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I'm looking for a smart watch that will record my heartrate throughout the day without starting a specific activity, Ie having it record ongoing in background and then being able to download the data and see variation retrospectively , on a second by second, minute by minute basis if I so wished?
Do all garmin watches with an hr sensor have that ability, or Do I need something else?
Specifically looking at either a forerunner 735 xt, or a vivoactive 3 if that makes any difference
I have a vivoactive 3 and a 4, both will do what you're looking for, any garmin watch with optic hr will tbh.
Both very good watches, 735xt gets good reviews too.
Yep, all Garmin’s will do that and records it into the Garmin Connect app.
I use an VivoSmart for this, as I like to wear a normal watch during the day. Have a Forerunner for running as well.
Its probably not quite every second. It may use a lower frequency to save battery. Would depend on what model watch.
And Garmin Connect won't show you the data every second anyway.
Garmin Connect shows 2 minute averages.
But remember the accuracy for the wrist mounted monitor is pretty variable, depending on a number of factors.
As above, garmin will do that.
I have a forerunner 245 and it does the 24/7 HR thing, showing 2 minute averages. You can go into the mobile app and it'll be realtime.
Optical sensors are perfect for non-exercise and day to day use, they're more than accurate enough for that.
Mr Rainmaker explains some differences between devices. You can grab the stored data from the Garmin health API.
But remember the accuracy for the wrist mounted monitor is pretty variable, depending on a number of factors.
Fairly accurate for general monitoring, though, just not so good if you're doing sport. (Which is a bit crap for a sports watch admittedly 🙂 )
Another option is the Fitbit, my wife has one and it seems to do a better job of sleep monitoring than my Garmin Fenix 5. Although Fitbit does now belong to Google, which probably isn't ideal from a privacy point of view if you're concerned about that kind of thing. (And you probably should be, sending medical data to a giant advertising company with a limited concern for ethics is perhaps unwise...)
Consider one of the Huawei watches. Much better value for money than Garmin and has the 24hr heart rate tracking you're after. The exercise tracking is OK, but bear in mind *still* no Strava export. As a smar****ch though it's fine and about 1/4 the price of the equivalent Garmin.
I picked up a 735xt in December, records heart rate when not in an activity, if I press the down button will show my current HR, a guess at resting heart rate, high and low heart rate for the last four hours and a graph showing the last four hours.
If I want to look more at the data I just sync it to Garmin Connect and can look it on my phone or web browser. I think I could also share the info to Apple Health and a whole host of other apps.
I find looking at the lowest HR in the last 4 hours when I wake interesting and also the sleep tracker in the Garmin app which uses the HR data.
I came from a 920xt, for an activity purpose I did have issues when running with the HR reading low, I think this might have been a combo of cold and long sleeve top clashing though, I have never had an issues with my 920xt and a chest strap and can pair the chest strap to us with the 735XT. I do when cycling miss the barometer from the 920xt to tell me how much climbing I have done, the 735xt will show current elevation from a preloaded database. But all in all a good watch, I got a really good deal via FB marketplace with someone selling it as unwanted xmas gift, paid around £80 for it.
I just received an email from Fitbit, the new Charge 4 is out and has 24/7 HR tracking Fitbit
I've had the 735XT for a few yers now and it's been very good. It records HR in the background from your wrist or when recording an activity. It can be paired with a HR strap if you want more accurate recording. The GPS works well and I use it to record mountain bike rides paired with a HR strap, crank based cadence and hub speed sensor.
Fairly accurate for general monitoring, though, just not so good if you’re doing sport. (Which is a bit crap for a sports watch admittedly 🙂 )
After a comment on here regarding fit*, I've been experimenting a bit, and have much better results while running with the watch a bit further up, on my actual arm as opposed to the wrist joint. Seems much steadier, and numbers are a lot more like my chest strap is.
*I've always thought Optic hrms are a bit shit, other than for resting hr, so wasn't expecting much!.
After a comment on here regarding fit*, I’ve been experimenting a bit, and have much better results while running with the watch a bit further up, on my actual arm as opposed to the wrist joint. Seems much steadier, and numbers are a lot more like my chest strap is.
Will give this a go, when I got my dodgy results the watch seemed to be slipping down onto the bones of my wrist, I tried cranking it up but then felt like my hand was going to explode!