After the Apple Watch 1.0.1 Update, Heart Rate stopped working...

I've evolved from annoyed to confused. Hardware wise, Apple Watch has premium tech (minus GPS). they developed a proprietary mini computer for this. They did an interview with ABC News showing how diligent they were in tracking fitness, invited them to their secret labs. How do you go from all that to not monitoring HR during motion (and updating your advertising for that)? Who is running the watch show over there? Boggles my mind.

OK. Since my last post has been rejected by apple I've stripped it a little bit to the technical aspect as I should do.

The english website with the 10 minute description has been aligned, but on the german one it still promotes its every 10 minute measuring without any constraints as of holding your arm still.

here the german one: Ihre Herzfrequenz. Was sie bedeutet und wo Sie sie auf der Apple Watch finden. - Apple Support

Indeed, the French site hasn't been updated either:

Le rythme cardiaque : qu’est-ce que c’est, et comment le mesurer à l’aide de l’Apple Watch ? - Assistance Apple

How are people finding watches that are still on OS 1.0? When I stopped by an apple store the other day they stated they'd take the watch an mail me another one.

I've noticed ZERO real time difference between 1.0 and 1.01 apart from the mess Apple have made of the heart rate monitor.

This seems like such a incomprehensible change to make so soon after releasing a new product one wonders of it may have been done to please Apple's lawyers, rather than its customers.

From a fitness tracking perspective, it makes no sense. Using HR along with motion is much more accurate than motion alone to gauge calorie burn. If it wasn't than Fitbit, Microsoft and Basis wouldn't be wasting time with devices that provided continuous HR monitoring.

Also, if the change was made to focus on resting HR, why is there no measure for resting HR in the Health app or Activity app on either the phone or watch. The other companies mentioned above all use specific algorithms to give you a resting HR each day in their apps.

The whole fiasco seems awfulily disconnected and amateurish.

Well stated and very professional.

I totaly agree with you. Additionally in my opinion the purpose of the Apple Watch is not to satisfy really peoples fitness checks but more satisfiing buyers who just wanted to buy an exclusiv, more optically impressive (smart) watch.

In other words: they wanted to create a product not concurrent to other Smart watches but simple WATCHES. Best provement: see the Edition watch. No one would by a smartwatch for 15k Dollar.

Such people who do not care for functionality features but only for optic and image.

I hope that this purpose will not be satisfied because more People (as expected from apple) are frustrated as we can see here and hear from support.

That is my hope that they will spend more effort in future updates to resolve at least the 3 top issues mentioned in those communities like here.

I ran another test to show how useless this watch is as a passive activity tracker:

Yesterday, I spent 2.5 hours at the driving range hitting balls without using the Workout app. Those 2.5 hours logged less than 180 calories and 4 minutes toward my Exercise Ring

Today, I spent 1 hour 47 minutes at the driving range but set to "Other" Workout. 727 calories and a ton of Exercise credit. I am currently at 149/30 on my Exercise ring.

I have definitely come to the conclusion that using the Rings to glance at throughout the day to show you how active you have been is a complete waste of time. They are not even close to the readings you get when Workout app is engaged. I would expect that the Workout app is more tuned to give you better results. But, I'd expect the result with and without the app to be more similar than they are if it was truly tracking your activity all the time.

Guys if you haven't done so already could you leave Apple feedback about this issue

http://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html

I have been using the apple watch monitoring indoor cycling for three weeks now. First I used the melaneese loop band, then used the black sport band. The heart rate monitor would drop my heart rate periodically during the cardio workout, even though the band were tight. After the update, I noticed it did this more frequently during workouts. Today I went on a hike using the apple watch, carrying my phone, to enable GPS tracking. I sent workout app to outdoor walk. I also wore a Garmin watch , with heart rate monitor strap ( which I have used many times for indoor and outdoor monitoring). During the almost four mile hike, with 1000 foot elevation gain, I got different results from the two devices. During peak cardio, the apple watch showed heart rate, but seemed to be frozen or would droop down to a very low rate. It never showed my heart rate over 144, though I know it should have been much higher. Once home, I checked the garmin readings, showing my heart rate reach 180 at its peak. The interesting statistic is that the apple watch registered more calories burned than the garmin readings.

Has anyone else experienced these kinds of issues with the apple watch? I hope a software update soon resolves these issues.

yes, these issues about HR frequences gaps, with HR wrong values has been sent from me and others here to Apple, please use also the Feedback Link http://www.apple.com/feedback to Post your Problems directly to Apple. The more People do this, the more impotant the problems are considered by Apple.

Just submitted my comments.

Cant believe this feature has been removed. Absolutely abysmal.

Will be looking for a refund if this is the case going forward.

Anybody have done a similar test on 1.0 or anybody currently on 1.0 that can to a similar test?

This was the main selling point for me that the watch would track quite accurate activity without me starting and stopping workouts. If it's just a dumb pedometer in passive mode they have really falsely advertised this watch.

For what it is worth, I ran a long-term activity test on my watch overnight. I have the 42 mm version and set "Activity" to "Other" and the next morning the battery had dropped from 100 to 10% in a nine hour period. This matches a shorter test I had done the previous morning for two hours (10% drop/hour).

This is better than I would have expected and, based on my daily routine, I could actually use it that way because I have ample time to charge each morning and a couple other times during the day when I'm not doing anything. But not for most people.

Also, I don't know how the different Activity options work. For example, if I do an outdoor cycle, there will be the GPS connection with the iPhone. But would an indoor cycle simply not turn that on and save battery on the watch - or just the iPhone? And I have no idea whether "Other" involves GPS or not.

I also have to see how much this drains the iPhone battery. It did a lot last night, but I think the screen was on (fairly dim) a long time so not a good test.