HRV for Apple Watch
Your calm isn't anyone else's average.
Vela measures your heart rate variability (SDNN) directly on your Apple Watch and builds a baseline that's yours — not a generic population threshold. All the computation happens on the watch. Nothing ever passes through our servers, because we don't have any.
About the name
Why “Vela”
“Vela” is also the Spanish word for a boat's sail — from the Latin velum. A sailboat doesn't fight the wind: it reads it and adjusts course. That's the idea behind the app. Instead of comparing you to an external standard, Vela reads your own personal baseline and helps you understand your own patterns. Stress isn't something to fight — it's something to read and adjust to.
Why the average doesn't work
25 ms of HRV can be high for you and low for someone else.
HRV varies enormously between people. A population threshold treats everyone the same — which is exactly why it's almost always wrong. Vela builds your own baseline from your real history: if you already have HRV data on your Apple Watch, it can start from day one; if you're new, it takes 7–14 days to settle.
How it works
Four decisions, made to not change our minds.
All the computation happens on your Watch. HealthKit provides the data, the watch does the rest. No HRV data ever leaves your device toward a Vela server.
Syncing uses your own iCloud account via CloudKit. Vela doesn't host your data anywhere — it can't, because it has nowhere to.
No monthly or yearly fees. Vela is free today. In the future there will be a paid Pro version — never a subscription.
VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion and 9 languages: Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician, English, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese.
On your wrist
One score, one state, one trend.
Color and text label always go together — designed with color blindness in mind too. Every score is explained: which range counts as “Normal”, when it becomes “High”, and why.
Quick tour
Three screens, each with a single job.
One number, one state, computed entirely on the watch — no waiting for anything to sync.
Every reading of the day, compared against your own dashed line — not anyone else's.
No cryptic numbers: every range says what it means and what to expect.
Getting started
We ask permission before measuring anything.
Vela asks for access to your HRV explicitly, not in the fine print. And if you're new to measuring HRV, it tells you how long until you have a reliable baseline — without pretending it knows who you are on day one.
Download it today
No subscription. Ever.
Vela is available for free on the App Store for Apple Watch.