Update October 25, 2021: There are again rumors that the Apple Watch is getting a blood glucose meter. Suppliers would be busy making components. That's what DigiTimes says, in an article that can be found behind a paywall. Apple and the suppliers are said to have started with infrared sensors that work at short wavelengths. This is a common type of sensor. They will likely be fitted to the back of the Apple Watch. These are the suppliers Ennostar and Taiwan Asia Semiconductor (TAS, formerly Opto Tech).
Below is our previous article from May 3, 2021.
Measuring blood sugar with the Apple Watch Series 8
There have been rumors for some time that Apple is working on glucose monitoring on the Apple Watch, but there was no conclusive evidence yet. In 2017, Apple is said to have put a team of medical experts to work, and in early 2021 there were rumors that blood sugar monitoring will be added to the Apple Watch Series 7 this year. It will probably be a year later, because the documents show that Apple is now aiming for an introduction in 2022.
It can all be read from documents that the startup Rockley Photonics has filed with the US financial regulator SEC. The British company makes sensors for measuring blood sugar and alcohol using infrared light. The sensors can measure elements that normally require medical or specialized equipment. Rockley plans to go public on Wall Street and has therefore uncovered details about the financial relations. It states that Apple is one of the “few major customers” is.
Several concepts of an Apple Watch have already been created blood sugar reading, like this one.
Two major customers, including Apple
In fact, Rockley only has two major clients on the books. They accounted for 99.6% of the turnover in 2019 and even 100% of the turnover in 2020. Apple is mentioned by name in the documents. So it seems that Apple is one of those two big customers. Rockley says it has an ongoing contract to develop and supply products and will also depend on this revenue stream for the foreseeable future. A large part of the income consists of compensation for R&D work.
There are already solutions to measure your glucose level in your blood, for example from DexCom. It works together with a body sensor that you wear at stomach height.
Apple already has several patents on itself the field of glucose measurement, where the measurement of blood glucose is done through the skin. No blood needs to be drawn. In 2017, Tim Cook announced that he was testing a glucose meter in everyday life. That does not mean that Cook has diabetes, but that he actively helps with the testing of new products.
Rockley CEO Andrew Rickman says he expects the technology from his company will be in consumer products in 2022, but declined to confirm that it is the Apple Watch. Adding blood glucose monitoring to the Apple Watch is beneficial not only for diabetics, but also for people who don't have the condition. For example, they can adjust their diet based on glucose levels, so that they are less likely to develop diabetes.