Best Smartwatch For Diabetics

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Isn’t it agitating to live with diabetics? You feel like you have to be on your toes to keep
a track of your blood glucose levels.

Diabetes has become extremely prevalent since the last few decades. It is reported that 34.2 million people in the US have diabetes and the number is rapidly rising.

With the increasing population developing the disease, diabetes management can be challenging. For example, the traditional way of measuring the blood sugar level with pin pricking and assessing blood drop on a regular glucose monitor.

This looks like a hassle too! But, this is 2023, and the far-fetched fantasy to check our blood sugar levels with a peek on our wrists is possible now!

People can now rely on various best smartwatches for diabetics to transmit data in near real-time.

Those with diabetes who manage their condition find ever more ingenious methods to utilize available technology to view data in the most relevant way.

Get a glimpse into what the future of diabetes wrist tech may hold, and find the best smartwatch for diabetics.

Let’s begin!

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The Apple Watch Series 7 | Specs and Features

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Big Display & More Durable Smartwatch for Active Diabetic

Despite what everyone was saying, the new Apple Watch Series 7 does not have a new look. Instead, it has a bigger screen with 20% more screen space and thinner borders 40% smaller than those on Apple Watch Series 6.

41mm and 45mm are the two sizes of this new Apple watch. The always-on Retina display on the new watch is up to 70% brighter indoors when the wrist is down, compared to the old watch. It makes it convenient to keep an eye on the watch without having to lift the wrist or wake up the display.

The front crystal of this smartwatch has been redesigned to be stronger. It is over 50% thicker than the Apple Watch Series 6. It makes it less likely to crack.

The glucose-level smartwatch has an IP6X rating for dust resistance and a WR50 rating for water resistance. It makes it a good choice for swimming and keeps users calm on the beach or in the desert.

Sensors in the Smartwatch for Active Diabetics

The Apple Watch Series 7 has the same sensors as the Apple Watch Series 6. So, it has a third-generation optical heart sensor, a Digital Crown with haptic feedback, a built-in compass, an altimeter that is always on, and a second-generation speaker and mic. With International Emergency Calling and Emergency SOS, you can quickly call for help and let your emergency contacts know.

Apple Watch Series 7 can also tell if you’ve had a hard fall. Moreover, if it does, it will automatically call 911 for you. The Noise app lets you know when the decibel level is high enough to hurt your hearing.

Performance

The Apple Watch Series 7 has the same chip as the Apple Watch Series 6. Even though it has a new name, S7, the CPU power is the same. Apple has done something similar in the past.

The S7 SiP has a 32GB hard drive and a 64-bit dual-core processor. It’s 20% faster than the processor in the Apple Watch SE because it’s an S6 chip.

Apple Watch Series 7 | Finishing

Apple added three different finishes to this smartwatch for active diabetics:

1.    Aluminum

  • Midnight
  • Starlight
  • Green
  • Blue
  • (PRODUCT)RED

2.    Stainless Steel

  • Silver
  • Graphite
  • Gold

3.    Titanium

  • Natural
  • Space Black

Pros

  • Particularly for iPhone Users
  • Trend graphs accessible

Cons

  • Expensive as compared to Android brands
  • Battery life is not appreciable

TicWatch Pro 3 Smartwatch | Specs and Reviews

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Brand: TicWatch

Category: Smartwatch

Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 4100 Platform

Operating System:  Google Wear OS 

Display: 1.4″ inch AMOLED + + FSTN display

Memory: 8 GB + 1 GB

Battery: 595 mAh battery, Smart Mode: up to 3 days Essential Mode: for 45 days

Sensors: Accelerator, Gyroscope

Display & Design

It looks similar to the TicWatch Pro smartwatch. However, it is lighter, thinner, and more durable. It is high-strength nylon reinforced with glass fiber. So, it makes it strong enough for any outdoor activity.

It is one of the best smartwatch for diabetics and has a high-quality silicon strap that is flexible and gentle on the skin. The Ticwatch Pro 3 smartwatch’s display screen has two technology layers:

  1. an always-on display FSTN
  2. a 1.4″ inch retina AMOLED display with a 454 x 454-pixel resolution

The wearable has an IP68 rating, which means it is splashproof, swim-proof, and dustproof.

Features

The wearable has a Wear OS operating system and sports modes, like pool swimming, yoga, mountaineering, outdoor running, indoor cycling, freestyle outdoor run, and more. It also has several health functions, like monitoring stress, sleep, and breathing.

Its health functions are monitoring heart rate and blood oxygen saturation and centralizing health data. In addition, it comes with popular apps like Google Fit, Google Pay, Google Assistant, and others from Google.

The Ticwatch Pro 3 smartwatch comes with watch faces already installed. You can find hundreds of watch faces in the Mobvoi app. Also, you can upload a picture to the Mobvoi app to use as your watch face.

