AN Apple Watch saved a dad-of-three’s life after it helped detect a heart condition he had no idea he had.

Paul Hutton bought the watch to try out the technology.

But when it kept warning him he had a low resting heart rate, he mentioned it to a nurse at Riverside Health Clinic in Manningtree.

The watch was saying his heart rate was falling below 40 beats a minute - a normal resting beat should be between 60 and 100.

It was discovered it was a second, weak beat in his heart causing the low reading.

Journalist Paul, 48, of Steam Mill Road, Bradfield, said: “Because I write about technology I felt I should use the latest technology.

“I knew the watch could check your pulse but it had a software update and one day I was watching TV on the sofa and it said your pulse has fallen below 40 beats per minute - it shouldn’t have been that.

“This happened a few times and I happened to be at the doctors for something else and mentioned it to the nurse and she said I should see the doctor.”

After an appointment with his doctor, Paul gave up caffeine to try to solve the issue but when this didn’t work he was referred to a consultant who diagnosed him with ventricular bigeminy.

The irregular beats in the heart mean it is unable to pump blood out effectively, putting the person at a higher risk of stroke.

Paul said: “I wouldn’t have noticed it myself for a while, one day I would have felt light-headed and gone to the doctors and found my heart was working at 20 per cent capacity.

“The second beat was so weak the watch didn’t pick it up.

“The heart on the main beat was working harder, my heart was slowly deteriorating because it was being worked harder.”

Paul and ended up undergoing a cardiac ablation operation to fix the problem.

He said: “The Apple Watch could have saved my life. It saved my retirement, I didn’t want to be a mess that couldn’t get up the stairs in my 60s. It picked up something that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.”

Ashleigh Li, Senior Cardiac Nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Innovative technology such as wearable devices could be invaluable tools to healthcare professionals in identifying patients at risk.”