The Masimo W1 Watch Could Change How We Look at Wearables

Masimo, a medical device company, has just launched a limited market release of the W1, a health watch that could change how we look at wearables. The company is calling on early adopters of technology to help them with early-stage evaluations before the full market release.

A lot of wearables have been introduced over the last decade – smart glasses, smart watches, smart rings, even smart shoes. Each one provides data about what’s going on inside us. Professional athletes have been tracking this data to improve for decades and now nonprofessional athletes want to do the same. One challenge has been that the wearables we have access to often are not as accurate as the technology used by professional athletes. The W1 changes that.

This first of its kind watch is designed for those who want to take control of their personal health including fine-tuning their quality of sleep, athletic training and recovery, and overall physiological status. It provides accurate and continuous data about parameters including blood oxygen saturation, the strength of your blood flow, breaths per minute, pulse rate, and step count.

Masimo has been on the forefront of noninvasive medical monitoring for over 30 years. Their initial invention of Signal Extraction Technology® (SET®) empowered clinicians to develop new protocols that reduced neonatal blindness and improve critical congenital heart disease screenings in newborns. Their technology is used in the top hospitals around the world. Their wearables were initially reserved for clinicians only. During the Covid-19 epidemic, their wearables helped clinicians monitor patients from home. At the time, hospitals overwhelmed with patients turned to technology for help.

Because of the accuracy of Masimo technology, the company’s fingertip pulse oximeter is also used by professional athletes, Olympians, and the Women’s Tennis Association. Their pulse oximeter was featured in the movie about the U.S. Olympic Women’s Cycling Team called Personal Gold and it monitored everyone assigned to the NBA Bubble.

“As an engineer, I believe there is power in knowing your baseline numbers and then monitoring them over time. I also believe the numbers have to be accurate,” stated Masimo’s Founder Joe Kiani. “The future of monitoring is in the home,” Kiani added.

Masimo recently acquired Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Polk Audio and their home automation technologies. With this move, they believe they are in even a better place to share their incredible innovations directly to people everywhere. To sign up to be part of the select group of early adopters to evaluate the Masimo W1 watch, visit https://www.masimo.com/w1.