With a wonderfully unique design and software experience carrying bags of personality, CMF's Watch Pro 2 schools the usual brand of identikit budget smartwatches. It's by no means a health tracking powerhouse or smartwatch wiz, but the Nothing sub-brand leans into its core strength - design - and pairs it with accurate tracking and a mostly bug-free platform. The result is a must-consider smartwatch that punches well above its price tag.
Pros
- Unique design and software personality
- Largely accurate tracking
- Unrivalled value at $69
Cons
- Battery life isn't mega
- Mostly basic insights
- Could do with a second button
Picking an entry-level smartwatch has always involved a sizeable design compromise. Over the last few years, styles of budget watches have also begun to merge; almost every brand now offers a derivative of Apple’s square case for a fraction of the price – but also with a fraction of the finesse.
It’s why the CMF Watch Pro 2 is such a breath of fresh air. With its own Apple Watch tribute act delivered via last year’s Watch Pro, the follow-up effort leans into the main strength of the Nothing sub-brand: unique design identity.
There are still compromises to be made here – as you would expect for a $69 smartwatch – but CMF has given just as many reasons to consider it over more expensive devices. We’ve spent some time testing the Watch Pro 2 – here’s our full verdict.
Price and competition
While the odd fitness tracker is available for less than $50, the Watch Pro 2 sits at the very lowest price point in the smartwatch world.
In terms of the features and design we’ll discuss in detail below, its competition could conceivably be 2024’s best budget releases – the Amazfit Active ($129), Huawei Watch Fit 3 ($129) and Xiaomi Watch 2 ($129).
Yet, at around half the price of that crop, it’s in more of a direct shootout with the Amazfit Bip 5, Honor Watch 4, and Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro (if you consider it a smartwatch).
Don’t forget that CMF’s first-gen Watch Pro will still be available for the same price, too.
Design and display
Every brand would have you believe they’re ‘serious’ about designing products, but it’s especially true with CMF/Nothing. And plenty of new details in the Watch Pro 2 that help it earn those credentials.
But there’s also the basics to consider. For this edition, gone is the square case – we now have a circular aluminum body with a 1.32-inch AMOLED display and a fully functioning digital crown.
At first glance, it’s a look on the wrist we think works tremendously. It’s just about the right size to remain unisex (though it does still appear a bit on the large side for those with smaller wrists, as shown below), while not being too small for larger wrists, as we find with a watch like the Google Pixel Watch 2.
We actually had to double-check the price during setup; the Watch Pro 2 feels like a watch that should have a ‘1’ in front of that $69 tag when you first pick it up. The only touch that slightly diminishes that feel, we think, is the brand’s etching on the bezel’s edge. A bit naff, and often tricked us into thinking we accidentally scratched it with something.
Aside from that design decision, the look reminds us plenty of the 2017 LG Watch Style – though the Watch Pro 2’s neat design trick, interchangeable bezels, ensures it remains positively unique. These attachments are a little fiddly – putting the replacement bezel on took us a couple of minutes to figure out – but, once complete, serve as a great two-tone novelty.
The Watch Pro 2’s leather straps, too, are changeable, though the pin buckle design means these are also a bit cumbersome compared to pricier watches with slide-and-lock bands.
So, we love how it sits, but is it functional?
Well, we didn’t find the surprising 44g weight burdensome during exercise, and the 14mm depth means it can also just about sit under a long-sleeve top or jacket neatly and avoid being bashed up by the outside world. Even if it is, though, our time wearing it to the gym and during DIY projects hasn’t seen it pick up any scratches (yet).
The 466 x 466-pixel display is also very clear and smooth-running. The refresh rate has been bumped up from the original watch’s 50fps to 6ofps, meaning there are no jitters as you use the crown to scroll through menus, and the 650 nits of peak brightness (which can also be set to auto-adapt) ensures there’s no issue in reading the screen in bright daylight.
Our only problem with the display is that it’s a bit of a smudge magnet (as you may be able to tell from a few of our images). And with no back button to help you navigate the display, we spent more time than usual wiping it clean on our t-shirt to get a clear look. This isn’t a dealbreaker by any means, but it is something that quite literally takes the shine off an otherwise great screen.
Smart features
When we tested the original Watch Pro last year, we found more than a few bugs in CMF/Nothing’s proprietary software. This time around, we’re happy to report we’ve not experienced anything of the sort.
The only problem we’ve found is the odd syncing issue, but, considering there have been a couple of pre-release updates pushed through since this last happened, we’re chalking it up to a known glitch rather than something we expect to plague devices going forward.
The operating system here is basic rather than revolutionary, but swipeable widgets that take inspiration from Glances in Wear OS, easy-to-navigate menus, tons of fun watch faces, and a healthy smattering of the basics – such as weather updates and smart assistant support – ensure it does just enough.
Naturally, though, there’s no room for big-hitting smart features that elevate it above basic fitness trackers – things like contactless payments, standalone cellular support, and an app ecosystem.
Instead, the strengths of the Watch Pro 2 are again in the look and feel.
