February 16, 2021

The French word for heart is cœur, which directly translates to core. We often think of the heart as the center of our health. It is the key to tracking and understanding our fitness and wellness. So shouldn’t you know everything there is to know about your heart?

That’s why Garmin smartwatches are designed to sample your heart rate multiple times per second, 24 hours a day¹.

That’s right. More than just a fitness tracker, a Garmin smartwatch can provide an estimation of your heart rate at any given time. The optical HR monitor in Garmin wearables is designed to sample your heart rate multiple times per second, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Other smartwatches only measure heart rate every five seconds to once every five minutes. Why is more frequent heart rate sampling important? The answer is simple: Most of your health and performance metrics can be traced back to your heart. It is, after all, the core.

Because our wearables have a more frequent rate of measurement, you can review more metrics in greater detail regarding your health and fitness on the Garmin Connect™ mobile app downloaded to your compatible smartphone.  This gives you more insight into some of the great features you can see on your Garmin smartwatch, including stress tracking, sleep tracking, your Body Battery™ energy levels and respiration data. These insights come from heart rate variability. Because Garmin smartwatches sample your heart rate frequently, you are given a better understanding of how much variance there is between each beat of your heart. To put it simply: With Garmin you have the ability to know your body better.

If you’re an athlete, you know that tracking heart rate is essential in training and performance. Your heart rate is a good indication of how much effort you’re putting into a workout. Combined with other data captured by your Garmin watch, this can help you avoid under- or overtraining.

Even if you’re not a high-performance athlete, having a constant read on your heart rate is beneficial. You can even configure your Garmin smartwatch to alert you when you have a lower or higher heart rate than normal.

At the end of the day, we all want to have a better understanding of our bodies.

¹Activity tracking accuracy