Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is a wearable smart watch introduced by Apple in 2015 which includes a number of sensors that can be used for personal science.
Tool Infobox 
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| Related topics | HRV (Heart Rate Variability), Activity tracking, Sleep tracking, Oxygen saturation |
Linked pages on this wiki |
Projects (1), |
Since the first release, Apple Watches include a heart rate sensor and accelerometers/gyroscopes for activity tracking. Since 2020, some Apple Watch models can also do rudimentary sleep tracking.
Since the 4th generation, Apple Watches also include an ECG sensor that can be used to take manual readings and since the 6th generation they it includes a Blood oxygen sensor, though this has been disabled in recent models sold in the USA due to patent issues[1].
Beyond this, the Apple Watch also uses its microphone to regularly record environmental noise levels.
Data storage and export[edit | edit source]
All the data recorded by an Apple Watch is stored locally on the iPhone it is connected too and can be found inside the Apple Health application. Exporting the data from Apple Health is not trivial though. While it is possible to export all data as a full dump of all data from Apple Health, this generates a large ZIP archive that contains the data in an XML format that is not easy to re-use.
Exporting via Health Auto Export[edit | edit source]
The iPhone app Health Auto Export provides a way to export selected data in JSON, CSV or GPX files (the latter for geolocation data from workouts). The CSV format in particular can be used to import data into Excel or other spreadsheet software. While the base-version of the application is free, additional export options can also be made available through an in-app purchase. This allows to automatically sync data to iCloud and also provides a way to synchronize data to other external services.
Projects using Apple Watch[edit | edit source]
- Bastian Greshake Tzovaras used the environmental noise data to explore how the sound of his surroundings shape how loud he plays music on his headphones.
- He also used environmental noise data together with location data from Overland to explore how sound levels change throughout the city.
- He recently adapted his website to show metrics from Apple Health (incl. from his Apple Watch) in the website footer.
Sensors in different Apple Watch series[edit | edit source]
The table below is an abridged version of the one found on Wikipedia, focusing on the sensors that are used on the different Apple Watch series.
| Specification | 1st | Series 1 | Series 2 | Series 3 | Series 4 | Series 5 | SE (1st) | Series 6 | Series 7 | SE (2nd) | Series 8 | Ultra | Series 9 | Ultra 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensors | Optical heart sensor | 1st generation | 2nd generation | 3rd generation | 2nd generation | 3rd generation | |||||||||
| Electrical heart sensor (ECG/EKG) | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | |||||||||
| Oxygen saturation | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (Disabled for U.S. models sold from January 18, 2024) | ||||||||||
| Temperature sensor | No | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Accelerometer | 16g | 32g | High-g | ||||||||||||
| Gyroscope | Yes | Improved | High dynamic range | ||||||||||||
| Ambient light sensor | Yes | ||||||||||||||
| Altimeter | No | Yes | Always on | ||||||||||||
| Compass | No | Yes | |||||||||||||
| Battery life | 24h | 24h | 24h | 24h | 18h | 18h | 18h | 18h | 18h | 18h | 18h | 36h | 18h | 36h | |
| Date released | April 24, 2015 | September 12, 2016 | September 16, 2016 | September 22, 2017 | September 21, 2018 | September 25, 2019 | September 18, 2020 | October 15, 2021 | September 16, 2022 | September 23, 2022 | September 22, 2023 | ||||