Polar has just announced a super interesting new product. Or rather, Sennheiser has just announced a new product and Polar is a key part of it. This is the first non-Polar product to fully integrate into the Polar ecosystem, including full access to the Polar Flow app, training analytics metrics such as Training Load Pro, Training Benefit, and even body temperature measurements.
In fact, it’s also the first device to display body temperature data not only in Polar Flow, but also with other Polar devices, such as the Polar Vantage V3.
All of which might sound confusing to you at first glance, if you haven’t been following along Polar’s expanded direction that began last year with Casio. You see, last January, Polar announced a new program that enabled 3rd party entities to start leveraging Polar algorithms in their products. That meant everything from calorie burn, to recovery, to coaching, to wellness. At the time of announcement a year ago, it was some 25 different algorithms in the portfolio.
Essentially, if it was a feature on a Polar watch, other companies could likely license it. All in roughly the same way other companies used to license FirstBeat algorithms…till Garmin bought them. And thus, Casio took them up on that offer and started leveraging their algorithms last spring in the Casio G-Shock HBD-H2000.
But what Sennheiser is doing is an entirely different level of integration. It’s virtually a native Polar product, from the Polar Flow fitness platform. First though, let’s briefly back up and talk about what it is.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM Earbuds Tech Specs:
First up is the hardware that powers this, or at least takes advantage of it. Then, we’ll circle back to what access it gets within the Polar platform (Polar Flow).
Sennheiser is announcing their new MOMENTUM Sport earbuds, which are Bluetooth audio earbuds that both play music (or any other audio thing), as well as have heart rate tracking and body temperature sensors internally. From a specs standpoint, here’s the big-ticket items:
– Built-in heart rate sensor (30-220bpm)
– Built-in temperature sensor (+/- 0.3°C accuracy)
– Three-axis accelerometers
– Capacity touch for tap gestures
– Water resistance level IP55 (Earbuds)
– Water resistance level IP54 (Carrying/Charging Case)
– 10mm transducer
– Selectable transparency mode
– Anti-wind mode
– Adaptive Noice Cancelling mode
– Interchangeable ear fins and ear tips
– Transmits standard Bluetooth heart rate profile (including to apps like Peloton, Garmin watches, and more)
– Supports Bluetooth 5.2
– Supports aptX Adaptive, AAC, and SBC
– Sennheiser Smart Control app on iOS & Android
– 6 hours of playback per charge, for a total of 24hrs including case charging
– USB-C charging of case
– Comes in Polar Black, Burned Olive, or Metallica Graphite
– MSRP of $329/329EUR, availability April 9th, 2024
Phew, got all that? Good – it was a big list of specs.
The most notable thing in the list from a sports tech standpoint is that it broadcasts over the standard Bluetooth Smart heart rate device profile, so identical to that of a chest strap. In their CES presentation, they showed connecting the heart rate to Peloton and other apps/devices, just like any existing HR strap. This is also appealing for apps like Zwift as well. I’m getting clarity on how many concurrent HR connections, as well as if there’s any limitations around having to pair the HR connection to the same device as the audio connection (meaning, can you pair the HR to Zwift on an iPad, while listening to audio via Bluetooth from a movie on a different TV).
Now, I didn’t make it to CES this year, nonetheless here’s a quick gallery of the press images:
Instead, I want to focus on the integration pieces with the Polar platform, for which I have had more detailed discussions with Polar about. So, let’s dive into that.
Polar Platform Integration:
It can’t be overstated just how deep this integration is. We haven’t seen anything like this from any fitness manufacturer I can think of. Even in the Google/Fitbit/Samsung threesome around Wear OS and utilizing the Fitbit platform metrics, it’s still nowhere near as deep as this. This is more than just algorithms, this is access to everything Polar seemingly has from a features standpoint.
The first thing to understand is that the MOMENTUM SPORT device connects directly into the Polar Flow app in a very similar way as the Polar Vantage V3 or other Polar watch would. It’s treated as effectively a native-level device. You can see that here on the devices screen:
However, most notably, there’s no requirement for a user to have any preexisting Polar device for this Polar Flow account or usage. You can buy these headphones and access virtually all of the Polar Flow features without any extra Polar watch.
