I’m always on the hunt for a smartwatch that looks nicer than my Apple Watch. While I appreciate all the functionality it gives me, it’s hard to justify wearing it to a fancy gathering or Sunday Mass with its plain, blank-rectangle design. Luckily, the world of hybrid smartwatches is full of watches that look like traditional timepieces but still give you most of the functionality of a regular smartwatch. The ScanWatch 2 is a perfect example of that.
Brought to us by a company called Withings, the ScanWatch 2 is the brand’s sequel to the original ScanWatch from 2020. It’s a smartwatch with health tracking sensors, smartphone notifications, step tracking, alarms and more, all packed into a design that could be confused for a mechanical watch.
I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks as my main smartwatch, and it’s really good… to an extent. Some features are missing compared to other smartwatches, and a classy design might not mean much to you if you don’t get a great fitness-tracking experience as well. Plus, the companion app is nowhere near as good as other fitness trackers.
The ScanWatch 2 is the anti-Apple Watch for watch enthusiasts and style kings/queens alike, but is it the right watch for you? Let’s find out.
If you want a smartwatch that actually looks good and lasts a long time on a charge, the Withings ScanWatch 2 is worth checking out.
What we liked about it
Beautiful design and simplistic controls
The ScanWatch 2 is one of the best-looking smartwatches I’ve ever seen. Instead of opting for a big touchscreen and an aluminum design, Withings uses physical hands and an analog dial to display the time. It also does this for your step count, which is displayed in a complication at the bottom so you can track your progress toward your goal. Up top, you’ll find the only screen on the watch: an OLED panel that’s barely smaller than the average thumbprint.
I received the white 38mm and 42mm models for testing, and they are simply gorgeous. It’s a delight to wear them wherever you go; not only are they more occasion-versatile than an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch, but they’re also a sure-fire way to get people looking. Every time I show my ScanWatch to someone, they’re immediately struck by how good it looks and how cool it is that it still works like a smartwatch. It puts my Apple Watch Series 8 to utter shame, especially when I pair it with some of Withings’ official bands that I’ve collected over the years.
The stainless steel body, coupled with the fact you can use any 18mm or 20mm band you want, makes the ScanWatch 2 the perfect watch to wear to the gym and the Met Gala alike. Compared to the original model, the 42mm ScanWatch 2 has a chunkier bezel, while the 38mm basically looks the same. Aside from the white face, you can get both models with a black face, while the 38mm is the only one that gets a navy option.
The screen has switched from a dot matrix on the original ScanWatch to an OLED panel like other smartwatches, which makes everything sharper and easier to read. To navigate the interface, you press on the digital crown and rotate it up or down to cycle through the menu. You then press the crown again to select something, while long-pressing will bring up the workout menu. I’ll admit, these controls are kind of tedious, but with a design like this, there’s not much choice for user input, so it’s fine.
The ScanWatch 2 is rated 5 ATM water resistant, meaning it can survive at up to 50 meters underwater. That’s the same as the Apple Watch Series 9, so if you want to track your surfing or swimming session with a Withings watch, you can do so.
I’d also like to mention a feature that my little brother appreciates: raise to wake. If you’re not acclimated to reading an analog clock on the regular, you can set the display to wake up and show the time digitally when you raise your wrist. This will drain your battery faster, however, so I elected to keep it off during my testing. Still, it’s worth mentioning that it’s there.
Upgraded health tracking for the data-driven
Withings, being a health-focused brand with a vast array of other smart health gadgets in its lineup, prides itself on how many features are crammed into the ScanWatch 2. And let me just say, the company has every right to feel good about it.
This watch has basically every health tool you could ask for. It can track your heart rate, your steps, record EKGs, track your blood oxygen and even keep tabs on your body temperature through a new sensor module called TempTech24/7. As you wear the ScanWatch 2 over time, it’ll get an idea of your body’s baseline temperature and let you know when it changes in a meaningful way, such as during the onset of an illness. It’s also used for making sure you don’t experience heat exhaustion during workouts or sleep tracking, for example.
You also get respiratory rate tracking with the ScanWatch 2, along with upgraded sleep tracking with more data. All of this gets poured into the companion Withings Health app on your phone, where it’s broken down into various charts and graphs to give you its take on your overall health. If you subscribe to Withings+ for $10 a month, you’ll also get deeper insights into your health with body scores, sleep scores, your health trends and more.
