TicWatch GTH Pro is a sub-$100 smartwatch that can track arterial health
Mobvoi has officially unveiled the TicWatch GTH Pro, which it’s calling its first heart health monitoring smartwatch.
The successor to its GTH smartwatch gets its special heart health monitoring powers thanks to Australian startup CardieX and its subsidiary ATCOR.
The smartwatch uses ATCOR’s Arty technology to measure central arterial waveforms. These are pressure waves based on the strength of the pulse as blood flows through the body.
Essential reading: TicWatch GTH review
The GTH Pro can analyse the hardening of arteries caused by lifestyle factors that could lead to heart disease.
Its health monitoring skills don’t end there, with Mobvoi including dual PPG sensors, which can track both general and arterial health both from the wrist and by placing your fingertip on the side of the watch.
It will then display data inside of the Mobvoi companion phone app breaking down metrics into five key analysis points.
The first is an Arty Score, which offers a general score of overall heart and arterial health.
Next up is eCap, which is a measure of exercise capacity based on the heart’s ability to perform during exercise. ArtyAge offers an estimated age of the arteries based on arterial stiffness and HSX (or Heart Stress Index) is.a measure of stress on the heart based on pulse pressure.
Last up is TruHR, which is a heart rate measurement Mobvoi says is similar to readings taken by an electrocardiogram.
It’s worth highlighting that while ATCOR’s technology the GTH Pro draws aspects from has attained FDA clearance, Mobvoi’s smartwatch is not an FDA-cleared medical device.
Outside of its headline-grabbing health monitoring skills, the Pro features the same a 1.55-inch, 360 x 320 colour TFT display as the first GTH and comes in just one black look with a 20mm removable strap. As a package, it’s waterproof up to 50 metres making it safe to wear in the shower and swimming pool.
There’s support for continuous heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking and you’re also getting skin temperature, oxygen saturation and stress monitoring features.
You’re getting the same 14 sports modes to track runs, walks, indoor cycling and skipping. There’s no mention of GPS, so it looks like it offers accelerometer-based tracking once again.
Battery life is stated to go for 7-10 days just like the GTH, which we found managed 5 days on average when using the full compliment of tracking features available.
The GTH Pro is on sale now from Mobvoi and Amazon for $99.99, jumping up slightly from the GTH ($79.99). That’s a very reasonable price to pay for some potentially cutting-edge health tracking features.
No smartwatch has promised to closely track arterial health in the way that the GTH Pro does. The lack of FDA clearance though may suggest it will be one to help wearers better understand heart health, but not be the definitive say if something isn’t quite right.
