Apple watch - specifically oxygen sensor

[Grimham]

Anyone have any knowledge of how well the oxygen senor works from series to series? From what I can tell the Series 6 is the first to have it, but does it work as well as the latest model?
My father is getting older and having issues and I'd like to get him something to monitor and alert him if his oxygen level gets low or heart rate is out of whack. I don't mind springing for the best model
if I must, but I know him and he'd probably lose or break it within the first month.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

Anyone have any knowledge of how well the oxygen senor works from series to series? From what I can tell the Series 6 is the first to have it, but does it work as well as the latest model?
My father is getting older and having issues and I'd like to get him something to monitor and alert him if his oxygen level gets low or heart rate is out of whack.

You'd have to be some-what of a medical technologist to know. A good chunk of the white papers are available online.

I can say Apple Watch does not monitor everything 24/7. Functions such as Blood Oxygen takes intermittent readings. 24/7 monitoring would drain the already short battery life. Both Blood Oxygen and other functions like ECG can also be activated manually.

I will say though, that straight up Apple multiple times cautions that the Apple Watch is not a substitute for actual medical devices. You can read between the lines here in the sense that their tech is very good, but they want zero liability. If you want something that fits into those categories, that is: a company that will take liability, and actually be monitoring 24/7 then the Apple Watch isn't it.

I don't mind springing for the best model

They're all roughly the same in terms of tech under the hood. The differences are in size, materials, etc.
A standard aluminum Apple watch has all the same internal parts as a Titanium or Gold one.

There are some differences. All the premium models have Sapphire glass instead of Ion-X Gorilla Glass. Which has the benefit of being significantly more scratch resistant. That may have some durability value if this person you're giving it to just can't be bothered to not smack his non-dominate arm into things. Which believe it or not is harder than you might think.

The only slight exception here is the Watch Ultra, but even that one is basically the same device as the other Watches of its gen. It simply has more buttons, longer battery life, and a significantly more robust housing to actually operate as a dive computer, etc.

if I must, but I know him and he'd probably lose or break it within the first month.

He may not be a good candidate anyway then. Apple Watch claims 18 hours of battery life only. In practice you might be able to average just shy of a day. But if you're dealing with someone who can't be bothered to take care of electronics, make sure the watch is charged, and put it on and off everyday by themselves, they will likely not be able to actually gain the benefits from Watch.

I got my mom a FitBit just so she could do fitness and sleep tracking and also have a watch, but she also couldn't be bothered to charge it periodically and often forgot to put it on. And that was a device with 5+ day battery life.

 

[Grimham]

Thank you for the thorough reply. I didn't really think about it not monitoring constantly, so I'm sure an alarm won't happen.
FYI, my father isn't really hard on electronics, but he has a tendency to do activities (such as working on a car) where you run the risk
of damaging something like that. Again, thanks for the reply.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

Thank you for the thorough reply. I didn't really think about it not monitoring constantly, so I'm sure an alarm won't happen.

I tried to do at least a little bit of reading about it, and as far as I can tell, the watch will take a reading when the user is immobile. Which, theoretically would conincide with a pulminary event or blood oxygen event.

It also is capable of knowing when people have been in a fall and call emergency services if that is also of concern (which again might coincide with some other event).

FYI, my father isn't really hard on electronics, but he has a tendency to do activities (such as working on a car) where you run the risk
of damaging something like that. Again, thanks for the reply.

I think the bigger issue is the discipline aspect. If they just aren’t paying attention to charging it and putting it on (have some kind of routine with it). For techies, I can’t wait to get my watch on because I want it to give me all the info. But a lot of normal people don’t think that way.

 

[Mchart]

FYI the blood o2 sensor really only takes automatic readings at night while someone is sleeping. If you want it taking readings during the day he’ll have to manually do so. This is because it requires no movement from the wearer. It works really good though beside that limitation. Of course, if he’s sitting around a lot during the day not moving it will likely take an automatic reading.

I actually only wear my watch at night for this feature as I have bad sleep apnea, during the day I have it charging. Mostly because it’s useless to me as a watch, and I have much nicer watches.

 

[UnknownSouljer]

FYI the blood o2 sensor really only takes automatic readings at night while someone is sleeping. If you want it taking readings during the day he’ll have to manually do so. This is because it requires no movement from the wearer. It works really good though beside that limitation. Of course, if he’s sitting around a lot during the day not moving it will likely take an automatic reading.

That's interesting. Because I would assume that it would/should be taking readings throughout the day, whenever that person just reaches some form of stationary status. I would imagine people doing office jobs would/should get more measurements, as would any TV/couch time.

But, I personally haven't seen clarity on this from Apple. Some of their measurings are a bit opaque. I pay attention to how it measures Cardio Fitness and Cardio Recovery, and I find its 'usable data' for either to not be consistent on either. Sometimes a measurement won't show up for a day or so, but will then appear "historically".

However certainly getting alerts, since that seems to be the primary issue here, is likely less useful on Apple Watch for that specific function.

I actually only wear my watch at night for this feature as I have bad sleep apnea, during the day I have it charging. Mostly because it’s useless to me as a watch, and I have much nicer watches.

Interesting. I suppose everyone has different wants/needs, but I personally find all of the exercise and sleep stuff invaluable. Less important but also useful: alerts, messages, check weather, look at multiple time-zones, sunrise/sunset times, and next item in calendar. And all of that is glancible information (well except the deeper weather stuff, I do check AQI as an example. Being in LA county it's just wise to do so).
Honestly my biggest criticism of Watch still is battery life, because I want to keep those metrics and uptime as much as I possibly can.

Anyway, say that to say it's "surprising" that there was just no other value in there other than sleep information. Though I do have to say, that has been really valuable for me to better understand my energy levels.

(Though I have also thought it may be nice to get a "dual watch band" where one Watch is on the top of the wrist (your nice Omega or whatever) and the Apple watch on the bottom of the wrist. That would require a "very custom" Watch band, but it seems there could be a market there for that.)

 

[raz-0]

FYI the blood o2 sensor really only takes automatic readings at night while someone is sleeping. If you want it taking readings during the day he’ll have to manually do so. This is because it requires no movement from the wearer. It works really good though beside that limitation. Of course, if he’s sitting around a lot during the day not moving it will likely take an automatic reading.

I actually only wear my watch at night for this feature as I have bad sleep apnea, during the day I have it charging. Mostly because it’s useless to me as a watch, and I have much nicer watches.

The O2 sensor does not only take automatic readings while sleeping. It is effectively sampling at random, even when sleeping. If you are a restless sleeper, you can wind up with sampling rates similar to what you get during the day. If you only wear your watch at night, of course it is going to look less effective during the day.

That being said, I would not rely on it to monitor your health in any serious way. Get a dedicated continuous monitor for that. I know wellue makes some that are reasonably priced. If your reaction to lower O2 due to apnea is sleep disruption, you are using a device that very specifically cannot see the issue you are trying to monitor.