Garmin and Amazfit Win at UTMB 2025

Q: What do these watch brands have in common: Amazfit, Wahoo, Coros, Garmin and Suunto?

A: According to annual research from Jerome at Montre Cardio GPS, they’ve all won a UTMB race over the last 3 years.

Sponsorship will have played a massive part in determining which watch went on which wrist. Suunto, Garmin and Coros may have spread their sponsorship resources thinly; whereas Amazfit (2025) and Wahoo (2023) chose wisely or were lucky to get their wins.

This article highlights brand-related successes and builds on Jerome’s painstaking work #Kudos. His research is far more detailed than I cover here and extends to GPS tracks and elevation accuracy. Have a read here in the original French Language version.

Let’s start with an analysis of the men’s races at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) in 2023, 2024, and 2025. We will detail the watches used by top finishers and provide a league table of brands.

UTMB 2023 Men’s Race Analysis

The 2023 UTMB men’s race winner was Jim Walmsley, who wore a Wahoo Elemnt Rival! How can a now-discontinued triathlon watch win UTMB? But it did.

Let’s start with these results as a baseline for changes in the two years since

• Watches Used by Top Finishers (Selection):
  • 1st: Jim Walmsley – Wahoo Elemnt Rival
  • 2nd: Zach Miller – Garmin Enduro 2
  • 3rd: Germain Grangier – Garmin Forerunner 965
  • 4th: Mathieu Blanchard – Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
  • 5th: Ludovic Pommeret – COROS APEX 2 Pro
  • 10th: Baptiste Chassagne – Polar Pacer Pro
  • 25th: Gediminas Grinius – Apple Watch Ultra
• League Table of Brands (Top 3 Male Finishers, 2023):
  1. Garmin: 2 watches
  2. Wahoo: 1 watch
• League Table of Brands (Top 20 Male Finishers, 2023):
  1. COROS: 10 watches
  2. Garmin: 6 watches
  3. Suunto: 2 watches
  4. Polar: 1 watch
  5. Wahoo: 1 watch

UTMB 2023 – The male pros used these watches. The winner? Wahoo Rival…lol

UTMB 2024 Men’s Event (Top 20 Elite Combined)

The situation in 2024 showed Suunto and Coros securing key race positions and key wrists. I can only speculate here, but I would imagine that Suunto’s dominance here reflects its years of service to the industry and general loyalty by runners. Coros’ success probably reflects the hard-nosed story of a marketing-savvy company investing heavily in its athletes. Still, of course, that’s not to knock the quality and suitability of some of the Coros watches for UTMB. Garmin probably saw the stats and thought, “Hmmm. We’re better than that.”

• COROS was the most successful brand, with 13 watches among the top 20 elite finishers. The men’s winner, Vincent Bouillard, wore a COROS Apex 2 Pro.
• Suunto secured 10 watches in the top 20 elite.
• Garmin had 6 watches among the top 20 elite.
• Polar had 2 watches in the top 20 elite.

Indeed, 2024 was probably a tad embarrassing for Garmin. Roll on 2025

COROS dominates wrists at UTMB 2024 – who won on most wrists?

UTMB 2025 Men’s Race Analysis

So it’s perhaps no surprise to see Garmin securing the top spot this year (2025), although broadly, it probably only sponsors a similar number of athletes. But the real newsworthy story here is Amazfit. “WTF are they doing there?” you might think. More on that in a minute.

The 2025 UTMB men’s race winner was Tom Evans, who wore a Garmin Enduro 3.

• Watches Used by Top Finishers (Selection):
  • 1st: Tom EVANS – Garmin Enduro 3
  • 2nd: Ben DHIMAN – COROS APEX 2
  • 3rd: Josh WADE – Suunto 9 Peak
  • 7th: Yannick NOEL – Polar Grit X2 Pro
  • 9th: Rod FARVARD – Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro
• League Table of Brands (Top 3 Male Finishers, 2025):
  1. Garmin: 1 watch
  2. COROS: 1 watch
  3. Suunto: 1 watch
• League Table of Brands (Top 20 Male Finishers, 2025):
  1. COROS: 8 watches
  2. Suunto: 5 watches
  3. Garmin: 4 watches
  4. Amazfit: 2 watches
  5. Polar: 1 watch

Key Observations

Look, this is a 100-mile race over rather large hills, aka mountains. It happens, but brands that insist on an athlete wearing a watch that is not tried and tested are likely to be rare. Some more granular data supports this, with several years-old models like the Suunto 9, Vertix 1 and Forerunner 945  still being used.

The 2025 UTMB course was modified due to weather, with an official distance of 174 km and 10000 m of positive elevation. The analysis included the top 30 men, focusing on data optimisation for performance strategy.

