Temple vs Apple Watch Series 12 vs Garmin Forerunner 970: Features, health tracking and price compared

If you want to track your heart rate, sleep, workouts, and overall fitness, an Apple Watch or Garmin smartwatch might be among your options. But Deepinder Goyal’s Temple is taking a different approach to wearable technology. Priced at ₹85,000, the device sits against the side of your forehead rather than your wrist and uses optical sensors to track physiological signals.

Its biggest differentiator is BrainFlow, a feature designed to track relative changes in signals associated with blood circulation near the brain. It also offers an Entropy score to estimate the body’s physiological effort. However, Temple lacks a screen, GPS, or the everyday smartwatch features offered by Apple and Garmin. So, does its specialised tracking make it a better buy?

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Temple vs Apple Watch vs Garmin - Health features and accuracy

Temple’s main difference is its sensor placement. It uses optical sensors near the superficial temporal artery, while Apple Watch Series 12 and Garmin Forerunner 970 use wrist-based sensors to collect health and fitness information.

Apart from heart-rate tracking, Temple offers BrainFlow and Entropy. The former tracks relative changes in signals associated with blood circulation near the brain, while the latter estimates how hard the body is working to manage heat and physiological demands.

Apple Watch Series 12 offers a wider range of familiar health features, including heart-rate monitoring, ECG, blood oxygen measurements, sleep tracking and temperature sensing. Garmin Forerunner 970, meanwhile, is designed with athletes in mind. It offers workout tracking, GPS, training readiness, recovery insights and running performance metrics.

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Temple has also made a specific claim about heart-rate accuracy. In its internal study involving 43 healthy adults, it reported an average error of 1.18 beats per minute against a Polar H10 chest strap. The corresponding figures were 1.94 bpm for Apple Watch Series 12 and 3.18 bpm for Garmin Forerunner 970. However, the findings are based on Temple’s own testing and need independent validation.

Temple vs Apple Watch vs Garmin - Price, battery and everyday use

Temple costs ₹85,000 and offers up to four days of battery life. The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at ₹56,900 and offers up to 24 hours, while the Garmin Forerunner 970 costs ₹92,990 and lasts up to 15 days in smartwatch mode.

But the price difference is not the only thing you should consider. Temple does not offer a display, calls, notifications, third-party apps or built-in GPS. You cannot use it as a conventional smartwatch or rely on it to track outdoor routes.

Apple Watch offers a more complete everyday experience, including smartphone connectivity and health monitoring. Garmin is better suited to people who regularly run, cycle or follow structured training programmes.

Ultimately, Temple is designed for people interested in specialised physiological tracking, rather than those looking for an all-in-one smartwatch. At ₹85,000, its value will depend on whether its additional measurements prove useful and reliable in everyday use.