A smartwatch or a medical alert pendant
Maybe you're trying to decide between a medical alert pendant and a smartwatch for the person you look after. They solve different problems, and one of them will suit your family much better than the other. Here they are side by side so you can pick the one that fits, and we'll say straight out when the pendant is the better buy.
The short version
| Medical alert pendant | Smartwatch with Lanturne | |
| What it looks like | A medical device on a cord or a band | An ordinary watch |
| Who answers an alert | A monitoring center, then usually the family | You, right away, and your emergency contact if you don't answer |
| Works without anybody pressing anything | Only models with fall detection | Fall detection, a missed daily check-in, a watch that stopped reporting, and a worn watch with no pulse and no movement |
| A daily "I'm OK" | Rarely | Every day, at a time you choose |
| Hardware | Bought or rented from the service | A Galaxy Watch4 or newer, or another Wear OS watch, refurbished from $89 |
| Monthly cost | Commonly $25 to $50, plus equipment | $30 a month or $120 a year, no hardware from us |
When a pendant is the better choice
- Nobody in the family can respond. If no one can act on an alert, a monitoring center with staff is worth paying for, and you should have one.
- Charging something every night isn't going to happen. A pendant battery lasts a long time. A watch needs charging much more often, and a watch that never gets charged can't help anybody.
- There's no Android phone anywhere. Here's what Lanturne needs.
When a smartwatch is the better choice
- A pendant is out of the question. People wear a watch they like, and the watch only helps if it's worn. See when they won't wear a medical alert.
- You want a daily check-in as well as emergency alerts. The daily check-in shows up on your phone every day.
- You want to know when nothing happens. A pendant does nothing until someone presses it. Here are the alerts Lanturne sends without anybody pressing anything.
- The monitoring center would end up contacting you anyway. Lanturne skips that middle step and sends the alert straight to you, wherever you are.
What a watch needs to work well
- A way to get online, ideally its own mobile plan. Here's which watches work, and how they get online.
- A charge every night. That's the one habit that matters, and it's an easy one to keep.
- About ten minutes of setup. The setup guide walks you through it.
