Apple Watch is generally ahead of the smart watch pack but when it comes to health features, it has a serious competitor – Withings.
And that serious competitor has upped the ante with ScanWatch 2, adding an arsenal of health-related features packed into a watch that looks like a stylist analogue watch. It’s actually what we call a hybrid analogue-digital smartwatch.
ScanWatch 2 might look like an ordinary watch, but it is fastidiously recording a big range of health data that you access on your Bluetooth connected smartphone.
Pride of place is a 30-day battery life, which means it can monitor you 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. which is what’s needed if you are worried about a potential serious health condition.
For example, the new body temperature variation tracking feature will tell you if your core temperate is out of whack, which is a sign of illness. Body temperature monitoring also gives you a measure of your workout efficiency to help avoid heat exhaustion.
This new model also adds a new photoplethysmography function which monitors changes in blood flow through your arteries. A poor bloodflow can signal heart rate and rhythm issues.
These new features add to an already impressive list of monitoring functionality. There’s heart rate and ECG recordings, irregular heart rate (Afib) monitoring, heart rate variability, VO2 monitoring of the maximum volume of oxygen your body can process, blood oxygen readings, sleep disturbance detection, and active and metabolic calories. The 30-day battery life means the watch won’t miss a beat recording your night-time sleeping and daytime snoozing.
This new ScanWatch also adds cycle tracking to an impressive list of more than 40 activities in workout mode. You could be walking or running indoors or outside, hiking, swimming, surfing, pumping weights, playing tennis or more. Respiratory rate readings will be available from the end of this year.
You are notified about high and low resting heart rate, rhythm problems and any suspected atrial fibrillation which can be responsible for almost a third of strokes. Withings says ScanWatch 2 can record a clinically validated electrocardiogram. You will be encouraged to record an ECG. You can share your health data with your doctor.
The ScanWatch 2 goes well beyond basic sleep tracking of light and deep sleep cycles, awake time and interruptions. You get an algorithmically calculated sleep score each night, a list of any breathing disturbances which can indicate sleep apnoea, and an average heart rate during sleep. Like some other devices, ScanWatch 2 can vary when it wakes you in the morning, based on your sleep state. This will be around your set wake-up time.
All of this data feeds into the Withings app which offers trends and insights into your health. You can get a complete health assessment, and daily guidance on building long-term health habits.
If that’s not enough data, Withings has a new Withings+ subscription offering more.
Withings watches work in league with other Withings devices, including its popular digital body scales.
ScanWatch Light
Withings will selli two versions of the watch in Australia: ScanWatch 2 and ScanWatch Light. The cheaper version doesn’t offer some health features such as temperature tracking and heart rate notifications.
ScanWatch 2 comes in 42mm and 38mm sizes. The listed US price is US$349.95 (A$542). ScanWatch Light is a smaller 37mm and costs US$249.95 (A$389).
