The king of hybrid smartwatches

Since the earliest days of the Samsung Gear Watch and Apple Watch, I’ve been enamored with smartwatches. Aside from a brief stint where I switched to an analog watch, I’ve worn a smartwatch for years. While I derive immense value from smartwatches, some people dislike them.

From constant notifications to charging them every day or two, the best smartwatches are designed for those who want a phone on their wrist, versus a smarter watch. Most smartwatches look like phones, as opposed to the classic watch design. This also means they don’t always match your outfit for a special occasion.

The Withings ScanWatch Nova takes a hybrid approach to solving these problems. It combines a classic watch face with smart features to provide the health tracking metrics you want from a smartwatch, with the excellent battery life and elegance of a traditional timepiece. The result is one of my favorite wearables ever, although not without some caveats. If you want a watch that truly is the best of both worlds, the Withings ScanWatch Nova is designed for you.

Price, availability, and specs

Good watches are expensive and the ScanWatch Nova is no different. It’s made from premium materials, and you’re paying for an incredibly balanced product that is the best in its class. The ScanWatch Nova comes in 42mm size and retails for $600. There are many style choices, including three fantastic colorways for the watch face and a range of stylish bands.

What’s good about the Withings ScanWatch Nova?

The best of a smartwatch combined with a classic timepiece

I love wearing suits, and I don’t love how the Apple Watch Ultra 2 or Galaxy Watch 6 Classic look with formal wear. The ScanWatch Nova solves that, complementing anything you wear. The metal band is excellent and high quality; a secondary wristband that matches your watch’s display color also comes in the box. A USB-C docking station, a USB-C to USB-A cable, a quick installation guide, and a third band (the Oyster wristband) are also included.

The ScanWatch Nova nails the classic dive watch design; it’s stylish enough for any environment, and the watch face itself is premium. It has analog watch hands, a mechanical counter that displays activity stats for the day in percentage form, and a truly digital OLED display. Press the crown, and it displays the date and time, and the watch hands move to the 10 and 2 positions to ensure they don’t cover the display.

The display has various panels with information, including the latest heart rate reading, body temperature, steps, distance, floors climbed, workouts, SpO2, and ECG, as well as alarms, stopwatches, and timers. You can customize the OLED display’s various functions and features via the Withings Health Mate app, which is compatible with the best Android smartphones and iOS devices. It also connects to the rest of the Withings ecosystem, including the Withings Body Scan scale I use daily.

Health is where the Withings ScanWatch Nova excels. It has all the features you’d want from the best health trackers, but it doesn’t feel like an overload. Traditional smartwatches can be quite busy; the ScanWatch Nova provides all the same health-tracking benefits, without the distractions of the more conventional smartwatches.

The 24/7 temperature tracking is one of my favorite new ScanWatch Nova features. It monitors body temperature throughout the day and night and can sometimes signal oncoming infections and illnesses. The ScanWatch Nova runs 30-second ECGs fairly well, although I found it is overly sensitive to slight movements while recording the heart. In testing, the measurements captured by the ScanWatch Nova had similar accuracy to most medical devices I’ve tried, so it manages health extremely well.

The module that houses all the sensors protrudes slightly from the ScanWatch Nova’s rear but doesn’t impact day-to-day use, unlike some smartwatches. This module houses the TempTech24/7, heart rate, ECG, and SpO2 sensors. The metal band uses two quick-release pins on each end that connect to the lugs on the band, making it quick and easy to swap bands.

The ScanWatch Nova is built to offer the health tracking features of a true smartwatch, with the style and polish of a dive watch. It strikes an excellent balance between the two -— a few quirks aside — and captures the essence of what made each of these polar opposite approaches to timepieces so popular. It’s a true hybrid smartwatch.

What’s bad about the Withings ScanWatch Nova?

Somewhat lacking in the traditional smartwatch sense

My feelings about the ScanWatch Nova are decidedly mixed regarding the OLED display. Its size and shape make it too limiting to be a true smartwatch. Rather, it’s a passive way of performing limited functions.

I made the mistake of enabling notifications and quickly, I regretted it. The lack of true display means that almost all notifications will scroll left to right. Unfortunately, it scrolls far too quickly to be useful and repeated three times at the same speed. This means you spend longer trying to quickly glance at a notification, which also makes you appear bored and aloof when talking to someone. Ultimately, it proved to be useless, and I quickly disabled the notifications for all apps.

I’ve also noticed that battery life didn’t live up to the 30-day promise. My battery died after just a few days of testing, but I hadn’t fully charged it. Extrapolating the data I did get, I would estimate the battery life to be around 23 days. I’m testing the battery life on a full charge now and will update on social media when I have the results.

The metal band will be a little heavy for some users, but I’m glad it is not a pricey add-on as traditional smartwatch makers have done so. It also got a little warm under the bright sun during a recent heatwave, but that seemed to be an edge case as it hasn’t done so since.

Should you buy the Withings ScanWatch Nova?

The Withings ScanWatch Nova is my favorite hybrid watch, bar none. Rado is my analog watchmaker of choice, and I’ve often wished they would make a hybrid or smartwatch. If they made the ScanWatch Nova, I would be content, and that’s a testament to how luxurious the ScanWatch Nova feels overall.

If you’re hoping for a full smartwatch experience with the timeless appeal of a classic watch, the ScanWatch Nova will probably disappoint, at least on the former. Stick to a device like the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, which is my go-to smartwatch for Android.

If you want an alternative to your Apple Watch for dressier occasions and don’t mind sacrificing the notifications, you should just buy this. I think of my watch as an extension to my phone — which makes the ScanWatch Nova particularly frustrating to use — so it’s not right for me, but for those who don’t want a big screen on their wrist, the ScanWatch Nova offers the best of both worlds. It sets the bar for hybrid smartwatches.