Polaris OBark

Just last night, while I was wondering if I was having a heart attack*, I was thinking about why Garmin doesn't yet have an ECG (EKG) like Apple Watch and my wife's otherwise almost useless Withings watch.

I had read the hardware was in the Venu 2+, but hadn't been activated.

Now they have activated it.

DC Rainmaker has the details: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/01/...explained.html


*



Lest anyone take this too seriously.

I guess if you were flatlining, you wouldn't be playing with your watch.

NoWhammies

So a couple of questions:

1. Do we think this functionality will be rolled out to all of Garmin's watches as a software update? Such as the 255 and 955?

2. How much use is the ECG functionality on all of the smart watches out there? Is this more of gimmick to sell watches or functionality that people will actually use?

thin_concrete

Apparently there’s a difference on the back of the Venu 2+ that allows for this. It seems to be a hardware matter.

Polaris OBark

I think they might put the ECG hardware in more watches. In the case of Venu2+, it was known to be embedded in their watch hardware, but I think Garmin had to get FDA approval before they could enable it via a software update.

I thought about that, briefly. I think it is a gimmick.

My wife's Withings watch (which is a big DON'T BUY) has it. She activated it, and we played with it for a couple of days, and haven't touched it since.

I bought a $100 stand-alone one that is a bit better than what is in the various watches, activated it, and played with it for a couple of days, and now I can't even tell you where it is. Hopefully in a desk drawer somewhere. (I bought the Venu2 non-plussed for $350 on sale at REI and then bought this stand-alone ECG thingie separately.)