Continuous heart rate

The Continuous heart rate feature measures your heart rate around the clock. It enables a more accurate measurement of daily calorie consumption and your overall activity because also physical activities with very little wrist movement, such as cycling, can now be tracked.

You can turn the Continuous heart rate feature on, off or to night-time only mode on your watch in Settings > General settings > Continuous HR tracking. If you choose Night-time only mode, set heart rate tracking to begin at the earliest time you might go to bed.

The feature is on by default. Keeping the Continuous Heart Rate feature on in your watch will drain the battery quicker. Continuous heart rate tracking needs to be enabled for Nightly Recharge to function. If you want to save battery and still use Nightly Recharge, set the continuous heart rate tracking to be on only at night.

Continuous heart rate on your watch

 

 

The Heart rate widget allows you to see your current heart rate on the watch face when using the Continuous Heart Rate feature. You can add it to the watch face in the Watch face settings.

By tapping the widget, you can access the Daily activity view. From the Daily activity view, you can check your current heart rate, your highest and lowest heart rate readings of the day, and also view what your lowest heart rate reading of the previous night was. For more information, see 24/7 Activity tracking.

The watch tracks your heart rate in 5-minute intervals and records the data for later analysis in the Flow app or web service. If the watch detects that your heart rate is elevated, it starts to record your heart rate continuously. Continuous recording can also start based on your wrist movements, for example, when you’re walking with a fast enough pace for at least one minute. The continuous recording of your heart rate stops automatically when your activity level drops low enough. When your watch detects that your arm is not moving or when your heart rate is not elevated it tracks your heart rate in 5-minute cycles to find your lowest reading of the day.

In some cases, it is possible that you’ve seen a higher or lower heart rate on your watch during the day than is shown in the continuous heart rate summary as the highest or lowest reading of your day. This can happen if the reading you’ve seen falls outside the tracking interval.

The LEDs on the back of your watch are always on when the continuous heart rate feature is on and the sensor on the back is in touch with your skin. For instructions on how to wear your watch for accurate heart rate readings from the wrist, see Wrist-based heart rate measurement.

You can follow the Continuous Heart Rate data in more detail and in longer periods in Polar Flow, either in web or in the mobile app. Learn more about the Continuous Heart Rate feature in this in-depth guide.