What you need
- An iPhone on iOS 26 or later.
- The watch on your wrist overnight, and Summit allowed to read Apple Health.
- Strava or a Hammerhead Karoo for your rides: they are the only two ways a ride reaches Summit.
The cycling training app that reads your Apple Watch.
Your watch measures the night and writes it to Apple Health. Summit reads it on your iPhone and scores your recovery and sleep against your own baseline, free. On Elite, today’s session moves to match.
iOS 26+ · iPhone · Free
From your wrist to today’s session.
There is no watch app to open. The watch is the sensor; the iPhone does the reading.
- Night on your wristThe watch records HRV, heart rate and sleep, and writes them to Apple Health
- Morning readingSummit scores recovery and sleep against your own baseline, free on every plan
- Today’s sessionOn Elite, it stands, grows or eases, usually before you open the app
What the watch measures, and what Summit does with it.
Measured physiology only, through Apple Health. How you feel never moves the number.
| Your watch records | What Summit does with it | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| HRV, from beat-to-beat intervals | The main signal of your recovery score. Summit works out RMSSD from those intervals and reads it against your own baseline. | Free |
| Overnight heart rate | The average across the night, not its single lowest value. | Free |
| Sleep, with its stages | Summit’s own sleep score, the stages on a real clock, sleep debt and regularity. | Free |
| Respiratory rate, SpO₂, wrist temperature | Supporting signals. They weigh less, but an unusual reading can cap the score on its own. | Free |
| All of it, each morning | Today’s session, adapted to your recovery | Elite |
The free tier is permanent; Premium’s 14-day trial for new subscribers is a separate thing. Prices, with the storefront and VAT caveat, are on the pricing page →
What you need, and what you don’t.
What you don’t
- A Summit app on the watch. There isn’t one: the watch is the sensor.
- A power meter. Every structured session can be ridden by heart rate; the power analysis still needs power.
- A subscription for the readings. The recovery score, sleep, the trend and the Home and Lock Screen widgets are free, permanently.
No Apple Watch? Any wearable that writes to Apple Health works, though only the Apple Watch writes the complete set of metrics Summit uses. A Garmin, Whoop or other device synced to intervals.icu sends HRV, resting heart rate and sleep to the same score, free. Summit shows that device's own sleep score. Every integration →
In the app.
Questions before you start.
Do I need an Apple Watch?
No. Any wearable that writes to Apple Health works, though only the Apple Watch writes the complete set of metrics Summit uses. A Garmin, Whoop or other device synced to intervals.icu feeds HRV, resting heart rate and sleep to the same recovery score, free; on that route Summit shows the device's own sleep score.
Is there a Summit app for the Apple Watch?
No. The watch is the sensor: it writes to Apple Health, and Summit reads Apple Health on your iPhone. There is nothing to install on the wrist.
Can I record my rides on the Apple Watch?
Summit does not read rides from the watch or from Apple Health. Rides arrive only from Strava or a Hammerhead Karoo, so a ride recorded on the watch reaches Summit only if it gets to Strava.
Which Apple Watch settings does sleep need?
Wear the watch to bed with sleep tracking on, and allow Summit to read your Health data. Summit scores what reaches Apple Health; a night with no fresh data gets no score rather than yesterday's.
What is free with an Apple Watch?
The recovery score, the sleep score and analysis, the recovery trend and the Home and Lock Screen widgets, permanently. It is not Premium's 14-day trial. Today's session, adapted to your reading, and sending it to a Karoo or intervals.icu are Elite; the pricing page has the prices and their caveat.
Wear it tonight. Read it in the morning.
Download Summit and allow it to read Apple Health. Your recovery score and sleep readings are free, permanently; the session that moves with them is Elite.
iOS 26+ · iPhone · Free