Final images of the upcoming Fitbit smartwatch surface showing new heart rate monitoring system

We have covered Fitbit’s upcoming foray into the smartwatch world in recent weeks, and for good reason — they are the premium name in the fitness tracker industry. Everyone is waiting to see what they bring with their first smartwatch which promises to bring its own sdk and app store.

The folks over at Wearable.com have managed to get their hands on what is apparently the final version of the Fitbit smartwatch launching later this year. The smartwatch appears to be arriving with a new way of measuring heart rate. Usually there are green optical heart rate sensors on smartwatches/wearables but the Fitbit smartwatch has what appears to be two infra-red lights as well as a blue light down the bottom.

Wearable.com have hypothesised that if those two red lights are in fact infra-red lights the bottom blue light could well be for measuring the oxygen saturation of the blood. Most heart rate pulse oximeters in a hospital setting use red light technology as it gives a more accurate heart rate and other “physiological parameters” that the green lights tend to not fare so well with. If Fitbit bring this technology to the smartwatch world it will deal a blow to all other smartwatches passing themselves off as a fitness oriented wearable.

Wearable reached out to Fitbit for comment and got the following reply:

We know there is a lot of interest in our entry into the smartwatch category. We don’t have news to share at this time and do not comment on rumors or speculation. We can confirm that development of our smartwatch is on track and that it will be available for the holiday season.

While it is unknown at this stage whether this will arrive on our shores we think that it is likely. Fitbit have always brought all their devices out here and have done very well. Their wearable products are everywhere, not just in stores but on everyone’s wrists so we do not expect them to change now — and we certainly hope they do not.

Would you be interested in a Fitbit smartwatch? Are you concerned it is a whole new platform or do you think their acquisition of Pebble and Vector will smooth the smartwatch’s arrival?