Withings has unveiled the new ScanWatch Nova – a luxury version of its excellent ScanWatch 2 health hybrid smartwatch.
Withings did the same last time out with the ScanWatch Horizon, which was a diving watch embodiment of the analog form factor of the ScanWatch.
This time it’s gone a little more luxury – and there’s more than a little nod to the likes of Rolex Submariner and Tag Formula 1 in the design.
The rotating bezel is ceramic, and it’s etched with minute intervals – and it comes in green, black, or blue options for the bezel and dials. Each comes with an oyster link bracelet in silver.
Under the hood, it’s a classic ScanWatch 2 – which got a solid 4/5 stars in our review.
It retains the greyscale OLED display on the dial, which is used for navigating watch modes via the crown, as well as getting smartphone notifications, and browsing your daily stats. And the inset step goal dial stays as well.
Withings
It comes with temperature tracking – both for wellness and workout recovery – a focus on breathing quality during sleep, and a PPG sensor. It also has a coveted FDA/CE-cleared ECG sensor.
And you don’t need to pay Rolex or Tag prices for the ScanWatch Nova. It retails for £549/$599 – which given the materials, design and the original $350£329 price tag of the ScanWatch 2 – doesn’t feel prohibitively expensive. This isn’t a watch that’s going to be obsolete any time soon.
You get 30 days of battery life between charges (as long as you keep the breathing tracking turned off) and with ECG, advanced heart rate, and some pretty decent workout tracking too – this hybrid makes fewer compromises than you might think.
There are some aspects of the app and experience that could use attention – and we did run into some accuracy issues around sleep tracking and auto-workout detection.
The Withings ScanWatch Nova is available now for $599/£549 from withings.com.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.