Smart Watch Question

[Super]

Anyone have a Smart Watch or have had experience with one? I am curious if you have to have some type of paid subscription service for the watch to work? I was looking at of course, the Apple, Google, Samsung watches. What I was looking at them for is a personal health monitor like being able to record EKGs at any time, Sleep rhythms, Blood pressure and pulse things like that. Don't need all the other bells and whistles

I have a Huawei, has most of the things you're looking for, except for the EKG's, but the accompanying app does support that so it is probable the new incarnation of it does do that (mine is v2). You don't need any subscription of any type and the watches will do most of the stuff on the watch itself. But you get enhanced functionality and history on the accompanying phone app. Hope this helps...

[Super]

Many thanks Nigel. So with the watch you have to have a phone to Link it with correct? If so, does the phone have to have a paid subscription in order for the watch to use all its options or can it work without a paid phone? As everyone knows, I don't have a new fangle phone and I certainly wouldn't pay for a subscription just to have the watch.

Hi Super,

It would work on it's own, but you limit its abilities by not having a phone and its associated app. The app itself is free and no subscription is required to use it, so if you got a 'pay as you go' type android phone you could use it by connecting it to your wifi - in other words no airtime agreement needed. Sure you would have to have a SIM to use it as a phone outside the home or access to a wifi connection, but you could use it to link to the watch without a SIM once you have the app installed.

Hope this helps?

[Super]

Of course your knowledge helps. I am struggling with convincing myself that its worth the expense and the fact that I haven't worn a watch or anything on my wrists since Pagers were invented 😒

I fully get that, I suppose it all depends why you need it and what for? If it is for example to monitor your health is it better to have it or not is the question? Having something that monitors you all the time may actually cause you more stress which if you are worried about your heart for example could actually prove anti-productive.

If it is just 'in case' because you've got spooked about heart issues or something then again is it worth the cost/worry? Also bear in mind although these things do 'help' monitor things like heart rates, stress levels, and in the latest models EKG's you should never consider them to be medical equipment. Sure they can help 'indicate' issues, but they are not necessarily accurate or reliable enough to be considered medical monitors in the professional sense.

You may find a standalone blood pressure machine is a cheaper and more reliable option as that can often indicate issues better than a smartwatch. I did recently get one of those as my doctor was concerned about my blood pressure at a recent appointment as it was a 'little high', not critically, but definitely above average. So he suggested I got a home one and monitored it for a week or two to see what it was like over a period. Also bear in mind that measuring your blood pressure when at a doctors can be misleading if you feel any stress simply because you are there with a doctor as it may be transitory. Bottom line after a fortnight measuring at home twice a day at pre-determined times it turns out that I don't have an issue. For the majority of the time my pressure readings were 'normal' with just some days being just marginally outside the 'normal' range. Actually finding this out made me feel quite a bit better as the stress levels dropped knowing that I was 'ok'. For the record the one I chose was one made by 'Braun', I did try a cheap chinese one first from Amazon, but that simply didn't work out of the box, so I decided to go for a known name. As usual this turned out to be the best choice, sure it was a bit more expensive, but I got a device designed in Germany and manufactured in Switzerland that works perfectly, has plenty of features and is reliable. It even has a bluetooth interface that syncs with my smartphone and their app which stores each reading and then can give you stats over a day/week/monthly period with averages etc... which is very useful and a good record to present to your doctor.

[Super]

Great advice...thank you my friend.