How to pick up a smart watch deal Black Friday 2023

At this time of year, lots of referees are thinking about upgrading or getting their first smartwatch. Amazing offers, new releases and gift-giving all combine to make it a perfect time to get shopping. However, finding a smartwatch on Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be a thankless task. Just when you thought you found the perfect deal you find out the shop has sold its last watch!

REFSIX is here to help. We have compiled the ultimate list of watch deals this Black Friday. What’s more, we’re only including watches and deals we know are top-class for referees of all levels. They will all have a decent battery life, and reliable interface and work seamlessly with REFSIX out on the pitch. If you’d like to see all the watches that work with REFSIX, head over to our watch selector page.

This page will change as deals come and go, so to stay up to date it’s best to sign up for our mailing list. We’ll be sending through regular news and flash sales. Additionally, we’ll be offering some amazing deals on REFSIX PRO to go with your new watch. Outside of Black Friday, there are plenty of places to pick up a bargain, so we’ll be sharing our top buying tips too.

Top watch offers right now:

  1. Samsung Galaxy Watch 5- £239 @ Amazon - A great watch and a very heavy discount even for Amazon!

  2. Apple Watch 7 - £319 @ John Lewis - a slightly older model but still very, very good. It doesn’t lag behind the 8 much and outperforms many competitors. This deal gives you £50 off, plus there may be offers to be had on Topcashback and voucher forums

  3. Garmin - Vivoactive 4 - £199 @ Garmin direct - Whilst we don’t normally suggest going direct… Garmin is a different kettle of fish. Their Black Friday offers are legendary, so it’s well worth checking them out. The Vivoactive 4 is a great watch and with £40 off, it’s worth diving in now

Amazon Black Friday deals aren’t what they seem

Jeff Bezos has supercharged Black Friday from being an American institution to a global phenomenon. This year will be no different, so there will undoubtedly be deals to be had on the platform. However, we find that most of the watches under offer tend to be last year’s models, or at the lower end of the performance spectrum. REFSIX tends not to work with any of these watches and we don’t recommend them due to poor performance. If you’re wanting a Black Friday deal on a decent watch, you’re going to have to look further afield!

Going direct with the big 3 - Apple, Samsung & Google

Apple is renowned for running a big Black Friday event and Samsung and Google are both launching offers this season. Historically there is either limited stock or the offers are beaten elsewhere. Things may change this year, for example, Samsung has put in place a price promise. Google is also offering a mysterious ‘package’ with every sale on the Google Store. We’ll wait to see, but we generally don’t recommend going directly to the stores as they are often undercut elsewhere. So where should you go?

Feisty forums - HotUKdeals and more

The best places (apart from REFSIX) to find deals are on forums. HotUKdeals is a good example from the UK, as well as places like Reddit and Money Saving Expert. The latter even has a hub and alert system for deals, along with information about finding the historic prices of products. This can be invaluable if you’re not sure whether the deal you’ve found is actually good value.

Supercharge with Topcashback

Whilst the headline price is always important, there are more savings to be had when you add in coupon codes and cashback. When you find a smart watch you like, and a place to buy it, it’s worth checking out these places for even more money off:

  • Topcashback is the biggest cashback provider in the UK and further afield. Sign up for an account then find your retailer. Click through and the retailer will send a reward a few days later. We recommend Topcashback as a cashback site

  • Quidco comes in as a close second best in terms of cashback sites. They also have a wide range of companies signed up

  • Vouchercodes.co.uk is a great place to go deal hunting and find codes to get more off the price

  • Voucher cloud has a section specifically for Black Friday to help you out

Facebook Marketplace is your friend - second-hand deals

Instead of trawling the shops, it may be cheaper to trawl places like Facebook marketplace, Gumtree or Craiglist. Whilst not new, the watches on these platforms are often much cheaper, even during Black Friday events. There are also plenty of new or nearly new devices put up for sale. For example, in the UK Google was giving away Pixel Watches with a new Pixel phone, so Facebook Marketplace has been flooded with boxed watches for cheap. Check these out before getting a new watch and you could save hundreds of $$$.

 
 
Jonathon Wilks