Level 1

57 points

heart rate spikes

Has anyone else seen spikes like this in their heart rate? I'm sure my heart isn't actually doing this. I made sure the Watch band was tight. Apple support told me to cycle power to the Watch - no difference. They told me to unpair and then pair - no difference. They replaced the Watch - no difference. They never actually acknowledged that this is a problem they have seen before, they just seemed to be offering up solutions that they resort to when they don't know what else to suggest. I understand that the Watch heart rate algorithm might not work for everyone, but I am surprised that I have not yet found a reference to anyone else having a similar problems. Others have complained about the accuracy, but they always report the heart rate measurement to be too low, whereas in my case it spikes to a value that is way too high.

Posted on Dec 20, 2016 12:48 PM

Top-ranking reply

Jstferrfun

Level 1

20 points

Posted on Jan 11, 2018 1:45 PM

So I have had the exact same problem, and am embarrassed to say what I have went through. I was convinced I must be having some type of fibrillation or something. I have seen this on my gen 1 watch for a year now. Did all the things they suggested as well, still got spikes. As a result, I actually went to a heart doctor who hooked me up to a 48 hour heart monitor test...which came back completely normal....no spikes despite seeing them on the Apple Watch during this time. I even joined cariogram and it just takes the data from the watch and gives no diagnostic back. So that was a waste. I just upgraded to a 3 series...same thing. I now have an alert on my watch so it tells me when it happens - but it will not work when you are exercising (which is when it happens to me). So now when I am exercising I hold the heart monitor on the exercise machine...I have caught several times my watch spiking, but zero spike on the exercise machine - completely normal. I don’t know what to say other than this is likely something many people experience. I love the watch and what it does - but this problem is annoying and for me caused considerable angst! I hope it is fixed soon. My biggest worry is if someone does have an actual problem and ignores it because they think it is erroneous. But for me at least it seems to not be accurate.

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124 replies

Mar 19, 2019 7:02 AM in response to drweiler

I am owner of a Series 4 Nike Edition , and no matter how tight the band is , at the start of my training it always show abnormal values ( very high ) and after some minutes of erratic values it start to give good readings.

I started using a Polar Heart rate sensor to see if the problem continues and , yes, I get erratic values when starting my training.

What can I do ?

If the problem continues I will prefer to continue using my Polar V800....

Any solution ?

Aug 26, 2017 11:03 AM in response to drweiler

I have had the same issue. My heart rate spikes when I sleep. It says it will go from 60 to 160 bpm if it was getting that high I'm sure I would wake up. One night it said it lasted almost 1 hour and the other night it said 5 minutes. It doesn't happen every night but like two times per week. It was causing some anxiety but I realized if it's happening at night it would be happening during the day. There was a couple times it said my heart rate was 35 during the day. There is no way that's correct maybe if I was in REM sleep but not awake and moving. Maybe I'm just one of those people who won't get a good reading. I almost wondering if me moving around in my sleep. I don't know I was thinking about asking my doctor to let me use a heart monitor for a week to make sure it's not doing that' but I really think it's the watch cuz like I said 160 is a high and I believe it would wake me up and it would happen during the day.

Oct 16, 2017 6:44 AM in response to Brian Bergstrand

So we have to buy the S0 series LOL

Hope that the future WatchOS updates will fix this BIG problem 😠

Oct 20, 2017 8:08 AM in response to drweiler

Same here got a brand new 42mm LTE with random high spike once a day, range from 160 - 120 for no reason. So it is just not me

Nov 27, 2017 6:57 AM in response to GreatScottie

We cannot rely on this heart rate monitor, unfortunately 😟

Yesterday i did a run and the hrm was lost during 30mn...and my watch did not move, i swear !

Dec 4, 2017 9:37 PM in response to Panny1

I think any 3rd party app is accessing the same HR data as the apple app.

Dec 5, 2017 7:14 AM in response to GreatScottie

Unfortunately there's nothing to do

maybe to pray for an update

or not

It's X-mas soon, maybe Santa will hear us 🙂

Dec 7, 2017 3:10 AM in response to drweiler

Hi, I had this same issue last night. My heart rate spiked to 160bmp at 3AM and was like that until twenty past. Im not sure if this is a true reading or not?

Allistah

Level 1

8 points

Jan 27, 2018 6:26 AM in response to Leroysmith88

I’ll keep an eye out too for it and reply here if I see this with 4.2.2. 👍-1F3FB;

jamart65

Level 1

5 points

Jan 28, 2018 5:04 PM in response to drweiler

According to my Apple Watch, my heartrate spikes once a week while sitting in church. I’m pretty sure that’s inaccurate!

Purium

Level 1

10 points

Jan 30, 2018 6:07 PM in response to Purium

Allistah

Level 1

8 points

Feb 1, 2018 8:51 AM in response to Jonathan UK

What version of the watch OS software is on your iWatch now - when it spiked up to 471?

Feb 5, 2018 4:26 PM in response to Allistah

When it happened 4.2.

Feb 11, 2018 3:17 PM in response to drweiler

I have the very same problem! Please let me know if you find an answer...quite worries.

Feb 13, 2018 9:41 AM in response to Jstferrfun

I have the very same problem! Please let me know if you find an answer...quite worries.

Thank you so much for all your hard work, sharing, and explanation. And good luck on your exercise!

stu Gross

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heart rate spikes