went through this exact decision for my own two kids. I’ve been a distance runner most of my life and my kiddos have been following in my footsteps (literally lol). Both kiddos have used various watches throughout the years, but after extensive review and testing I settled on the Garmin Forerunner 170 Music ($349.99) for my son and my daughter chose to continue using her existing Samsung watch (which she has to charge every night) as a stopgap until she determines if she needs more (sometimes what you already have is a very viable choice until you need more).
Garmin released the Forerunner 170 in May 2026 aimed squarely at newer runners while still checking every box in your question: real offline music (Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer playlists synced right to the watch), Bluetooth earbud playback with the phone left at home, about 10 days of battery as a watch (this is important for my son who is likely NOT to charge), and a running-first design with actual buttons instead of a sweaty touchscreen mid-interval.
The one big fork in the road is which phone your kid carries. An Apple Watch only really works with an iPhone, so for an Android kid the Forerunner wins almost by default. For an iPhone kid it’s a real choice, and I’ll lay out both sides below.
The short list
| Category | Pick | Specs | Why | CTA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top pick | Garmin Forerunner 170 Music ($349.99) | 41g, AMOLED + 5 buttons, 10-day battery, 20h GPS, Spotify/Amazon/Deezer offline | Excellent phone-free music (without having to load mp3s) AND multi-day battery | Check price on Amazon |
| iPhone kid | Apple Watch SE 3 ($219, was $249) | 18-hour battery, Apple Music/Spotify offline sync, needs an iPhone | Great everyday smartwatch IF nightly charging will actually happen | Check price on Amazon |
| Budget Garmin | Garmin Forerunner 165 Music ($299.99) | Same 1.2″ AMOLED and heart-rate sensor as the 170, ~11-day battery | The 170’s older sibling; grab it if you catch it on sale | Check price on Amazon |
| Step up | Garmin Forerunner 570 ($549.99) | 42 or 47mm, multiband GPS, speaker + mic, brighter display | For the kid who gets serious; overkill for a freshman | Check price on Amazon |
Why the Forerunner 170 Music fits a high school runner
It’s 42.6mm and 41 grams, fits wrists from 126 to 203mm (so the same model would work for my son or my daughter, just different colors), and it gives a new runner exactly the data that matters: distance, pace, lap pace, time, heart rate, and Garmin’s coaching features. The coach sets the workout and the watch measures it and captures everything for review.
Battery is where this class of watch really surpasses every “smartwatch” like Samsung, Google Pixel Watch and Apple watches. Garmin’s own numbers for the 170 Music:
| Mode | Rated battery |
|---|---|
| Smartwatch mode | Up to 10 days |
| Battery saver watch mode | Up to 19 days |
| GPS only | Up to 20 hours |
| GPS + music playback | Up to 7.5 hours |
| All-systems GPS + music | Up to 6.5 hours |
An hour of practice a day with GPS and music barely dents it. I have used Garmin watches extensively and the battery life is a real strength. Realistically this is a charge-it-on-Sunday watch, and if Sunday gets forgotten, nothing bad happens for another week. That is the right battery architecture for most teenagers IMHO.
How the phone-free music actually works
The Music version has 4GB of storage plus Wi-Fi (the $299.99 non-Music Forerunner 170 has neither, and the non-Music version is mostly third-party sellers on Amazon anyway, so make sure the listing says “Music”). Your kid connects the watch to home Wi-Fi, logs into Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer in Garmin’s app, downloads playlists to the watch, pairs their earbuds directly to the watch, and the phone stays in the gym bag. A paid subscription is required for the streaming services, and note that YouTube Music isn’t supported as of this writing.
One tip from our setup: kick off the first playlist download the night before practice, not in the car. The initial sync over Wi-Fi is easy but not super fast.
What about an Apple Watch?
Fair warning, this section argues against my own purchase a little, because right now the Apple Watch Series 11 is discounted to $299 and the SE 3 to $219, both cheaper than the Garmin I bought.
If your kid has an iPhone, an Apple Watch does pass the music test: Apple Music and Spotify both sync offline to the watch and play to earbuds with no phone. It’s also the better everyday smartwatch by a mile: texts, Apple Pay, the whole ecosystem. If your kid reliably charges a device every single night and wants one watch for their whole life, the SE 3 is a legitimate pick and the Series 11 at $299 is a strong deal.
