Inaccurate Heart Rate

I got my watch about 2 weeks now and so far BPM looks good. During my workouts it goes above 140 BPM and I saw even 200 BPM. I'm not sure if they are correct measurements but looks good to me. Also it detects automatically my activity. I mean when I do warm-up or play soccer it detects activity automatically so I believe it works well. The only thing is that sometimes it takes some time to get measurement. I think it can be related to wet hand. 

Another small issue is that 2 times so far I had to restart app to synchronize data with my watch. I use iOS version. 

I bought an early Scanwatch - my second Withings watch - and the heart rate data is frustratingly inaccurate. Often shoots up to rates well above my maximum - which was a little terrifying at first.

I've checked with a chest-strap monitor and it shows the Scanwatch is simply wrong, often 60-80bpm too high. And the error intermittent, so potentially dangerous.

The older watch was much more accurate.

It largely negates the point of having the watch at all. 

jshallcross - me too (heart rate way too high) - did you get a solution? I have asked Withings for assistance.

Nothing yet. I'll keep you posted.

Check this out : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjemOE2eHcY&list=LL&index=18&t=280s

The tester on Youtube - has the same problem - it's a very scientific approach - worth watching - the product is faulty  

Same issue here. I’m doing indoor cycling, and when the HR reaches around 120-130, it jumps on 50-60 and stays there until my HR drops to around 100. Then it starts showing the real value. Definitely some bug somewhere. Overall, it makes my Scanwatch completely irrelevant in this respect (HR monitoring when doing other sports where I cannot use a dedicated chest strap). Now, I wonder how about the other sensors on the watch, whether they show real data, or some completely wrong data...

PS: I'm also using a Polar chest strap while on cycling, so I can see the actual HR, therefore, I can compare.

The same for me

This received from Withings Support:

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I'm sorry to hear that you're receiving inaccurate measurements from your ScanWatch. Let me help you with this.

I truly appreciate you for providing the additional information as it helps me to isolate the issue further.

I understand that you might aware and familiar with this, however, to ensure that heart rate is properly measured, the watch should be worn about one centimeter behind the wrist bone. Additionally, the watch should be worn so that it is comfortably tight. There should be no gap between the back of the watch and your skin. Please adjust the watch accordingly and let me know if the heart rate is now accurately measured.

Note that using a metal or leather band could result in a minor heart rate inaccuracy as it may not be worn as tightly as the included fluoroelastomer band.

If the measurements are still not accurate, please let me know if they are too high, too low, and by how much they are inaccurate.

Please note that other factors can prevent heart rate measurements from being accurately, or at all. Please follow this link for more information.

Best regards,

Grace

I've changed the strap and it's a little better but still shows dramatically high readings on occasion.

I keep the strap as recommended. I just stay on the indoor bike/trainer and paddle. The hand doesn’t move. Regardless if I start a program or not on the watch, the BPM drops to 50-60 as soon as the real BPM reaches around 110-120 (as observed by the chest strap). Then it goes back to normal when I finish paddling and the HR goes back to around 80 or so.

Hi everyone,

I also have heart rate measurement problems. My Cardiologist has said that I should keep my heart rate below 120 so imagine my alarm when I clocked up 180 bpm after jogging a few yards. By wearing my old Garmin on the other wrist I am able to say that my Scanwatch is often almost exactly double what my Garmin indicates. The pulse measured by my Garmin compares reasonably with manual measurements. I have had prompt and courtesy replies from Grace but all she does is repeat the instructions re positioning of the watch etc. I like the watch very much and want to make it work and have even tried shaving a patch under the green light and washing and thoroughly drying the important area but all without solving the problem. As the watch seems to be almost exactly 2x the actual heartrate I asked Grace if there was some sort of rounding or averaging process in the software, she did not respond to that so I guess she didn't ask the technical staff. Clearly the watch is useless if I can't solve the problem so I will forward this to Grace and wait to see if something can be done. I will give it 6 weeks before asking for a replacement or a refund. As I said I would be disappointed if I can't make it work.

I would return the watch. This is probably a known hardware issue. ( that they are denying? ) Have you looked at the YouTube link that I posted ? Also 3-4 days after I posted that link here in the forum they (whithings) contacted the YouTubeer. If you look at their response video the guy answering about the HR-reader doesn’t give any convincing answer.

https://youtu.be/nstbU1Us_xc

^^ I watched this video. No solutions. Moreover, the data scientist guy is clueless. They should hire a proper signal processing engineer. I also have a 30$ Honor Band 3, doing a much better job in heart rate monitoring and also sleeping with similar battery life.

They asked me to reset to factory settings, and when that didn't work they simply gave up:

"Thank you for getting back and for doing the steps provided in my previous email.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you are experiencing with your ScanWatch in terms of heart rate accuracy.

Although the algorithm for heart rate measurements we have in place works well for most of our users, factors such as individual skin properties, or certain types of movements, may cause the heart rate measurements to be inaccurate.

Again, I apologize for this and hope this won't prevent you from enjoying your Withings ScanWatch .

Let me know if you have additional questions and concerns. Thank you and have a nice day!"

I love that "Have a nice day!"...

The thing is, I had an earlier Withings watched and the heart rate monitor worked really well. This all stinks...