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

I've looked into this issue a bit more. I think it's worth nothing that there are two heart rate sensors, as this document explains:

Your heart rate. What it means, and where on Apple Watch you’ll find it. - Apple Support

The green LEDs are used when you are in workout mode; they are more or less accurate, though I found a number of data points that were way too low or high. The second set of sensors is infrared. As Apple says in the document:

"The heart rate sensor can also use infrared light. This mode is what Apple Watch uses when it measures your heart rate every 10 minutes."

It's a bit funny that it still says every 10 minutes... But that's the one they turned off, at least when you're moving. So, to me, it seems that these sensors are simply too unreliable when people are moving, and rather than report faulty data, they turned off the feature. Frankly, I'd expect them to find a fix, and, if necessary, replace the watches so this feature works.

In response to "19% is terrible..."

While I agree, did you see what it was when I posted golf and elliptical tests?

Golf (driving range session): 180 calories and 4 exercise minutes without the Workout app. 727 calories, 121 exercise minutes with the workout app (and less time).

Elliptical (28 minutes): 86 calories and 2 exercise minutes without the Workout app. 301 calories and 20+ exercise minutes with the workout app.

Now those results are really terrible!!!

I care about accurate calorie count as well. As you can see, my wife's 1.0.0 watch was pretty consistent from with and without the workout app. I'll see if I can get her to run some additional tests, but it was hard enough to get her to do it with me right there 🙂

What you can tell from my tests is that 1.0.1 is absolutely horrible and not consistent with counting calories between Workout app usage and when not using that app. In general, the watch as is, is not a reliable indicator of burned calories throughout the day...which is the sole reason I bought it.

Just a thought but do the active calories on the iPhone activity app only update via the watch workout app or do they/should they update without having to open the workout app?

If Apple wasn't so darn secretive over everything they do we wouldn't have to spend hours of our own time researching this stuff. It's getting kind of boring now.

Theory..... When I go back and look at my HR data before and after the 1.0.1 update, the lower ends of the spectrum are clipped after the update. I have no reading below 61 bpm. I had some readings in the 50's and one at 47 before.

My guess is there has been some panic and confusion over IR accuracy and now they're trying to figure out how to handle it. In the meantime I imagine legal has this locked down. Just a theory.

What a mess and so much for years of testing.

They probably spent too much time on pointless things like digital touch and the sending of heartbeats and pointless drawings.

I have Watch OS 1.0.1 and my watch still takes the HR every 10 minutes, unless I am exercising, or moving my arm, which the watch is on. So according to an article I read on 9to5Mac web site this is normal after the update. Hence, Apple has to fix this so it will be back to the way it was before the last update.

just to let u guys know, i bought a watch old v.1.0 and sold my 1.0.1 and I've had it for one day now, its been perfectly measuring my heart rate every 10 mins as stated and its now 10pm and I'm on 62% which is good considering i left the house at 11am

Can you run some tests where you do an activity without the Workout app and see how many calories and exercise minutes it credits you, then do the same activity using the Workout app to see how different the two are?

I am very interested to hear if this watch ever accurately calculated calories without the Workout app or if this was something that was broken with 1.0.1 along with the heart rate.

yes of course, I'm at the gym tomorrow, do you want my full 2 hour workout or just a 10 min jog twice?

I think it would be good to get minimum 20 minutes of the same thing so you give the 10-minute interval heart rate sensor some time to catch up.

So some ideas:

Elliptical with and without Workout

Running with and without Workout

Lifting weights with and without Workout

Might be helpful to do different things too. I did some tests on Elliptical, Golf, and Walking and Elliptical and Golf were horrible and Walking was only slightly bad. So it may be better at some things than others.

The key is doing as similar activity between the two workouts as possible to minimize variables so the only thing you're taking into account is whether the Workout app is on or not.

ok i will do, but what exactly are you trying to work out here, i haven't been keeping up with the calorie issue, i only know about the heart rate 10 min interval issue

My big concern over the lack of heart rate monitoring is that the activity tracking when not specifically using the Workout App would be less reliable. I want a fitness tracker I can slap on and forget about it. The Workout App should give me extras like GPS/distance, timers, etc. But the calories burned and exercise minutes should be more or less equivalent with and without the workout app for this to be a true fitness tracker. Otherwise the data is pretty random and you can't believe it. If you can't believe it, it's not going to inspire you to work out more. Even if it's not 100% accurate, it should at least be consistent with itself so you can measure and compare your personal activity on it.

So a good way to test out this concern is to do this test with the 1.0.0 software and see if you get similar readings with and without the Workout App. If you do, then you can be fairly confident that the watch is consistently measuring your calories whether you have selected a Workout or not.

ok so let me get this right, u want me to:

1.) do a workout and measure the amount of calories burned with the workout app

2.) do the same work out again and see how much calories it burned? without the workout app

how would i check the calories burned for the second workout if I'm not using the app?

Yes that is exactly it. You can write down the calories in your move ring and the exercise minutes before your workout and subtract them from the calories and minutes shown after your workout to figure out how much credit you were given for the workout.

If the watch is working as it should, the two values should be similar between workout app and no workout app.