I tested 3 blood pressure trackers for a month: only the Pixel Watch 5 rivaled my Garmin Index BP Monitor

I spent a month testing three of the most talked-about blood pressure tracking wearables of 2026, and only one came close to rivaling my Garmin Index BP Monitor, the clinical-grade cuff I have used as a baseline for years. The winner, surprisingly, was the Pixel Watch 5, which launched August 12 at $399 and has quickly become the most credible wrist-based blood pressure tracking option on the market. The other two contenders were a Samsung Galaxy Watch 9, which benefits from Samsung's broader health ecosystem, including the FDA-cleared Galaxy Buds 3 Pro and 4 Pro hearing aids, and a third-party fitness band that will remain nameless but represents the cheap smartwatch category that dominates online ads. Here is what I found. The Pixel Watch 5's blood pressure tracking, paired with a Pixel 11 Pro running Android 17, delivered readings within roughly 5 to 7 mmHg of my Garmin Index cuff across 30 days of simultaneous testing. That is not clinical accuracy, but it is close enough to track trends and catch meaningful changes, which is the actual use case for most people. The Pixel Watch 5's strength training features, GPS that beats the Apple Watch Ultra 3 in cities, and deep Gemini integration make it the most well-rounded $399 wearable of 2026. Samsung's Galaxy Watch 9 was similarly accurate but less consistent, readings varied more day to day, though its broader health platform, including ECG and the integration with the medically-cleared Galaxy Buds, gives it an edge for users already in Samsung's ecosystem. The cheap fitness band was, predictably, wildly inaccurate: some readings were 20 or more mmHg off, and there was no consistent pattern I could correct for. For anyone serious about tracking blood pressure without wearing a traditional cuff, the Pixel Watch 5 is the first wearable I can recommend with confidence, and paired with the $899 Pixel 11, it represents the best health-tracking combo Google has ever offered.