If you’re a diabetic or know someone who is, you might have taken note of ads that show a nice looking smartwatch that supposedly measures your blood sugar without having to draw blood. The ad, which runs on YouTube, calls the device the “Watch 5” and promotes its ability to accurately measure the user’s blood sugar reading non-invasively. This is the Holy Grail ir smartwatch features and is one that Apple and Samsung have been working on for years.
Apple could have blood sugar readings as part of the Apple Watch Series 13 in 2027 says one analyst
Analyst Jeff Pu said last summer that Apple could have a non-invasive blood sugar sensor on the Apple Watch as soon as 2027, which would be the Apple Watch Series 13. This would be a huge feature because diabetics have to get a blood sugar reading before each meal in order to know how much insulin to take. This is a painful process since you’ll need to draw blood; it also is expensive. The machines that measure your blood sugar use test strips that must be discarded after a single use. A non-invasive method of obtaining your blood sugar reading would be painless for your finger and your wallet.
Anyone who is diabetic or knows one would be champing at the bit to purchase the Watch 5. The ad claims that the blood sugar accuracy of the device “far exceeds the accuracy” of medical equipment without requiring a blood sample. Besides blood sugar, the ad says that the device also accurately measures blood pressure, blood oxygen, and your pulse. Here’s the thing, if you look closely at the ad, you can see that the timepiece in the spot is the Huawei Watch 4 Pro.
You really can’t see this in the ad, but the watch advertised is the Huawei Watch 4 Pro. | Image by PhoneArena
The Huawei Watch 4 Pro does not deliver individual blood sugar readings. In the ad, when the announcer talks about blood sugar readings, you see glucometers being thrown out. Those are the machines that diabetics use to find out what their blood sugar is and how much insulin they need to inject before eating. The Huawei Watch 4 Pro does use a non-invasive sensor along with algorithms to find patterns associated with high blood sugar.
There are too many questions surrounding the so-called “Watch 5”
The Huawei Watch 4 Pro (and the so-called Watch 5 being advertised) won’t give you a blood sugar reading like 89, 101, or 225. Instead, it will tell you if you are at low, medium, or high risk to become diabetic. The device will not provide you with the information you need to take an insulin injection. The name of the company offering the Watch 5 is Bietgdy and in its online store, there is no Watch 5, but there is a Watch 4 Pro, which is the name of the Huawei timepiece it’s apparently selling. The online store shows a price of $47, a 50% reduction from its usual $94 price.
Whether it’s the price, or claims that the device cannot meet, something stinks about this offer. | Image by Bietgdy
But in the store, there is a different claim made about the watch’s capabilities. Instead of claiming that it can replace a glucometer like the ad shows, in Bietgdy’s online store, it says that the watch will provide blood glucose assessment. Besides not being truthful about what the watch can do for diabetic users, there is a strong possibility that if you buy the device from the ad, you’re not going to receive the watch you thought you purchased.
The FDA has not approved any non-invasive glucometer
The Huawei Watch 4 Pro is $350 at Shenzhen based retailer Vopmart, which means that if you go ahead and pay $47 for the Watch 5 from Bietgdy, you’re apt to get some kind of cheap knock-off. If you are diabetic or plan on buying a device with a non-invasive blood sugar sensor for someone you know or love, you really should wait for Apple and/or Samsung to reveal an FDA-approved watch that has the feature.
That takes me to another point. The medical features of the so-called Watch 5 (which, again, is the Huawei Watch 4 Pro in reality) have not been approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. Furthermore, to receive the Diabetic Risk Assessment from the watch, you need to join a research study from the Huawei Health app and take one to two weeks to calibrate the feature.
My wife has been diabetic since her early 20’s so I know the process she goes through every day. Buying the “Watch 5” or even the Huawei Watch 4 Pro is not going to help her at all. So I would suggest that if you see this ad while scrolling on your phone or tablet, forget it. For those of you who ask how this can be a scam since it does do some blood glucose testing, it is not the kind of testing that would allow you to toss your glucometer away as shown in the ad. Also, when someone offers you a watch that costs a few hundred dollars for $47, somethng is not right.
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