Garmin Fenix 8
Garmin is letting users know that a long-awaited upgrade is coming to several watches, including those from the Fenix, Enduro, and Venu families. But this is not for US users because they already have it.
ECG feature unlocked on a trio of Garmin watch models in Europe and Australia, according to posters at Garmin forum.
Garmin is emailing those who may be affected, which according to Garmin’s support website currently includes owners of the Fenix 8, Venu 3 and Enduro 3.
It is not the whole geographical Europe that is included in this big unlock, only the EU countries. That means Brits and those in Switzerland will have to keep waiting.
I have reached out to the Garmin UK team for an update on the situation for UK Garmin users. Here’s the full list of countries that currently support the ECG feature on the latest round of Garmin watches:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Republic of Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Philippines
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Taiwan
- United States
- Vietnam
If you’re lucky enough to just have ECG unlocked on your watch, you’ll need to set up the feature in the Garmin Connect app on your phone before you can use it.
This will then bring up the ECG option on the watch itself.
One odd thing is that the unlock in Europe and Australia does not include all Garmin devices that support ECG at the moment. Other watches on this list include the Garmin D2 Mach 1 Pro, Epix Pro (Gen 2), Fenix 7 Pro, Quatix 7 Pro, Tactix 7 and Venu 2 Plus.
What is the difference? Some of these watches use slightly different heart rate sensor hardware and therefore likely have to go through a completely separate process to get the green light from regulators in the EU and Australia. I also asked Garmin if there is any update for the EKG that comes with the older models.
What is Garmin’s ECG feature for?
Unlike the typical heart rate reading on watches, Garmin’s EKG feature evaluates the electrical signals running through your body to determine your sinus rhythm. The watch’s normal HR reading simply measures your heart rate using an array of light sensors.
The ECG requires your active participation by placing your thumb and forefinger on the bezel of the watch. The process takes about 30 seconds.
This can in turn detect abnormalities that could be an indication of atrial fibrillation. While Garmin doesn’t claim to be able to make similar observations during passive all-day heart rate reading, it does provide optional alerts for when your heart rate is abnormally high or low. And this can also be an indicator that something is not right as well.
