Offline topographic maps, turn-by-turn navigation, and workout recording, right on your Apple Watch. Plan on your iPhone, sync to your wrist in seconds, then leave the phone behind. It all works with no signal.
Free to start · No account · No ads
Build a route on your iPhone, save the map offline with one tap, then head out with nothing but your watch. It works without a signal.
Tap to drop waypoints or import a GPX. See distance and elevation update instantly.
One tap downloads the map around your route. Your route is already on your watch, synced automatically.
Head out with just your watch. Turn-by-turn guidance, even with no signal.
One app, two devices: plan on iPhone, navigate on Apple Watch. Built for hiking, running, cycling, and mountain biking.
01 · Navigation
Voice guidance and visual turn alerts on your wrist. You see the next turn, the distance, and your ETA, with the phone left at home. The route is already on the watch, so the guidance keeps going where there are no bars at all.
Voice + turn alerts
02 · Safety
Lost the trail? One tap retraces your steps with turn-by-turn guidance all the way home. Your watch builds that way back from the track you already walked, so it is there even when the signal is long gone.
One-tap return03 · Maps
Download topographic, winter, or satellite maps to your watch. Once saved, they work with no signal, anywhere.
Works with no signal
04 · Planning
Drop waypoints and your route takes shape, with distance and elevation updating as you go. Works for hiking, running, cycling, or mountain biking. Planning is the part that needs a connection. Once the route is saved, you can open it and follow it without one.
Live distance + elevation
05 · Workouts
Start a workout from your wrist. It tracks distance, pace, elevation, and heart rate, saves everything to Apple Health, and counts toward your Activity rings. Connect Strava and it uploads there on its own. Since it is one app, no second tracker drains your battery.
Apple Health + Strava
06 · On the go
Drop a destination and your watch works out a point-to-point route right there on your wrist. No need to reach for your phone, as long as you have a connection.
Phone-free, on the spot
07 · Your routes
Import GPX from Komoot, Strava, or Outdooractive, and your routes are on the watch before you leave the house.
Export any route as a GPX file to back it up, or share it with a friend.
Routes are colored by gradient, orange for uphill and blue for downhill, with an elevation profile you can read on your iPhone and right on your wrist. One look tells you what’s coming. Switch between topo and satellite out on the trail, with no signal.
Routing tuned to how you travel, and a workout type for whatever you were out doing. Plan on iPhone, then follow it and record it on your wrist.
Planning
The shortest, most direct paths. The one to pick for everyday walks and road running.
Sticks to marked trails and takes the scenic line. Also what trail runners want.
Roads and cycle paths, routed the way a road bike wants to go.
Puts you on singletrack and unpaved trails instead of tarmac.
No routing at all: a direct line between the points you drop, for off-trail days.
Workouts
Hiking, Walking, Running, Trail Running, Wheelchair
Cycling, Gravel Cycling, Mountain Biking, E-Bike, E-Mountain Biking, Handcycling
Downhill Skiing, Snowboarding, Backcountry Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Snowshoeing
Kayaking, Canoeing, Stand-Up Paddle, Rowing, Open Water Swimming, Surfing, Windsurfing, Kitesurfing, Sailing
Climbing, Horseback Riding, Hunting, Fishing, Skateboarding
Each sport keeps its own type on the way to Apple Health and Strava, so a ski tour never lands there as a run.
The best views are usually past the point where most people turn around. Push a little deeper, take the trail you’ve never tried, and let the map fill in behind you as you go.
Your track records from the first step, so the way back is already on the map.
“I build WristTopo on my own. I made it because I wanted to leave my phone in my pack and still trust my watch to bring me home. You never sign up for anything, and where you go stays on your device. Just maps that work when you’re out there.”
Go PRO and you support one developer who hikes the same trails you do, not a corporation. Nobody is steering the roadmap toward ad revenue or an investor’s exit, so the only thing the app works toward is being useful to you. And I read every message myself: feature requests and bug reports reach the person who writes the code.
Independently covered by the Apple and outdoor press, and put to the test by heise against Komoot and Strava.
Put to the test against Komoot and Strava in heise's independent Apple Watch route-app comparison.
If you are looking for an app to show hiking maps on your Apple Watch, you should take a look at WristTopo.
Original: “Wenn ihr eine App für die Anzeige von Wanderkarten auf der Apple Watch sucht, solltet ihr einen Blick auf WristTopo werfen.”
The first article ever written about WristTopo, from July 2025, when the app was still at version 3.0. The response from its readers is a big part of why it kept going. They came back for version 7.0 in August 2026.
