Activity (No Workout) / Heart Rate Question

[arqtiq]

As fear as I understand, Apple Watch is primarily tracking the heart rate during workouts and while not moving at all. But there is a lot of activity between working out and not moving. During these periods, Apple Watch seems to sometimes stop recording the heart rate at all.

When I compare this to my Garmin watch, which tracks HR continuously, Apple Watch seems to miss a big part of the action. My Garmin often spikes to HR >100 briefly when doing chores around the house. Instead, my Apple Watch just skips HR readings for 30-60 minutes, as long as I am moving. It therefore never catches these higher HR readings.

It doesn't matter to me, if every HR peak is recorded. However, I assume that Apple Watch is not counting calories or workout minutes correctly, since it doesn't seem to notice that I am even active.

Is my assumption correct? Would a 24/7 tracking watch like a Garmin really be more accurate? Or would it just be more detailed, but not more accurate?

On a side note: I read somewhere, that Apple Watch uses infrared and visible LEDs to track HR. Could it therefore be, that Apple Watch does in fact measure HR more frequently than it is actually saving it to the Health app? And therefore would be aware of activities and elevated HR, but just not record it?

 

[ndouglas]

I’d love to know the answer to these questions too. Mostly just out of curiosity.

Re: your Garmin question, it does seem like Garmin’s design and features are super-focused on health-related stuff like heart rate, so it seems likely their heart rate tracking would be more accurate. I get the impression that taking heart rate info, and perhaps sleep info too, for Apple developers is kind of an afterthought or barely made effort, at most.

Speaking of the heart rate measuring I’m curious how Fitbit can have such great battery life when it seems to monitor/take heart rate continuously, whereas AW only takes it periodically. (And Garmin, which I don’t have one but have read about their very extensive battery life.)

I also wonder about the LEDs being visible or not on AW, I don’t notice them in the dark or in general. Versus my Fitbit (Charge 3 model) lights are bright and what puzzles me the most, is how these light STAY ON when I remove the watch and it’s just siting there for hours, days. And yet the Fitbit battery still lasts ~5 days, vs. AW lasting 1 day.

 

[jz0309]

As fear as I understand, Apple Watch is primarily tracking the heart rate during workouts and while not moving at all. But there is a lot of activity between working out and not moving. During these periods, Apple Watch seems to sometimes stop recording the heart rate at all.

When I compare this to my Garmin watch, which tracks HR continuously, Apple Watch seems to miss a big part of the action. My Garmin often spikes to HR >100 briefly when doing chores around the house. Instead, my Apple Watch just skips HR readings for 30-60 minutes, as long as I am moving. It therefore never catches these higher HR readings.

It doesn't matter to me, if every HR peak is recorded. However, I assume that Apple Watch is not counting calories or workout minutes correctly, since it doesn't seem to notice that I am even active.

Is my assumption correct? Would a 24/7 tracking watch like a Garmin really be more accurate? Or would it just be more detailed, but not more accurate?

On a side note: I read somewhere, that Apple Watch uses infrared and visible LEDs to track HR. Could it therefore be, that Apple Watch does in fact measure HR more frequently than it is actually saving it to the Health app? And therefore would be aware of activities and elevated HR, but just not record it?

maybe read this:

Monitor your heart rate with Apple Watch - Apple Support

Learn how Apple Watch measures your heart rate.

support.apple.com

it actually measure HR every 5 min ...