The new blood pressure watch that could save your life

Omron, a company best known for its home blood pressure monitors, is now trying its hand in the watch industry.

Omron Healthcare President Ranndy Kellogg on Wednesday said its new watch, the HeartGuide, has the potential to save lives and is cheaper than the Apple Watch.

“It could save your life because if you’re hypertensive, that is the first signal that there is something wrong with your heart. You need to take care of it and the sooner you take care of it, the sooner you can get healthy,” he told FOX Business’ Liz Claman on “Countdown to the Closing Bell.”

Competing against the Apple Watch, however, will not be an easy task. According to a report by Canalys, Apple sold approximately eight million watches last quarter, outselling competitors Rolex, Swatch and Omega combined.

Though the deck is stacked against Omron, Kellogg is confident that its watch’s health benefits will outweigh the features of the Apple Watch.

“So there [are] now 103 million people in the United States that are hypertensive. That’s literally one out of every two adults. They need to know what they’re blood pressure is so they can take care of their heart. You can’t do that just with your Apple Watch or your Fitbit,” he said.

Kellogg said that Omron will roll out the watch toward the end of 2018, after the company receives its final FDA clearance.

“It will be less than an Apple Watch, but we have blood pressure monitors that range from $50 to $100. [The watch] will be a little higher than that because of the technology, but it will still be very affordable to everybody,” he said.

Kellogg also listed some of the additional functions of the watch, aside from its ability to monitor blood pressure.

“It tells the time, it will track your steps, your distance walking, calories burned, it will monitor your sleep [and] tell your sleep efficiency… it will also do alerts or notification,” he said.