Apple Watch: How to View Detailed Heart Rate History Over Time

The Apple Watch may be a great health and fitness tool, but are you taking advantage of the useful data it records? Read how to view your Apple Watch heart rate history for different categories like rest, walking, exercise, and HRV over days, months, and years.

Even when you're not tracking a workout with Apple Watch, heart rate readings are captured in the background to measure your resting and walking heart rate. Apple describes how this works in a support document:

Apple Watch measures your heart rate throughout the day when you're stationary, and periodically when you're stationary. walking (Apple Watch Series 1 or later). Because Apple Watch takes these background readings based on your activity, the time between these measurements may vary. Apple Watch also calculates your daily rest rate and average walking speed by matching background heart rate readings with accelerometer data when sufficient background readings are available.

So, since all your great heart rate data is already stored , let's see how to view them all. Whether you want to share it with your doctor or just check it out for yourself, we'll start by looking at your heart rate data on Apple Watch, and then look at how to view even more heart rate data on your iPhone.

How to view your Apple Watch heart rate history

On Apple Watch

Go to the Heart Rate app on your Apple Watch daily data (app with heart icon).
You can see your current heart rate by swiping or scrolling down using the digital crown.
You can now see your resting rate, walking average, heart rate during exercise, and heart rate after exercise (if you've recently exercised)

Heart rate history on iPhone

Checking the heart rate history captured by Apple Watch on iPhone , gives you the most data, here's where to find it:

Open the Health app on your iPhone.
Tap the tab “Overview”in the bottom right corner, then Heart
On the main page, you will see different categories of heart rate. Click one to view your history.
At the top you can change the data window: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly (H, D, S, M, Y)
Bottom You'll see basic heart rate information and additional information about each type of heart rate data.

Below in the main “Heart” section you will see additional data. such as Cardio Fitness, ECG results, blood pressure readings, and low/high/irregular heart rate notifications.

Here's what it all looks like on iPhone:

Each has different heart rate categories, Switch between the H, D, W, M, 6M, Y options at the top to see your heart rate data over time. Using a 6-month or annual view makes it easy to see broader trends.

If you swipe down on the main Heart screen in the Health app, you'll see highlights at the bottom, including ECG, blood data blood pressure alerts, heart rate notifications, and cardio recovery data.

And if you're wondering what HRV or Cardio Fitness is, check out our full guides:

What What is HRV and how can you track/use it with your Apple Watch and iPhone?
Here's how and why you should set up Cardio Fitness on your Apple Watch and iPhone

Thanks for reading with our guide on how to view and track your Apple Watch heart rate history!