# The $249 Apple Watch can't take an ECG

Source: https://idevice.com/the-249-apple-watch-cant-take-an-ecg
Published: 2026-09-12

> The SE 3 held at $249, and it's still the only Apple Watch sold without an electrical heart sensor or a blood oxygen reading.

The [Apple Watch SE 3](https://idevice.com/smart-watches/apple-watch/roadmap) still costs $249. Apple changed nothing about it on September 9 and repriced nothing either, which leaves it as the only watch in the lineup under $399. It runs the S10 chip, comes in 40mm and 44mm aluminum, and Apple rates it at up to 18 hours of battery behind a 1000-nit always-on screen.

It is also the only watch Apple sells without an electrical heart sensor or a blood oxygen sensor. The first is the part that takes an ECG, the heart tracing a doctor reads to spot an irregular rhythm. The second measures how much oxygen your blood is carrying. Neither one is under the SE 3's case, and no software update can put them there. They're hardware.

Mike Peterson at The Mac Observer went looking for where Apple says this out loud, and put the two Apple pages side by side. The comparison grid blurs the sensor difference. The tech specs page and the ECG availability documentation state it.

Two Apple pages describe the same watch and only one of them is clear about what is missing.

Apple sells three watches now, and everything else it has ever made is off the store. A buyer who wants to spend less than $399 has exactly one choice and it is this one. The old move of dropping down to last year's Series for a discount isn't available from Apple anymore, so the SE 3 is carrying a job it used to share with two or three other models.

What it keeps is most of what people actually use a watch for. Notifications, workout tracking, continuous heart rate, fall detection, and a screen you can read in direct sun. At $249 that is a lot of watch, and for plenty of buyers the two missing sensors are features they would open once and never open again.

The people who should stop and read the specs page are the ones who bought a watch for the ECG in the first place, or who were told by a doctor to keep an eye on blood oxygen. For them the SE 3 is the wrong watch at any price, and the comparison grid is the last place they'll find that out. Apple has published the answer. It just isn't on the page most buyers start from.

Apple sells the SE 3 at $249 and the Series 12 at $399, with the Ultra above both. The first $150 you spend past the entry watch buys two sensors.