A wearable gesture recognition device is disclosed that provides gesture recognition for gestures that may include a hold or steady-state component, and may account and adapt for real-time fit-level changes. The wearable gesture recognition device may integrate a photoplethysmographic (PPMG) and a piezoelectric (PZE) sensor such that respective sensor signals may be used individually, or in concert for gesture recognition. Thus the wearable gesture recognition device generally disclosed herein may advantageously perform gesture recognition through the fusion of PPMG and PZE signals. To support continuous gesture recognition, the wearable gesture recognition device may use a low-power activity detection scheme that analyzes a PZE signal prior to higher-power gesture classification. Moreover, the wearable gesture recognition device may provide power management by controlling a duty-cycle of the PPMG sensor without necessarily reducing recognition performance. The PPMG sensor and the PZE sensor may be co-located and housed within a same sensor package.