Heart Rate Way Off after 13.17

This is from Strava, but it's the same data. If it's not clear, the heart rate trace shown here is just the highlighted section on the profile graph at the top (transitioning from flat to climbing), not the whole rise.

From GC:

quad.pe/.../iUdduxp5JK.png

I did a reset and seemed to solve the issues i was experiencing. It was a bit of a hassle to re sync the watch. I'll provide more updates throughout the week but so far it did the job.

I hope all of you figure it out. I say all of you cuz after about 7 years with Garmin watches, I moved on while I can still get worth out of my Venu 3. Not only the sensor issues, the texts, the phone features, assistant, all breaking with every update. Decided to try another brand..

Exactly the same issue for me. It actually started on Venu 2 plus. I upgraded to Venu 3 and experience the issue on almost every run. The watch shows my heart rate too low during a run. I remove the watch and put it back on (while running). Heart rate is fixed immediately (jump 20-30 beats higher). I have many recordings of this bug.

I started having problems after the last 2 updates and would like to be able to roll back to what the firmware was when I first got the watch. It tells time ok though. However, the heartrate, stress, and sleep values seem to have shifted noticeably. It also occasionally can't detect wake time successfully and does not even prompt for it.... Edit: The other additional anomaly was a couple of days with false stair-climbing detection. Notably, one day I climbed 4 flights and never came down (according to Venu3) as a result of running a short distance to catch a bus. 

Garmin-Tracy said:

 I understand why you are frustrated and I am sorry that you had an experience with customer service that left you feeling like we aren't concerned. That being said, we are concerned. However, we are not seeing this consistently amongst Venu 3 / 3S customers and have been unable to reproduce the behavior in house. We are hoping folks can help identify the variables needed to reproduce and understand the behavior, hence the list of questions.

Sorry, I don't buy it. People, including me, have been having this identical problem on multiple Garmin models for more than a year. It has been traced to various firmware updates. On the Epix Gen 2 like I have, it's usually 15.77. But since mine was an early version, it's (according to ChatGPT) 13.22. And there's been no fix despite numerous updates. 

As many others have noted, other watch brands do not have this problem, even the cheapies. Garmin is going to kill themselves by delivering unreliable fitness watches -- their bread and butter. I'm currently making do with an armband, but my next watch is one that works or I don't buy it. It seems like Garmin is determined I should look elsewhere.

Here is a typical view of the heart rate issue with Venu 3. It is complete wrong and when I take my watch off during the run it corrects again.