diamondaviators.net

https://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2020/

The section on the blood O2 commences around 10.10mins.

Hopefully they get a better result than Garmin. I paid $1200 for a Garmin D2 Delta PX watch last year but the results were less than impressive. The concept is spectacular for pilots - an inobtrusive sensor on the wrist that issues an alarm when your O2 drops too low. Unfortunately I did not find the pulse rate or pulse ox to be very accurate. I got so frustrated with it that I ended up selling it on EBay a few months later and going back to my fingertip oximeter. To be fair, it is a really tough challenge to pick up O2 accurately on the wrist - there just isn't high blood perfusion for the sensor in the wrist to measure. That's why it has taken so long for others (ie Apple) to release their own. I'll stick with the $49 fingertip version until someone can prove they have a much more reliable solution.

One feature missing from all of the pulse oximeters I looked into, including those with iPhone apps, was some sort of notification when blood oxygen falls below a user-selectable level. Many of the knowledgeable sources that guess at the Apple Watch's features mentioned that it would be a feature, but is not documented in any of the Apple literature I was looking through today. If the feature is available, it would be worth the high cost for this feature alone to me, since I do most of my flying in the high teens. Does anyone have any info on this?

Initial tests here show similar results to my usual pulse ox device---though I have to have the watch a little higher up on the wrist than I typically wear it. Better sample with more meat, less wrist bone perhaps. Reads lower by several points when I drop it down further.

No data yet at altitude for comparison.



Edit: Very slight pressure on the watch face with it lower on the wrist also reads "correctly," which may mean I'd be a little better off with a band one size smaller than purchased, too.

I know with the single lead ECG the band had to be tighter than I typically wear it, so I was curious about the SPO2 monitor. Also does it monitor live or is it only segments as you choose?

I also slid the watch a little higher up my wrist for the measurements. They come in about 2% higher than my Masimo oxymeter using my finger.

There is an option in the app to do periodic measurements and when you start the app it shows the previous periodic measurement. In my case this is usually about 2% lower than what I get when I manually start the measurement after sliding the watch up my wrist. The Health app on the iPhone shows the range of O2 saturation measurements over the last day/week/month...

Thanks - Ive been a long time apple fan, although don't like square watch faces....and have been torn between a 6 and a Garmin...for flying.

I apparently misplaced my Oxymeter so I used my Apple Watch Series 6 for a recent 450nm trip (O69/KTRM) and the return a week later. Outbound at 11,000' and return at 12,000' with a Mountain High oxygen system. I usually wear my watch very loose, but for the trip I made it snug. Not tight, but snug enough that it did not slide up/down my wrist.

I found the readings to be accurate, ranging from 91% to 95% saturation compared to 95% - 100% when on the ground. A couple of deep breaths will move the readings up, but that's cheating. I'm not so worried about finding my oxymeter.