In practice, all of this works really well. I’ve compared my fitness data to what I’ve collected from my Apple Watch and Whoop band, and the ScanWatch 2 is roughly identical, with a few discrepancies in calories burned and heart rate at peak times. It’s still enough to get a picture of your health progress over time, and anyone who isn’t a serious athlete will find the features to be sufficient.
I also enjoyed using the watch to track my sleep. I regularly pay attention to my body temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate while sleeping to ensure it all stays relatively normal, and it’s great having all that information sourced from such a beautiful timepiece. Plus, the sleep scores I got from Withings+ came in handy for knowing how well I slept versus the night before.
30-day battery life for the win
Folks, there’s nothing like not having to charge your smartwatch every day. With my current Apple Watch, I’m lucky to get through a full day after tracking my sleep at night. With the ScanWatch 2, Withings promises up to 30 days of battery life on a full charge, which is on track with what I’ve experienced.
This thing refuses to die. Even after two and a half weeks with multiple workouts tracked, tracking my sleep most nights and plenty of notifications rolling in, the watch had just under 50% remaining. That’s stupendous for any smartwatch, and it’s by far the ScanWatch 2’s biggest selling point. You can charge this puppy up and wear it for a month without worrying about charging it again.
Withings redesigned the charger for the ScanWatch 2, and thank goodness it did. The original ScanWatch’s magnetic puck-style charger not only had weak magnets, it also required that you line up a couple of pogo pins just the right way to start charging, and pogo pins are always a pain. This time around, the charger is a cradle you set the watch in that aligns it perfectly every time. Plus, it charges pretty fast; my ScanWatch 2 went from 11% to 100% in about 45 minutes. That’s not blazing-fast, but it’s fast enough so that you aren’t waiting around too long.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, both the 38mm and 42mm ScanWatch 2 models last this long on a charge. One may be bigger than the other, but I had equal endurance while using both.
Smartphone-neutral
Have an Android phone? The ScanWatch 2 will work with it. Have an iPhone? It’s completely supported. The Withings Health app is available on both, and Bluetooth works the same way regardless of the phone you have, so the ScanWatch will pair perfectly with whatever handset you carry around.
It’s rare to find a smartwatch nowadays that doesn’t have strong ties to one platform or the other, whether you’re talking about the Galaxy Watch and Samsung or the Apple Watch and iPhones. Yet the ScanWatch 2 remains completely platform independent, meaning it’ll work the same way regardless of the phone you pair it to.
That’s a huge advantage of hybrid smartwatches. Not only is it handy if you want a good smartwatch for your current phone, but you also don’t have to worry about sticking to a single platform when you upgrade — your watch will work with it anyway.
Finally, a smartwatch for minimalists
The ScanWatch 2 is the quintessential smartwatch to get if you’re tired of having screens surrounding you every waking moment of your day. This might sound strange, but when I wear the ScanWatch, there’s a sense of calm that washes over me, reminding me that I’m connected in the present moment and not with whatever bright colors and sounds just lit up my wrist.
Since notifications roll in once and disappear, you never feel like there’s something pressing you need to take care of. The same goes for apps; you have to pull your phone out to use them, so you won’t be cycling through your emails, photos or Threads mentions on a screen that’s a fraction the size of your phone. All you have is the time to look at when you raise your wrist, and there’s something inherently freeing about that.
Of course, I still like having access to all that extra stuff on my wrist, but I also value the minimalism the ScanWatch 2 adds to my everyday life. If I’m going out with friends, attending Sunday Mass or don’t want a bright screen blaring at me when I go to sleep, the ScanWatch is the perfect addition. Plus, you’ll still be notified of important notifications and have your health progress tracked.
What we didn’t like about it
It’s expensive, and Withings+ makes it worse
Okay, maybe it’s not as expensive as a luxury watch, and it’s certainly not as expensive as some models of the Apple Watch. But a ScanWatch 2 will cost you $300 for the 38mm model or $350 for the 42mm, not including tax or shipping.