Perhaps one unexpected fact is that about a third of the elite male runners used AMOLED. Although proven tech, it’s probably not the best for this event.

One of the consequences of a preference for older watches is fewer dual-frequency watches. Whilst not surprising, UTMB participants are precisely the kinds of athletes that might want to de-risk their efforts by having proven accuracy in mountainous conditions. That said, Jerome’s analyses found most watches within +/- 2km for the total race distance.

Another interesting fact was that Garmin watches tended to overestimate elevation, while COROS and Polar underestimated it compared to the official 10000m. Suunto was noted for its generally precise altimeter readings. In my testing, Garmin is always pretty accurate here. Perhaps in the mountains, its DEM models become less accurate as they rely on satellites determining the correct height, and that’s harder on very steep gradients, aka mountains.

Finally, the wooden spoons go to: COROS APEX 2 Pro and Garmin Forerunner 945, which ran out of juice. Kinda obvious, I would have thought for an old 945.

The Bigger Picture

The top places definitely hide some of the real trends. As you can see from the following table, the three big adventure brands Coros, Garmin and Suunto dominate, and always have done. 

Brand	2023 (Top 30 Men)	2024 (Top 20 Elite Combined)	2025 (Top 30 Men)
Wahoo	1	0	0
Garmin	10	6	8
COROS	11	13	12
Suunto	5	10	7
Polar	1	2	1
Apple	1	0	0
Amazfit	0	0	2

UTMB Women’s Race Analysis

Jerome’s data set for the women in 2023 was poorer, as his research methods could not discover who wore what. That’s improved since.

UTMB 2025 Women’s Race Analysis

Again, the weather was a factor over the 10,000m climb and 100 miles of fun.

The winner of the 2025 UTMB women’s race was Ruth Croft, who wore an Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro

Watches Used by Top Finishers (Top 20):

• 1st: Ruth CROFT – Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro
• 2nd: Camille BRUYAS – Suunto Race S
• 3rd: Katharina HARTMUTH – Suunto Vertical
• 4th: Anna CARLSSON – COROS VERTIX 2S
• 7th: Lucy BARTHOLOMEW – Garmin Enduro 3
• 8th: Lauren PURETZ – COROS APEX 2 Pro
• 9th: Claudia TREMPS – Suunto Race 2
• 10th: Courtney DAUWALTER – Suunto Race S Courtney edition
• 11th: Emma STUART – Garmin Fenix 7
• 13th: Maite MAIORA ELIZONDO – COROS VERTIX 2S
• 16th: Kelsey HOGAN – Suunto Race
• 17th: Lindsey DWYER – Garmin Forerunner 245 Music
• 18th: Elena HORTON – COROS APEX Pro
• 19th: Heather JACKSON – Garmin Fenix 8 Solar
• 20th: Brooke DEANS – COROS APEX 2 Pro

Again, the leading three brands are dominating. With their success here with the women and the men, Amazfit is clearly making an effort, perhaps copying what Coros did a few years ago. If there is sufficient commitment, Amazfit should have more resources to pursue these kinds of sponsorship.

• League Table of Brands (Top 20 Female Finishers, 2025):
  1. COROS: 5 watches
  2. Suunto: 5 watches
  3. Garmin: 4 watches
  4. Amazfit: 1 watch

Another noticeable trend in the women’s race was the appearance of more smaller-sized versions, notably COROS APEX 2, Suunto Race S, and  VERTIX 2S (small?).

UTMB Women’s Event: Watch Brand Place-Count (Medal Count in Brackets)

Here we see perhaps a faltering presence from Garmin and Coros. Either that or the watches weren’t identifiable.

Brand	2023 (Top 10 Women)	2024 (Top 20 Elite Combined)	2025 (Top 20 Women)
Wahoo	0	0	0
Garmin	1	6	4
COROS	6	13	5
Suunto	3	10	5
Polar	0	2	0
Apple	0	0	0
Amazfit	0	0	1

Take Out

The same brands have a stranglehold on the same wrists each year at UTMB, with only a few exceptions sneaking through, sometimes to glorious effects – exemplified by Wahoo and Amazfit.

The sponsorship deals and the suitability of watches restrict the genuine choice to own only a small number of watches, even fewer if a version suitable for smaller wrists is preferred.

Coros has historically cleverly focused its technical and marketing efforts on niche sports like UTMB, track running, fishing, and mountain climbing. This strategy has yielded great success. But no one strategy works forever, and the latest upstart, Amazfit, may be about to disrupt the wrists of UTMB in 2026. Maybe Coros, Garmin, and Suunto will again provide the same old winning watches in 2026?