Within the app, you can start a workout paired to the earbuds, which provide heart rate data as well as the new body temperature data. In turn, the Polar Flow app brings in the GPS data from your phone (if outdoors) – completing the data set in the same way a GPS watch would.
You can see here the Polar Flow app showing the real-time data of body temperature from the in-ear sensors on the Sennheiser MOMENTUM earbuds, as well as both min/max temperature. Sennheiser states this is +/- 0.3°C in terms of accuracy, which would be enough (assuming it’s actually that accurate) to base training decisions on it. You can see this data mid-workout, as well as afterward too in Polar Flow.
More than that though, the Polar Vantage V3 will also start showing this data, when connected to the Sennheiser MOMENTUM directly as a Bluetooth sensor. Here’s how that looks, inclusive of both the current/average/max, but also the chart showing the last 10 minutes of temperature change.
Again, this is notable because Polar doesn’t currently connect to any body temperature sensors, especially the CORE Body temperature sensor. Given Polar is now pulling in this data type/sensor, hopefully we’ll see Polar hit the easy button, and expand connectivity to a sensor that many high-performance athletes already have. That would also be a good carrot for Polar Vantage V3 users in particular, who may be eager for…well…some more carrots.
The earbuds will also give navigational guidance when paired with the Polar Flow app, but any existing earbuds will already do that today – as that’s just providing the audio side of things.
Once the workout is completed with either the MOMENTUM Sport or a Polar watch, it’ll populate just like any other Polar fitness watch does today, including all of the advanced training load/recovery data that you’d normally get.
Specifically, Polar confirmed the following umbrella data types are available to MOMENTUM Sport users:
- Heart Rate
– Min/Max/Average
– Training zones- Body Temperature
– Min/Max/Average
-Graph of the body temperature- Training Benefit
- Training Load Pro
- Distance and route (if e.g. using Running sport profile on the Flow Training App, but this is not related with the Sennheiser MOMENTUM SPORT earbuds)
- Duration
- Calories
Again, these are the umbrella categories, but as anyone who’s used Polar Flow knows, things like Training Benefit and Training Load Pro are vast areas with many metrics within them. Once we get closer to that April release date, we’ll have a better picture of what exactly the limitations are (if any), and nuances with things like multiple Polar devices, etc… I’d largely expect that Polar is treating these inside of the Polar platform in much the same way as one of their lower-tier devices. Meaning, I don’t see stuff like Recovery Pro in the list above, nor of course things like sleep metrics or metrics dependent on sleep data.
But again, all things for down the road to sort out. And equally, all things I’m interested in testing out.
Still, I think this is super fascinating, and a really good way for Polar to expand the reach of their platform (and business), and likely pull in new customers – even if those new customers are indirect customers rather than direct customers.
With that – stay tuned!
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Damn, talk about an ‘almost does everything’ earbud. Guess one needs to find a competitive edge in an AirPod dominated world. Love the feature set. Would so look into something like this when I upgrade next time.
While I love my Shokz OpenRun, I’m sure I can find some room in my tech bag for these. Take my money now!!!!
(can’t find any way to register interest yet)
Would love to see Polar doing something additional with the temperature data to indicate heat acclimation etc.
I love my new OpenFit’s even better than my OpenRun’s. In either case … having your ears actually open is much less straining than using the AirPod Pro’s hear through function. Only downside is no noise canceling – for that I have simply used ear plugs … again less straining than active noise canceling.
Shokz should definitely take the cue and add HR and temperature sensing to their products.
OpenFit don’t have the same water-resistance rating as OpenRun though. Can’t beat finishing a run and jumping in the shower with the Open Fit still on….
Looking forward to these Sennheiser though for the times when I won’t be using the OpenRun.
Ray, will these transmit via BT/Ant+ to Garmin and other non-Polar devices? I’m seeing other reports to that effect.
Yes, over Bluetooth Smart as a standard Bluetooth HR device. I don’t think it’s ANT+ too, but I’m getting confirmation.
How well have earbuds with a heartrate monitor worked? Do you think this will be better than the Dash by Bragi? 🙂
I’ve never really had a good method of actually getting data from various HR earbuds, as virtually all of them were locked into proprietary systems the last time I tried (thus, not broadcasting over standard protocols which allowed proper data collection).
These (finally) do though, so should be really easy to test and cross-validate.
I wonder if you can use these as a heart rate monitor for zwift on Apple TV?
