Bottom line: It depends entirely on the brand, and for one major category the answer is neither. Prime Day has repeatedly beaten Black Friday for Fitbit, Oura and several Garmin models. Black Friday wins on breadth, discounting almost everything at once. And Apple Watch prices have hit their lowest points at Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day, months from either event. Here is a live example of why the calendar is the wrong thing to watch: the Garmin Forerunner 265 is $349.99 today. Thirteen days ago we recorded it at $442. Prices checked 24 August 2026.
Check Forerunner 265 Price → Check Fitbit Charge 6 Price →
Where Prime Day Wins
The June 2026 event produced records across several brands, and the coverage was unusually consistent about it.
The Fitbit Charge 6 fell to $85.45 during the final hours, which Yahoo’s deals desk recorded as the lowest price it had tracked on that model. The Garmin Epix Pro was cut from $999.99 to $499.99, a straight 50 percent. Popular Science’s headline was blunt: Garmin wearables were cheaper than they had been all year, with the vívoactive 5 at $189.99 and the Forerunner 165 at $199.99.
On the ring side, CNN’s wearables tester described the Oura Ring discounts as the biggest she had seen in years of covering the event. That matters because Oura is one of the few brands in this category that genuinely resists discounting outside sale windows, as our Oura price history covers.
Older TechRadar coverage of a Prime Day event made the same point about specific models, noting a Garmin golf watch had never been that cheap before, even on Black Friday.
Where Black Friday Wins
Breadth, and persistence. Those are the two real advantages and they are worth something.
TechRadar’s Black Friday Garmin coverage described every model in the brand’s line-up as discounted at some point during the event. That is the thing Prime Day does not reliably do: in a given Prime Day, your specific watch may simply not be included, and Tom’s Guide ran a piece during one event headlined that the Garmin Prime Day deals were disappointing and pointing readers to other brands instead.
The persistence matters too. Tom’s Guide reported after Black Friday 2025 that six Garmin watches had stayed at their lowest-ever prices in the following weeks. Missing the day itself is rarely the disaster the countdown clocks imply, which we go into in our Garmin buying timing guide.
So the honest framing is this. If you know exactly which model you want, Prime Day may or may not include it. If you want the best odds that your model is discounted at all, November is the safer bet.
Where Neither Wins: Apple Watch
This is the finding most buyers do not expect, and it is well documented.
Mashable reported the Apple Watch Ultra 2 at $250 off during Presidents’ Day, explicitly noting that was $50 better than its Black Friday deal. Prevention covered the Series 11 dropping to $299 at Presidents’ Day and called it a better deal than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Tom’s Guide recorded the Series 10 at $100 off for Memorial Day, tied for its all-time low.
Apple discounts are retailer-driven rather than manufacturer-driven, which is why they scatter across the calendar instead of clustering in November. The practical consequence is that waiting for Black Friday to buy an Apple Watch is close to arbitrary. The Series 11 is $299 today, which is the same number Prevention reported as beating Black Friday.
Check Apple Watch Series 11 Price →
The Quick Answer by Brand
| Brand | Better window |
|---|---|
| Fitbit | Prime Day, record lows recorded |
| Oura | Prime Day, biggest cuts on record |
| Garmin | Split. Prime Day goes deeper on some models, Black Friday covers all of them |
| Apple Watch | Neither. Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day have both beaten Black Friday |
| Therabody | Neither. December reached 45% against 35% at Black Friday |
| WalkingPad | Neither. February beat the Black Friday price by $50 |
Four of those six rows say the answer is neither event. That is the pattern we have now found independently across Garmin, WalkingPad and Therabody, and it is consistent enough to treat as the rule rather than the exception.
How We Evaluate
We do not have access to retailer pricing plans and we do not predict future discounts. Every figure comes from named coverage of specific events: Yahoo’s deals desk on the Fitbit Charge 6 at $85.45 and the Garmin Epix Pro at $499.99, Popular Science on Garmin Prime Day pricing, CNN Underscored on Oura discounts, TechRadar and Tom’s Guide on Black Friday Garmin coverage and post-event persistence, Mashable on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 at Presidents’ Day, and Prevention on the Series 11. Current prices were read live on Amazon on 24 August 2026. Recommendations are our judgment, labelled as such.
What To Actually Do
Watch the model, not the month. This is the whole article in one line. Price-history tools show what a specific product has actually sold for, and that beats knowing which sale is running.
If you want Fitbit or Oura, July and October are worth waiting for. Both have produced record lows at Prime Day.
If you want Garmin and are flexible on model, November is safer. If you want one specific Garmin, check both events and expect the discount to persist for a couple of weeks after Black Friday.
If you want an Apple Watch, stop waiting for November. Buy when the price is near its floor, whenever that happens. Our fitness Black Friday hub, recovery tracker guide and three-year cost breakdown cover the rest of the decision, and remember that subscription devices carry a cost no discount removes.
Check Forerunner 265 Price → Check Oura Ring Price →
The Trap in Both Events
There is a failure mode that neither Prime Day nor Black Friday protects you from, and it costs more than picking the wrong month.
Sale events are designed to compress your decision. A countdown clock, a limited-stock badge and a crossed-out price together create urgency that has nothing to do with whether the product suits you. The result is a well-documented pattern where people buy a heavily discounted device that was never the right one, and a 40 percent saving on hardware you stop wearing after five weeks is not a saving at all. It is a smaller amount of wasted money.
The inflated reference price makes this worse. A crossed-out figure the product has not sold at in months is common across this category, and it is doing exactly one job, which is making the current number feel like an event. The defence takes thirty seconds: ignore the strike-through entirely and look at what the model has actually traded at over the past year. If today sits near that floor, the price is good regardless of what the banner says.
The live example on this page makes the point better than any argument. We recorded the Forerunner 265 at $442 on 11 August and $349.99 on 24 August. No sale event ran between those dates, no countdown appeared, and the price moved $92. Anyone who bought at $442 while waiting for a November discount would have done better simply checking again a fortnight later.
So the sequence that actually works is dull and it works in every month. Decide which device fits how you train, using something like our recovery tracker comparison or the Forerunner 165 versus 265 breakdown if you are choosing within a brand. Then watch that specific model until the price is near its floor. Then buy, whatever the date. The Forerunner 165 at around $200 has been a better purchase than a discounted flagship for most runners all year, and no sale event was required to make that true.
FAQ
Is Prime Day or Black Friday better for fitness trackers?
It depends on the brand. Prime Day has produced record lows for Fitbit and Oura and for several Garmin models. Black Friday discounts a wider range at once, so it is the safer single window if you want a specific product to be included.
Do Black Friday prices last?
Often, yes. Coverage after Black Friday 2025 found six Garmin watches still sitting at their lowest-ever prices in the weeks afterwards, so missing the exact day is rarely costly.
When is the cheapest time to buy an Apple Watch?
Not Black Friday, based on the record. The Ultra 2 was $50 cheaper at Presidents’ Day than at Black Friday, and the Series 10 hit an all-time low at Memorial Day. Apple discounts are retailer-driven and scatter across the year.
Should I wait for a sale at all?
Check the model’s price history first. Fitness tracker prices move constantly outside sale events. We recorded the Forerunner 265 at $442 on 11 August and $349.99 on 24 August, with no event in between.
Which brands rarely discount?
Oura discounts mainly during major events rather than year-round, which is why Prime Day and Black Friday matter more for that brand than for Garmin or Therabody, both of which run sales throughout the year.