If you own an iPhone, the Apple Watch is the perfect smartwatch companion. It can track vital signs, workouts and activities, calories burned, and more. Not to mention you can receive notifications, access apps and pay for items. Naturally, any watch is designed to be worn around your wrist, but if you’ve ever wondered if it could work around your ankle, you’re not alone.
With the right band, you can absolutely strap an Apple Watch around your ankle and then go for a walk, do an intense workout, or go about your daily activities. And before you scoff at the idea, there are valid reasons why you might not be able to wear it on your wrist. Perhaps it would be during sports like boxing that this would be a problem. Maybe you’re not allowed to wear one at work, like if you’re a surgeon. You might worry about it getting damaged or dirty if you work in a kitchen. In these cases, you can temporarily move it towards your ankle. But does it work? As an Apple Watch owner, I wanted to see if wearing the device on my ankle still allowed accurate tracking, so I decided to give it a try.
How the Apple Watch works on the ankle
To wear an Apple Watch on your ankle, a comfortable bracelet is important. My sports strap was too tight, but a Velcro strap has enough slack and fits comfortably around my ankle without pressing against the bone. You may need to find a larger bracelet depending on your ankle circumference. I positioned my Apple Watch Series 11 and then started a walking workout. This is a route I run every week, so I know the distance, typical heart rate, and calories burned based on historical data for that same route in my Fitness app. I also took the same walk the next day with the Apple Watch on my wrist as usual.
With the Apple Watch on my ankle during my 3.57 kilometer (2.21 mile) walk, my average heart rate was measured at 120 bpm and the watch reported that I burned 200 total calories and 134 active calories. At the first mile, the audio marker in my headphones suggested that the watch had recorded my heart rate at a much lower level than it usually is at this point in the walk. But that didn’t seem to matter because after the same walk the next day with the watch on her wrist, she tracked the exact same distance with a nearly identical average heart rate of 121 bpm and 138 active calories, 202 calories total. There was very little variation in the data whether I wore the watch on my wrist or ankle.
A useful backup in a pinch
Besides convenience, wearing an Apple Watch on your ankle can have activity tracking benefits. The movement could potentially be more accurate since it counts steps even if your arms aren’t moving, like when you use a treadmill while you work. The accuracy of heart rate tracking, however, will depend on how the sensors touch the skin and detect blood flow. If you’re concerned about heart rate tracking, consider wearing a chest heart rate monitor as well.
Ideally, the Apple Watch should be worn on your wrist, which not only gives accurate results but also allows you to enjoy all the other features that only Apple Watches have. But in some cases, switching to ankle support, even temporarily for a specific activity, is a viable option. Besides making sure it doesn’t interfere with a specific sport or hand-focused activity, you might have wrist tattoos that interfere with accuracy, or a skin condition that prevents you from wearing it on your wrist all the time. Before you wear an Apple Watch on your ankle, keep in mind that even if the data from my quick comparison test was accurate, that may not be the case for all workout types, or for every person. Try it, do the same workout twice or wear it on your ankle for a few days and see how it compares.
