The five controls you get on the Vantage M and V have been pared down to one single button. When it comes to the overall look, what’s perhaps most notable with the Ignite is the lack of side buttons. What’s also a little frustrating is that you can’t tweak how long the screen stays on before it goes dark again. We like the fact this saved battery life, but we found the shutdown was often too quick and the raise-to-wake wasn’t always reliable. Just like with Apple’s timepiece you raise or tap the side button to wake it. Speaking of the Apple Watch, the Ignite screen’s default is off. Weirdly though, the bottom section is cut off by a Polar logo. It’s not Apple Watch clarity but it’s very easy to read in all lights and the colors are punchy in a cheering way. Significantly brighter and sharper, in fact, than the much pricier Polar Vantage V which looks dull by comparison. The 240 x 204 color touchscreen display is surrounded by a nicely curved stainless steel casing that’s a bit reminiscent of the Garmin Vivoactive 3. It’s still a sporty design but you can see care has been taken to make it a device you’d be more inclined to wear all-day, every day.Īt 43 x 43 x 8.5mm, it’s definitely designed with consideration for smaller wrists and there’s subtlety to the look that hasn’t been common with Polar’s watches. In fact, it’s easily the most minimal, slimline and ‘stylish’ watch we’ve ever seen from Polar. Heavily reliant on touchscreen controls.Though in many ways, it’s actually in a bracket all of its own. It sits in the middle of the budget sports and fitness watches bracket alongside the likes of the Garmin Forerunner 45 and the Coros Pace. Polar Ignite (Black) at Amazon for $163.63Īt $229.95 / £174.50 / AU$349.00, the Polar Ignite is the cheapest watch from Polar’s most recent updates.