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The Top 10 Best Health Watches: Watches for a Happy Heart
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There are two types of watches that make your heart happy. The first is pure haute horlogerie class: think A. Lange & Söhne-finished movements and Breguet guilloché dials.
The second class keeps your heart happy in a more literal way: health watches! Smartwatches are fantastic health companions, keeping track not just of your heart rate but also of your overall fitness and wellness.
Oh no, I hear you grumble, not another article about fitness watches! I’ve read a hundred of those already—they’re all the same! Never fear, intrepid reader: I’m not talking about fitness here. If you’re interested in that part of your health, I’ve written an article on the best fitness watches here!
In this article, we’re going to talk about the best watches for your health. So, if you’re focused on keeping an eye on your health, tracking disease, and keeping it at bay, follow along for a breakdown to find the best watch for you!
History of Health Watches: The Watch Nerd Section
Health watches have come a really, really long way. And if you’re a bit of a watch fan like me and you want to learn about this fascinating past, this is the part for you. (Otherwise, feel free to skip to the list—I won’t be offended!)
The first big medical breakthrough in the world of watches was the introduction of a pulsometer in chronograph watches. Ever notice just how common heart rate sensors are in modern smartwatches? It feels like every single one of them has one. That all started here!
The pulsometer enabled doctors to easily and conveniently track their patients’ heart rates, and it remains available today in modern mechanical wristwatches.
The pulsometer usually takes the form of a printed scale around the outside ring of your watch’s dial that says something along the lines of “graduated to 30 pulsations.”
To use it, first actuate the chronograph with your other hand on your pulse (or your patient’s pulse!). Count out 30 heartbeats, and then stop it. Wherever the chronograph hand stops, take a look at the marking and read it off. That’s your pulse rate!
Okay, so it’s clear health watches have come far from their early days. Really, really far. A pulsometer may be poetic, but it’s not exactly the most useful tool for keeping an eye on AFib or tracking how your heart rate changes when you sleep—let alone pulse oxygen or stress levels!
The ability of a little wearable device on your wrist to help you fully master your health is more advanced than it ever has been, and it continues to grow. Now is the time to take your health into your hands!
The 10 Best Health Watches
Okay, enough watch nerd rambling about pulsometers and mechanical chronographs. Now for the real deal: the very finest in health smartwatches on the market today, to help you track every aspect of your health and wellness. There’s something at every price point for every budget, with every feature imaginable in the health smartwatch world. Let’s dive in!
Garmin Venu 3S
For $450, the Venu 3S is a solid mid-range smartwatch with high-end features. 10 days of battery life, on-wrist texting, viewing photos, music, and more are all built-in, sure—but the best part of this watch is its health trackers.
It’s great for any kind of cardiac or respiratory monitoring, with heart rate, pulse oxygen, respiration, and an ECG for keeping an eye on any heart problems that could be present.
On top of that, you get a great holistic picture of your overall wellness thanks to a huge suite of sleep-related features as well as stress and mindfulness. This watch does it all at a great mid-range price.
Amazfit GTR 4
If the Venu 3S does it all at a mid-range price, the GTR 4 does quite a lot at a ridiculously low price, retailing at just $110. It even beats out the Venu in battery life, with a solid two weeks of continuous running time.
You get heart rate and pulse oxygen from the key sensors, coupled with a specialized algorithm to reduce inference from any arm movement that could get in the way of accurate tracking. Sleep and stress monitoring are there too, for a well-rounded picture of your health.
To be honest, however, this watch is more suited for those of us who don’t have serious health concerns and who are looking to stay healthy through fitness, thanks to its variety of sports modes and other fitness algorithms.
This article isn’t for the dedicated fitness gurus among us, but if that’s an important part of your health regimen, this might be the watch for you.
Fitbit Charge 6 Tracker
I have a soft spot in my heart for Fitbits—they’re so under-the-radar and iconic at a glance, making them ideal for someone who’s not looking for a large dedicated smartwatch.
At $160, the Charge 6 hits all the right Fitbit buttons with a great suite of health features: heart rate and pulse ox in particular, but also the interesting inclusion of device temperature.
The latter allows you to track your skin temp in the Fitbit app, which can provide a heads-up as to whether you might be getting sick—or getting over it! The Charge 6 mostly stops here in terms of its health trackers (you also get VO2 max if you’re into fitness), but for just $160, it’s pretty darn good.
Garmin vívoactive 6
At $300, the vívoactive 6 is just great. It’s just a solid watch that checks all the boxes. Bright AMOLED display, stress tracking, morning report, hydration, respiration, energy monitoring, pulse oxygen… the list goes on, but I won’t bore you.
