Study Claims Apple Watch Is The Most Accurate Fitness Wrist Wearable

There are plenty of wearables on the market today that one can choose from if they are looking for fitness tracking features. However obviously customers want the one that’s the most accurate, right? After all what’s the use of the information if it isn’t reliable? As it turns out, that device you want is the Apple Watch.

This is according to a report from TIME (via 9to5Mac) in which they cite a study published in JAMA Cardiology where it was found that out of the wrist wearables in today’s market, the Apple Watch is apparently the most accurate. In their test of 50 healthy adults, they measured the Apple Watch against the Fitbit Charge HR, Mio Alpha and Basis Peak, as well as a chest strap.

The chest strap was obviously the most accurate at 99%, while the Apple Watch came in at around 90% for accuracy. The other fitness trackers were found to be in the low 80s for their accuracy, which we guess isn’t too bad but obviously not quite as good. However it isn’t all good news for Apple.

The study found that as the intensity of the activity went up, accuracy went down. This is namely due to the way wrist wearables measure heart rate which is through blood flow. According to Dr. Gordon Blackburn who is one of the study’s authors, “All of the wrist technologies are looking at blood flow. You need to have good contact between the photosensing cells; as a person is exercising more vigorously, there’s more bounce, so you may lose some of that contact.”

So unless you don’t plan on doing very intense activities, devices like the Apple Watch could provide the most accuracy, but if you are quite the health nut then maybe investing in a chest strap could report more accurate data.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Gadgets
Tags: Apple Watch, Fitness, Health, Smartwatch, study, Wearable Tech