Apple’s blood oxygen monitoring returns to its latest Apple Watches

Apple has reintroduced its Blood Oxygen monitoring feature on select Apple Watch models—Series 8, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra—through a redesigned approach that complies with a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) import ban. Instead of measuring blood oxygen levels directly on the watch, the updated feature calculates the data on the paired iPhone, with results accessible via the Respiratory section of the Health app. This change follows a recent U.S. Customs ruling allowing Apple to import watches with this modified functionality, but it only applies to devices sold after the ITC ban took effect in early 2024. Existing models and units sold outside the U.S. remain unaffected. The ITC ban originated from a legal dispute with medical device maker Masimo, which accused Apple of infringing on its pulse oximetry patents after failed collaboration talks. In 2023, Masimo won the import ban at the ITC, forcing Apple to remove the original blood oxygen feature. Apple has