Apple Watch Becomes Official Partner of 2025 TCS London Marathon

Apple is now an official partner of the TCS London Marathon, set to take place next month. It is a logical fit: the Apple Watch has been iterating on run tracking for over a decade and sits alongside Garmin and Coros as one of the most used wrist devices at major road races.

For runners, the partnership likely means deeper integration of Apple Watch metrics on race day. The watch already tracks pace, heart rate, cadence, and route via built-in GPS, and recent Series 9 and Ultra 2 models added the double-tap gesture and improved wrist temperature sensing for recovery context.

Where Apple Watch still trails dedicated running watches is battery life and training load analysis. A Garmin Forerunner 965 or Coros Pace 3 will outlast any Apple Watch by days, and Garmin's Daily Suggested Workouts and Polar's Running Performance Test offer structured guidance Apple's native Workout app still lacks.

That said, Apple Watch Ultra 2 pushed battery to around 36 hours in standard mode and 60 hours in low-power mode, which covers marathon day comfortably. For casual to intermediate runners already in the Apple ecosystem, the barrier to entry is low and the health data stack is genuinely useful.

Solid partnership for the sport. Not a training computer for serious athletes. But for the 50,000 runners toeing the London start line, most just need a reliable GPS watch that works. Apple Watch does that.