Garmin has started to offer a wrist temperature tracking feature to its newer watches. This new addition comes as part of Garmin's Q4 2023 wearables update and applies to Garmin watches with the newer ELEVATE V5 sensor. The enabled timepieces include the Garmin Epix Pro, Fenix 7 Pro, Tactix 7 AMOLED, and Venu 3 series which recently also got ECG capabilities courtesy of the ELEVATE V5 sensor. The challenge was to understand which feature applied to which model. But as part of Garmin's new quarterly update program introduced about 18 months ago, things are getting more cohesive concerning software update timing and the coordination of features.

The collected data is only applicable during sleep and you'll need to sleep for approximately three nights to create a baseline. This approach is similar to what Apple does. Once you've reached your baseline, you'll start seeing skin temperature variations each night in your sleep stats, however the actual skin/wrist temperature is not displayed. Instead, you'll be able to see the deviation from your established baseline each night. The data can also be trended over various periods.

Despite the collected data, the question remains on whether it's useful. As it stands, the primary use for skin/wrist temperature data by most companies is fertility-focused, typically around ovulation cycle prediction. Unfortunately, Garmin hasn't yet implemented sensor-driven period prediction. The current period prediction features on Garmin are solely based on data logged manually by users, not on skin/wrist temperature data. Environmental factors, such as the temperature of the room or how much you bury yourself in your sheets, can highly influence the data, making its usefulness questionable at this point in time.

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