Blood pressure watches

Besides the familiar blood pressure devices for the upper arm or the wrist, there are some devices integrated into wristwatches. These watches have a cuff built into the band that inflates to take a measurement, just like standard devices. Thanks to this cuff, blood pressure can be determined this way using the conventional oscillometric measurement principle. Each watch comes with a manufacturer-provided app, without which these devices either dont work or only work very limitedly.

Because of their design and measurement method, blood pressure watches differ in every respect from smartwatches or fitness trackers, some of which are also marketed as capable of measuring blood pressure. Blood pressure watches work as mentioned above with a long-established and proven measurement method. They use an inflatable cuff that temporarily interrupts blood flow in the underlying blood vessel. The blood pressure values are determined from the oscillations that occur in the blood vessel. This oscillometric method of measuring blood pressure is used in almost all available blood pressure monitors for the wrist or upper arm.

Omron Heartguide und Medisana BPW 300 ausgepackt

The method used for blood pressure measurement in smartwatches and fitness bands, by contrast, is completely new. It relies on pulse wave transit time and, with current technology, is not yet accurate enough to deliver reliable results. Product descriptions often explicitly point out that the measurement is not validated for medical purposes. For people with high blood pressure, this measurement method therefore currently does not provide sufficient information.

Blood pressure watches are a niche product, but we still took a closer look at two models currently available.

Omron HeartGuide

Omron has offered the Omron HeartGuide, a wristwatch with an integrated blood pressure monitor, since the end of 2019. The limited watch is, at present, only available directly from Omron.

Inside the premium-looking packaging, besides the watch itself, are the charging cable and the user manuals, which come as two-page fold-outs in several languages. There is also a two-page illustrated quick-start guide in the box.

At first glance the HeartGuide pleases with its modern look and round shape. However, taking it out reveals a first criticism: the watch weighs a hefty 120 g, which is much more than the average smartwatch. Every blood pressure measurement therefore becomes a mini-workout. The watch's 48 mm diameter, 14 mm case thickness and 30 mm band width make the device more suitable for a fairly strong wrist. This is reflected in the manuals recommended wrist circumferences: between 16 and 19 cm. The users wrist should therefore be neither particularly slim nor particularly large.

The band is made of a relatively flimsy rubber. Under it sits the preformed blood pressure cuff. It is very practical that the cuff cover can be removed for cleaning.

Putting on the HeartGuide is relatively difficult despite the preformed cuff, because the band is very flexible and keeps slipping. In addition, the longer part of the cuff is supposed to slide a bit under the shorter part when putting it on so that both parts overlap slightly. That is hard to manage alone.

You need the manufacturers app, Omron Heart Adviser, to use the watch. Without an initial pairing with this app you cannot take measurements. Once paired, a measurement can be started without the app. Unfortunately, in our test the connection did not work with all mobile devices. You also have to register with Omron to use the app.

Unfortunately, measurement with this watch doesnt run unnoticed in the background either. The measuring position with the watch at heart level must be exact, as must the body posture, otherwise you are likely to get incorrect readings or the measurement wont start. Because the display faces away from the body when the arm is held correctly, it is hardly possible to check whether the measuring position is correct and whether the measurement has started. After a few measurements you generally get the hang of it and the measurements work reliably. They are also relatively comfortable, because measurement already starts while the cuff is inflating. Adopting the correct posture for measurement in public, however, repeatedly attracted puzzled looks because it seems somewhat unnatural.

In our test, the measured values sometimes differed significantly from comparative measurements taken with a blood pressure monitor. We could not identify the source of the discrepancy, since the measurements were taken under the same conditions.

The watch offers 100 memory slots for one user in its internal storage. This means synchronization with the manufacturers app can be done only from time to time. However, stored measurements cannot be removed from the memory. You should be aware of this if you lend the watch to someone else to let them check their blood pressure that persons value will inevitably appear in your own history and distort it.

Battery life is specified as 48 hours with ten measurements per day. In our test we took slightly fewer measurements. After two days there was still sufficient battery life left. If you assume a charging break every two days, the watch can definitely be used continuously.

The Omron HeartGuide offers additional functions like a step counter, sleep tracking, and notifications, bringing it somewhat closer to a smartwatch. The notifications, however, are hardly noticeable and can only be enabled to a limited extent. The step counter recorded noticeably fewer steps than the comparison smartwatch. Sleep tracking would be a nice feature, especially together with blood pressure, but the size and weight of the watch make it very uncomfortable to wear at night.

So the HeartGuide is suitable for quickly checking blood pressure in everyday life. But even with this device it cannot be completely inconspicuous. It remains questionable how meaningful ad-hoc blood pressure measurements without sufficient rest are. The extra features are nice but fall short of the functionality offered by cheaper smartwatches.

With a price of 549.00, the Omron HeartGuide is not only the most feature-rich but also the most expensive blood pressure watch we know of.

Medisana BPW 300

The Medisana BPW 300 is another wristwatch with a blood pressure cuff integrated into the band.

After opening the package, the first thing you notice is the size of the watch. The square case measures a full 4 cm x 4.6 cm and is 1.5 cm thick. The band must provide enough space for the cuff on the inside and is therefore quite wide at 2.7 cm. The watch is suitable for wrist circumferences between 13.5 and 21.5 cm. The weight is 65 g, slightly more than that of a larger smartwatch.