Yes, it should work just fine. It broadcasts as a standard Bluetooth heart rate sensor.
This is pretty cool. I wear earbuds anyway when zwifting and I have never been able to figure out how to broadcast from my Apple Watch Ultra 1. Only issue would be if I ever got back on the road and had to put a strap back on.
Now polar should add the elevation data from the phone gps in the flow app.
My wish too – missing elevation data is something avoiding me using polar flow app for recording of workouts, because doing trailruns without elevation data is no fun!
I’m curious about how representative your outer ear temperature is compared to your body temperature, especially when running outside in a windy area.
CORE actually has a nifty little chart outlining the various methods you can use (who knew there were so many methods!), and the accuracy levels of each (scroll a bit): link to corebodytemp.com
Which is clearly showing that the claimed accuracy might be true in regard to the measurement, but not in regard to the body core temperature.
Still in the same ball park as the core sensor and might be good enough though…
Yeah, the skin vs core temp bit here is a bit fuzzy/unclear to me in terms of this particular sensor.
This brings up a slightly separate conversation: how well do modern fitness apps integrate “competing” signals? I can think of realistically getting HR from at least three separate channels using these, for example: the watch, a chest/arm strap, and the headphones. It’d be interesting if the app could check these against each other and find the one that’s most probably correct, instead of just using one signal. Same story with body temperature, running power, and so on.
I’m not aware of anything that can do sensor fusion like that from multiple external sources.
We do see it a bit for internal/external blends, but not on HR. One that comes to mind is pace for some straps/pods, whereby the external GPS source fails and then it switches to that. But that’s a pretty basic scenario.
Honestly the most exciting piece of tech gear for me in a long time. Let’s hope it is upper end Sennheiser sound quality and not lower end Sennheiser soind quality.
Bragi is there on CES with their new tech too btw
Hmm, hard to find much information. Bragi mostly transitioned towards the assisted hearing realm, away from sports, years ago.
Their Twitter/Facebook account hasn’t been updated in 3 years, and they posted they were done at the time. Any links?
link to linkedin.com -> with AI powered software.
They still power the sports headphones with their software, but dont produce hardware anymore. Stil neat.
I’ve had Polar watches for years and really liked the flow app. Moved to Garmin because of the Fenix line and I am now well in the Garmin system. Above seems to mean that the Polar ecosystem becomes way more interesting. If Polar starts to make Fenix equivilant watches (looks and features) than I will go absolutely back to Polar.
Am I missing it? Will this connect to Garmin through a connect IQ app or otherwise like the CORE? Or, will the temp aspect only be usable with Polar Flow?
It seems to imply the temp aspect is only via Polar or native app.
I’ve got a volley of questions to the Sennheiser folks I’m waiting on, everyone is a bit tied up timezone-wise in CES, so the volleys back and forth are happening at odd hours of the night.
I assumed so. If you’re in the Garmin ecosystem, this thing doesn’t generate much appeal. I could see running on a treadmill or bike with Zwift etc. and have one less thing to put on, charge. Other than that, I can’t see this has much appeal outdoors for a Garmin user. You probably could not depend on enough charge to make it a 50 to 70 mile bike or gravel race, for instance. Short training rides, okay. Even running outside, for a Polar user, you are tied to having your phone with you as well. Not knowing the battery life, sound quality, no tempt to Garmin, and at $329, this seems to be a non-starter for many. At $150 this thing might generate more interest. Seems a hard trade off for an HR strap with days of battery life or even a armband with 20-30 hours versus the likely 3-6 hours battery life they can stuff into this thing with sound, temp, and hr running.
Looks like the prior model Sennheiser Sport True Wireless gets about 7 hours battery life on a charge. I would expect that to be less on these with HR and Temp circuitry.
“Metallica Graphite”?
The idea of hr/temp via earbuds sounds interessting, but not for that price and only 6hrs battery is also not a bummer. But it could have triggered an interesting development. Let’s see if something like that comes from Garmin and others (but it’s not for me, because I just hate in-ear devices).
If these earbuds have accelerometer, do they also record pace while running?
Does it do anything with the accelerometer data? Cadence, vertical oscillation + calculating running power?
Nothing that they’ve outlined at this time.
Ray, how would one base training decisions on body temperature?
