Wearable Heart Rate Accuracy

Discussions focus on the accuracy, reliability, and features of heart rate monitoring in smartwatches and wearables like Apple Watch, Garmin, and chest straps, including comparisons to medical-grade devices and other health metrics like blood oxygen and ECG.

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Keywords

US HR ANT tomsalmon.eu garmin.com O2 CRITICAL BPM FWIW AppleWatch heart rate heart watch apple watch rate apple monitor sensor oxygen accurate

Sample Comments

cyanydeez Nov 12, 2025 View on HN

Check out the ASUS vivo watch. It can measure using a transit pulse index. At least gives you some finer grained data.

evan_ Apr 16, 2013 View on HN

You could get better results with a Bluetooth pulse monitor.

joshschreuder Apr 8, 2016 View on HN

I thought the HR detection on consumer fitness gear wasn't very accurate, yet we are able to base medical decisions off it? Have I been misled?

freitasm Feb 10, 2021 View on HN

Apple Watch and any other HR monitoring watch...

overcast Sep 12, 2017 View on HN

So the Apple Watch is in an accurate heart rate monitor? Or is high precision not needed for testing for this abnormality? I want highly accurate rate monitoring throughout the day, especially on long hikes.

evancasey Jul 25, 2016 View on HN

ICYMI: cardiogram is doing this with the apple/android watch (possibly other devices). they're not using phone sensor data yet to my knowledge though...

hooloovoo_zoo Jan 27, 2024 View on HN

Apple watch sucks for hr monitoring too FWIW.

lectrick Dec 23, 2014 View on HN

It would be great if it had a heartrate monitor built-in

faizshah Oct 3, 2020 View on HN

Is there any accurate solution for blood pressure monitoring with the apple watch?

toomuchtodo Sep 3, 2025 View on HN

This would be great to be able to log and monitor heart rate data while sleeping without needing to wear a wearable.