Putting it on is difficult even for an average wrist circumference. The built-in cuff is located in the longer part of the band where the holes for fastening are. When putting it on, part of the cuff must be slid under the other band part the one with the buckle. This is really hard to do alone and requires a fair amount of dexterity.

The E-Ink display is the size of a wristwatch. The digits are shown in white on a black background. Unfortunately the brightness of the digits is quite low, so reading it in the dark is not easy. The digit size, however, is sufficient to read the numbers well in good lighting. An exception is the weekday and date display, which is shown small at the top of the display you have to look closely to see it. When the display changes, for example before a measurement or when recalling the memory, the screen flashes and then briefly goes black before the new display appears. So it takes a short moment of patience the watch is not defective!

There are two buttons on the side of the watch. One starts (and stops if necessary) the measurement and the other is used to retrieve the last measured value. That then shows the last measured pulse, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure values, but without date and time.

The measurement can be started with the button mentioned. In the manufacturers VitaDock+ app you can also set an automatic measurement interval. More on that below.

When a measurement is started, the screen first flashes and then an English prompt about the correct measuring position is displayed. After the display flashes again the measurement starts without checking whether the measuring position was correctly adopted. So measurements in incorrect arm positions are possible. If the watch detects an error (for example movement during the measurement), an English error message appears on the display that is not always easy to understand. Among others, the message Measuring inappropriate appeared, which literally means measurement inappropriate. Whether this means that the measurement was faulty, that the blood pressure may be outside the measuring range, or that another problem occurred cannot be determined from that message.

The measurement itself is relatively comfortable because measurement already takes place while the cuff is inflating. After the measurement ends the display flashes again this time twice in a row. Then the measured values are shown. The values can then be transferred to the manufacturers app.

It remained unclear to us whether automatic synchronization of the watch, called Sugarwatch in the app, is possible. Every time we opened the app we were asked whether the watch should be synchronized. The synchronization takes a few seconds even without new measurements to transfer. Without synchronization the previously existing data in the app remained grayed out.

We were only able to choose the automatic measurement interval during the initial setup of the watch. Unfortunately this setting could not be found in the app afterwards. Another tester was able to change the setting later on. There may be differences depending on which smartphone the app is running on.

In addition to the blood pressure watch, other Medisana devices can be connected to the app.

The battery life is very positive; it can be charged with the included USB cable (no power adapter). The manufacturers claim of five days of battery life at two measurements per day was easily exceeded. Even after six days our watch still showed two out of four bars. It was only empty after nine days. However, we did not take measurements every day.

The watch comes with one or more folded leaflets in several languages. Overall, the instructions for use are rather sparse. A few pictures help explain how to operate the device, but there is no further information on using the app after the initial pairing of the watch.

Overall, the BPW 300 blood pressure watch is a very large retro-style wristwatch that performs its basic function. The manufacturers stated measurement accuracy is good, but this can only be achieved if the watch is used correctly that is, worn in the proper measurement position. Please note that a quick spot-check, as possible with this device, does not provide true resting values. That makes it hard to compare these readings with the values you normally measure at home while sitting quietly. We would describe the manufacturers app as somewhat awkward to use.

At 349.95, the Medisana BPW 300 blood pressure watch is priced well above typical blood pressure monitors.

Newgen Medical BPW-100

Pearl also offers a wristwatch with an integrated blood pressure cuff. We researched this watch as well:

Visually and in terms of the listed technical specifications and functions, the watch is nearly identical to the Medisana model. The only difference is the case color black instead of silver. However, we could not get the accompanying app to pair with the Medisana watch. We couldnt determine whether that indicates a difference between the two watches or whether the Pearl app simply has problems. The few reviews of the watch and app are scathing, so we did not conduct a personal test. We suspect Medisana took the same hardware as Pearl and integrated it into their own app. The Pearl watch has been on the market since 2019. Although it is noticeably cheaper than the Omron and Medisana offerings, at just under 200 it is still fairly pricey.

There are meanwhile similar blood pressure watches without medical device approval, for example the KU5 Pro from Kumi. You should not expect medically usable measurement results from these.

Hybrid: Huawei Watch D

From Huawei comes the Huawei Watch D, a true smartwatch that also offers blood pressure measurement with an integrated cuff. As a full smartwatch it far outstrips all the other devices mentioned here in terms of features. At a retail price of around 400 it is not cheap, but it likely offers the best value for money. (Photo: Huawei)

Note September 2024: The Huawei Watch D2 is now available. According to media reports that tested the blood pressure measurement, it is unfortunately not very accurate. One trade magazine reports generally too-high readings, another reports systolic values that are too high and diastolic values that are too low.

Kardena CARE Air and Kardena CARE Air 2

The German manufacturer Kardena offers watches with "Air" in the name, referring to the micro airbag used for blood pressure measurement. The watches are marketed as health watches, but they are not approved as medical devices. The Kardena Care Air 2 was released in January 2024.

Sources:

This article comes from BloodPressureDB – the leading app since 2011 that helps hundreds of thousands monitor their blood pressure every day. Our content is based on carefully researched, evidence-based data and is continuously updated (as of 09/2024).

Author Horst Klier has been intensively involved with high blood pressure since 2002 initially from personal experience and, since 2009, as the developer of BloodPressureDB. Thanks to his app and specialist platform used by millions as well as numerous publications, he is now regarded as a recognised blood pressure expert. As the author of several health guides and professional articles, he makes complex information understandable and practical.