I’m referring to your remark: “You can see here the Polar Flow app showing the real-time data of body temperature from the in-ear sensors on the Sennheiser MOMENTUM earbuds, as well as both min/max temperature. Sennheiser states this is +/- 0.3°C in terms of accuracy, which would be enough (assuming it’s actually that accurate) to base training decisions on it.”
I am actually wondering what use the body temperature is during running. Of course you should calm down when your body becomes too hot, but hey, you feel that yourself, right? No need for extra sensors I’d say. But I think I am missing something important here…
There’s a few good articles here: link to corebodytemp.com
Thanks for the link, Neil! Interesting info.
I understand that this sensoring and working with body temperature is in a quite experimental stage, which is of course interesting. I also understand its potential in races and training.
But my question “how would one base training decisions on body temperature?” is therefore a bit too simplistic yet.
Or are there already clear and simple rules or advice about working with body temperature?
Indeed, the link above is the general gist of it.
I might get around to the Heat Chamber build-out I did for my wife and her training, next week (a post or video or something). We’ve actually spent a ton of time talking with CORE about training and how coaches do workouts/racing/etc. It’s super fascinating, even if you entirely ignore CORE as a product (meaning, some of it is relevant without using any product, and some of it with using any temp sensor).
The more data they showed around the impact of heat training, the more fascinating it is to realize how big a contributor that is to race failures (and easily playing a bigger factor that fitness gains for most people), for something that’s actually relatively easy to acclimate for in a bathroom (with a smart trainer, less so dragging a treadmill into one). Though, the build-out for the heat chamber here only cost about $100 (and I way overbuilt so I could have both treadmill and bike in there), and could easily be done in a garage/shed/etc…
Looking forward to that!
But does that mean that working with body temperature is actually only or mostly useful when training for a race in hot weather?
If you write or create something around it,, can you also cover that? Thanks. This has gotten my interest now…
It’s mostly useful for cases where the race temperature is notably different than your training temperature.
As the earbuds don’t have a display, what value would lie in running the Polar algorithms in the earbuds? I think it would make more sense using them as pure sensors and doing all the heavy lifting on the phone or at least a watch.
I could see value in some training/coaching type scenarios, if you weren’t running/training with a phone. But yeah, for most algorithms, offloaded makes more sense.
The following statement, from the article, is incorrect and/or misleading, AFAIKT:
«The earbuds will also give navigational guidance when paired with a Polar Vantage V3, but any existing earbuds will already do that today – as that’s just providing the audio side of things. If Polar were to expand the turn-by-turn navigation into the Polar Flow app with these earbuds, that’d be notably significant.»
Firstly, while it is true that V3 have audio feedback, the feedback is coming from the Flow app – that is: From your mobile phone. If you disable Bluetooth on your phone, the audio feedback stops.
Secondly, the V3 can only connect to certain __sensors__. Thus, it cannot connect to «any existing earbuds».
Thirdly: the new Sennheiser Momentum is a sensor, hence it makes sense (sic!) that the V3 (and perhaps even the V2) can connect to it. And perhaps ___perhaps___ it is the case, that if you own a pair of Sennheiser Momentum, then you do not need to carry the phone in order to get audio feedback. But I would not hold my breath on it – my bet would be that in order to get the audio feedback, you will need to carry the phone with you, even with the Sennheiser Momentum.
I have of course not owned a Sennheiser Momentum. But I do own a V3 (and before that a V2 etc).
Btw, the audio feedback from the V3 (via the Flow app) is a much welcome feature. Would have been nice if it didn’t require the phone, but …
Good catch on the V3 currently pairing to the Flow app vs V3 directly for the audio side. Will update – thanks!
It’s a shame I can no longer tolerate wearing anything that goes into my ears, and even partially in like the Galaxy Buds Live cause issues.
If they were like the Sony LinkBuds, then I could consider them.
That or a bone conduction device.
Collecting HR data via earbuds looks pretty awesome! I’m imagining its accuracy would be more in line with a chest strap than an optical sensor? If so they’ll definitely be on my list for a future purchase.
Unsure about the body temp data though. I get the feeling that a lot of the new metrics are being driven much more by the companies looking to add something new rather than providing actionable information to the average user. I’m similarly skeptical about HRV, training load, and other stuff like “stress” scores which seem to primarily to create an overload of information without any real purpose