Best Medical Alert Watches

Freedom Guardian is a fully-fledged smartwatch designed by a well-known medical alert company. Its senior-friendly features include a large screen, read-aloud alerts, simple messaging, and a one-touch SOS button.

The emergency button connects you to a monitoring center and your closest contacts. If you fall, get lost, or need help from the monitoring pro, they’ll stay on the line and help you out. If you need emergency responders, they’re on the way. Feel lost? They can call one of your emergency contacts to come get you. Freedom Guardian uses three forms of location tracking to keep tabs on wandering wearers and counts steps to keep you active.

The monthly fee for monitoring lands around $45 per month, but it’s a worthwhile investment for you or your loved ones.

Our biggest complaint is that this medical alert watch doesn’t have automatic fall detection, a common feature in medical alert systems that can save lives. Features like messages and reminders also cost a little extra per month.

The Apple Watch 5 is a great tool for older adults of all activity and tech literacy levels. Its exercise, step, and heart monitoring keep motivation up while the health monitoring apps track things like glucose and calories to reinforce healthy habits.

While this smartwatch is designed for all ages, it includes automatic fall detection, a feature designed with seniors in mind. In the event of a fall, the watch will ask if you need help. If the user doesn’t respond within 60 seconds, it will call for emergency responders.

The Apple Watch 5’s large customizable screen makes staying in touch with family and friends easy with texting, calling, and voice chat. The watch bands also swap out. So you can wear one while walking in the park and another out to dinner with the family.

This smartwatch is expensive up front but doesn’t require monthly payments like medical alert watches with monitoring do. Depending on your comfort level with technology, it could come with a learning curve too. But if you can use your iPhone, understanding the Apple Watch 5 should come naturally.

The Lively Wearable 2 lives in the middle ground between high-tech medical alert watch and simple one-button devices. Instead of the touchscreen watch face found in devices like the Freedom Guardian and Apple Watch 5, it has a single SOS button that turns your smartphone into the medical alert device. The device on your wrist connects to your phone, using its cellular connection and GPS technology to bring help to you when you need it.

GreatCall, the makers of the Lively Wearable 2, keep it affordable with simple monthly prices around $25. It’s compatible with smartphones like Android, iPhones, and its own brand, Jitterbug (designed with older adults in mind).

If you want a no-fuss solution that looks good, consider the Lively Wearable 2. It’s your best bet if you don’t need extras like messaging and reminders. It tracks steps, has automatic fall detection, and calls for help in emergency situations. But we had to bump it down the list because it doesn’t tell time like a normal watch.

One of the nation’s most popular cellular providers now offers a smartwatch for seniors. The Verizon Care Smart Watch makes texting and messaging your favorite contacts easy with preloaded messages. It comes with space for ten trusted contacts who you can call or text anytime, making it easier to check on the grandkids.

Custom texting isn’t available on this smartwatch, so you’ll need to use your phone for custom texts.

Like many other smartwatches, you can set reminders for medications and appointments.

The Care Smart doesn’t give caregivers a companion app, though, like the ones found in other medical alert watches like the Freedom Guardian. Instead, users can call for help from a primary caregiver from the watch. It’s a helpful feature in most situations unless users are prone to falling unconscious. If a wearer falls unconscious, they won’t be able to call for help on their own. But a feature like automatic fall detection calls for help automatically.

We’re excited to see a product designed for older adults from a network as large as Verizon. You can pay for it up front for around $150 or choose a 24-month contract for just over $6 per month. Either way, you’ll need to sign up for a 24-month contract to get Verizon’s cellular service.

FitTech SmartSenior is a smartwatch for older adults on a budget. It costs around $250 up front and charges no monthly monitoring fees, so you’ll save more in the long run. But no monitoring also means you’re on your own in an emergency. When you press the SOS button, the FitTech will call one of your contacts instead of a monitoring center.

That said, the FitTech is loaded with features for health-conscious older adults looking to get into or stay in shape. This smartwatch packs in features like a step counter, heart monitor, blood pressure monitor, and sedentary alerts to keep you active. It also has an SOS button GPS locator and automatic fall detection—features you’d find in professionally monitored medical alert watches.

Along with messaging, emergency, and health features, other senior-friendly features include

• Large type for easier reading
• High-volume read aloud settings
• Water resistant for the shower 

Unfortunately it works only with Wi-Fi or a 2G SIM card to function outside of your Wi-Fi network. The controls may be a little confusing at first, but it’s a low-cost way to see if a smartwatch is a good fit for your lifestyle.