What? As someone who relies on heart rate monitoring for autoregulation in the gym, I can tell you it works and works well. When my heart rate is allowed to drop between sets, I can lift heavier and pursue my progressive overload properly, but when my watch is glitching, my lifts are never up-to-par.

Now, can the technology be improved. Absolutely, let’s start with addressing the racial biases in the optical sensors, but to call it a gimmick is someone with a preconception attempting to spread misinformation. Whether in bad faith or inadvertently, only you know.

Yeah, maybe I’m missing something but smart watches in general seem like one of the biggest examples of big tech successfully convincing consumers that “more tech in your life is good”, even when it’s not actually doing anything new or useful for them. I’m definitely not convinced at all by health tracking for normal people, it’s pretty obviously a massive data hoarding exercise that offers very little in return.