That’s in addition to a Withings+ subscription that’ll cost you $10 every month after your initial purchase. For the money, you’ll get insights into your health over time, some workout tutorials, sleep scores and a few other features. Is that worth $120 a year to you? That’s something you’ll have to consider before you take the plunge.
No matter how you look at it, the ScanWatch 2’s price structure is a big investment for a smartwatch that focuses on looks instead of features. Of course, you could be totally fine with the price because you want a pretty smartwatch, and if that’s you, then go for it. The rest of us will be looking for discounts on other watches with touchscreens that don’t cost a monthly subscription to use.
Auto-workout tracking is extremely flakey
The ScanWatch 2 technically has auto-workout detection, but it rarely worked during my testing.
There were a number of times that I started walking on a treadmill, swinging my wrist, trying to get the ScanWatch to pick up my movement and… nothing. It sat still. Other times, I’d start lifting weights and it would ask me whether I wanted to start a running workout. I only had the feature work successfully a few times on the elliptical, but that’s it.
If you’re going to track your workouts with the ScanWatch 2, you’re better off manually starting them up. You’ll have a lot more luck getting the right one.
There’s no built-in GPS
If you want to track a walk outside or a windsurfing session on the bay, chances are you’ll probably want to use a GPS to track the distance you went and to record a map of where you wandered off to. Unfortunately, you’ll need to have your phone on you the entire time for the ScanWatch 2 to record that information since there’s no GPS built into the watch itself.
I can understand why that is; Withings wants this thing to last a month on a charge, and if you throw a GPS in it, that battery is gonna dissipate very quickly. In the same breath, constantly having your phone on you to track activities can be a pain. If you’re out windsurfing, you really don’t wanna have to have your phone on you to track your path — you just want your watch to do all the work, so you better stay close to shore so it can pick up your phone’s signal.
Notifications are pretty terrible
When you get a notification on the ScanWatch 2, it buzzes your wrist with one of the cheapest-feeling vibration motors ever, then slides the content of the notification across the screen like a news ticker. Once it buzzes, you have to raise your wrist to see it — otherwise, you’ll miss it entirely and have to pull your phone out to see it again.
This is far from ideal if you care most about getting notifications from your smartwatch. There have been plenty of times when I’ve gotten a notification and simply couldn’t raise my wrist in time to see it, forcing me to pull out my phone. You also can’t customize the vibration pattern for certain notifications; they all buzz the exact same way, which has forced me to turn off most notifications on my wrist and only leave important ones turned on.
I’ve gotten used to dealing with notifications like this, but I won’t lie: when I put my Apple Watch back on after testing the ScanWatch, I was thrilled to get its notification system back. You don’t realize how good smartwatch notifications can be until they suck.
Some features you don’t notice are gone until you use the ScanWatch 2
On regular smartwatches, we take features like weather information, notification history, voice assistant support and answering phone calls for granted. But the second you switch to the ScanWatch 2, all of that flies right out the window.
There are a number of features the ScanWatch 2 doesn’t have compared to other watches which — fine, yes, this is a minimal smartwatch. But these features (notification history, weather and even calendar appointments) simply aren’t here, and that’s a bit of a bummer. I’d love to be able to cycle through my notifications somehow, even though it’d be on this microscopic screen. The biggest convenience one can have with a smartwatch is not having to pull out your phone, yet the ScanWatch 2 forces you to pull out your phone far more often than you think.
While it’s not the end of the world some of these features are missing, you’ll certainly miss them if you switch from an Apple Watch or something similar.
Bottom line
While it isn’t perfect, the Withings ScanWatch 2 is by far the best hybrid smartwatch on the market. With a plethora of health features, a gorgeous design and month-long battery life, there’s no other hybrid on the market quite like it.
The only thing you have to keep in mind is the commitment it takes. How much do you value wearing a pretty watch? Do you mind not having a touchscreen? How about hiking — do you do a lot of that? Is scrolling through your notifications with a digital crown acceptable?
If you don’t want to deal with these quirks, you’re better off getting a traditional smartwatch. But for those who want to try something new, I think the ScanWatch 2 is certainly worth considering, if only for the looks and battery life alone. A hybrid smartwatch is a limited device by design, and Withings pushes those limits pretty far, creating what’s by and large the best hybrid smartwatch to date.
