No. Migraine Sentry works without an Apple Watch, but one is strongly recommended. The Apple Watch is where the deepest signals live, and the fastest place to log an attack. Without one, the app still works, and it tells you exactly what it can and can't see.

What an Apple Watch adds

Apple Watch records the overnight signals that matter most for migraine patterns: heart-rate variability, sleep duration and stages, resting heart rate, blood oxygen, wrist temperature and respiratory rate. Wear it overnight; that's when the important signals are written.

The Apple Watch app

  • Your forecast at a glance: the day's vulnerability level, readable in one look. The same glance for everyone — no features are held back on the wrist.
  • Start and stop attacks from your wrist with one tap; it syncs instantly with your iPhone.
  • Attack timer: the elapsed time stays on your wrist, and you can end the attack from there when it's over.
  • Log symptoms mid-attack: tap what you're feeling as it happens — nausea, light sensitivity, aura and more. When the attack ends, the follow-up on your iPhone opens with those already selected.
  • The migraine timer stays in sync across both devices.

Wearing habits

Migraine Sentry works best with regular overnight wear, but it degrades honestly: if it hasn't seen Apple Watch data for a couple of weeks, metric tiles say "No recent wearable data" instead of pretending. A night or two off doesn't break anything; baselines are built over 30–90 days.

Charge tip: many people charge during their morning routine, then wear the Apple Watch to bed. Sleep data is the single most valuable signal you can give the app.

What works without an Apple Watch

  • Full logging: attacks, symptoms, medications, follow-ups.
  • Barometric pressure: from your iPhone's built-in barometer, continuously.
  • Weather signals: temperature swings, humidity, pressure forecasts.
  • Steps: your iPhone counts these on its own.
  • Daily check-ins: caffeine, hydration, stress, meals, alcohol, cycle.
  • History, insights and clinical reports built from all of the above.

What needs a wearable

Overnight HRV, sleep duration and stages, resting heart rate and related signals need a wearable writing them to Apple Health. Where a feature depends on them and none has, the app says "No recent wearable data" rather than showing empty charts.

Using another wearable?

Migraine Sentry reads from Apple Health, not from any specific device. If your wearable's app can share data with Apple Health (Garmin Connect, Oura, Whoop and Fitbit all can), whatever it shares feeds your baselines, trigger ranking and forecast in exactly the same way.

Which signals arrive varies by brand and changes as their apps update, so check the Apple Health setting inside your wearable's app to see what it shares. Sleep and resting heart rate are the most valuable and the most commonly shared. A few signals are only written by Apple Watch, like wrist temperature. Whatever it can see, Migraine Sentry always tells you which signals it is reading.

Can I still get forecasts?

Yes. Once you reach 7 days of data and 3 logged migraines, your forecast runs on the signals it can read without a Watch: barometric pressure, weather and cycle phase. It starts from published research evidence and shifts to your personal trigger weights as they emerge, and it always tells you which signals it read.