Heart rate wildly inaccurate on Apple Watch Ultra

Did you already try to force restart your watch by pressing and holding the Digital Crown and the Side button together for about 10sec, until the Apple logo comes back again?

If you are seeing gaps in-between the heart rate graph, where the heart rate has not been recorded, try to wear your watch a little further away from the wrist, maybe 1-2cm.

My Ultra 2 is getting moved forward during the workout, if the wirst band either is not tight enough or the watch too near to the wrist.

I had to restart my Garmin Forerunner as well, if it could not register a correct heart rate and stayed at 100bmp from the beginning of the workout till the end.

Hello gary9000,

It sounds like your Apple Watch Ultra isn’t measuring your heart rate correctly. We know how important this is for you, and we will help get you to the right place for answers.

The first thing to try is the steps listed in this support article. These steps can often resolve Apple Watch measurement issues:

• Get the most accurate measurements using your Apple Watch - Apple Support

If you need continued assistance, please get in touch with the Apple support team via this link: Get Support.

Farewell!

Blood pressure is almost always measured on the left arm and the instructions with my BP cuff and my wife, retired nurse, both tell me left arm.

Try switching arms and check your measurements.

Runners I know have mixed reviews, but the really serious ones wear a chest monitor.

I've had a similar experience. I work out daily on my elliptical trainer and exercise bike (half hour on each). I'm 78, which will help explain where my experience led. I don't exert myself too much. I can talk comfortably while exercising and am never huffing and puffing. I have never felt any symptoms of a rapid heart beat. When there are no extraordinary pulse readings, my Apple watch (3-5 years old) indicates a pulse range of 88 or thereabouts up to 120-ish, with an average of 95-105. (My resting pulse is about 55.) However, much of the time I get a high of 145-170 (180s a couple of times), with the average boosted to 115 or so. One one occasion, the watch said my half hour on the elliptical produced an AVERAGE of 170 bpm, with a high in the 180s! The high readings occur almost always on the elliptical, less frequently on the exercise bike (but not infrequently)...and rarely when I'm on a brisk walk outdoors or riding my bike outdoors.

Because I'm older (and had a weird mild heart attack at age 51), the readings concerned me. Given my complete lack of symptoms, my PCP thought it was most likely a problem with the watch. However, she suggested I wear a Holter Monitor for 2 days to make sure that nothing was wrong. The 2 days included 3 workouts. The Holter Monitor report came back completely normal in all respects. The doctor reading the results said "The average heart rate per Apple watch [when I was exercising] was within 1 to 15 bpm of actual heart rate. The range...per Apple watch was within 30 to 50 bpm of actual heart rate."

I'm (strongly!) inclined to believe the Holter Monitor over the watch. My experience makes me wonder how many other people have consumed medical resources needlessly due to faulty Apple watch readings.

I know im kinda late with my reply lol, but blood oxygen, and ecg have literally nothing to do with your bpm, also there are a lot of factors that could lead to a high bpm, instead of saying its incorrect maybe try to test it with an actual heart monitor and see if its correct or not?

If I was in doubt about the real vs Apple Watch-measured heart rate, I'd manually calculate it by feeling the wrist (or femoral etc) artery with the other hand's finger for 10-60 seconds. With non-sinus rhythm (atrial fibrillation, ventricular arrhythmias etc) even that might be difficult, though.

Hello gary9000,

Since you continue to experience that behavior, you'll want to reach out to Apple Support: Apple Support They'll be in the best position to look into this further.

Take care.

I am recently experiencing this exact issue. I have not had an issue over the past year and a half, but all of the sudden it is showing a very elevated heart rate when I start my run. I too can sing, talk, etc...which is how I ballpark my exertion level. I do note that my resting heart rate which is usually about 44 is accurate. As Gary mentioned, once to the end of the run, it seems to sort it self out. It sure does mess up zone information though. I am going to try and do a reboot and see if that makes any difference. If anyone has a solution since Gary posted this I would be grateful to know what that might be. My watch is a series 7

I wear a Garmin while I’m running as well. For the longest time the ultra 2 and the Garmin agreed pretty

closely. In the last week or so that’s changed. Today my watch said my average HR was 170. Garmin said 150. Garmin is taking a reading every 2 minutes or so. Apple is taking one every 8-10 seconds. I think they are having some rounding errors or something. The graph in Apple health starts to show the large “range” sticks about a mile in. Garmin is creating the bottom and Apple is creating the top. I’ve run every day for 12.5 years. I know my heart rate was not 170 :)

Same for me since the beginning with Series7.

Apple also replaced my watch; no change.

I’ve been contacted by several specialists.

NO SOLUTION!

I suppose also that the root cause might be my iPhone8 (too old?).

My issue is always on the first Km or 5 minutes; then it becomes regular.

I’m planning to go back to Garmin. with 100€ I have never had an issue on the accuracy.

Totally agree. My AWU2 oHR is usually nowhere near my Suunto and connected Polar H10. Oftentimes 20-30 beats below my true HR. As an ultrarunner I know my normal HR pretty well and I've been beyond disappointed with the Ultra. If it wasn't such a good "everyday life" watch I'd get rid of it and not look back.

For everything sports related I'll gladly stick to my Suunto's and Garmin's. I know they're reliable and at least far more accurate.

This is also happening to me. It happens both with the wrist sensor and a strap. Apple Watch Ultra. This is a very frustrating bug. It makes it hard to take Apple Watch seriously as a training tool. I am switching back to Garmin until this can be fixed.

I am a desk jobber, and apple watch ultra 1 keeps me showing 126 to 135 BPM while sitting idle, no exercise, not even walking but it shows 100+bpm all the time.

I got worried and checked my ECG, it says Sinus Rhythm which means normal.

then I checked my blood oxygen, it says 97%.

if everything is normal then how the f**k my bpm is going 100+

I'm with you. i originally bought the apple 6. i was diagnosed for a time with a heart issue and the doctor suggested a wrist monitor would help me keep track of my bpm & resting rate. i am a runner. i run at least 5 miles 6 days a week. the 6 resting heart rate worked flawlessly for 2 years and one day stopped showing me resting heart rate only showing one rate per day. we all know thats just not possible. when i call they try to convince me thats the way it always is/was, just one reading a day. just one average a day. after a five mile run i cant possibly have a resting rate of 52 all day.

SO, i gave the 6 apple watch away to my younger daughter who's only interested in steps, and bought a new watch, the 8. the 8 worked perfectly showing resting heart rate more or less accurately until a week ago and now does the same thing as the 6 did. just showing an "average". when i call apple they give some sort of nonsense about the average, smh. thats not true. it showed me a variable resting rate for 1 year and 4 months. and now, NOT.

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