What is a good watch/ wearable to measure heart rate and heart rate variability?

[tommyboy14]

Hi Team,

I am looking for something wearable (wrist preferably) that will help me measure heart rate, Heart rate variability while I sleep and how many steps per day. In an ideal world also tells the time.

I am interested in a device that does these four things well. I couldnt care less about any other features.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

(I had a fitbit charge 3 but gave up on it because could never get the display to be really light...)

 

[Superman]

You’d have to go to online reviews for accuracy data. I hear that Apple and Garmin are the closest to accurate. I have a Fitbit Sense that works close enough for my needs.

Built in GPS (that doesn’t agree with my iPhone)
Heart rate and resting heart rate data
Water proof
Various exercise tracking
Blue tooth
Can load music to it if you’re so inclined (but need blue tooth headphones)
Sleep tracking

I like it because it’s not as bulky as Garmin and has much longer battery life than Apple Watch.

And it was basically free through points earned at work.

 

[tommyboy14]

Thanks

 

[Luckyguy17]

For Android:
Bought the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 some months ago as a companion to a recently acquired Samsung FE 5G phone. The watch provides great daytime info and fair bit of insight on sleep quality.

Am very pleased with all of the features, including a full work up of sleep analysis, workouts and so much more.
Have chosen (there are many) a watch face that includes battery charge, heart rate and steps on one screen and an easy scroll to measure a dozen workouts, walk, run, bike and more. I highly recommend the Watch 4 for Android, especially when matched to a Samsung phone. Would buy again withought hesitation.

My brother has the Apple Watch which is a better match to an iPhone, it is also full featured.

A $1 a day if it lasts a year, (likely more). cheaper than a morning coffee.

 

[Unicusp]

For Android:
Bought the Samsung Galaxy Watch4 some months ago as a companion to a recently acquired Samsung FE 5G phone. The watch provides great daytime info and fair bit of insight on sleep quality.

Am very pleased with all of the features, including a full work up of sleep analysis, workouts and so much more.
Have chosen (there are many) a watch face that includes battery charge, heart rate and steps on one screen and an easy scroll to measure a dozen workouts, walk, run, bike and more. I highly recommend the Watch 4 for Android, especially when matched to a Samsung phone. Would buy again withought hesitation.

My brother has the Apple Watch which is a better match to an iPhone, it is also full featured.

A $1 a day if it lasts a year, (likely more). cheaper than a morning coffee.

Same here. I had the Galaxy 2 which developed issues with heart rate monitoring, so upgraded to Galaxy 3 over a year ago. Better battery life and many health monitoring features. I also pair with Galaxy smartphone. Besides constant heart rate, can also measure oxygen level, and ECG. The Health app is great for exercise with many stats including GPS, speed and elevation which is cool on bike rides.
I had several Fitbits prior to, and this is far superior. My wife has apple devices which seem more problematic and finicky.

 

[Unicusp]

Here are examples of a bike ride last week in Pennsylvania.

 

[gerrychuck]

I use a Garmin Vivoactive, and it seems to get quite confused on heart rate with my combination of some chronic AFib and a pacemaker. If I crosscheck with manual pulse and/or a chest strap, it tends to be quite accurate when walking or on the treadmill, but is completely out to lunch on the recumbent bike, reading in the 130's when manual pulse or chest strap says 90's. I suspect the accelerometer in the pacemaker gets confused on the stationary bike (my heart rate responds fine to exercise; the pm is only needed when resting) as movement is how a pm knows to up the rate, and there isn't any on a stationary bike. That being the case, it may not be the fault of the watch. Need to try my wife's Fitbit to see if it's any different.

 

[Eva]

I loved my Fitbit when I had it…loved the continuous heart rate monitoring (very accurate), sleep analysis (very accurate), its hourly reminders to move, steps counting, its long battery life and its price.
My hubby made me switch to iWatch because it had ECG which Fitbit didn’t have then! It was helpful and it detected my AFib at the right time!
Good luck.
Note: I still love Fitbit and juts bought “Charge 5” for my sister ($146).

 

[Beach77]

I have a samsong watch and phone. It does it all sleep, steps, heart rate but what has been a hit with my cardiologist was the EKG function. I've had a few Afibs since my surgery in 2020. During the last 6 months I've had a handful of epsiodes and a couple where my pulse dropped into the high 40's (normal for me at rest is the high 50's). I took the EKG using my watch, then printed the reports from my phone, for my appointment last week. The doctor was impressed by how good they were. Last year, I wore the holter monitor but it didn't show anything. Now with the print outs, he was able to see the frequency and know the next step for helping me.

 

[JaneF]

I had a Fitbit previously and loved it, until the iWatch series 4 came along and had the EKG function, so I switched. I love everything about my iWatch except the battery life, as it requires frequent charges.

 

[pellicle]

FWIW

I like it because it’s not as bulky as Garmin and has much longer battery life than Apple Watch.

I picked a Garmin as my fitness tracker because it was light, less bulky and had a longer battery life and it was amusing to see recently Garmin teasing Apple watch on Twitter saying their watch battery is measured in weeks not hours (and I have a mental problem with Apple products as well).
Mine didn't do any "on device" HR because I don't really need to have that, as I have full access to my HR data at any given instant.

 

[Protimenow]

From late 2020 until Mid 2021, I had many inexpensive smartwatches for review. The least expensive were worthless - they claimed to measure blood pressure (they couldn't) blood oxygen (maybe), heart rate, and other stuff.

