Chinese manufacturer Oppo, which also makes the OnePlus range of Android phones and wearables, looks set to unveil a new watch next month, likely the OnePlus Watch 3. A promotional image, shared on Weibo by OPPO’s product manager, Zhou Yibao, shows an interesting new feature: blood pressure monitoring, which indicates the risk of hypertension.
Accurate blood pressure monitoring via LEDs remains a “holy grail” health feature for even the best smartwatches, and it’s frustratingly out of reach. The Huawei Watch D2 is the most accurate yet and includes in its technology a strap full of inflatable bladders that act as a portable blood pressure cuff.
However, it doesn’t look like this feature will elude smartwatch makers for much longer. Yesterday we reported that Apple is likely to introduce this technology in September, in the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and perhaps the Apple Watch SE 3, but Oppo could get ahead of it, if this promotional image is any indication. We can’t embed the Weibo image, but you can see it here.
A report from Neowin.net indicates that the OnePlus Watch 3, also known here as the Oppo Watch X2, is likely to launch next month in China, followed by an international launch.
Instead of waiting until blood pressure monitoring technology gains approval from the US Food and Drug Administration, or a similar governing body (FDA approval is a clear indicator of quality and authorizes these features for medical use), it seems that Oppo will follow the route that Apple is expected to take and use blood pressure readings as an indication that you should be examined by a medical professional.
This approach has served Apple and other smartwatch makers well in the past — the Cupertino giant’s sleep apnea detection feature that debuted in its Apple Watch Series 10 and watchOS 11 last year also provides a prompt to check out. only to a medical professional, rather than a clear diagnosis.
Apple doesn’t usually introduce a feature unless it has a pretty good idea that it works – it will be interesting to compare this next generation of smartwatch features to a medical-grade blood pressure cuff to determine accuracy.
