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Barely a year after the launch of its first smart health connected watch capable of performing an electrocardiogram, the Move ECG, Withings returns to the forefront with a high-end product that stands as the greatest technological advance of the moment in terms of health.
Oxygen saturation, heart rhythm disturbances, breathing disturbances or even soon detection of sleep apnea… developed with cardiologists and sleep experts, the new ScanWatch from Withings promises great things and wonders. If we fully trust the French brand for its ability to perform reliable medical measurements through a simple watch, does the latter offer all the assets to convince the general public?
We tested this novelty for a few weeks in order to answer all your questions.
A very classic design for an ultra smart health connected watch
At first glance, nothing distinguishes the ScanWatch from a classic hand watch. With its relatively thin stainless steel case, white or black background dial adorned with chrome indexes and protected by sapphire crystal, black elastomer strap and what appears to be a winding crown on the right side, this elegant watch seems straight out of a jewelry store.
On closer inspection, however, the ScanWatch is indeed a smart health connected watch. As proof, the second small digital screen – hardly more than a centimeter in diameter – in the upper part of the dial which displays a certain number of data that can be scrolled by turning the famous crown.
Health monitoring: a profusion of sensors
By turning over the dial, we also discover the various sensors intended to collect this data. ECG, Pulse oximeter (to collect the rate of oxygen saturation or SpO2 and detect potential respiratory problems), heart rate monitoring … the equipment of the ScanWatch impresses, especially as it benefits from medical certifications.
Of course, Withings warns: the measurements collected by the sensors can in no way replace a medical examination carried out by a healthcare professional. Nevertheless, under its classic watch airs, the ScanWatch allows you to carefully monitoring your vital parameters and thus avoid late consultation. And that’s a real plus.
The watch delivers a lot of information automatically, like its competitors: number of steps taken daily, distance traveled, average heart rate, floors climbed … To be viewed directly from the small OLED screen of the watch or in more detail from the Health Mate app.
Other measurements require action on the part of the user: to perform an electrocardiogram for example or to measure his SpO2 (oxygen saturation), from a simple pressure on the crown. You need to relax a bit, sit comfortably, put your hands flat on a table and not move. The measurement is then delivered in a few seconds. You can even generate your ECG in PDF (see below) to send it to your doctor if you have any doubts, especially in the event of atrial fibrillation. In a few weeks, users will also be able to obtain additional data in terms of monitoring their sleep since the ScanWatch will be able, like the Withings Sleep Analyzer, as we said in the introduction, to detect sleep apnea (pending certification).
A small, but readable OLED display
No need to hide the face, the ScanWatch with its tiny secondary OLED screen does not offer the same service as a fully digital watch like the Apple Watch. Consulting some major data – the time (yes, it’s practical in the dark), the date or its number of steps, for example – is however pleasant rather than limited to reading, at the bottom of the screen, the third sub-dial, whose needle indicates whether you are at 30, 50 or 80% of your daily target, as was already the case on previous models. Especially since this tiny screen, whose brightness can be adjusted, remains relatively readable … provided you are not outdoors under a blazing sun.
Pleasant to wear, relatively light – it must be said that we tested the smallest of the ScanWatch, the 38 mm version sold for 280 euros – this watch does not content itself with giving you the time in analog and following closely. your vital parameters.
As a smart health connected watch, the ScanWatch alerts you to the arrival of a notification by vibration and even allows you to consult the name of the caller or the sender of an SMS from the screen. The content of the SMS is also displayed, but we must admit that we rarely have the opportunity to read it from end to end from the small screen. But in the case of a very brief message, this may be sufficient and it is then not necessary to unsheathe your smartphone. Convenient !
Like its peers, the ScanWatch also allows you to monitoring various sports activities and of course your sleep. In the first case, the watch offers around forty sports that you can monitoring – from simple running outdoors… to ice skating or kitesurfing! An increase that should not make us forget that there are watches that are much more efficient than this Withings for great sportsmen.
On the other hand, as part of a simple fitness or a few regular exercises to keep it throughout the year, the ScanWatch can be more than enough. With the good and the less good. Without integrated GPS, the watch can call on that of the smartphone for outdoor activities. Beyond the fact that it is not necessarily pleasant to go for a run with your smartphone, it is necessary to launch the Health Mate application from it, if you want the GPS synchronization to take place. You can just start activity tracking directly from the watch, but your position will not be clearly recorded. Pain in the neck.
Even more annoying, the watch software deserves some serious debugging. As with each launch, manufacturers rely on their first users and their feedback to remedy any malfunctions. Withings is no exception to the rule. In this case, it has happened that the watch has counted a distance traveled several times. Instead of having 8 km covered in one hour, we end up with 96 km completed in the same time frame because the route has been counted 12 times! Hopefully things will get better as soon as possible through updates.
Either way, when the GPS synchronization goes smoothly, the results are reliable in terms of course layout, time spent as well as distance traveled, and it is possible to be alerted if his heart rate becomes too high. Student. We would have appreciated a vibration alert for each km traveled, but Withings preferred to automatically generate an alert every 30 minutes… which is much less useful.
Beyond these annoying youthful worries, we appreciate the quality of the application, clear, efficient and which provides many details, advice, explanations as well as a summary of his day in the form of a dashboard. We also discover small drawings accompanied by texts that accompany your progress (see below) and are supposed to motivate you. They are reminiscent of Fitbit’s “badges” by the way!
For charging, the ScanWatch is supplied with a proprietary cradle and a USB cable. Withings announces 30 days of endurance for its watch, which seems a bit overestimated to us. It is true that we tested the small model in 38 mm, undoubtedly less enduring than the model in 42 mm which surely benefits from a bigger battery.
If you use the smart health connected functions of your watch very regularly (notifications, activity monitoring with the help of GPS, etc.), it would be fairer to leave on a 15-day basis, or even 10 if you train 3 or 4 times per week and play with the health functions of the watch.
This is still excellent in terms of the autonomy offered by an Apple Watch. It is also not, it is true, the same service rendered.
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