Abstract: A digital watch is employed to measure systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as heart rate. The band of the watch supports a piezoelectric transducer that is held in contact with the wrist adjacent to the radial artery when a switch on the band is activated. The watch contains electronic circuitry that derives a binary representation of the maximum or systolic pressure and the minimum or diastolic pressure that is generated at the artery by blood pressure pulses which can be displayed. Electronic circuitry is also provided to generate and address corresponding to the time interval T between successive measured heart beats. The address is used to access a memory device that contains a stored list of heart rates in cycles per minute. The contents of the memory at the address T corresponds to the reciprocal of T, in units of pulses per minute and a representation of the contents of the memory can be displayed.

Abstract: A digital watch is utilized to measure blood pressure or heart rate by means of a pressure transducer that contacts the wrist adjacent the radial artery of the wrist and generates electrical pulses corresponding to the blood pressure pulses of the radial artery. A support member is pivotally connected at one end to the watch band and the member supports the transducer at its other end. The support member engages a sliding switch in a first position to hold the transducer in contact with the wrist. The switch engages the hinged member in a second position to hold the transducer out of contact with the wrist. A micro switch supplies power to the blood pressure pulse analyzing circuitry of the watch when the transducer contacts the wrist. The tension of the wrist band is adjusted by a housing that connects two ends of the band and that slidably supports a cam follower and rotatably supports a cam. The cam follower has a tab that engages a spiral groove in the cam.