Polar has just announced their Vantage M3, a watch that aims to complete a trio of watch hardware options from the company, and ultimately, complete their transition to AMOLED devices. I kinda honestly thought that they’d skip making an M3 and would let the Polar Pacer line bring up the rear, but M3 it is. Ultimately, it doesn’t much matter what they call it, because as you’ll see, the differences are purely hardware based.

And that’s the notable thing. Over the last 12 months (almost to the day), Polar has now released three AMOELD watches: First, the Vantage V3 last October, then the Grit X2 Pro last March, and now the Vantage M3. All watches AMOLED, all with mapping, and all with identical software features. Yes, identical. The idea being that consumers can choose which hardware they want, with the differences simply being exterior case/band design, battery life, and display size. That’s it.

And Polar says that’s the direction going forward as well, and doubled down on that by announcing their next set of features for early 2025 that’ll come to all three watches.In any case, I’ve been testing the M3 for the last little while, putting it though it’s paces on runs, rides, swims, and everything in between - including just 24x7 wear. I’ve got a pretty good feel for where it works well, and where it falls a bit short. With that, let’s dive into it.