Heart rate monitors for rowing: Apple Watch or a chest strap?

By the Streaks Strokes team · 20 November 2026

A chest strap is the most accurate way to measure your heart rate while rowing. An Apple Watch is good enough for most steady rows, especially if you wear it snugly and a little higher up your arm. Rowing is one of the harder exercises for a watch, because your wrist bends and your grip tightens on every stroke, so for hard intervals or zone training where every beat counts, a strap is the safer choice.

Here's how the options compare, how each one gets your heart rate onto a Concept2 PM5, and how to get the best reading from the watch you already own.

Why is rowing hard for a watch?

An Apple Watch measures heart rate with light. Green LEDs on the back shine into your skin, and the sensor reads the tiny changes in blood flow with each beat. That works best when the watch sits still against your skin.

Rowing makes that hard:

Your wrist bends at the catch and the finish of every stroke, which can shift the watch.
Gripping the handle tightens the tendons and muscles under the sensor.
Hard efforts make it worse. In a Cleveland Clinic study, wrist monitors got less accurate as the effort went up. Apple Watch held up best of the four tested, but none matched the chest strap.

Concept2 says the same in its own guide: wrist motion during rowing can make accuracy difficult, and it recommends a chest strap for reliable readings.

Apple notes that rhythmic movements give better results than irregular ones, and steady rowing is rhythmic. That's why a watch often does fine on a long, easy row and struggles more in sprints and hard intervals.

How to get a better reading from your Apple Watch

Before buying anything, try these:

Tighten the band for the row. Apple suggests tightening your band for workouts and loosening it afterwards. A sport loop is easy to adjust between rows.
Wear it higher up your arm, above the wrist bone, so the watch sits on flatter skin and moves less when your wrist bends.
Try sliding it up your forearm. Unfasten the band (or open the loop wide), slide the watch up your forearm towards your elbow, and stop where your forearm is wide enough to hold it firmly in place. Up there it's away from the wrist joint and the tendons that move when you grip. Keep the sensor flat against the top of your arm, the same side as the back of your wrist, and check it doesn't slip once you start rowing.
Keep your wrists flat on the handle. Good technique helps here too. A flat wrist through the drive moves the watch less than one that curls up.
Warm up first. Cold skin has less blood flow near the surface, which Apple says can stop a reading. A few minutes of easy rowing first helps.

A rower at the catch with an Apple Watch on the wrist, just above the hand — The usual place: right at the wrist, where it moves every time your wrist bends.

The same rower with the watch moved a little further up the arm — A little higher, above the wrist bone, where the skin is flatter.

The same rower with the watch slid well up the forearm towards the elbow — Slid up the forearm, away from the wrist and the tendons you use to grip.

Tattoos can also block the sensor's light. If you have ink on your wrist, a strap is the simpler fix.

Streaks Strokes

Live heart-rate zones from your Apple Watch or a chest strap, on your iPhone and your PM5.

Which chest strap should you get?

Most current chest straps send your heart rate over both Bluetooth Smart and ANT+. The PM5 accepts either, according to Concept2's compatibility table. Older Polar straps that use GymLink or W.I.N.D. don't work with the PM5, so check before you buy second-hand.

A rower with a chest strap around the ribs, just below the chest — A chest strap sits round your ribs, just below your chest muscles.

Polar H10: the strap most rowers ask about, and the one many accuracy comparisons use as their reference. Bluetooth and ANT+, can connect to two Bluetooth devices at once, and can record a session on its own. Concept2 sells it in its own shop.
Polar H9: the cheaper Polar. Bluetooth and ANT+, without the H10's extras.
Garmin HRM straps (HRM 200, HRM-Dual, HRM-Pro): Bluetooth and ANT+. The best choice if you already train with a Garmin watch. Concept2 sells the HRM 200.
Wahoo TICKR: Bluetooth and ANT+. A good fit if you already use Wahoo gear.

If you'd rather not wear a strap round your chest, an optical armband such as the Polar Verity Sense sits on your upper arm or forearm, away from the wrist.

A rower with an optical armband on the upper arm — An optical armband sits on your upper arm, well away from your grip.

