
Health Tech
Last Updated
Feb 23, 2026
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Most wearables are designed to count your steps. A handful are designed to help you live longer. That distinction matters more than most people realize.
The longevity movement has gone mainstream. Physicians like Peter Attia and researchers like David Sinclair have brought concepts like healthspan, metabolic flexibility, and biological age into everyday conversation. And wearable technology has evolved right alongside that shift. The best devices no longer just track activity — they monitor heart rate variability, sleep architecture, recovery readiness, skin temperature, and even real-time blood glucose levels.
But with hundreds of options on the market, most people end up overwhelmed, over-tracked, and under-informed. This guide cuts through the noise. These are the wearables that actually matter if your goal is to live longer, healthier, and with more control over the metrics that drive aging.
What Makes a Wearable Good for Longevity?
Before diving into specific devices, it helps to understand what separates a longevity-focused wearable from a standard fitness tracker. Longevity isn't about logging 10,000 steps. It's the result of optimizing across several pillars: sleep quality, cardiovascular fitness, metabolic health, stress management, and recovery.
The best longevity wearables excel in three areas. First, they track the right biomarkers — HRV, resting heart rate, blood oxygen, body temperature trends, and sleep stages. Second, they translate raw data into actionable insights, telling you what to do with the information rather than just showing you graphs. Third, they encourage consistency. A device you won't wear 24/7 is a device that misses the data that matters most, especially during sleep.
With that framework in mind, here are the top picks.
Longevity Wearable Comparison Table
Feature | Oura Ring 4 | WHOOP 5.0 | Apple Watch Ultra 2 | Garmin Fenix 8 | CGM (Dexcom Stelo) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Price | $349 + $5.99/mo | ~$30/mo (device included) | $799 | $899 | ~$99/mo |
Form Factor | Ring | Screenless strap | Smartwatch | Sports watch | Arm sensor |
Battery Life | 5–7 days | 4–5 days | 1–2 days | 16–28 days | 14 days (per sensor) |
Sleep Tracking | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ | N/A |
HRV Monitoring | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | N/A |
Heart Rate Accuracy | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | N/A |
VO2 Max Tracking | No | No | Yes | Yes (most accurate) | N/A |
ECG | No | No | Yes | No | N/A |
Blood Oxygen (SpO2) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A |
Body Temperature | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | N/A |
Glucose Monitoring | No | No | No | No | Yes (real-time) |
Recovery / Readiness Score | Yes (Readiness) | Yes (Recovery) | No native score | Yes (Body Battery) | N/A |
Biological Age | No | Yes | No | No | No |
Wearable 24/7 Comfort | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★☆ |
Requires Phone | Yes (app) | Yes (app) | iPhone only | Yes (app) | Yes (app) |
Prescription Required | No | No | No | No | No (Stelo is OTC) |
Best Longevity Use Case | Sleep & recovery | Strain & recovery | Heart health & ECG | VO2 max & cardio fitness | Metabolic health |
1. Oura Ring (Gen 3 / Ring 4) — Best Overall for Longevity
If you could only wear one device for longevity tracking, the Oura Ring makes the strongest case. It's small, comfortable enough to sleep in, and laser-focused on the metrics that matter most for long-term health: HRV, resting heart rate, body temperature trends, respiratory rate, and detailed sleep staging.
Sleep is arguably the single most important lever for longevity, and Oura delivers some of the most accurate consumer-grade sleep data available. Researchers have noted that Oura offers the best sleep tracking in an all-around health wearable, particularly when users focus on long-term trends rather than night-to-night fluctuations. The Readiness Score gives you a simple daily signal: push hard today, or prioritize recovery.
Oura has also expanded into women's health with cycle tracking, pregnancy insights, and perimenopause monitoring — areas most competitors ignore entirely. In 2025, the platform added blood test integration and cumulative stress metrics, evolving from a lifestyle tracker into something closer to a clinical companion.
Best for: Sleep optimization, recovery tracking, HRV monitoring, anyone who doesn't want a screen on their wrist.
Price: ~$349 + $5.99/month subscription
2. WHOOP (5.0) — Best for Recovery and Strain Management
WHOOP takes a fundamentally different approach than most wearables. There's no screen, no step counter, and no app store. Everything is built around three scores: Recovery, Strain, and Sleep Performance. For longevity-focused users, that simplicity is a feature, not a limitation.
The device continuously tracks heart rate, HRV, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen. What sets WHOOP apart is how it synthesizes that data. The recovery score tells you whether your nervous system is primed for exertion or needs rest — a critical insight for avoiding the chronic overtraining that accelerates aging and suppresses immune function.
WHOOP has also leaned hard into longevity with its Healthspan integration and Advanced Labs partnerships. The platform now calculates a Biological Age based on your biomarkers and provides a checklist of daily behaviors — like hitting specific sleep and activity targets — to lower it. The AI-powered WHOOP Coach can answer specific questions about how your habits affect your metrics, like how late meals impact your REM sleep.
