Garmin is a well-known brand in the fitness and health industry. But none of the Garmin watches offer blood pressure monitoring.
Garmin’s primary focus is making watches with comprehensive outdoor and sports features. Garmin fitness trackers are made for sports enthusiasts and fit people, and those people don’t have any severe health issues.
Garmin has introduced a dedicated Index BPM for blood pressure monitoring. You can use Garmin’s Index BPM and your Garmin watch to sync both devices’ data with the Garmin Connect app.
In this article, I will explain the major reasons that avert the company from introducing blood pressure monitors in their watches.
Why Does Garmin Watches Don’t Have Blood Pressure Monitor?
Manufacturing blood pressure watches is not as easy as making casual heart rate watches. There are comprehensive algorithms involved in blood pressure science.
Secondly, it’s difficult to get clearance from FDA. And the FDA process also takes longer to test blood pressure features in several ways.
There are two primary reasons behind the disbar of blood pressure features in Garmin watches.
1- Garmin Watches Are Made For Outdoor Purpose
Garmin watches targets a specific group of people for marketing. Like people who love trekking in the mountains, and going on adventurous tracks, runners and outdoor enthusiasts are primary buyers of Garmin gadgets.
In a nutshell, Garmin watches are not health-tracking gadgets. Instead, Garmin watches are fitness and performance-tracking gadgets.
You will find many training-related features like VO2 max, training load, recovery time, elevation tracking, GPS, etc on Garmin watches.
Although Garmin watches has a few health-related features like HR sensors, sleep tracking, stress tracking, etc., the brand doesn’t invest in bid-budget health features like blood pressure monitoring.
2- Making a Blood Pressure Smartwatch Is Not A Easy Job
Before understanding the working of blood pressure monitoring in any smartwatch, you must first acknowledge the working of professional BP operators.
Professional digital BP monitors or manual BP operators have a cuff placed on your arm to block the blood flow in the main artery.
This pressure is then gently released from the inflated cuff, and at that time, blood starts to flow again through the artery. This pressure is called systolic pressure, and when the entire pressure is released at that time, the BP operator measures diastolic pressure. These two types of pressure will help you to determine your blood pressure.
On the other hand, smartwatches, whether the Garmin watch or Apple Watch, don’t block blood pressure through the main artery, which is the major problem in these smartwatches.
You might think Galaxy watches offers blood pressure monitor; how it can be possible? Galaxy Watches need calibration with a professional blood pressure monitor after every four weeks.
Samsung watches use optical heart rate sensors to monitor heart rate. So Samsung watches analyze the relation between blood pressure change and calibration readings from BP operators.
That’s why Garmin watches don’t have blood pressure monitors because they’re difficult to calibrate with a BP monitor. So it’s vain to introduce blood pressure in Garmin fitness tracker.
Does Garmin Have Any Blood Pressure Monitor?
Yes, Garmin has its own Index BPM smart blood pressure monitor that tells your blood pressure and heart rate.
This smart blood pressure monitor sync data to Garmin Connect app and gives you a comprehensive look at your blood pressure. Garmin also claims that Index Bpm is an FDA-approved device that precisely measures systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
Garmin’s Index BPM also requires four AAAA batteries that can last for nine months. With such an extended battery life you don’t need be worry about changing batteries.
The good news is Garmin BPM monitor works in Garmin’s ecosystem, and you can sync the data of your Garmin watch and Index BPM to the same Garmin Connect account. That’s why if you have a Garmin watch, you don’t need to go for a third-party BP operator.
So if you’re a fan of Garmin gadgets and looking for an FDA-approved blood pressure monitor, the Garmin Index BPM is the best option.
Which Is The Reliable Smartwatch To Measure Blood Pressure
If you’re interested in buying a reliable smartwatch, you can go for Ormon heart guide. This Japanese smartwatch uses the traditional oscillometric method to determine your blood pressure.
Orman heart guide comes with two straps the out strap and the inner one. The inner strap work as a cuff that inflates during blood pressure monitoring. The watch includes an efficient sensor that measures systolic pressure and diastolic pressure.
Orman’s heart guide gives more accurate blood pressure measurements than Samsung or any other watch using an optical heart rate sensor.
Can I Use Any Third Party Blood Pressure App With Garmin Watch?
Garmin Connects offers a variety of health apps that helps you to keep an eye on your health and fitness. But it doesn’t offer any third-party app to store your blood pressure data.
Instead, there is an app called “Rest Status Check Before Measuring Blood Pressure,” which uses your previous heart rate data and lets you know whether you are ok for blood pressure monitoring or need rest.
Apart from that, no such app is available in Garmin Connect that keeps track of your blood pressure data even if you don’t put it manually in the app.
We are keeping an eye on the Garmin Connect app and will update you once got any third-party blood pressure app.
Should You Invest In Garmin Even If It Doesn’t offer Blood Pressure Monitoring?
There is nothing wrong with investing in Garmin watches, even if they don’t have blood pressure monitoring.
If you’re a fitness-focused person and do daily routine workouts, training, cardio, or adventure lover, you should buy a Garmin watch.
It’s worthless if you leave the Garmin watch just for blood pressure features.
Even though Garmin watches lack a blood pressure monitor, they have VO2 max, reparation tracking, sleep tracking, blood oxygen monitoring, calories burned during workouts, body battery energy, and much more. Specially Garmin fitness trackers offer more useful features for athletes and pro trainers.
We recommend a Garmin Index BPM, an FDA-approved BP operator. Because this BP monitor works in a Garmin ecosystem, you can sync the data of both Garmin watches and index BPM simultaneously in one Garmin Connect account.
Wrap Up:
Garmin watches doesn’t have a blood pressure features. Garmin watches are for athletes and sports purposes, so they lack major health features like ECG and blood pressure.
But Garmin watches are still worth investing in if you do workouts, daily cardio training, weightlifting, running, cycling, or hiking. And if you need a BP monitor, you can opt for Garmin Index BPM smart blood pressure monitor.
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