The one-stop source for every wearable

Everything about wearables.

Organised by who's wearing them — children, teens, adults, seniors, people living with dementia, lone workers. Every device, every technology, every companion app, and the question almost nobody asks: what happens to the data.

🔍 Independent. We test what we cover and we're affiliated with no brand.
A line of people of different ages wearing devices — a young child, a teenager with a phone, a young adult, a runner checking a smartwatch, an older woman, a lone worker in high-visibility clothing, and a dog with a GPS collar — surrounded by icons for heart rate, location, messaging and cloud data
Browse by who it's for

Start with the person

A wearable that's perfect for a marathon runner is useless for someone with dementia. We organise everything around the wearer, because that's the only thing that decides which device is right.

A child wearing a GPS smartwatch, signalling to a parent holding a phone
Ages 4–12

Children

GPS watches, SOS buttons, first phones-on-the-wrist. What survives a school year, what lasts a school day, and what parents actually need versus what's sold to them.

Explore kids' wearables A teenager's smartwatch and a phone exchanging location in both directions
Ages 13–17

Teens

Location sharing, crash detection, driving safety and the balance between oversight and autonomy. Often the phone already does it — we say when.

Explore teen wearables An adult and an older adult wearing smartwatches, sending location, messages and heart data to a phone
18 and over

Adults & seniors

Smartwatches, fitness and health sensors, sleep, ECG and SpO2 — through to medical alerts and fall detection as needs change. We organise by need rather than birthday, because people stay active far longer than the old 65+ categories assume.

Explore adult & senior wearables An older man walking out of a geofenced zone around his home, triggering an alert on a phone
Cognitive decline

Dementia & Alzheimer's

Wandering alerts, geofencing, tamper resistance, two-way voice. Over 60% of people with dementia wander; 94% are found within 1.5 miles — the exact range a device changes.

Explore dementia wearables A worker in remote terrain connecting to a satellite from a wrist device
Isolated & off-grid

Lone workers & outdoors

Man-down detection, panic alerts, satellite SOS, working and travelling beyond coverage. Two watches can both claim "satellite SOS" and promise very different things — and consumer devices often aren't enough for occupational duty of care.

Explore solo & remote safety A man wearing a chest sensor and smartwatch streaming to a clinical monitor and a phone alert
Chronic conditions

Health monitoring

Continuous glucose, cardiac monitoring, epilepsy alerts, oxygen. What's clinically validated, what's wellness, and what a clinician will actually accept data from.

Explore health monitoring
The part nobody covers

Where does the data go?

A wearable on a child or an elderly parent produces some of the most sensitive data that exists — continuous location, health signals, daily routine. Almost no publication asks who holds it, where it's stored, who it's sold to, or what happens when the company behind it disappears. ViaMondo does.

76%

of wearable companies rated high risk for transparency

59%

rated inadequate on breach notification

41%

fail to implement privacy by default

74%

of users say they're concerned about their data

Who actually holds the data?

Many brands don't build their own platform — they license a white-label backend. The company on the box is often not the company holding your parent's location history.

How long is it kept?

Most apps never state a retention period. Data can persist indefinitely — including after you delete the account.

Who else gets it?

Wearable data reaches advertisers, insurers, employers and researchers. Third parties are frequently held to weaker standards than the manufacturer.

Is the app more exposed than the device?

Usually, yes. The companion app and cloud account are the softer target — and some request contacts, microphone or camera access they have no business needing.

What happens when the company dies?

Pebble. Amazon Halo — the Halo Rise got eleven months of support. Moxie. SmartDry. There is a public registry of hardware killed by server shutdowns.

What happens when a network retires?

A Samsung Gear S became unusable when Verizon shut down 3G. Cellular sunsets brick trackers, and buyers are almost never warned.

What do parental control apps collect?

Screen time, location, messages, browsing, app use — parental control software is among the most comprehensive collectors of children's data in existence. We cover what each tool gathers, how long it keeps it, and where the phone's own free controls do the same job without a third party in the middle.

Apps & back-end platforms

The device is half the product

The companion app is where families actually live — setting alerts, checking location, responding at 3am. A superb tracker with a broken app is a broken product. We review both, plus the platforms underneath.

Companion app reviews

Setup difficulty, alert reliability, notification handling, multi-carer access, and whether it works when the phone is locked.

See app assessments

Who's behind the platform

Which brands run their own back end and which license a white-label one — and why that determines your data's real custodian.

Platform directory

Multi-carer & family access

Can two siblings both receive alerts? Can a care agency be added? Most families discover the limits after purchase.

Compare access models

Monitoring centres

Who answers when the button is pressed, response times, escalation protocols, and what "24/7 monitored" actually contracts you to.

How monitoring works
Technology, explained

From Bluetooth to satellite

Connectivity is the least understood spec on any product page, and the one most likely to make a device useless for a given situation.

TechnologyData rateBatteryBest suited toWhat it means for you
Bluetooth LEShort rangeExcellentPhone-tethered devicesNeeds a phone nearby. The single most common mismatch in senior care.
NB-IoT≤ 250 kbpsLongest of allInfrequent, low-data reportingSuperb battery, weak for mobility and live tracking. Wrong for wandering alerts.
LTE-M≤ 1 MbpsBalancedWearable health, asset trackingThe sweet spot for most trackers — handles movement and real-time updates.
5G RedCap150 / 50 MbpsModerateData-rich wearablesEmerging. Omdia forecasts ~1bn connections by 2030.
Satellite (NTN)MessagingVariesOff-grid emergenciesGarmin inReach messages anyone; Apple reaches emergency relay centres only. Decisive difference.