It’s comparable to older versions of Wear OS in some spots but, mostly, feels like a considered, unique presentation. And in an age where so many brands copy each other’s homework, it – like the design itself – is very refreshing.
Crucially, it also carries over to an excellent companion app, in which Nothing’s signature orange-popped color scheme, ‘NDOT’ font, and digital-style icons are front and center. And again, unlike the experience often provided by Xiaomi and others, nothing is game-breaking here reminding you this is a $69 watch.
Activity tracking
In last year’s watch, we found workout presentation issues in the app, iffy heart rate tracking, and very slow GPS lock-on times. Not all of that has been resolved, but we will say that the data on offer here is largely good enough to get by with.
On those previous complaints, we’ll start with the app. GPS worms are now functional and coherent in the post-workout screens, though we still found the odd blank graph in our Android test app when looking back at previous workouts. We’ll keep an eye out to see whether this improves when we shift over to iOS.
Speaking of GPS – this is unfortunately still very slow to lock on. Even in an open area, it always took several minutes to give us the green light, though the overall data is surprisingly tight with a Garmin.
Over quick 5K and a couple of long walks, it only underreported by a few hundred meters on each occasion. We suspect this would lead to a fairly big gap at the end of longer runs, but it’s plenty accurate enough for most users.
While waiting for GPS to lock on, we also got to enjoy a new feature for the Watch 2 Pro – workout warm-ups. It’s here, again, where the watch’s charm shines through, offering a feature that’s both useful and leaves us questioning why more brands don’t offer something similar.
For running, there’s a thorough 12-step warm-up featuring an avatar you follow along with, as shown above. It works similarly to most breathing exercises on watches, counting down with haptics, while you can also skip forward and backward through certain activations.
We’re also happy to report that heart rate tracking appears to be more reliable than the first Watch Pro – and now also features personalized HR zones.
We’re keen to put the monitor under more thorough testing as we slowly return from injury, but initial testing saw it only underreport both average and maximum figures by 2-3BPM compared to Garmin and Whoop.
Plus, where the Watch 2 Pro usually neglects more in-depth insights, activity tracking is actually pretty comprehensive for a budget watch. CMF has included a new algorithm that powers the likes of training load, workout effectiveness, and recovery time.
Other brands have tried this on budget watches and it is almost always an unmitigated disaster – think recovery sessions garnering multi-day recovery time suggestions. That’s not the case with the Watch Pro 2. Whether it’s measuring the effect of a workout on your aerobic/anaerobic system or advising recovery, this is, again, roughly aligned with Garmin.
If you ever want more in-depth insights, too, the new integration with Strava will allow for that. And linking up with Apple Health/Google Health Connect will see your data reach even further.
Health and sleep tracking
Given the ultra-budget tag, we weren’t surprised to see heavyweight health-tracking features like ECG readings or skin temperature analysis omitted for the Watch 2 Pro.
Both the features and breakdowns here are still very light, but CMF has found room for on-the-spot (by default) readings for blood oxygen saturation and stress, while also including an app for basic breathing exercises.
These all work nicely from what we’ve seen during testing. Even when toggled to run 24/7, we saw none of the catastrophic, sub-95% blood oxygen readings that budget smartwatches often alarm us with, while the 1-100 stress (though not overly helpful) aligns with the estimation on our Garmin Epix Pro (Gen 2).
Like with fitness tracking, CMF also tells us it’s using an upgraded sleep monitoring detection algorithm. And it’s welcome – we found the original was pretty bad at registering our sleep hours (sometimes overreporting by a full hour) and often hugely underreported deep sleep compared to other test devices.
Given the natural inaccuracies existing in estimating stages, we put less stock into these assessments, but, still, both of those first-gen fumbles appear to have been resolved here.
Our fall-asleep and wake-up times were locked within a few minutes of our Garmin, Oura, and Whoop, which is mightily impressive for an entry-level watch.
The real difference between the Watch Pro 2 and the gold-standard devices we compared it with, and something we hope CMF improves over the coming generations (or a more premium Nothing watch), is that there’s nothing to glean from any of the sleep or health tracking.
There are no sleep scores, no recovery insights, and no kind of views into your trends. So, overall, it’s a good health and sleep tracking experience, but not in any way an in-depth one.
Battery life
CMF quotes up to 11 days of battery life for the Watch Pro 2, down from 13 days in the original model. However, this only accounts for ‘typical use’ of the 305mAh unit – and doesn’t include enabling sapping features like the always-on display (AOD).
When stressed close to its max throughout our testing – with the AOD turned on between 08:00-22:00, brightness set to automatic, 24/7 blood oxygen tracking, and more frequent stress monitoring – we’ve found the Watch Pro 2 capable of lasting around 4-5 days.
It’s a solid performance without being incredible. Even when we briefly tested with the AOD turned off and the more advanced tracking turned off, the battery was still draining more than we expected.
We think you can get slightly more out of watches like the Amazfit Active, but, ultimately, the Watch Pro 2 can still comfortably outlast the more feature-laden devices from Apple, Samsung, and Google. And with power-intensive features turned off (and a power-saving mode in your back pocket for emergencies), we do think 10-12 days of use is still realistic.
