Garmin’s Potential Breakthrough: Revolutionizing Blood Glucose Tracking in Wearables

Garmin is currently working on developing an algorithm to address challenges related to achieving successful non-invasive measurements. These challenges include issues such as the compression of blood vessels when a watch is worn too tightly, which can affect the accuracy of the results.

If this technology is released this year, it is anticipated to be featured in the upcoming Garmin Fenix 9, which is expected to be launched in the near future.

Apple’s upcoming breakthrough

While Garmin is making significant progress in health tracking, rumors suggest that Apple has been working on similar blood sugar monitoring technology for several years.

In 2023, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple was developing a device that could utilize optical absorption spectroscopy to accurately monitor blood glucose levels.

Considering that smartwatches already track vital health metrics like heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and blood pressure, the addition of glucose monitoring could be the next innovative feature to attract consumers to upgrade their devices.

Photo by Thomas Deehan / Foundry

It is important to note that the Pixel Watch 5, released today, will introduce an Insulin Resistance Trends feature as part of a new Health Guardian suite later this year. However, this feature will provide estimates based on other data rather than direct measurements.