Arrow Tempo
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The Apple Watch archery app that counts your arrows for you
Arrow Tempo is an archery app for Apple Watch (watchOS 10+) with an iPhone companion (iOS 17+). The watch detects every release using motion and sound, counts your arrows automatically, and records heart rate, hold time and calories for each shot — no tapping, no clicker, no accounts. It's free to download on the App Store.
How automatic arrow counting works
Most archery apps make you log shots by hand between ends. Arrow Tempo doesn't. The watch samples motion at 100 Hz on your bow arm and listens for the sound of the release through its microphone. Only when the bow-arm movement and the audio spike line up does it count an arrow — which is why footsteps, nocking and range chatter don't trigger false counts. A short setup tells the app which hand holds the bow and how you wear the watch, and a walking detector pauses detection while you're collecting arrows.
Everything runs on-device. The audio is analysed in real time and never stored or uploaded. If the watch ever misses a shot or counts an extra one, the count is one tap away from a manual fix.
What it tracks on every arrow
- Heart rate at the moment of each release — see what your calmest, best ends have in common.
- Hold time — how long you held from raising the bow arm to the shot.
- Calories — active energy per arrow, weighted by your bow's draw weight and draw length, not a generic estimate.
Save a bow preset for each bow you shoot (draw weight and draw length); pick it on the watch when you start, and every session records which bow shot it.
Aim Replay: see how your bow arm moves
While you hold at full draw, the watch on your bow arm records how your aim drifts, 20 times a second, from the moment you settle until the shot breaks. Shoot an indoor 3-spot session and score it with the camera, and your phone plays the whole session back arrow by arrow: each hold drawn as a path that ends on the hole that arrow actually made. A wandering hold or a steady pull to one side shows up in seconds. Export the replay as a video for Reels, Stories or your coach.
Aim Replay is free. It works with Apple Watch and Wear OS.
Hands free on the line
If all you want is the tally, the count-only mode skips rounds and scoring entirely — start it, shoot, and the watch keeps count. For tempo work, the cadence trainer turns the watch into a haptic metronome: set an interval and feel the rhythm on your wrist instead of watching a clock.
Apple Health, sync and privacy
Every session is saved to Apple Health as an Archery workout with heart rate and calories. Sessions sync live to the iPhone app for scoring, history and the signature heatmap and can be backed up and restored through iCloud. The free app shows your last 30 days of history; Arrow Tempo Premium opens the full archive. There are no user accounts and nothing leaves your devices that you don't choose to share.
Requirements and pricing
You need an Apple Watch on watchOS 10 or later (Series 4 or later), paired with an iPhone on iOS 17 or later. Arrow Tempo is free to download — counting, iPhone camera scoring (36 arrows a day), the cadence trainer, your last 30 days of history, sync and Apple Health workouts are all included. Arrow Tempo Premium adds unlimited camera scoring, the signature shot heatmap and your full session archive for $9.99/month or $59.99/year, with a 1-week free trial.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an Apple Watch app for archery?
Yes — Arrow Tempo is built watch-first for target archery. It detects every release using motion and sound, counts arrows automatically, and records heart rate, hold time and calories per shot. It works with recurve, compound and barebow.
Does automatic counting drain the battery?
Arrow Tempo runs as a workout session, the same way a running app does, so the watch manages power for sustained activity. A typical one-to-two-hour practice fits comfortably in a normal day's battery.
How does it compare with Garmin's ArcheryX?
Garmin's ArcheryX counts arrows and tracks bow-arm movement and heart rate, but it comes pre-installed on the Fenix 9 and is built for compound bows only. Arrow Tempo does hands-free counting, per-shot heart rate and hold timing on an Apple Watch Series 4 or later, works with recurve, compound and barebow, and the watch features are free. Your phone then scores the target with the camera. Full side-by-side comparison.
Can the watch show how steady my aim is?
Yes. Arrow Tempo records how your bow arm moves during every hold, and Aim Replay plays an indoor 3-spot session back arrow by arrow, each aim path ending on the hole it made. It's free on Apple Watch and Wear OS.
Does the watch record my audio?
No. The microphone signal is analysed on the watch in real time to detect the release sound, and it is never stored or uploaded.
Arrow Tempo is built by Sergey Tyan, an International Master of Sports in compound archery, for his own comeback to competition.
Try it on your next practice
Free to download. Arrow Tempo Premium free for 1 week.