Pros

  • Waterproof with IP68 rating
  • Equipped with major health functions
  • Excellent battery life
  • Easy Syncing with respect to GPS location
  • Smart mode lasts up to 72 hours
  • Essential mode up to 45 days

Cons

  • Comparable price

Fitbit Sense 2 | Specs and Features

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Stress Management

The best feature is the all-day body-response tracking, which uses the cEDA sensor to tell when your body is showing signs of stress. Sense 2 will help you gauge your health in real time. It also notifies you and asks you about your current status with options like “Stressed,” “Sad,” “Excited,” and “Calm.”

There are also stress notifications and an EDA Scan app for managing stress. It requires you to place your hand over the screen. It is one reason why the bezels around the screen are bigger. The Fitbit app also has a Stress Management Score feature. However, you need a Fitbit Premium subscription to use it.

Fitness Tracking

Along with stress management and general wellness features, the Sense 2 does everything you’d expect from a fitness smartwatch for active diabetics, like counting steps, distance, and calories and having built-in GPS, advanced sleep tracking, blood oxygen tracking with a SpO2 sensor, and automatic exercise tracking.

The Sense 2 also has a skin temperature sensor, an ECG app for measuring heart rhythm, and call, text, and app notifications, among many other features.

If you want a smartwatch to monitor your diabetic health, the Fitbit Sense 2 isn’t the one we’d suggest. You can get notifications from your phone, but you can’t do much with them.

You can read messages and see incoming calls on the Sense 2, but you can’t answer calls or reply to messages right now, especially if you’re using iOS. Android users have Quick Replies, but iPhone users don’t, and on-wrist calls are coming soon but aren’t here yet.

How long do batteries last?

  • 6-7 days without showing Always On
  • 2-3 days on display with Always On

With respect to battery life, the Fitbit Sense 2 also shines. With the Always On Display feature turned off, we get between six and seven days. It is the best compared to what smartwatches offer. For example, the Google Pixel Watch and the Apple Watch Series 8 will only last a day.

If you turn on the Always On Display, the Sense 2 will only last about three days. It is a drop. If you use the built-in GPS, the battery life will also decrease. However, the Sense 2 is much better in this area than other smartwatches.

Even if you charge it every few days, it charges quickly. It has a dedicated charger that snaps onto the bottom of the device.

Software

  • Fitbit App
  • Fitbit Premium

The Fitbit Sense 2 doesn’t use Wear OS. Instead, it uses Fitbit’s software. It’s redesigned compared to previous devices, but those who have used a Fitbit Versa or the original Sense will find the interface familiar. Those who haven’t will find it easy to use once they learn what gestures go where.

You can also sign up for the Fitbit Premium service, a paid subscription that gives you more data and advanced insights that are more tailored to you. For example, the Stress Score and Sleep Profile are part of the Premium service.

Pros

  • Mid-range smartwatch, easily affordable
  • Comprehensive blood sugar monitoring with the help of the Fitbit app
  • Battery life is good compared to the Apple Watch

Cons

  • Not yet synchronizes with the Dexcom G6
  • No feature to measure BMI or blood pressure monitoring

Garmin Forerunner 245 Music | Specs and Features

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Screen Display: 1.2-inch LCD screen (30.4 mm) with 240 x 240 pixels

Weight: 38.5 grams (1.36 ounces)

Storage: 3.5GB / 500 songs

How long do batteries last?

Up to 7 days: Smartwatch Mode

Up to 6 hours: GPS mode with music

Up to 24 hours in GPS mode without music

Connectivity

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ANT+, and GPS

What is the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music’s purpose?

  • Training Status looks at your activity history and fitness level to tell you if you’re working out well.
  • Training Load: adds up all the training you do in a week.
  • Training Effect: Rates the effectiveness of each of your workouts
  • Course Guidance: gives step-by-step instructions on entered courses.

You can also connect the watch to a running dynamics pod (sold separately) to get more information about your running, like how long your stride is and how much your steps bounce.

  • steps
  • calories lost
  • workouts
  • distance covered
  • floor-by-floor
  • heart rate and sleep
  • VO₂ max
  • menstrual cycle

Some Other Features

Incident Detection and Assistance is another feature that stands out. It lets you use the watch to call emergency services if you need to, and you can use it even if you don’t sync your watch with your phone.

In addition to road running, you can use the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music for the following sports:

  • treadmill
  • trail running
  • track running
  • yoga
  • indoor rowing
  • training on an elliptical
  • stair stepper
  • cardio training
  • indoor cycling
  • pool swimming
  • Getting stronger
  • walking

Added Functionalities

  • wristwatch for running with GPS and extensive training features
  • determines whether you are overtraining or undertraining by assessing your current training status
  • create your personalized set of workouts on our Garmin platform, or get free adaptive training plans from Garmin Coach.
  • gives users access to sophisticated running dynamics, such as stride length, vertical
  • incident detection (during specific actions) is one of the safety and tracking features

Forerunner 245 Music Sensors

In addition to GPS and a compass, the Forerunner 245 Music has the following sensors:

Wrist-based heart rate monitor. You can use the heart rate widget on your watch or the Garmin Connect app on your phone to see your wrist-based heart rate data. The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music is compatible with ANT+ chest heart rate monitors.

