A bit of a preview for next year, the next Withings ScanWatch will sport temperature and more heart rate tracking, plus a hefty price tag to go with it.
One of Australia’s first ECG-approved wearables is getting an update a few years after it was introduced.
Back in 2020, Withings surprised everyone with a wearable that could measure your heart’s electrical activity, something competitors could technically do, but at the time didn’t have permission to. They still had to apply and get permission from the country’s government authority on the matter, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
While Apple and Samsung both had wearables capable of doing this, Withings got the approval first, and did so in one of the nicest wearables we’d seen.
Designed like a classic regular watch that beat the heart of something smart, the Withings ScanWatch grabbed attention in looks and functionality. And three years on, we finally have something new to look at, even if it’s not coming in the immediate future.
Announced at IFA in Germany, the sequel to the ScanWatch is not the diver-bodied ScanWatch Horizon we saw last year. That was just a nicer looking more of the same.
Rather, it’ll be the unsurprisingly named ScanWatch 2, a new watch modelled on the old that’ll retain the ECG, heart rate monitor, and blood oxygen tracker, while adding some new features designed to work with the Withings Health Mate app on phones.
New to the ScanWatch 2 is a temperature check which can be used for monitoring vitals and might be used for working out whether someone has an illness.
That’s not entirely new, and something Whoop talked about in its wearable when Covid was keeping folks at home in 2021, but Withings using temperature tracking for that could give more than just Covid diagnoses. There’s also menstrual cycle tracking for women, while everyone should be able to benefit from heart rate variability tracking, providing more heart monitoring in the wearable.
You can expect the battery life to remain up there, with as much as 30 days on offer for the wearable, though the Moree you use the watch, the less you will likely get.
As with the old model, there’s a small screen on the ScanWatch 2, while the analogue hands will be controlled digitally using the app. Sure, it looks old school, but it beats the heart of something modern.
It won’t be alone, either.
A new variant of the old (current) ScanWatch is on the way in the ScanWatch Light, which looks to be similar to the current ScanWatch, except without the ECG, SpO2 sensor, and temperature tracking. As the name suggests, the ScanWatch Light is a slightly lighter approach to the tech.
Pricing will see the new ScanWatch models see you spend a little more or a little less than the current model, with the current $499 price tag of the Withings ScanWatch being slightly more than the $479 ScanWatch Light, but a whole lot less than the $699 ScanWatch 2.
In terms of release, Withings hasn’t yet said whether it will remove the current model from release, but it will see the ScanWatch Light in stores by the end of this year, while the new ScanWatch 2 is set to arrive next year.
Oh, and as for that other Withings gadget announced earlier in the year and made for your toilet to track urinary health, that is still on the cards, though it’ll likely drip out next year, as well.
