My entire family got these for various health reasons. Sleep monitoring for the kiddo, blood pressure for the better half(he cannot be bothered to actually use his blood pressure machine), and for me oxygen levels after a serious surgery.
For better half this is useful, when he doesn't take it off so it doesn't get damaged, and with kiddo it is useful(when he wears it).
I have found the 'mood' stuff is laughably inaccurate and the sleep monitoring is questionable for accuracy but good for patterns. I mean unless you got my watch in particular. Better halves watch can go for days without charging. Kiddo's can as well. Mine? Nope. Needs daily charge since it was out of the box and is finicky and difficult to position so it will actually do so. Recently, four months in, the bluetooth keeps disconnecting and I spent a good twenty minutes this evening, reconnecting it. Apparently it disconnects in the middle of the night often and thus my attempts to get my own sleep patterns fails miserably, not that this thing recognizes the difference between when I am awake and laying there awake vs 'light sleep' but then there is a reason I said it was good for patterns but not for accuracy in the details.
Constantly having the app shove a value in my face that I cannot meet is annoying. It's there, and I am physically disabled. There is no 'steps' for me. I turned off the setting to put it there and it's still there, just smaller. It's not helpful. It's just another reminder of a difficult situation.
The face of the watches is fragile. From sleeping in it kiddo's is so scratched up and the only thing on his bed, besides blankets, is stuffed animals. Mine keeps scratching on my wheelchair and is more fragile than my nails if it so much as touches a wall while I am trying to manuever myself. Better half takes his off at work, a place he should be keeping it on to monitor blood pressure most of all, because of how fragile it is. This watch is not made to withstand basic wear.
I do have a criticism that you cannot connect multiple watches when monitoring a kiddo. Having to use an old phone for that is all kinds of annoying.
The water reminders are useful as someone who gets so busy I can forget those. Medication reminders being added would be more useful.
Another plus is that the firmware and app are often updated, which means someone is clearly working on and supporting it. In an age of all the things that go on in this world, especially digitally, this is encouraging and good.
It is good for, as I said earlier, getting the sleep patterns even if not for the exact nitty gritty details.
It is sort of funny to see when this thing things I have taken 'steps' because I move my hands when I talk. Especially since 'steps' aren't being taken at all.
For the most part being able to see the levels is very informative and for the most part the blood pressure etc is pretty consistent with what I've had taken at the doctors. I am unsure about the blood glucose or what exactly it is measuring for that one but I watch that because I am aware of a risk of developing a problem, not because I have it already, so knowing when there is a blip or when it goes low enough for this to pick up after I get so busy and don't eat until then and am shaking, is sort of just validating and matches the things I know about that. It's even a bit amusing.
It is fairly accurate on the oxygen levels, which came in handy for myself and helped inform when I told my doctor my levels were consistently okay so I could come back off oxygen at home.
The ability to change the display to customize it also helps, especially with three watches in the home. Imagine if we had no way to look at them and know whose was whose when they were taken off and put down. Yikes.
It would be useful to be able to rename the devices on the Bluetooth network.
I accept that mine was probably a bad batch or something but overall, I would recommend these. Just keep in mind that this isn't a replacement for going to the doctor and documenting these things. It is a help and it's pretty useful for monitoring various health issues but some things are less accurate than others.
To be fair to the watch I had a sleep study done awhile back to rule some things out and the techs didn't realize I was awake many times I was even when they had stuff hooked up reading my brain so… sometimes that is a hard read at the best of times. I never told them either. I just laid there and listened to what they were saying. Moving just reminded me I was in a closet sized room that was barely navable even back then when I was able bodied enough to nav it. Anyway, it's not perfect accuracy but the professionals failed at that with me too so… the watch CAN be given some slack for the sleep stuff. It is accurate enough to get a pattern and major changes etc and that is enough to help a lot.
Overall, just know what to expect or not expect.
This is only lower on the stars, not because of the things to keep in mind, but because of the inconsistency in the quality of the watches even in battery life and because of the level of fragility. I've got months of annoyance built up and the Bluetooth issues hit point break.
When you receive this watch you do receive a paper saying to send feedback to an e mail but after four months we have no idea where that is now. Pretty sure it probably ended up in the trash at some point or another just randomly cleaning up, on accident, however if you do get that please hold onto it and give that feedback. The company does seem to at least listen and be willing to, even if it might be a way to shut people up and avoid the reviews that are not purely positive. Still. It shows a willingness most companies do not have.
Leave a Reply