It’s just a matter of time until pulse oximetry returns to the Apple Watch (though it could be four years)

If you recently bought an Apple Watch in the U.S., you’ll likely get pulse oximetry for free, provided that Apple’s appeal succeeds, according to IP Fray. And, if not, just be patent.

Apple has been selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 without the blood oxygen monitoring feature in the U.S. since mid-January. That’s due to an ongoing legal battle between the tech giant and Masimo with the latter, a medical firm, accusing Apple of unlawfully incorporating its pulse oximetry tech into the Apple Watch

IP Fray says that Apple itself can reactivate that feature for its customers in the event it prevails on appeal or, in the alternative, in late August 2028 at the latest (because the patents-in-suit expire then). Apple can simply provide software for newer iPhones (the newer models that connect with the Watch) and make it available for download from the App Store, or may simply provide it as part of a routine system update.

That software will then do what Masimo did with jailbroken iPhones and update the software of the Apple Watch so it will ignore the “hardware designation” that says “don’t offer pulse oximetry.”