
There are 2 types of heart rate monitor continuous reading you should know: heart rate monitor using with a chest strap and strapless heart rate monitor watch. If you use a chest strap, you will need to wear it under your chest and see heart rate data through your smartphone or buy a wrist-watch receiver. Using a strapless heart rate monitor watch, may be more comfortable for you since you can wear it like a watch and read all data through the clock face. However for some athletes, chest straps seem to be more accurate as they use EKG sensor, not an optical sensor like the modern heart rate monitor watch.

Which one do you prefer? About the chest strap continuous heart monitor, you can find a lot of useful information in my posts: Best Polar heart rate monitor and Garmin heart rate monitor – these 2 are the top brands for chest strap continuous heart rate reading. The strap continuous heart rate monitor has been popular in the market for quite a long time, while the strapless continuous heart rate monitor watch just showed off a few years ago. Mio Alpha heart rate monitor was one of the first strapless continuous wristwatch heart rate monitor and was recommended by many people. Thus in this post, I will provide you pros and cons of this and other strapless heart rate monitors.
Review Best Continuous Heart Rate Monitor Watches
Continuous heart rate monitor without a chest strap is a new technology that was introduced just about 3 years ago. We can name some of the first strapless heart rate watch of famous brands: Mio Alpha (2013), Garmin Forerunner 225 (2015), and Polar A360 (2015).It was so hot that many brands join this market and release a lot of new models. Even the Apple watch can be considered as a strapless continuous heart rate monitor watch.
I will compare some of the most reviewed continuous reading wristwatch so you can more easily decide which one fits best with you:
Fitbit Charge HR heart rate monitor watch
- Rubber strap. 5 color option: black, plum, blue, teal and tangerine. Comfortable to sleep with
- Track Workouts, distance, floors climbed, steps, active minutes and calories burned. Automatically monitor your sleep and wake with a silent alarm. You can see time of day, call notifications, daily stats on the OLED display
- Water resistant. Not suitable for swimming
- Compatibility: Bluetooth devices
- Battery life: 5 days
- Light and durable with a curved Super AMOLED display. Interchangeable bands and screens
- Quick reply to messages. Reject calls with messages. Control alarms
- Water resistant
- Compatibility: Android devices
- Battery life: 3-4 days
Garmin Vivosmart HR heart rate monitor
- Sleek design. 3 color options: black, imperial purple, midnight blue
- Track steps, distance, calories, heart rate, floors climbed and activity intensity. Receive text, call, email, social media and calendar alerts. Control your music and your VIRB action camera
- Water resistant to 50m. Safe for swimming
- Compatibility: Bluetooth & ANT+ devices. Garmin Connect app
- Battery life: 5 days
Mio Alpha heart rate monitor watch
- Black color
- Record total exercise time. Timer/Clock
- Water resistant to 30 m. Safe for swimming
- Compatibility: Bluetooth devices
- Battery life: 20+ hours
Review of Mio Alpha 1 and 2 Continuous Heart Rate Monitor Watches
Mio is a Taiwanese electronics maker founded in 2002 that manufactures and markets Pocket PCs, Personal Digital Assistants, smartphones and Personal Navigation Devices. Mio Alpha continuous heart rate monitor is one of the first wristwatch heart rate monitors in the market.
Mio Alpha I is targeted at serious athletes who want to accurately assess their performance during workouts. It has one primary purpose, besides telling the time, and that’s to measure heart rate. The Mio Alpha strapless continuous heart rate didn’t include any other tracking features.
Mio at the 2015 International CES trade show on Monday announced the Mio Alpha 2. The watch has the same continuous wireless heart-rate monitoring as the original, but also adds improved software, a backlight, an improved stopwatch and a built-in accelerometer. Mio Alpha 2 strapless continuous heart rate can track your calories, pace, speed and distance without a smartphone connection. But there’s no sleep tracking or step count, and it’s unclear how the watch will accurately track pace and speed without a GPS signal.
However who those who just concern measuring heart rate and want to do it at ease, Mio Alpha I & Mio Alpha 2 continuous heart monitors are still two of my favorites as the best choices.
As I mentioned above, to learn more about the chest strap continuous heart monitors, you can find a lot of useful information in my previous posts: Best Polar heart rate monitor and Garmin heart rate monitor – these two devices are the top brands for chest strap continuous heart rate reading. The strap continuous heart rate monitor has been very popular for quite a long time, while the strapless continuous heart rate monitor watch just appeared on the market a few years ago.
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