I struggle to find any fault to comment on here, but I also struggle to find stellar features that I can break down for you in particular. It just checks all the boxes without going over the top, like the quietly studious middle child of the Garmin family.
And honestly, that really might be the best kind of watch for many of us who are just looking for something to quietly do it all.
Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra
AI is the big headline for the Galaxy Watch Ultra—you can find the word plastered all over Samsung’s website for the watch, and with good reason.
Their Galaxy AI is here to enhance all of the data taken in by the watch’s suite of sensors, so you end up getting a lot more out of it than almost any other smartwatch would—others mainly use algorithms, which are less complex and analytical.
The battery life isn’t anything to write home about (60 hours), but the AGEs Index tracker sure is: it’s the first example I’ve seen of tracking metabolic health and diet from any smartwatch, period. Add in all the other standard health features and while the $650 price tag isn’t too pretty, it does feel reasonable.
Garmin vívomove Trend
As a mechanical watch fanatic first and foremost, I can’t help but love that the vívomove Trend really does just look like a normal watch. All the smartwatch features are your secret, because at a few paces, this hybrid smartwatch just has a standard pair of hands and a lovely colored dial.
Deep down, however, it’s a health-watch stunner. 5 days of battery life, a hidden touchscreen display that appears on tap or swipe, and all the most important features: energy monitoring, heart rate, pulse oxygen, respiration, stress, women’s health, and some fitness tracking.
My favorite detail? There’s a chronograph timer function that actually uses the watch hands, not the screen. Just for the watch fans like me. And at $300, it’s got a great mid-range price to boot.
Apple Watch Ultra 2
The Ultra 2 may have a bit of an ultra price tag ($799), but it’s also got one of the most formidable suites of health trackers on this list. The Vitals app keeps an eye on heart rate, wrist temperature, and sleep tracking, while the ECG app gives you notifications for any detected heart issues.
You’ve also got women’s health tracking and sleep apnea notifications (something very few other smartwatches are able to do). Unlike all the other watches here (except the Galaxy Watch Ultra), however, this is a smartwatch first and foremost.
It’s not about the health like all the others are: it’s a fully functioning smart device on your wrist. If you’re looking for health but also for a watch that can do much more, this is the one for you.
Withings ScanWatch 2
Withings calls this “the watch that changes lives,” and they just might be right. The 30-day battery life means you’ll have a 24/7 look at your health for an entire month, which can definitely be key for some of us.
Plus, like the vívomove Trend, it’s a hybrid smartwatch, so it’s got real hands and real class. But the headliner here is its health features.
Withings claims their built-in ECG, for one, is medical-grade: a full 30-second assessment of your cardiovascular health. You also have skin temp tracking to indicate the onset of disease. Pulse oxygen, and an advanced heart rate tracker called a PPG.
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Finally, the ScanWatch will automatically detect and alert you about AFib detections. In other words, it’s the watch for you if you’re worried about your cardiac health: almost all of its features are targeted towards that domain, and it covers it really well. For $350, it’s really not too bad for a little heart health peace of mind.
Garmin vívosmart 5
Like the Fitbit Charge 6, the vívosmart 5 is small and unobtrusive, and also very accessibly priced despite its full suite of health options. It’s got all the works: heart rate, energy level, sleep quality, pulse oxygen, and stress tracking.
Nothing exceptional like the ScanWatch ECG, sure, but if you’re looking for something low-key to accompany you on your wellness journey, it’s hard to beat out something as simple as the vívosmart 5 for $150.
Fitbit Sense 2
The Sense 2 is a very different sort of smartwatch from the Apple and Samsung watches we looked at earlier. At $250, it’s a great way to get all the health features you want, and then some. Heart rate and pulse oxygen, skin temperature, ECG and EDA, and even an altimeter!
Fascinatingly, the Sense 2 also has an electrical sensor to measure your skin conductance. This keeps an eye on your body’s emotional response throughout the day by measuring physiological cues.
Were you dealing with a low level of stress for most of the day without even knowing it? Your Sense 2 can relay that information and help you deal with your emotional response after detecting it. Plus, it comes with Amazon Alexa built-in for hands-free function!
Conclusion
Health watches are a wide and wonderful world, with a huge variety of styles and features. Thankfully, this means that whatever your needs may be, there’s something out there for you.
Looking for a tight grip on your cardiac health? There are plenty of watches out there with ECG functionality that can notify you if things are awry. Looking for an everyday companion to help improve your overall wellness?
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