Take a look at the watch on this guy’s wrist. At first glance, you’d think he was wearing a high-end Swiss diving watch, right? The Withings ScanWatch Horizon has all the features we expect to see in luxury dive watches, including a chunky stainless steel wristband, a laser engraved stainless-steel rotating bezel, and Luminova hollow watch hands and indicators with thick indices that glow in low light. But looks aren’t everything; the Withings ScanWatch Horizon is also a powerful, medical-grade hybrid smartwatch that can help keep you on the right track for good health and extensive body monitoring.
The ScanWatch Horizon is a limited-edition offering from Withings. It has a sapphire glass casing with an anti-reflective coating and a titanium finish, and it includes both a stainless steel wristband for that classic Diver watch look and a rubberized wristband to use when playing sports or swimming. With its 100-meter water resistance, the ScanWatch Horizon will be perfect for wearing when swimming, snorkeling, or participating in other water sports; of course, it will also monitor the wearer’s out-of-water activities.
The Withings ScanWatch Horizon in green
The ScanWatch Horizon tracks and monitors your steps, calories, elevation, workout routes (connecting to your smartphone’s GPS through the Withings Health Mate app). It automatically recognizes more than 30 activities, including walking, running, swimming, and cycling. You also get fitness level assessments through the watch, as it will create estimates of your VO2 Max, which is a measurement of your “heart and muscle’s ability to convert oxygen into energy during physical exercise.”
With the Withings ScanWatch Horizon on your wrist, you’ll have access to in-depth cardiovascular health monitoring that can even detect AFib, the main form of irregular heartbeat rhythm that is often intermittent and can be easily missed at the doctor’s office. With the ScanWatch Horizon’s on-demand medical-grade ECG, you’ll be able to tell if your heart rhythm is slow or high or if it shows signs of AFib, thanks to the watch’s proactive heart scanning feature.
With the ScanWatch Horizon’s embedded PPG sensor, your heart rate will be constantly monitored, and the watch will alert you to any potential heart events — even if you haven’t felt any palpitations! The ScanWatch Horizon will then prompt you to record a 30-second ECG via the watch display, and the results will be recorded in the Health Mate app, from where they can then easily be shared with your doctor.
Subtlely hidden in the Withings ScanWatch Hoizon’s green or blue watch face is a PMOLED display that gives you access to quick stats and health checks.
As if that wasn’t enough, the ScanWatch Horizon also has breathing disturbances detection, which is great if you’ve never suspected that you might suffer from mild sleep apnea. The watch can detect nighttime breathing disturbances using an exclusive algorithm that analyses blood oxygen levels (SP02), heart rate, movement, and breathing frequency, all of which are collected through ScanWatch’s accelerometer and optical sensors.
While we are talking about sleep, I should mention that the ScanWatch provides in-depth monitoring and analysis of your sleep patterns, including the length, depth, and quality of each night’s rest. If there is a set time that you need to get up each morning, it can even determine the best time during your sleep cycle to wake you with a gentle vibration.
The Withings ScanWatch Horizon in blue
As with other Withing’s hybrid smartwatches, you can opt to receive notifications on your wrist when notifications, calls, and messages come through. Best of all, you won’t have to worry about charging the ScanWatch Horizon every couple of days, as it offers up to 30 days of battery life, depending upon what features and notifications you have enabled.
Like all Withings devices, the ScanWatch Horizon connects to the free Withings Health Mate app. The Health Mate app provides valuable data and insights into your health past and present. The app also offers you the ability to schedule activity reminders, set goals, manage achievements, and even create private and secure health reports in .pdf form that you can share with your doctor, coach, or relatives. One of the features that I most appreciate is that the Health Mate app plays nicely with more than 100 third-party apps, including Apple Health, Google Fit, IFTTT, Nest, and MyFitnessPal.
I’ve long been a major fan of Withings hybrid smartwatches, starting with the original Activité, which I purchased with both black and white faces. I wore a Rolex GMT II for years, yet I would find myself leaving it on the watch-winder and wearing one of my Withings hybrid smartwatches more often than not. As much as I loved the look and feel of that chunky stainless steel Rolex on my wrist, it couldn’t do anything other than tell me the date and the time — and make me a target for thieves.
Last year I finally sold my Rolex, and I’ve since been wearing Withings watches exclusively, the most recent one being the 42mm black Withings ScanWatch. It never ceases to amaze me how much insight the ScanWatch gives regarding how my body is doing, and I am thrilled that there will soon be a chunky 43mm stainless steel, oyster band diver style with the same helpful features!
Those of us in the United States will have to wait just a little bit longer, but the Withings ScanWatch Horizon and the 42mm Withings ScanWatch should receive FDA clearance before the end of this year. If you’re interested in a diver-style hybrid smartwatch, keep an eye on the Withing site.
The 43mm ScanWatch Horizon will come with a 5-year guarantee, and the package will include both the fluoroelastomer strap as well as the stylish, chunky oyster link stainless steel wristband. The kit will also have everything you need to fit the stainless wristband to your wrist, including pin punch, hammer, and holder.
