I've heard good things about the Apple Watch as a monitoring device but I'm wondering: is it good enough to buy it purely for that reason? I can live without having phone notifications on my wrist and I wouldn't really use it as a "workout device", exactly. Just a passive way of tracking my day to day health.
Anybody have thoughts/anecdotes/informed opinions?
Have you been diagnosed by a doctor? Specifically a cardiologist? They'll recommend a device to monitor your heart if they are worried about it.
If they're not worried about it and you want to monitor yourself, Apple Watch would probably be fine. Although pricey if all you really care about is HR. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with it. I found it was always off by a few beats per minute. And there were times that the sensor didn't work at all (which I attribute to having very dark tattoos on both arms right where the sensor sits).
If you just care about heart rate, there are cheaper alternatives out there. LETSCOM, Lintelek, etc. on Amazon have HR wrist monitors that are <= 30 USD. For me, that is in the "grab one, if it isn't great, get rid of it" range.