How does your heart rate get to the PM5?

The PM5 has its own heart-rate readout, and it records your heart rate with the workout. There are a few ways to feed it:

Pair a chest strap with the PM5. The usual way, from the monitor's own menu. See how to pair a heart rate monitor to a Concept2 PM5.
Broadcast from a Garmin watch. Many Garmin watches can broadcast heart rate, and the PM5 can pair with them like a strap.
Use your Apple Watch with Streaks Strokes. An Apple Watch can't pair with the PM5 by itself, but Streaks Strokes sends your watch's heart rate to the PM5 for you (see below).

A PM5 listens to one heart-rate source at a time. If a strap is paired to the monitor, the monitor uses the strap.

How Streaks Strokes uses your heart rate

Streaks Strokes takes your heart rate from your Apple Watch, or from a strap paired to your PM5. You don't have to choose:

Apple Watch on the PM5's screen. If you wear an Apple Watch and there's no strap paired to the monitor, the app sends your watch's heart rate to the PM5. It shows on the monitor's screen as if you were wearing a strap.
Both, with a fallback. Wear a watch and a strap paired to the PM5, and the app uses the watch's reading while it's steady. It switches to the strap's whenever the watch loses your pulse, which can happen when you grip the handle hard.
Live zones. Your heart rate sits in the corner of every workout, with five dots for the zones. The current zone lights up, and it leans towards the next one as you get close, so you can see when you're drifting.
Time in Zone. When you finish, you see how many minutes you spent in each zone. Our Zone 2 rowing guide covers how to set your own zones.

No PM5? Your watch counts your strokes too

On a rower without a smart monitor (a magnetic or water rower, or an older gym machine), Streaks Strokes uses your Apple Watch for more than heart rate. It reads the watch's motion sensors and counts each stroke from the movement of your arm: the drive and the recovery move it in opposite directions, so each pair is one stroke. You get:

Stroke count and stroke rate, from the watch's motion sensors.
Heart rate and your zone, from the watch.
Calories and time, saved to Apple Health as an indoor rowing workout, and onto your streak.

It leaves out distance, pace and power, because a watch can't measure the flywheel. Our guide to tracking a rowing machine with an Apple Watch explains why, and how to start a watch-tracked row.

Here a chest strap can't help: Streaks Strokes reads a strap only through a PM5. So on these machines, wearing the watch snugly and a little higher up your arm matters even more.

We haven't tested stroke counting with the watch slid up the forearm, so on these machines keep it on your wrist.

When a PM5 is connected, the monitor counts your strokes and the watch just adds your heart rate.

So, do you need a chest strap?

Mostly steady rows, and you own an Apple Watch: start with the watch. Wear it snugly and higher up your arm, and see if the numbers look sensible against how the row feels.
Intervals, 2k tests, or strict zone training: get a chest strap. It reacts faster to changes in effort and doesn't care what your wrists are doing.
Your watch reading jumps around or drops out: try the forearm position first, then a strap.

Questions

Is Apple Watch accurate for rowing?

It's usually close on steady rows, and less reliable in hard intervals and sprints, when your grip and wrist movement interfere with the sensor. Wearing it tighter and higher up your arm helps. A chest strap is more accurate at every intensity.

Can I connect my Apple Watch to a Concept2 PM5?

Not directly: the PM5 can't pair with an Apple Watch. A rowing app can pass the watch's heart rate on to the monitor. Streaks Strokes does this automatically when there's no strap paired to the PM5.

Can I pair a chest strap to my Apple Watch instead?

Yes. Apple Watch can connect to Bluetooth chest straps and use them for heart rate in workouts. Many rowers find it simpler to pair the strap to the PM5 instead, so the monitor and any rowing app get it too.

What heart rate monitor does Concept2 recommend?

Concept2 sells the Polar H10 and the Garmin HRM 200, and says any strap that uses Bluetooth Smart or ANT+ will work with the PM5.

More guides

Streaks Strokes

A rowing app for iPhone and Apple Watch that connects to your Concept2 PM5. Free to download, no subscription.

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