Wahoo now on Apple Watch: Quick Hands On and Thoughts

Wahoo confirmed in December 2023 that the ELEMNT RIVAL wouldn’t be replaced. The decision marked the start of a different strategy, now visible in the launch of a Wahoo app for watchOS.

Now you can record a run on an Apple Watch and see it alongside your rides in the main Wahoo app.

Background

The ELEMNT RIVAL was a good watch. Launched in 2020, it had one standout feature: it could automatically switch between swimming, cycling and running without a button press. It worked tightly with Wahoo’s bike computers and was worn by the 2023 UTMB winner. Wahoo never produced a second generation, and by early 2026 the RIVAL had disappeared from the company’s website.

The clearest early clue to a new direction was Coros.

Wahoo started selling Coros watches through its website. Coros watches gained direct integration with the Wahoo KICKR RUN treadmill, and Wahoo introduced its own straps for Coros watches. Coros activity data began flowing into the Wahoo app as the company rebuilt the platform with paid subscriptions and a Dimensional Training Load metric that added running and walking alongside its existing cycling input. Each move made the Wahoo ecosystem work with someone else’s watch.

Then came Apple Watch.

Coros mainly targets people already looking for a dedicated sports watch, a small and largely committed pool. Apple Watch reaches a different one entirely: millions of people who already own one and have no interest in buying a Garmin or a Coros, and just want to ‘go for a run.’ For Wahoo, the task becomes making the watch already on someone’s wrist more useful. For a keen Wahoo cyclist, the same route also captures occasional non-cycling activity in one app.

Apple Watch also captures extensive health data, including heart rate variability, resting heart rate and sleep. That data will feed into the same Wahoo profile used to track rides and training later this year, once the platform expands recovery metrics.

For Wahoo, this creates a much broader picture of an athlete without the cost, risk and complexity of designing and supporting its own watch.

The Wahoo app for watchOS: hands-on

If you update the iOS Wahoo app now, the watchOS app should install automatically on your Apple Watch. That’s what happened on my Watch Ultra 3.

The app is impressive for a first launch, with far more features and options than I expected. Some gaps remain for the most demanding athletes and events, but it covers most people.

By going down the Apple Watch route, Wahoo has chosen the larger market anyway. The real gaps sit closer to home: HRV and other data data need to be fully pulled into Wahoo’s take on recovery and sleep, and core running training plans probably need to come directly from Wahoo SYSTM – e.g. marathon plans.

The app itself follows Apple’s design guidelines, so it feels immediately familiar to Watch owners. Display metrics are configurable, sensors can be paired for power and heart rate, and multiple sport types can be recorded, including, surprisingly, bike rides. Apple Watch becomes another way into the same training ecosystem, alongside running, cycling and everything else Wahoo already tracks.

Wahoo doesn’t need to make a watch

Coros provided a useful test bed for Wahoo’s real ambitions: get things working for a relatively small number of athletes, then open the app up to millions.

It’s an excellent move for Wahoo, and in hindsight, an obvious one, though I wasn’t expecting it. Developing the Apple Watch app itself was probably cheap. The harder work has likely been bringing the core Wahoo app up to speed with solid running features and improved cycling tools; the app has changed significantly over the past six months. Third-party data links are comparatively straightforward once that foundation exists. The Apple Watch app is the finishing piece of that build-out.

Apple is also expected to expand its own recovery and wellness metrics at its 9 September hardware event. If that lands, Wahoo’s promised recovery integration inherits a richer data source right as it goes live.

Wahoo needs some of them to switch, or add, Wahoo as the place their training data lives: a considerably easier sell than a new watch.

Quick answers

Does the Wahoo app work with Apple Watch?
Yes. The Wahoo app now supports Apple Watch for workout tracking, structured training and sensor connectivity, including TRACKR and KICKR RUN.

Is Wahoo making its own smartwatch again?
No. Wahoo discontinued the ELEMNT RIVAL and has shown no sign of a successor. It has built compatibility with Apple Watch and Coros watches.

Can I use Apple Watch instead of a dedicated triathlon watch?
Yes, for most athletes and most distances. The exceptions are the extremes, the longest events, slowest finish times, and niche requirements, where a dedicated watch still has the edge.

Last Updated on 8 September 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID