GPS watches have boomed in popularity in recent years. However, the first map based watch was around long before then. Feast your eyes on the Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator from 1927.  Yes, that is a hard copy, miniature map scroll, thanks for asking. Clearly, we’ve come a long way and you no longer have to twist the toggles on the right to scroll through the map — don’t ask me how you turned left and right using these things though.We’ve also come a long way from the original Garmin Forerunner that was powered by a pair of AAA batteries in 2003.  Thankfully, nowadays a GPS watch is indistinguishable in size from a regular watch — if not in price. Indeed, the price will dictate how many features your watch will have, from simple health and sports trackers starting around $300 to hard-wearing, solar-powered outdoor GPS watches with backcountry navigation tools and all the bells and whistles approaching $1400. In my opinion, the trick to buying a GPS watch is figuring out what you want it for and not going overboard with features you’ll never need — 42,000 preloaded golf courses might be overkill, for example. @tim_ashelford Many GPS watches will also be integrated with Spotify or your music app of choice — some will require your phone to be with you to play music, but the more advanced (read: expensive) watches will let you download playlists and podcasts onto the watch itself, so you can leave the phone at home when out running.Plenty of them will receive emails, texts and alerts — something I’ve actually disabled to better enjoy the outdoors in which I take my watch. And plenty more can boast contactless payment. Although, I recommend keeping this activated because buying a sports drink mid-run with a swipe of your wrist is an impressive trick to quite literally, have up your sleeve. Left to right: Garmin Forerunner 945, Garmin Fenix 6 Pro Solar, and Garmin Forerunner 935, by way of my housemate’s wrists…