Also covered: GPS accuracy and drift · geofencing · fall-detection sensors · heart rate, SpO2 and ECG · battery chemistry and real-world endurance · eSIM and carrier requirements · network sunsets.

EMF & SAR — the ViaMondo index

How much RF does it actually emit?

Regulators require phone makers to publish SAR figures. They don't require it for wearables — so the numbers exist but are scattered across filings and manuals. ViaMondo collects them, publishes them per device, and explains what they mean.

Three words people mix up

EMF — the energy

Electromagnetic field. The invisible energy every wireless device gives off. It's the broad category, not a score — measured in the air around a device, in V/m or W/m².

SAR — the measurement

Specific Absorption Rate. How much of that EMF your body actually absorbs, in watts per kilogram. This is the number on the spec sheet, and the one worth comparing.

FCC & ICNIRP — the rule-makers

Two authorities, not measurements. Both use SAR; each sets its own maximum. The FCC governs the US and Canada, ICNIRP the EU and most of the world.

In one line: a device emits EMF → your body absorbs some of it → that absorbed amount is measured as SAR → the FCC and ICNIRP each cap how high the SAR may go.

Where the device sits Max SAR allowed by FCC (US & Canada) Max SAR allowed by ICNIRP (EU & most others)
Head or against the body
Phones, chest-worn monitors, pendants
 1.6 W/kg
averaged over 1 gram
 2.0 W/kg
averaged over 10 grams
Wrist, hand, ankle or ear
Smartwatches, trackers, hearables
 4.0 W/kg
averaged over 10 grams — the extremity limit
 Higher allowance applies to limbs
than the 2.0 W/kg local limit

Two further ICNIRP notes: whole-body exposure is averaged over 30 minutes (raised from 6 in the 2020 revision, to match how long body temperature takes to rise), and above 6 GHz the standard switches from SAR to absorbed power density — increasingly relevant as 5G bands climb.

The comparison trap. A smartwatch's SAR figure is usually measured against the 4.0 W/kg extremity limit, while a phone's is measured against 1.6 W/kg for the body — and the FCC averages over 1 gram while ICNIRP averages over 10. Four numbers, four different yardsticks. Every figure in the ViaMondo index is published with its standard, its averaging mass and its test position attached.

What the limits already include

Both thresholds sit roughly 50× below the exposure level that produces measurable tissue heating under controlled conditions. The margin is built in.

Wearables vs phones

Wearables transmit at far lower power than handsets — Bluetooth especially. Most sit well under the limits. The trade-off worth knowing: they're worn continuously.

What the science says

No causal link has been established between low-power RF from wearables and long-term harm. The WHO's Group 2B "possibly carcinogenic" classification rests on mobile phone research, not wearables.

Why we publish it anyway

Because you asked, and because the data should be easy to find. We report measured figures and the standards behind them — and we don't sell fear, or shielding products.

Our position. We publish SAR figures for every device we cover, alongside the applicable limit, so you can compare like with like. We report the scientific evidence as it stands rather than as either side would prefer it. If a device's SAR is unusually high for its class we'll say so — and if the evidence doesn't support a health concern, we'll say that too.

The ViaMondo Weekly Brief

One email a week: what launched, what was recalled, which app update broke something, which company changed its data policy — and one honest answer to a reader's question.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe any time — we never share your address.
Our independence

Not affiliated with any brand

Coverage is only worth reading if nobody paid for it. Here's exactly how ViaMondo operates.

We test what we cover

Hands-on with the device and the app. Nothing assessed from a press release.

Samples disclosed

We buy devices and accept review units. Where a unit was supplied we say so, and it's returned or donated afterwards.

Never paid for coverage

No payment for reviews, rankings or placement. Manufacturers don't see our work before publication.

Complete picture

Capabilities, limitations, and who a device suits. The limitation is usually the decision.

Every link disclosed

Affiliate relationships declared at the top of every page.

No prevention claims

No wearable prevents falls, wandering or emergencies, or replaces supervision.

Latest

Guides, comparisons & analysis

Security & data · Coming soon

What happens to your device when the company shuts down

Pebble, Amazon Halo, Moxie, SmartDry — a pattern, not a series of accidents. How to judge a company's staying power before you buy.

Technology · Coming soon

BLE, LTE-M, NB-IoT or satellite: which does your situation need?

The decision tree that never appears on a product page — and why the wrong answer means a device that never really works.

Off-grid · Coming soon

Garmin inReach vs Apple Emergency SOS: message anyone, or reach a relay centre?

Both are sold as satellite SOS. They promise different things, and the gap matters most when it matters most.

Dementia · Coming soon

Five questions to ask before buying any dementia tracker

Battery, tamper resistance, phone dependency, who answers the alert, and what happens the day they take it off.

Apps · Coming soon

The companion app is half the product — and usually the weaker half

How we score setup, alert reliability, multi-carer access, and behaviour when the phone is locked.