Dr. Michel Accad pumped up the cuff on Nicole Nguyen's arm, and she felt her nerves climb. Doctors call that white-coat syndrome. The San Francisco cardiologist put it simply. "Blood pressure is fickle." So the Journal's tech columnist, who has a family history of hypertension, strapped on five gadgets that promise to track it without the squeeze. She wore them for a month.
The stakes are wide. Nearly half of U.S. adults, more than 119 million people, have high blood pressure, by the CDC's count. A reading of 120 over 80 can be an early warning. None of the five devices gives you a reading on demand. They give you hourly, daily or monthly trends. Every maker calls its product a wellness device. None claims to diagnose anything.
What each one costs
Hilo Core's band runs two weeks on a charge. For the first four days you check it against the cuff that comes in the box. After that it sends eight to 10 readings a day. The band and FDA-cleared cuff cost $90. The subscription is $150 a year, and the band quits if you don't renew. The Whoop band's top plan, $359 a year, adds blood-pressure insights after three cuff readings set a baseline. The Oura Ring starts at $349 plus $6 a month and tracks how far your pressure dips at night. Google (GOOGL) Pixel Watch 3 and newer track monthly trends. The Pixel Watch 5 costs $400 and up.
The Apple (AAPL) Watch Series 9, Ultra 2 and newer have FDA clearance to flag possible hypertension. You have to be at least 22, not pregnant, with no past diagnosis, and wear it 14 days out of 30. Nguyen turned the alerts on when they launched and has never gotten one. If you do get one, Apple tells you to log a week of cuff readings and see a doctor.
The doctors are cautious. In 2025 the American Heart Association said cuffless devices have "unanswered questions" about accuracy. These gadgets use light sensors to pick up blood pulsing under the skin. Then software estimates a number from that data. That's an inference. A cuff takes a measurement. Dr. Eugene Yang of the University of Washington, an author of the AHA statement, says cuffs face a strict testing standard and wearables face none. His worry is the false negative, the person with hypertension who feels reassured by a green gauge.
Our read
Health Costs. We like these devices for one thing. They get people thinking about blood pressure, and a trend alert can start a conversation with a doctor. The cost is where we slow down. The subscriptions run $150 to $359 a year, on top of the hardware, and one band turns into a bracelet the day you stop paying. A good upper-arm cuff is a one-time buy, and it gives the kind of reading doctors ask for. Apple is held at weight in 24 of our model books and Alphabet in 28. Nothing added.
The line in your plan this touches is the health column of your monthly cash flow, and the quiet subscriptions inside it. This week, pull your card statement and add up every wellness subscription you're paying. Then ask whether a plain arm cuff and a notebook would do the same job. If you have an HSA, ask whether a validated cuff can come out of it before a watch does. And if a gadget ever says you're trending high, that's a reason to book the doctor, never a reason to skip the visit. You buy the cuff while your numbers are boring, the way you buy the umbrella in the sun. We'll look at the health budget with you before it stops being boring.