Independent studies have found WHOOP to be among the most accurate wrist-worn devices for sleep measurement, coming closest to lab equipment on total sleep time and sleep stage detection.
Best for: Athletes, recovery-focused users, anyone who wants actionable coaching without screen distractions.
Price: Subscription-based (~$30/month, device included)
3. Apple Watch Ultra 2 / Series 10 — Best Smartwatch for Heart Health
If you want a full smartwatch experience alongside longevity tracking, the Apple Watch remains the strongest option — particularly for cardiovascular health. It's the most accurate wrist-worn device for heart rate monitoring, and it offers clinical-grade ECG readings, blood oxygen measurement, and irregular heart rhythm notifications that have genuinely saved lives.
For longevity purposes, the Apple Watch shines in three areas: real-time heart rate tracking during exercise (critical for staying in Zone 2, the fat-burning zone that Attia and others champion for cardiovascular longevity), fall detection and crash detection for safety, and its deep integration with the Apple Health ecosystem, which aggregates data from multiple sources into one dashboard.
The trade-off is battery life. You'll be charging daily, which means interrupted sleep tracking unless you build a charging routine around it. For that reason, many longevity-focused users pair an Apple Watch for daytime use with an Oura Ring for nighttime.
Best for: Heart health monitoring, ECG, iPhone users who want a full smartwatch experience alongside health tracking.
Price: ~$399 (Series 10) to $799 (Ultra 2)
4. Garmin Fenix 8 / Epix Pro — Best for Cardiovascular Fitness and VO2 Max
Garmin has long been the gold standard for endurance athletes, but its health tracking capabilities make it equally compelling for longevity. Lab studies have consistently found that Garmin devices provide VO2 max estimates closest to clinical lab results — and VO2 max is one of the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality.
The Fenix 8 and Epix Pro track training load, HRV, Body Battery (Garmin's readiness score), sleep stages, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen. The Garmin Connect app presents these metrics in a clean dashboard that rewards consistency over time. Multi-week battery life means you can wear it continuously without interruption, capturing complete sleep and recovery data.
For longevity, Garmin's greatest strength is guiding sustainable cardiovascular training. The devices help you balance intensity with recovery, build aerobic fitness progressively, and avoid the chronic overtraining that undermines long-term health.
Best for: Endurance athletes, VO2 max tracking, users who prioritize battery life and rugged design.
Price: ~$899 (Fenix 8) / ~$899 (Epix Pro)
5. Continuous Glucose Monitor (Dexcom Stelo / Libre 3) — Best for Metabolic Health
A CGM isn't a traditional wearable, but it may be the single most impactful longevity tool on this list. These small sensors, worn on the back of your arm, measure blood glucose levels in real time — revealing exactly how your body responds to different foods, exercise, sleep, and stress.
Why does this matter for longevity? Chronically elevated blood glucose and high glucose variability are linked to insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, accelerated aging, and cognitive decline. A CGM gives you the feedback loop to manage these risks before they become problems.
The Dexcom Stelo is now available over the counter — no prescription required — making CGM accessible to anyone interested in metabolic optimization. Longevity physicians routinely recommend wearing one for two to four weeks to establish your personal glucose patterns, then periodically thereafter to check in.
Prominent longevity researchers advocate strongly for CGM use even in healthy individuals, arguing that understanding and stabilizing your glucose response is one of the most impactful interventions for long-term health.
Best for: Metabolic health optimization, nutrition personalization, anyone serious about preventing insulin resistance.
Price: ~$99/month (Dexcom Stelo, no prescription needed) / ~$75/month (Libre 3, prescription may be required)
How to Choose the Right Wearable for Your Goals
There's no single perfect device. The best approach depends on what you're trying to optimize. If sleep is your primary concern, start with the Oura Ring. If you're focused on cardiovascular fitness and VO2 max, Garmin is hard to beat. If metabolic health is your priority, a CGM will teach you more in two weeks than most devices will in a year.
Many longevity-focused individuals layer two or three devices: a ring for sleep, a watch for exercise, and a periodic CGM for metabolic check-ins. The key is choosing devices that give you data you'll actually act on, not just more numbers to look at.
The Bigger Picture
Wearables are powerful, but they're tools — not treatments. The real value comes from what you do with the data: adjusting your training, improving your sleep habits, changing how you eat, and managing stress. A platform that integrates your wearable data with lab work, coaching, and clinical support turns raw metrics into a real longevity strategy.
That's the direction health optimization is heading. Not more devices, but smarter systems that connect the dots between what your wearable sees and what your body actually needs.
Interested in connecting your wearable data to lab testing, AI-powered health insights, and personalized optimization? Visit onetwenty.com to learn how we bring it all together.
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