Casio Wrist Link Blood Pressure Monitor BP-1B

It's been a while since I posted about the Casio Blood Pressure Monitor range of watches.

So far, I've covered the BP-120 (including different variations), and the BP-300, and today I'm covering probably the lease common of the range, the BP-1B.

The BP-1B is a little different from the others in the range as it is not just a standalone unit. It is called the Wrist Link Blood Pressure Monitor and this is because it has an infrared (IR) data link as well.

Like all of the other BP watches, it measures your pulse using a method called Pressure Wave Transit Time (PWTT). This method makes use of a phenomenon where there is a time difference between the electrical signal associated with a heartbeat and the beating of your pulse which changes in proportion to a change in your blood pressure. The watch measures the electrical signal through the sensors in the back of the watch, and by holding your finger on the sensor on the front (which is the same sensor as the watches with the front mounted pulse monitor). As the signal is only proportional, the watch needs to be calibrated against a normal blood pressure monitor (the type you wrap round your upper arm). With most of the BP range, you need to do this manually, inputting the base data into the watch. This is where the BP-1B comes in with it's wrist link. In the original pack, the watch comes with a blood pressure monitor base unit which has the arm cuff, and does a full blood pressure reading. The IR link is then used to transfer the data instead of using the manual input. More information can be found at this link (link).

The watch uses a 2197 module, and this has the blood pressure calculating mode, along with an alarm mode. Information is shown on the LCD screen which has two lines of standard digits and a dot matrix array along the top. The two lines are a 4 digit display across the middle of the watch (normally showing date), and a 6 digit time display along the bottom. The module instructions can be downloaded from Casio from this link (link).

The design is more rounded than the other BP watches, with the pulse sensor mounted on the right hand side. This is the resin strap version, but there were metal strap versions released as well. I think that this was released in 2001, which would make it the newest of the BP watches.

Casio BP-120 Blood Pressure Monitor - Resin English version

Here is the 3rd (and final) of my BP-120 watches. I've blogged these watches before, and had originally bought this as a spare, but when it arrived I found it was subtly different than the others.
The watch, by Casio, was released in the mid-90s (maybe as early as 1993) was a follow up to their BP-100 blood pressure monitor watch. It came in two main versions, silver metal and black resin, and with different text depending on the market it was intended for.

This particular model is the black resin model, but instead of the all-Japanese text of the other version I've blogged, it has the button description in English (although there is still Japanese text below the LCD). The other main difference is the design of the text panel by the sensor which is identical to the later BP-300 watch rather than the other BP-120 designs. The colour of the text on the strap is yellow this time (along with the bottom start button), but the strap is still a 374 H1 and H2 (although which part of the strap is H1 and H" is different between the two different resin versions).

It still uses the 1101 module, and has time, date and blood pressure modes. The LCD panel has both a standard 6 digit time display, along with a top dot-matrix LCD display. Blood pressure is monitored through a method called Pulse Wave Transit Time (PWTT).

There are more details about the watch and the sensor in my original post on the BP-120 which can be found here. The other resin model can be found here, and the BP-300 can be found here.

Spot the difference between the two resin versions!

Casio BP-120 Blood Pressure Monitor - Black Resin version

Today's post is of a watch that I've blogged a version of before.

The watch is another BP-120 Blood Pressure Monitor, and I've blogged the silver metallic previously (-the post is the second most popular so far on my blog, and can be found here).

This one is the black resin version, having a black case, and a black resin strap with BP-120 marked just below the face (the strap is part number 374 H2 for those who are interested in those sorts of things).

As with the other BP-120, and the BP-300, this uses the 1101 module to power the watch and blood pressure monitoring.

Casio BP-300 Blood Pressure Monitor

It's the second of my Casio Blood Pressure Monitor watches today.
This one is the BP-300 model, and it looks almost identical to the metal BP-120 version I posted a while back (link). There are some minor differences in looks; this version has a slightly gold coloured LCD display, gold writing, and hold bands on the strap. The watch also has a text panel next to the sensor which is different than the metal BP-120, but the same as one of the black resin versions (link)

Function-wise, this is the same as the BP-120 and uses the same 1101 module. This gives the watch the same time, date, and blood pressure reading options.

For this model, the strap has a part number of S-402-N

More details on the methods used for the blood pressure monitoring can be found here

The manual for the 1101 module can be found here

Casio BP-120 Blood Pressure Monitor

The Casio BP-120 was released in the mid/late 90s as a follow up to the BP-100 blood pressure monitor watch. The BP-120 was mainly a cosmetic update, having a square design, compared to the rounder nature of the earlier version. This particular watch is the Japanese model, with the descriptions for the buttons around the display being in Japanese text. This model was also released in two versions, the silver metallic version with a metal strap (as shown here), and a black resin version, with a black resin strap (which can be found here).

The watch uses a 1101 module (same as the other models) with an LCD display, and time & date display. The top (yellow) part of the display is a dot-matrix LCD, and the bottom section is a standard display. The watch also has sensors on the front, and built into the back of the case for measuring pulse and blood pressure. The method of pressure monitoring is based on a principle from an ECG heart monitor called PWTT (Pulse Wave Transit Time). It works my measuring the difference in time between the pulse waves from the aorta to a pheriferal artery. The change in time between these pulses is proportional to the change in blood pressure. This method can therefore only estimate the result, and needs calibration for each user. More details on the method can be found at:
http://www.nihonkohden.com/products/tech/pwtt/how.html

The manual for the 1101 module can be found here.
For other blood pressure watches, see also the BP-300 here, and two versions of the black resin BP-120 here and here.