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I know I'm probably very late to the party, but I just thought I'd pop this up here.
I'm 30+ yrs a Type 1 and in all that time I've suffered from chronic low hypo awareness. The introduction of CGM systems like the Libre 2+ I'm wearing now has been a godsend to me, but I've still struggled to monitor my glucose levels while out on the bike. My recently deceased Garmin Edge 530 was able to display glucose levels via the LibreLinkup app but it was clunky and prone to dropping out. I could never figure out how to get it to work reliably.
I've just upgraded my smar****ch from a Garmin Instinct, bought soon after the Christmas Day 2021 Garmin debacle, to a newer Instinct 3 and it's displaying the glucose readings, again through the LibreLinkup app and CGM widget on my watch, absolutely faultlessly.
I have it setup on the 'Glance' feature of the watch, so that I have my normal watch face showing, but at a press of the big menu button on the side, my glucose reading and trend shows up. No need to stop riding, take my gloves off and dig my phone out of my bag to get a reading.
I'm sure there are better systems out there, but with this running on my wrist for my last two rides, I've caught and corrected two hypos before they even happened. I'm well pleased with my new toy.
Smar****ch smar****ch
I've just got an Instinct 3 myself in the flash sale over the weekend; it's a great piece of kit - didn't even realise it had this functionality though
When smarttech actually works, it's great! Can imagine having glucose readings so readily available will be useful lots of the time.
Been doing this on my Fenix for quite a while now and if I'm in an area with absolutely no phone or WiFi signal i really miss being able to view my level from the watch but I still get alerts, which is great.
I don't know how I used to manage before all the libre stuff. (Now in my 50th year of T1D).
I'm a dexcom user (G6 but moving to g7 in about 2 months). Garmin has a native Dexcom app that shows a data screen. I've got it on my Garmin 530 and my fenix 6...
Unsure it is constant (regularly have no reading on the garmins - still shows on phone and pump) as I get frequent drop outs, but generally it works very well.
A brilliant additional piece that does make things easier to check whilst on the move.
Yep, that's the same issue I had with the Libre widget on my Edge 530 @DickBarton it worked....most of the time but was a bit clunky. BTW, Garmin are now sending me an Edge 540 to replace the 530 I trashed on that pesky tree on Monday. That's 10 better!
Apparently, if the reading shown on my watch is older than 5 minutes it will flag it up. I haven't seen this yet as the Instinct 3 has been tracking my sugars perfectly since I set it up on Saturday.
Well pleased with it, and I even like the colour.... its Orange. 😉
I hear that Apple are ironing out any wrinkles before they launch their blood glucose monitoring smar****ches.
no extra pads required!
eta 2026?
Interested in this for my Mrs. What spec/level does the Garmin need to have to run the app? She uses the Libre CGMs
Apple sounds good, but will folk really want to have to recharge the watch every 3 hours? 😉
And sounds like a proper win on the replacement bike computer!
@BoardinBob I think the Edge 530 / 540 are at the lower end of the Garmin bike GPS range. As for watches, my original Instinct couldn't run the app, but I believe the Instinct 2 can.
It is excellent getting readings directly to your watch, I would feel lost without them! 🙂
Dexcom G7 now sends readings directly to my Apple Watch 6 which means no signal or WiFi is needed, and I can leave my phone behind. Or break it if I crash 🤣 I’ll need to upgrade the watch soon, it’s six years old now so the battery is down a bit and only just gets a full day with a decent ride thrown in! I think a refurbished Apple Watch Ultra will be my next watch…