If you believe what you read then the wearable technology market is about to explode: Credit Suisse has issued a report stating it has hit “an inflection point” (whatever that is), and is set to be worth $30–$50bn over the next three-to-five years.

Meanwhile, Apple has drafted a former Yves Saint Laurent CEO into “special projects”, and he’s probably not there to improve the battery life of MacBooks.

Splendid news for fans of the underdog, then: good old TomTom, the Dutch company known for putting sat-navs onto real-world dashboards, has been quietly developing its own line of strap-on lifestyle products (easy) for some time — effectively stealing the march on Palo Alto.

In fact, TomTom already has form in this area, having provided the tech for the Nike+ SportWatch GPS, which took 25 per cent of the market on launch in 2011. Now it’s made two of its own: the Runner, optimised for jogging; and the Multi-Sport, for running, cycling and swimming.

Enter your stats then set your goals; vibrate alerts power you onwards. 

         
The Runner

Indoor tracking, GPS, stat syncing, heart-rate monitor, 10-hour battery, and a water- and scratch-resistant casing, £150 


       
Multi-Sport (pictured at title)

All the Runner’s specs, plus a bike mount, altimeter, motion sensor for swimming and a cadence sensor, £180

sports.tomtom.com