The crew over at Withings make all manner of gadgets and gear that can help you quantify and track your health and life. For us, of course, we are partial to the watches. Their ScanWatch Horizon quickly became my travel watch of choice (more on that later), so I was intrigued when they released the second generation of the ScanWatch. Rather than checkout the exact same model, we opted to take a look at the slimmer Withings ScanWatch 2.
Withings ScanWatch 2: what it is
If there’s one thing you probably know about Withings, it’s that they’re all about building products to help you measure your life. Of course, the Withings ScanWatch 2 follows that same mindset, and is what we’d consider to be a minor evolution of the platform we saw in the ScanWatch Horizon. It has all of the same stuff that we saw before in terms of tracking, and adds a body temperature tracking sensor as well.
Of course, temperature sensors on the wrist are usually thrown off by your body heat, but here, that’s exactly what it’s meant to track. Just to be clear – you’re not going to look at your wrist and see if you’re running a fever. Instead, once it’s figured out your baseline, it’ll let you know if you’re running slightly warmer or cooler than normal, and of course track that throughout the day. One interesting thing to note here – while the watch was tracking the temperature, we weren’t able to see that trend in the Withings app on the phone.
Using the watch
Other than the one oddity with the body temperature tracking in the app, everything else was just fine with the Withings ScanWatch 2. It tracked my sleep, woke me up on time, and easily tracked my steps throughout the day. And, of course, it can track mileage on a walk/jog if it’s connected to your phone, and then the phone has it’s GPS on.
You might wonder at the lack of on-board GPS, but that’s how the Withings watches can get up to a month’s worth of usage between charges. In other words, this isn’t the watch for someone who’s training for a big race. And, realistically, the small LCD would work against that anyways. This is for the person who wants to keep track of their day-to-day stuff, have some basic smartwatch functionality, but doesn’t want it to look like they’re wearing a smartwatch.
Speaking of the battery, let’s talk about the charging. Rather than requiring a wired puck to sit on to charge. Instead, there’s the bracket that you clip the watch into (with the contacts touching the side of the watch). This relies on a USB-C connection, which vastly simplifies what you’d need to pack for travel. Speaking of travel…
Why it’s a great travel watch
As a watch person, it’s always the struggle to figure out what to take along on a trip. There are those who travel with multiple watches, and have various ways to transport those. For me, I like simplifying things here, as I can’t always seem to do it with other parts of my packing. So, that means, for me, it’s a single watch.
That means I want a watch that I can wear in both casual and dressy situations. I also want it to be able to wake me up in the morning with silent alarms, as well as not have to worry about it if we head out to the hotel pool. In all of these regards, the Withings ScanWatch 2 fits the bill.
I realized just how well it could work with my time with the ScanWatch Horizon. With that – and undoubtedly the ScanWatch 2 – you bring along a few additional straps, and you can easily change up the look. What really seals it, for me, is the fact that the ScanWatch doesn’t look like a fitness tracking watch. Sure, that small LCD display might catch an eye, but on the black dial here? It just blends right in. Which means you’ve got the classic look of an analog design, with all of the smarts and tech a modern watch can bring (even putting text notifications on your wrist, if you like).
Wrapping things up
As you can see, there’s a lot to like with the Withings ScanWatch 2. The ScanWatch line itself is pretty competent, and this particular take on things makes for a very compact package. You can opt for it in either 38mm or 42mm diameters (we reviewed the 42mm), with 2-3 dial and case colors, depending on the diameter. Regardless of the size or finish, you can get the watch for $349.95, which comes with the USB-C charging cradle and one strap; additional straps are available. Check it out directly over at withings.com
Withings ScanWatch 2 Tech Specs
- Weight & Dimensions
- Dimensions: 38mm or 42mm
- Weight (without wristband): 34.6gr (38mm), 52.6gr (42mm)
- Screen display
- Grayscale OLED display
- 14504 px, 282 PPI, 0.63″
- Materials
- Stainless steel case
- Sapphire glass
- Stainless steel crown
- Sensors
- TempTech24/7 Module
- High Dynamic Range Accelerometer
- Multi-wavelength PPG 16 channels
- Altimeter
- Water resistance: 5ATM
- Battery: Up to 30-day battery life
- Charging time: 2 hours
- Docking station (USB-C compatible)
- Connectivity: Bluetooth Low Energy
- Withings App
- Available on: App Store (iOS), Google Play Store (Android)
- Apple Health, Google Health Connect & Google Fit compatible
- Withings App Web dashboard
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 15 and higher, or Android device with OS 9 and higher
- Cannot be set up from a computer
- Storage & memory
- Free and unlimited storage of all health data online
- Up to 7 days of health data stored on the watch
ScanWatch 2 Metrics
- 24/7 Temperature tracking
- Baseline variation of temperature day & night
- Temperature zones during workout
- Awake temperature zones**
- Heart health
- ECG – AFib detection*
- Daily heart rate
- Overnight heart rate
- High & low heart rate notifications
- Sleep parameters
- Sleep quality score
- Sleep stages (deep, light)
- Sleep duration
- Interruptions
- Regularity
- Respiratory insights
- Blood oxygen levels: on-demand & nighttime average
- Breathing Quality Index
- Activity tracking
- Heart rate zones during workout
- Fitness Level via VO2 max estimation
- Active minutes
- Steps
- Calories burned
- Connected GPS: distance, pace & elevation
- Elevation: meters & floors
- Cycle tracking
- Cycle phases
- Period log
- Cycle length
- Cycle symptoms log
- Period flow log
- Calories burned
- Mood & feelings log
- Symptoms & flow trends
