Apple Watch Ultra Heart Rate During Workout

I have the newest apple watch 9 and I am upset because when starting a workout it takes several minutes to start monitoring my heart rate. What I do is start the heart rate app, it still takes some half a minute but then it starts. I find your answer enlightening and plausible, but if it were true that it doesn't measure because you are cool and the veins are not yet dilated, then the heart rate app shouldn't do it. Therefore I am more inclined to a malfunction of the app, IOS, etc and not the hardware. Regardless, I am very disappointed with apple.

I don’t agree with this. I’m working out indoors in the same environment everyday and it’s all over the place.

im currently lifting weights with the watch not even that tight and it hasn’t missed a beat.

it’s a software issue.

Hi, I recently upgraded from an apple watch series 6 to an ultra and.... having the same problems as reported in this thread. I noticed that the series 6 did initially get a little stuck on runs, especially at the beginning but then settled down to a correct recording after about 10 minutes.

The ultra is having real problems.. either not recording anything or getting stuck at a high level over 160 or sometimes 170. If I walk for a minute it comes back to normality but then ramps straight back up again. It's not my actual heart rate as I can varify from checking my pulse with my fingers - which indicate somewhere between 120-140 which exactly how I feel it is from experience.

I've tried the unparing and turning options on and off as stated confidently in various forums. I was using strava so today I tried the apple native app but with the same results.

It doesn't matter if I'm sweating or that my wrist is covered or uncovered, on my left wrist of right.

After investing a load of money on this, I'm hoping that a software upgrade or something like this will fix it.

What next? Shave the hair off my wrist to see if that's the problem?

So after a lot of annoyance, I have finally gotten the watch to read heart rate consistently during workouts. The trick is to wear the watch on the inner wrist during workouts and it reads HR consistently. Worth a try for y’all too !

Unfortunately WatchOS 9.5 doesn't fix this problem.

Here's two activities (cycling) over the last two days where no reading was shown for some time:

And here's one (hiking) where at the beginning of the workout a high heart rate is shown that suddenly drops to "normal" though I have started to pump up the heart rate:

So problem still exists. I am afraid it is a hardware issue.

I had this problem and eventually what solved it for me was to wear my watch on the inside of my arm, so the the screen is facing inwards instead of outwards.

Once I did this, the heart rate monitoring was constant and never broken. I think it’s because the skin on the inside of my arm is smoother, with less hair and less sun damage (thickening.)

Give it a try. I actually like wearing my watch on the inside now.

Hope this helps some of you.

No, it’s not resolve and I’m sure it’s a hardware issue. However, when I wear the watch face facing inside, I will not face any issue, as mentioned by someone on this forum. The issue (stop measuring heart rate for some time or high heart rate above 200) will only surface when I wear the watch normally facing outside during run.

I am having the exact same problem. On the Ultra as well as the old Series 7 I tested.

What I have come to see is that the Apple Watch stops recording heart rate whenever there is an upward Zone change from 1 to 2 or 1 to 3 or 2 to 3. That’s the only time the heart rate is lost.

Pausing the workout and resuming makes the Watch get back the heart rate within 15-20 seconds and then functions pretty well. Until another major up Zone change happens when it loses HR again.

Definitely seems like a software bug.

As I've posted previously, I followed another contributor's suggestion and the problem has completely disappeared. I have been having this problem 10 or 15 minutes after starting with the pulse disappearing on the chart and then after a while returning. I moved my Ultra about half an inch above my wrist bone and slightly increased the tightness on the watch band. I use a prior model band that can be easily incrementally adjusted. This was a few weeks ago. I do about 90 minutes a day 7 days a week covering all the zones. No problems at all. Give it a try.

I follow up to my own message. I found that, actually, the HR drops issues are related to Apple's Fitness app, not to the watch. I tried to log workouts with other apps (Athlytics, WorkOutDoors) and the HR is recorded properly.

Is it possible that Apple didn't have this problem during their pre-release tests?

Still uncertain about keeping the Ultra, or return it and keep my trusty Epix. I would only miss watch/iPhone interactions and I actually aesthetically like the Utra more than Epix.

Let me ask you the following question - what Apple Watch Ultra band are you using when this HR reading issue happens? I have the Alpine Loop and the Trail Loop. This issue only happens when I wear the Alpine Loop, not with the Trail Loop. Also check if you purchased the right band size. For me with the Trail Loop I can control how tight the band is. The Alpine Loop is a bit loose and I have noticed that when the watch is not in full contact it doesn’t track the HR well. During an activity I think you can recognize when the watch is not tracking - in my case the HR is greyed out and not changing at all. In normal situations the HR recording is colored. Do you see the same in your cases?

"...it looks like I’m the only one with this problem..."

You could be right. This Watch is under warranty so if nobody else has any ideas..

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