I still bought the Garmin, for two reasons. First, battery architecture: the SE 3 is rated at 18 hours and the Series 11 at 24, which means the watch that misses a night on the charger is the watch that dies mid-practice. Ten days versus one day isn’t a spec difference, it’s a different relationship with the device. Second, at practice a running watch is a tool, not a notification machine. Five real buttons work with sweaty fingers, and there’s no TikTok on a Forerunner.
And if your kid is on Android, this section was never a decision at all: Apple Watch pretty much requires an iPhone. The Forerunner works with either phone.
The cheaper watches I looked at (and why I passed)
COROS Pace 4 ($249): An excellent runner’s watch, lighter than the Garmin (40g with the standard band) with a 19-day battery, and its charging adapter takes any USB-C cable. But its music is MP3 files dragged over from a computer. COROS says it plainly in their own FAQ: “At this time, we do not directly support an integration with Spotify or Apple Music.” For a teenager whose entire music life is a streaming app, that’s not a smaller feature, it’s a feature they will not use. Reviewers have also dinged its small text. Check it out on Amazon if your kid already owns their music files as mp3s!
Suunto Run ($199): The budget surprise, 36 grams, 12-day battery, 4GB of music storage. Same catch as the COROS though (copy files from a computer, no streaming), and it carries the weakest Amazon rating of this whole group so far. See it on Amazon.
Garmin Forerunner 70 ($249.99): Launched alongside the 170. No music storage, which disqualifies it here, but it’s the right answer if the music requirement ever drops out.
Garmin Forerunner 265 ($449.99): Still sold, recently superseded by the 570, adds multiband GPS and more training metrics. Fine watch, but for a freshman it buys data they don’t need yet. Check price on Amazon.
Can they race with earbuds? (Know the rule before the first meet)
In general ,no. For NFHS high school competition, the 2026 guidance is explicit. Quoting the NFHS points of emphasis: “Per Rule 4-6-6, electronic devices can only be used in unrestricted areas. This rule applies to coaches and managers recording performances for review and instructional purposes, but also to athletes. Use of headphones, cell phones and other devices are prohibited by competitors in restricted areas.”
In practice: music is for training runs where the coach allows it (ours does, for daily distance, no phones). On race day the earbuds stay in the bag, and your kid’s coach and your state association have the final word on watches and everything else. Plain GPS watches are commonly worn at meets, but rules vary by state and by meet, so ask the coach rather than the internet.
One more day-one tip: tell your kid not to stare at instantaneous pace during a race. Tree cover and tight turns make moment-to-moment GPS pace jumpy on cross country courses. Elapsed time and effort are the race-day tools; the pretty charts are for after.
Charging
The watch charges from a Garmin connector on the watch end and USB-C on the plug end. With a 10-day battery the routine is once a week, but I still recommend the low-tech being prepared move: a two-pack of compatible charging cables for about ten bucks, one living permanently where the running gear gets dumped and one in the gear bag. Heads up if you shop around: several cheap two-packs on Amazon fit the older 235-era connector, not the current 4-pin oval plug, so check the compatibility list for the 165/170/265/570 family before buying. And if the watch ever shows the wrong time after a trip or a dead battery, that’s a known Garmin quirk with a quick fix that I discovered years ago: how to fix a Forerunner showing the wrong time.
Bottom line
Android kid, or any kid where this is mainly a running tool: Forerunner 170 Music is a great value that could realistically last them to college and potentially beyond and I’d order it before the first meet sneaks up on you. iPhone kid who will charge nightly and wants one do-everything watch: Apple Watch SE 3, or the Series 11 while it’s $299. Kid with a folder of MP3s and a distaste for subscriptions: COROS Pace 4.
NOTE: you can definitely go WAY more spendy on watches, up to $700+ but for a dedicated HS runner I stand by the Forerunner 170 Music as a great watch at a not so insance price.
I run alone on empty roads and I don’t like anything in my ears at all or resting on my head, so that pretty much rules out earbuds or bone conduction. If that’s you too, I’m working on a blog post about three setups that let a watch play music out loud. Hopefully it will be posted later this week.
Thoughts?
Good luck to everyone this running season and if you have any thoughts or questions about the best watches for HS runners, feel free to comment below!
Sources: Garmin Forerunner 170 Music spec page and owner’s manual (battery table, music services, storage); NFHS Track & Field 2026 Points of Emphasis (Rule 4-6-6); COROS Pace 4 official FAQ; manufacturer spec pages for Suunto Run, Forerunner 265/570, Apple Watch SE 3 and Series 11. Prices checked on Amazon at publication and will drift; the links show current pricing.
Information here was accurate when published; verify current rules with your coach and state association, and current prices at the links.