WristTopo meets all my requirements for a modern Apple Watch app.
Original: “WristTopo erfüllt alle meine Anforderungen an eine moderne Apple-Watch-App.”
It turns the Apple Watch into a standalone navigation tool for outdoor tours.
Original: “WristTopo verwandelt die Apple Watch in ein eigenständiges Navigations-Tool für Outdoor-Touren.”
Verbatim App Store reviews from hikers, runners and riders around the world.
This turns my Apple Watch into a gps mapping machine, and kept me from spending excessive cash just to get a Garmin watch for maps.
Outstanding, constantly improving app! … WristTopo puts the Apple Watch on par with Garmin and Suunto for hiking and backpacking, other outdoor sports, navigation, route planning, tracking, and in-route information.
Really impressed by how fluid and straightforward the route creation and map browsing is… Perfect for those that want to use the Apple Workout app but still want to follow a detailed route with turn-by-turn directions. Developer is super friendly and responsive as well!
…It turned out to be exactly the missing piece after switching from Garmin to Apple Watch Ultra. The design is outstanding — minimalist, clean… Maps load incredibly fast on the Apple Watch.
Absolutely the best Apple Watch app for hiking and trail navigation. It lets you navigate trails without needing your phone, which is a game changer… The app's battery efficiency is outstanding.
I expected this app to not work but this app has been better for offline maps for any use than Gaia maps or a lot of other apps. 10/10 app… I love the simple ui and reliable functionality.
Used this app for a three day hike in the Alps and right away purchased it. Super simple to use, fast and just a nice looking app.
Exactly what I needed. I recently climbed the Iztaccíhuatl volcano (5,230 m) and the app was perfect — battery use is almost nil, so I never worried about running out.
Completely blown away how good this app is, connecting to AW Ultra was faultless, map downloads are easy… The route planner is extremely easy to use and sticks to paths very well.
In an age of endless subscriptions, here's an app with a one-time 'forever' purchase. Intuitive, offline maps on the watch — all upsides. Highly recommend it for the trails.
An absolute incredible app that puts a beautiful topo map on your wrist where it’s quick and easy to tell where you are at all times. Highly recommended to all adventurers!
Hiking is free with just the watch — no iPhone needed. Easy to get route guidance and info right on the wrist.
This is the only app that allows to route dynamically on the watch with a topo map without creating the route on your phone. It also has turn by turn navigation and GPX import/export.
A free tier that stays free, no account required. Go PRO for $9.99 a year, or pay $29.99 once for a lifetime license, no subscription.
Everything you need for shorter adventures.
Everything WristTopo can do, unlocked.
These are launch prices. The lifetime license is a single payment with no subscription attached. No account required, and you can cancel the annual plan anytime.
Yes. Once your routes and maps are on your watch, you can leave the phone behind. WristTopo navigates on Apple Watch with no phone and no signal.
Only the preparation. Planning a route, downloading maps and creating a Quick Route on the watch all need a connection. After that the rule is simple: whatever is already on your watch stays there and works with no signal, turn-by-turn navigation and backtrack included.
No. Offline maps and navigation work on any supported Apple Watch, with no cellular plan required.
It's heavily optimized, and the main draw is the GPS hardware itself. Because WristTopo records your workout for you, there's no need to run a second tracking app. Count on a full day of outdoor use on a single charge.
Very little, because maps are compressed. A typical route takes just a few MB, and a large rectangular area downloaded in full is around 50–100 MB.
Hiking, trail running, road running, road cycling, and mountain biking, each with routing tuned to how you move. For winter there's a dedicated ski map with slope names, and you can record skiing, snowboarding, and ski-touring workouts to Apple Health.
Yes. Import a GPX file from Komoot, Strava, Outdooractive, or anywhere else into the iPhone app, and it syncs to your watch instantly, with turn-by-turn directions you can follow by voice.
Yes. There is no account to create and no advertising SDK in the app. Your routes and locations stay on your device and in your own iCloud, where I never see them.
Free to start, with everything you need for shorter trips. PRO unlocks unlimited routes, voice navigation, workout recording, and more.
WristTopo is built to be the map and navigator on the Apple Watch itself: a fast, detailed topographic map, offline turn-by-turn, an integrated route planner, and data you own. Komoot is where you discover and plan routes from a big community library; WorkOutDoors is the most configurable workout recorder on the watch. There is a fair, sourced comparison of each, and plenty of people happily use more than one.
See the comparisons
Download WristTopo and find your way with just your watch.
Free to start · No account · No ads
