Canyon Jacky SW-69      Price: €59Where To Buy: Vodafone IrelandSmartwatches are a fairly common sight these days. It seems a lot of people are tracking their steps, monitoring their sleep or logging their blood oxygen levels, prompted by the souped-up watch on their arm. We are obsessed with data.But can a €60 smartwatch do as good as job as the more expensive devices? If you want something to give you notifications when your phone is tucked away out of sight, track your steps and monitor basic exercise, then you don’t need to shell out hundreds for a top-of-the-range smartwatch. You could save yourself the expense and the frustration of when the device inevitably becomes obsolete in a few years’ time, overtaken by the latest developments. Take the Canyon Jacky SW-69. The smartwatch certainly looks the part, with a blue and white “active” strap (silicon) and a 1.3-inch touchscreen colour display. It has a 360 x 360 resolution, so it is sharp and easy to see whether you are indoors or out. [ PanPan Watch review: a smartwatch that could pass stringent school requirementsOpens in new window ]Looks aren’t everything though. So what does the Jacky offer for the money? You get exercise and activity tracking, blood oxygen sensor, heart-rate monitoring, all the usual stuff, that feeds back to the Canyon Life app to give you an overall picture of your general health. The heart-rate monitoring seemed fairly accurate compared to a chest-worn monitor and a more expensive smartwatch. That took a software update though, so be sure you have updated the Jacky fully before taking it out for a test drive. Prior to the update, the heart-rate monitoring seemed to lag behind a bit, with a significant difference between the readings. After it, however, things were much closer – within a few beats. You have a decent amount of exercise to choose from on the preset monitoring. There are 25 sports modes in total, covering all the bases, although if you have a more niche sport you may struggle to find it. The watchstrap is magnetic, which was fine for some sports, but during more vigorous activity such as a martial arts class, I found I had to adjust the strap at regular intervals to stop it loosening. Once fully charged, you can get up to a week out of the watch, according to Canyon, but that will all depend on what you are doing with it. Constant sports tracking and other monitoring will deplete the battery more quickly. I fit into the heavy usage category, because I wanted to use the watch to monitor sleep. It doesn’t take too long to charge up, although I found the watch occasionally didn’t snap on to the charger securely. This meant that on more than one occasion I came back to a still-dead smartwatch, when I most needed it. I could live without some of the Jacky’s features. The preinstalled games, for example, No one really needs games on a smartwatch, do they? The tiny screen makes it almost impossible to play them, and all this does is wind down the battery. Hydration reminders can also go in the bin, although Canyon isn’t alone on this one. Your body has a fairly good system for reminding you to drink at regular intervals, despite all the breathless talk on social media about dehydration. For most people, barring a medical condition, the smartwatch reminders are just notification noise. And for some reason, Canyon is very into the idea of virtual business cards, and the watch’s ability to share one from your wrist. [ I don’t need a smartwatch to tell me how rested I am when I wake upOpens in new window ]What it doesn’t have is built in GPS, which is not surprising, given the price tag. That means you need your phone with you to record your run routes, or to follow preplanned ones. It also doesn’t give you the option to make or take calls from your wrist – not a huge loss for most people, but it is a convenient feature that comes in handy on occasions. GoodThe Canyon Jacky smartwatch offers some of the more useful smartwatch features for a compelling price. The built-in sports cover the more common options, and it is IP68 rated, so water won’t trouble it. That makes it swim-proof too. Battery life is around nine days, but under very specific circumstances. Five is probably more accurate if you want to use the watch to monitor sleep. BadLack of GPS may be a deal breaker for some. Some features are superfluous – the games for example – and heart-rate monitoring occasionally lagged behind a bit. Some more preset workouts would be nice.Everything else The display, while small, is good-quality and vibrant, even in bright sunlight. The smartwatch works with both iOS and Android.VerdictA nicely designed device that covers all the necessary basics well.