Blood pressure readings have been rumored for Apple Watch for a few generations now. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says this year will be the year this happens.
A few days ago, Gurman reported that the Apple Watch Series and Watch Ultra 3 will have the long-awaited blood pressure feature.
However, there are reasons it has taken this long. And while it’s likely to be somewhat limited when it does arrive.
The classic way to measure blood pressure is with an inflatable cuff, a piece of kit known as a sphygmomanometer. It’s used to determine the pressure of blood flow as that flow is blocked through the inflation of the arm-worn cuff, and the pressure when it’s not being restricted — in the final stages of deflating the cuff.
This two-part procedure determines the diastolic and systolic numbers that make up a blood pressure reading. Only a number of customer wearables use (roughly) this blood pressure detection, the Huawei Watch D2.
It is a very careful feat of miniaturization, but it is not the approach used through Apple.
Huawei D2
Other watches that provide some form of blood pressure measurement rely on the photoplethysmography (PPG) hardware used for all-day heart rate reading. This uses green and red/infrared LEDs to direct light into the wearer’s wrist. And light sensors, acting like tiny cameras, record variations in the reflected light as blood is pumped through the veins.
Using this method to work out the wearer’s heart rate is relatively simple next to doing so for blood pressure, which requires more source information than just the pace at which the heart is beating.
Gurman suggests that the Apple Watch 11 and Watch Ultra 3 series wouldn’t possibly be used to spit out diastolic and systolic readings, like a $30 puff solution from Amazon, but instead will notify you when it appears your blood pressure is high. This is a high blood pressure alert specialized in superseded and not undeniable numerical results.
A key here is whether Apple’s solution will be more useful than a core rate-based stress indicator that triggers an alert. After all, stress can cause a sharp rise in blood pressure.
Several studies in recent years have addressed the use of PPG to analyze blood pressure, and a 2019 Nature paper points out how several promising systems of the concept fall apart, either due to limited precision or due to a lack of PPG recording sites.
This is where the long-term apple ring concept becomes more interesting. PPG readings at multiple sites can give the Apple Watch more substance as a blood pressure monitor. But in November 2024, Gurman claimed that Apple has “no plans to launch” a smart ring.
A single-site PPG sensor is highly limited when you stop to think about it. In the context of heart rate, the lack of well-defined context doesn’t matter too much. The sensor doesn’t know which part of the wrist it’s looking at, where it is relative to the veins in the wrist, or how the colour of the person’s skin may be affecting the reflected light.
For the central rate, this arguably wouldn’t matter too much, but it does for blood pressure.
However, a paper published in 2024 detailed a hardware formula that employs a PPG sensor to record heart rate and blood pressure. And it found that it had been able to detect high blood pressure with an accuracy of 92. 42%, using machine learning algorithms that estimate blood pressure from limited raw information.
A diagram from an Apple patent
Also in November 2024, the US Patent Office. The difference here, however, is that the means used to inflate the camera is more liquid than air.
It’s a generation and confusing to integrate into a watch. But the vast majority of technical patents never end up as genuine products.
What’s the takeaway? It’s no wonder Apple has taken years to include blood pressure readings in the Watch family, even though Samsung brought it to the Galaxy Watch 4 in 2021. The main hope is Apple’s slower approach will mean users won’t need to regularly calibrate readings with a more conventional blood pressure cuff.
Apple is expected to announce the Apple Watch models with blood pressure readings — the Series 11 and Ultra 3 — in September.
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