Which is the best personal alarm watch for elderly in 2024? Battery, Ease-of-Use, Features

The care staff shortage and revolving door of recruitment hasn't been easy on the UK care sector, and there are more unpaid carers than ever.

While many don't see caring of an elderly or vulnerable family member as "unpaid care" in that sense, the reality of this drain of time, effort and resources is all too real for others.

One of the key ways unpaid carers, who are often working full-time on top of their care, can alleviate the pressure is to use care technologies such as monitors, reminder apps, fall detectors and family view health status platforms.

Which technology is best for personal alarms and unpaid carers in 2024? We will compare features like battery life, recurring costs, measurement features and more importantly will demonstrate how all of these feed back into the core factors of Ease-Of-Use and Accessibility.

Personal Alarms for Seniors: A Brief

Before we dive into the comparisons, all the products featured here can be described as "personal alarms".

These devices are able to send an SOS or other alarm out either automatically or when manually triggered by the wearer.

For example, Apple promote "car crash" detection to automatically call emergency services in your region when you are in a collision (Although many Apple Watch features are only reliable inside the US and Canada).

If the watch can send an alert to a website, app, phone number or even just though its own speakers to local public, then the device can be used as a personal alarm.

Personal Alarm Battery Life Overview

There's a lot of factors which affect investing in a personal alarm watch, but I've chosen to begin with battery life.

As someone who works full-time and has a partner with lifelong disability at home, battery life exceeding 8 hours is vital for my peace of mind at work.

While some of these watches are outfitted in impressive features, it can lead to them having a low battery of anything between 4 and 8 hours! Not only does this create frequent "down time" when the device cannot be used, it also may make the devices less suitable for those who can't remember to charge a device often, or who are physically unliked to want to take the watch off and on so much.

Personal Alarm Battery Life Comparison

This table displays the battery life of many types of personal alarm.

As you can see, the longest battery is the Audar E2, which is a dedicated care device. It sacrificing things like a microphone or speakers to be a more focused and specialised bit of kit.

Lower battery lives such as the Apple Watch Series 9 are due to an abundance of added features, but none that necessarily help an unpaid carer. The features can be a bit overkill for your purposes if the main use of the watch is for the remote personal alarm and SOS alerts.

This means you're getting lower battery life for nothing of any real value to your usage.

Personal Alarm Triggers and Types Overview

Once you are safe in the knowledge the device is charged (and will still be charged and active by the time you leave work or finish the shopping) another vital factor to consider when looking for personal alarms for the elderly is the triggers available.

Manual Triggers

Many personal alarms can be manually triggered though a dedicated input, enabling all kinds of emergencies to be the target. Someone could use the SOS alarm for nearby members of the public if there is a public incident, or could use it as a silent alarm if they feel unsafe walking home at night, for example.

In these cases, the wearer takes an active role in pressing and triggering the alarm manually.

This feature is adaptable and a staple of the tech, but in many situations will not be enough to cover all emergencies.

Automatic Triggers

Fall Detection

The most common automatic trigger for personal alarm watches is "Fall Detection".

Exactly how it sounds, fall detection uses a variety of technology to detect and react to a wearer falling.

The Audar E2, for example, uses an accelerometer and gyroscope to provide 2 metrics for a fall, which can then be used to send an automated SOS alert out to the platform and contacts.

Situational Emergency Detection

Fall detection is the core staple for automation, and other detectors rely on more situational evidence. For example the "Car Crash" alarm used by both Apple and Google uses information gained from maps, speedometer and the fall detection combined to ascertain if the impact or fall detected was actually more than just a slip off the sofa.

Vital Sign Spike Detection

The final type of automated alarm is vital sign spikes. For devices which measure vital signs like heart rate, you may be able to receive alarms when they exceed certain ranges.

For example, if a heart rate is detected as over 120 you can be sure an elderly or vulnerable wearer is physically exerted and at risk of a fall, or worse, from the situation they are in.

Personal Alarm Triggers Comparison

This table displays the different personal alarm triggers from different devices.

In this category, the Audar E2 is the most proficient with health data and vital signs on an hour-to-hour basis, alerting you when vital signs stray too far as well as when a fall is detected.

The other devices have more comprehensive situational alarms, such as for car crashes, but once again as an unpaid carer it is unlikely the person in my care will be behind the wheel of a vehicle or in a collision.

There's also the downside of many Apple Watch Series 9 features being available only in the US or Canada, such as precise Lat and Lon location data and local emergency service contacting.

All the devices support fall detection, which is the core requirement for anyone seeking automated personal alarms.

Personal Alarm Ease-Of-Use Overview

Features and connectivity are vital, but also mean nothing if the device is too annoying or complicated to set up for someone who may have no experience with tech, let alone wearables.

Devices have to be easy to put on, usable across the country and managed remotely. The intrusion of having to have a certain phone with a certain app and log in routinely would be enough to frustrate anyone!

Personal Alarm Ease-Of-Use Comparison

This table displays the different personal alarm ease-of-use features from different devices.

Even something as simple as a magnetic strap to remove the need for buckles and buttons can make or break the usability of a device like this. Being able to use the device in multiple countries, with high connectivity rate is just one less thing to have to worry about when planning holidays.

The Samsung Galaxy watches are famous for issues when bought from any "grey market" (essentially, a 3rd party independent store like Amazon or eBay). The devices will ask for your region of use, but the hardware decides which locations are available to select which can lead to certain watches being resold in the wrong region and thus being unusable.

Finally, the fewer pre-requisites there are to using the personal alarm, the better. That's why IoT tech stands out here, as it requires no pre-paired phone or app of any specific brand.

Personal Alarm Monetisation Overview

Different personal alarms use different networks to send the alert. Some use a SIM to connect and require you to foot the cost to the network provider as a SIM contract (like for a phone), while other use Bluetooth to push the data to a paired phone within 10 meters, which then sends out alerts itself.

Minimal interaction and minimal fuss is the name of the game when it comes to personal alarms, as you need fast, reactive, accessible alerts that even those with low motor skills or no technological knowledge can use.

For that reason, IoT presents the best personal alarm network method for elderly folks. With IoT, the wearer doesn't need a phone themselves, and doesn't need any paired apps or Bluetooth or setup.

In fact, a full-IoT device like Audar E2 can be set up and managed entirely through a web browser, the other side of the planet if needed!

Make sure you check not just which networks are used but how the company monetises them.

Personal Alarm Monetisation Comparison

This table displays the different monetisation pathways for different devices.

As you can see, some opt for a pre-set individual cost while others use rolling contracts or subscriptions for their features.

In general, IoT-only devices like E2 are the most efficient way to pay, as the device is yours to own and the connectivity fee is £25 a year as a one-off cost, no splitting it across each month or having any contracts.

This keeps things simple, and tech for the elderly should always be simple.

Support UK-Made Innovations

Choosing a remote monitor device, especially with SOS alerts in mind, is no easy task. With so much to consider it can be easy to get distracted and forget the core functionality. Bluetooth is such a default in our lives that an alternative like IoT seems "more complicated" when actually, it's far simpler.

Combine that with the fact that the Audar E2 IoT watch is monetised sensibly, compatible with any browser on any device with no app downloads needed, and sends alerts straight to your phone number without the middle-man, and it begins to be clear how different these devices really are from each other.

The Audar E2 is available now from Daffodil, and is recognised by Innovate UK, the government branch for research and development in the UK.