I wore the Oura ring and the Apple Watch together for months, and as an indecisive, over-analyzing wearable reviewer, I’m finally ready to face the existential question: smart ring against smartwatch. But I’ll do it in the most diplomatic, most thorough way possible, because the “right” choice really depends on what you it’s up to you.

The more time I spent wearing both, the clearer it became that these two wearables weren’t direct competitors so much as complements. They live under the same fitness umbrella, but are completely different flavors of both form and function.

They are also expensive. At around $500 for Our Ring 4 and almost $400 forApple Watch Series 11buying both is not realistic for most people. So instead of crowning a universal winner, it makes more sense to break down what each is best at and who each will serve better.

Thanks largely to consumer wearables, we can now track highly specific health data that, until now, was inaccessible outside of clinical settings. Because these devices are designed to be worn every day, they can show long-term trends and help us make meaningful connections between our habits and how our bodies actually respond.

Smartwatches, fitness bands, smart rings and even newer forms of things like smart shoes all methods of collecting health and wellness data are different. They try to solve the same problem, from different angles. And while there isn’t one “holy grail” wearable that does everything perfectly, those different flavors have a reason – each prioritizes a different aspect of health, wellness or daily life.

The energetic multitasker versus the demure overachiever

The Apple Watch and Oura Ring track many of the same health metrics, but having a single screen allows the Apple Watch to do a lot more (for better or worse). It is essentially a pared-down version of your iPhone (minus the doomscrolling). It can handle notifications, calls, mobile payments, find your phone and, yes, tell the time. It’s also one of my favorite workout companions because I view and use live metrics to push myself during workouts.

But all the information makes it an in-your-face kind of wearable. It vibrates. It sounds. It always wants your attention. And if you don’t charge it every day, it’s dead to the world. That means there are a lot of times when it’s not on your wrist and not collecting data, especially at night, when I tend to forget it on the charger or don’t want to wear a watch to sleep.

Oura Ring is the complete opposite. It’s demure. It’s quiet. And honestly, it’s mostly “dumb” jewelry without the phone app. You may not hear from it for a whole week until it needs payment. Most of the time, I actually forgot I was wearing it. And if you finally hear from it, it’s probably because your body needs attention.

Because it fades into the background, it stays with your body longer, and that consistency is everything when it comes to long-term health tracking.

Long-term health: Where the Oura ring really shines

Oura establishes a baseline of your body’s status quo over time, so if something goes awry, it’s visible right away. The app does a great job of connecting the dots and explaining what the data really means, whether it’s early signs of illness, assessing energy levels for training or detecting subtle changes throughout the menstrual cycle.

When my readiness score drops, it almost always means I’m sick or struggling with something. The app doesn’t just show the evidence (many health metrics trending), it goes one step further by recommending a game plan: rest during the day and put the ring in Rest Mode, which stops activity goals until you recover. That push forced me to take days off when I could have gone on another, which only delayed my recovery.

There is a catch, however. To unlock deeper analysis, Oura requires a $6 monthly subscription. Without it, you’ll still see the headline scores, but most of the context — the “why” behind the numbers — lives behind a paywall. Apple, in contrast, does not charge a subscription for any of its health data.

The same is true for tracking temperature and menstrual cycle. You still log your period manually, but the way the Oura app charts temperature changes makes it easy to determine the exact day ovulation occurs, which is marked by a sudden rise in basal body temperature. Looking at this map made me more aware of how hormonal changes affect my body more than just my usual PMS. That “random” bloating and headache in the middle of a cycle? Ovulation.

The Apple Watch also offers retroactive ovulation tracking, but it requires constant sleep wear, which isn’t always realistic. Even when the data is there, it’s harder to connect the dots at the moment.

That’s the broader standard of Apple’s health features. Many of the same metrics are available in the Health app, but they are usually presented as standalone data points. The Vitals app comes closer to putting things together by grouping heart rate, breathing rate, sleep, and temperature and flagging when something is off. But it requires many consecutive nights of sleep tracking and stopping to tell you what to do with that information.

You can stop your rings from moving if you’re not feeling well, but there’s no immediate push for you to rest that day, so I don’t give myself the luxury because it’s not an incentive like the Oura ring.

The Apple Watch reigns supreme for fitness tracking and everyday use

When it comes to daily habits that really move the needle and improve long-term health (aka fitness), the Oura Ring doesn’t even come close.

The Apple Watch is miles ahead when it comes to tracking workouts. Having your metrics in real time helps guide my workouts. I also use pace alerts, heart rate zones and distance to push myself to time and get the most out of each session. In addition, it has a large library of third-party apps to help you with every type of exercise, whether it’s downloading offline route maps or mapping your surf time with the tides app.

It also has safety features that can be truly life-saving, such as fall detection, crash detection, location sharing and backtrack to help you find your way back.

Oura also tracks activity, but barely. It automatically detects the exercises and brings them up after the fact in the Oura app. You have to remember to confirm it manually to get credit. It’s pretty accurate at detecting my paces because my heart rate clearly rises, but for low-intensity exercises like Pilates, it’s often off the mark. I get more activity credit for loading laundry up my stairs or wrestling my kids into a sweater before we leave than for an actual session. You can also start a workout manually in the app, but there’s no live biometric data, and I rarely bother.

Bottom line: What should I choose?

Oura Ring excels at identifying long-term health trends and flagging subtle changes related to illness, recovery or cycle tracking. Its subtle design and week-long battery life mean it fades into the background, making consistency easy.

Apple Watch shines in everyday life. It keeps you connected, doubles as a wallet, helps you find your phone and absolutely dominates fitness tracking.

If I wanted to, I would wear the Apple Watch during the day and the Oura Ring at night. But if I were forced to choose just one, I would choose the Apple Watch. At this stage in life, I’ll take anything to offset the mental load of working full-time with three kids, even if it’s something as simple as helping me find my phone. Plus, I need all the help I can get to stay healthy. Fitness is my priority right now, and it’s the foundation that helps prevent all longer-term health trends.

But this is just a phase for me, and I don’t set my answer in stone. Your own life time and priorities will ultimately shape which one makes the most sense for you.