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Set up Apple Watch for Sentinel

Install the VEXA watch app, grant it health access, and let it stream your heart rate to Sentinel during a session.

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What this does

Turns your Apple Watch into Sentinel’s pulse source. Sentinel reads physiology and never sees your trades, so this connection is the whole input: the watch samples your heart rate, the VEXA watch app streams it to your iPhone, and the iPhone writes it to your account where every surface can display it.

The watch app starts a short workout session while Sentinel runs. Apple only keeps the heart sensor sampling continuously during a workout, so there is no other way to get a live reading. The workout is thrown away when monitoring stops and nothing is saved to Apple Health. It does leave a mark on your Activity rings, which has its own article: Why Apple Watch adds Exercise minutes.

Before you start

Apple Watch is an iPhone device. Android does not offer it as a wearable source, and the Android app cannot read an Apple Watch.

Apple Health access on the iPhone comes first. See Connect Apple Health.

Apple Watch does not send beat-to-beat intervals to Sentinel during a session, so the live HRV figure stays empty. Your overnight HRV still reaches the baseline through Apple Health.

Keep the watch on your wrist and reasonably snug. A loose watch loses the reading whenever you move.

Steps

  1. Open VEXA Sentinel from the sidebar.
  2. Open the Settings tab.
  3. Under Wearable Source, choose Apple Watch.
  4. Leave the VEXA app running on your iPhone with the watch on your wrist. The web dashboard displays what the phone collects, it does not read the watch itself.
  1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone and install VEXA on the watch if it is not there yet.
  2. Open VEXA on the watch once and allow the health prompts it shows.
  3. On the iPhone, open Home, then tap Sentinel.
  4. Tap the gear icon, then Sentinel Settings.
  5. Tap Wearable Source and choose Apple Watch.
  6. Return to Sentinel and tap Start Session.

What you should see

The watch shows a monitoring state with a large beats-per-minute number and a session timer, and the watch face tile shows the same reading if you added it.

On the phone and the web, the live card shows a LIVE badge, the current heart rate, and a deviation readout such as “+8.2% above baseline”. The number moves every few seconds.

When you stop the session, the watch returns to its idle screen and the workout disappears without being saved to Apple Health.

If it doesn’t work

The watch app is not on the watch. Install it from the Watch app on the iPhone, under Available Apps.

A session is running but the watch shows nothing. Open VEXA on the watch once. Starting from the phone or the web wakes the watch app only if it has been launched at least once since installation.

Heart rate drops out when the watch dims. Tighten the strap. A watch worn loosely loses contact, and the sensor reports nothing rather than something wrong.

Exercise minutes appeared on your rings. Expected, and explained in Why Apple Watch adds Exercise minutes.

HRV stays blank all session. Apple Watch does not stream beat-to-beat data. Use a chest strap or the Verity Sense armband if you want live HRV. See Which heart rate devices work.

Related

Connect Apple Health Grant VEXA read access to Apple Health on iPhone and iPad so Sentinel can see your heart rate, HRV and sleep. VEXA never writes anything back. Why Apple Watch adds Exercise minutes during a session Live heart rate on Apple Watch needs an active workout, so your Activity rings register Exercise minutes. VEXA discards the workout and saves nothing to Apple Health. Which heart rate devices work with Sentinel The seven wearables Sentinel supports, how each one connects, which ones need your phone unlocked, and which ones can measure HRV.

Still stuck? Email support@vexatrade.ai.