Pros

  • A Dexcom G6 gadget may be accessed directly without a smartphone
  • Compatible with both Android and iPhone (IOS 7 and above) mobile devices
  • A very long battery life, often 21 days

Cons

  • Some Garmin smartwatch models can be pricey
  • Only appropriate for Dexcom products

Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition | Specs and Features

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The Fossil Gen 6 Wellness Edition has a 1.28-inch always-on OLED display and is housed in a 44mm case. The smartwatch’s rotating crown has two buttons to move around the user interface and open apps. A Snapdragon 4100+ processor runs this latest Gen 6 series smartwatch.

This new glucose-level smartwatch runs Wear OS 3. It has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The smartwatch comes with three watch faces and supports on-wrist calls. The Gen 6 Wellness Edition has cardio tracking, heart rate monitoring, SpO2 monitoring, VO2 Max, and automatic workout tracking. The smartwatch doesn’t work with Google Assistant, but it does work with Amazon’s Alexa.

The smartwatch also has Bluetooth v5.0 and NFC. The Gen 6 Wellness Edition, which was just released, could compete with Google’s Pixel Watch, which was just released a few days ago.

Details and Functions

  • Display: 416 x 416 pixels, 1.28 inches, Gorilla Glass protection, Color AMOLED (326ppi)
  • 8 GB of storage space and 1 GB of memory.
  • Voice Assistant: Yes
  • Bluetooth 5.0 LE, GPS, NFC SE, and WiFi are all ways to connect.
  • Compatibility: Android, IOS
  • Battery life: 24 hours plus a mode that lasts for many days
  • GPS, Accelerometer, Altimeter, Ambient Light, Compass, Gyroscope, Off-body IR, PPG Heart Rate, SPO2

Reviews

Like its predecessor, the Fossil Gen 6 is a fashion-focused lifestyle smartwatch for active diabetics. However, the fact that it has a crisp AMOLED display and runs on Wear OS makes it a good choice for Android users. The display is easy to read and has an always-on mode that lets you see your daily fitness stats at a glance.

You will have full access to Google Wearable Suite, which includes Google Maps, Gmail, Google Pay, Google Assistant, and more.

Even though it doesn’t have a lot of fitness tracking features, we can’t rule out the Fossil The watch can track runs and several other workouts. It has GPS and can track important health metrics like heart rate and blood oxygen. Like the Apple Watch, it has basic sleep tracking.

Pros:

  • Top-Notch Construction
  • Clear AMOLED screen
  • It has a GPS and 8 GB of storage.
  • Google Pay, Google Assistant

Cons:

  • Battery Performance Isn’t Good

Frequently Asked Questions

1.   Which brand of smartwatch is best?

The smartwatches mentioned above are some of the best smartwatches for diabetic patients. These are Apple Watch Series 7, TicWatch Pro 3 Smartwatch, Fitbit Sense 2, Garmin Forerunner 245, and Fossil Gen 6. We have enlisted them with respect to multiple factors such as performance, price, battery life, and more.

2.   What is the role of a smartwatch in the lives of diabetic patients?

A smartwatch works in multi-faceted ways for diabetic patients. From assessing sleep quality, and counting the daily steps, to keeping a track of your heart rate data and monitoring your blood sugar levels and more.

It incorporates in our everyday lives in a convenient manner and monitors blood sugar levels in real time without a hassle – just by keeping it on your wrist.

3.   What to look for before choosing a smartwatch for diabetes?

You should look for several factors before finally landing on an ultimate option. Some of the most significant factors are as follows:

  • Battery timing
  • Check if it is water-resistant
  • Check for cross-platform compatibility
  • Look for the sensor used in the smartwatch. Will it be compatible with the device you’re using or not?

4.   Can I use an Apple watch to measure blood sugar levels?

No, the Apple Watch cannot monitor blood sugar levels (they are working on a solution that hopefully comes with the newest versions of the Apple Watch). However, you may monitor your blood sugar levels on an Apple watch using third-party apps.

5.  Do smartwatches measure error-free blood glucose readings?

Smartwatches can’t reliably measure blood glucose since they can’t take direct measurements. Only by monitoring blood glucose levels with particular CGM brand applications, such as Dexcom and GuardianMonitor for Medtronic, can a wristwatch read your blood glucose.

Wrapping Up

While hunting for the right smartwatch to manage your diabetes, you will be able to appreciate the importance of blood glucose monitoring.

Additionally, a wristwatch can assist you in staying organized. You will be able to quickly view your blood glucose patterns over the course of days and weeks, regardless of whether you want to manually input your glucose information or have the watch connect with your CGM device.

Additionally, you will be able to monitor how your lifestyle affects your blood glucose, which may assist you in making wise choices about your health. It may conveniently help you in managing your diabetes with a bit of lifestyle changes and keep a check on your readings as well.

We hope that this blog will be helpful for you and now you will be able to compare various smartwatch alternatives for active diabetes to manage your disease. Good Luck!