When the Apple Watch 4 came out, I was hoping to track heart rate, and bought it largely for that reason (although other stuff was interesting). I liked how it integrated with an iPhone - and was surprised that I could even use it for phone calls.

The heart rate monitor isn't continuous - it measures the rate at intervals, unless you ask it to check the current rate.
It will issue an alert if the heart rate is higher than your preset for more than ten minutes (or something useless like that).

The ECG is good - probably rivaling the device that is advertised for $99.99.

Blood oxygen numbers are always below those of my more trustworthy pulse oximeters.

Sleep tracking seems pretty good.

It also has GPS and compass, tracks all kinds of exercise, and integrates with health, exercise, sleep, and other apps.

I didn't have ANYTHING Apple until around 18 months ago, but the stuff works pretty well.

Yes, battery life IS an issue with the Watch 7 - I wind up charging it for an hour or so while watching TV at around 8 PM.

I can't comment on the Samsung, Fitbit, or other watches - I didn't evaluate any of them.

 

[Pete81]

Can really recommend ‘Polar’. Have had my Vantage M for four years now. Real sports watch. Does heart rate and variability on the wrist, activity tracker and much more connects to great app tracking activity, progress and recovery. also had workout suggestions and great Blog.

 

[Timmay]

If you're funds limited, the FitBit Charge 5 is an ideal choice. This is the path that I went prior to my surgery 5 months ago. It satisfied all of my needs.

• GPS
• Heart rate and resting heart rate
• Waterproof
• Exercise tracking
• Bluetooth
• Sleep tracking
• Step tracking (and miles/km)

Plus it gave me a host of other valuable thigs ...

• O2 levels
• Heart rate variability
• Sleeping breaths / min
• Skin temperature

All for $120

 

[Chuck C]

I'm also looking for a smart watch or reliable chest strap to track my HR and am glad for all the valuable input. Peronally, I had a Polar chest strap circa 1995 to 2005, which worked great with the Polar watch that came with it. However, I have been very disappointed withthe Polar H10 chest strap, which I bought a couple of years ago. It seems to be accurately, when I can get it to connect to an app. For some reason I was never able to get it to connect to the Polar app on my cell phone. It connects sometimes with my Health app on my phone and on rare occasions, I can even get it to track an entire work out. However, far more often it will connect and disconnect many times during a single work out. This is even with a fresh battery.

So, I am thinking one of the newer Apple watches or another brand of chest strap.

 

[tommyboy14]

Hi Chuck,

the Polar strap is actually the one piece of kit I have. I also used to have issues with it connecting to the app on my android phone.

I managed to solve these issues the following way:

1) Make sure that you connect the device via bluetooth in the App first (no via your phone's general Bluetooth function)

2) If that fails, you need to change the batteries and perform a factory reset

3) I found that positioning the sensor directly over your heart (not at center of the chest as in the instructions) massively improved my phone's ability to connect to the strap.

Good luck and I hope that this helps.

 

[tommyboy14]

Can you see the display well?

I had the Charge 3 and the display was very dim. I could barely see it most of the time. Then it died after three months of use.

So does teh Charge 5 have a good display? Can you see it in direct sunlight and in the dark?

Thanks

If you're funds limited, the FitBit Charge 5 is an ideal choice. This is the path that I went prior to my surgery 5 months ago. It satisfied all of my needs.

• GPS
• Heart rate and resting heart rate
• Waterproof
• Exercise tracking
• Bluetooth
• Sleep tracking
• Step tracking (and miles/km)

Plus it gave me a host of other valuable thigs ...

• O2 levels
• Heart rate variability
• Sleeping breaths / min
• Skin temperature

All for $120

 

[AZATADINE]

I thought about getting something like that but I was afraid I'd end up going down a black hole of over analysis of myself

 

[Superman]

I thought about getting something like that but I was afraid I'd end up going down a black hole of over analysis of myself

There is an element of, “Sleep well?”

“I don’t know, let me check the app!”

 

[Protimenow]

From late 2020 until Mid 2021, I had many inexpensive smartwatches for review. The least expensive were worthless - they claimed to measure blood pressure (they couldn't) blood oxygen (maybe), heart rate, and other stuff.

When the Apple Watch 4 came out, I was hoping to track heart rate, and bought it largely for that reason (although other stuff was interesting). I liked how it integrated with an iPhone - and was surprised that I could even use it for phone calls.

The heart rate monitor isn't continuous - it measures the rate at intervals, unless you ask it to check the current rate.
It will issue an alert if the heart rate is higher than your preset for more than ten minutes (or something useless like that).

The ECG is good - probably rivaling the device that is advertised for $99.99.

Blood oxygen numbers are always below those of my more trustworthy pulse oximeters.

Sleep tracking seems pretty good.

It also has GPS and compass, tracks all kinds of exercise, and integrates with health, exercise, sleep, and other apps.

I didn't have ANYTHING Apple until around 18 months ago, but the stuff works pretty well.

Yes, battery life IS an issue with the Watch 7 - I wind up charging it for an hour or so while watching TV at around 8 PM.

I can't comment on the Samsung, Fitbit, or other watches - I didn't evaluate any of them.

I meant to write that this is an Apple Watch 7.
Apple has improved the Health app, and has some enhanced monitoring features.