Hybrid smartwatch maker Withings has just announced a pair of new colour options for the ScanWatch Nova, and with it a slightly new name for the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant. Intended to be a more elegant, dressy watch (as opposed to the more dive-focused styling of the current ScanWatch Nova), customers in the US and Australia (UK availability TBA) can choose between titanium silver or “two-tone silver and gold” finishes.
To match the new color options, Withings has also given the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant a white dial, with a white subdial at 6 o’clock to track progress toward a goal set in the companion app, and the now-customary OLED display at 12 o’clock to show notifications and other health-related information.
In addition to its dress watch nature, it has a smaller 39mm dial compared to the standard Nova's 42mm, which not only makes it easier to slip under a shirt cuff, but also makes it better suited to smaller wrists. quite as water resistant, being good up to 50 meters (5ATM) compared to the Nova's 100 meters (10ATM).
Inside, it's business as usual for Withings, with a host of health tracking and monitoring features, which can also be found on the Scan clock 2 – It includes a heart rate monitor, SpO2 sensor, and an on-demand medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG), which can help detect irregular heartbeats. Again, it doesn’t feature built-in GPS, but you can use your phone’s capabilities to track distance traveled during workouts.
It also features a 30-day battery life and launches at the same price as the ScanWatch Nova in the US ($599.99) and Australia (AU$799.99).
Hybrid design, now a little less hybrid
I'm a big fan of Withings smartwatches. I think the hybrid design is clever and a great choice for anyone who wants a smart device that monitors their health, but without the obvious all-digital face on their wrist. I appreciate traditional analog watches, so the current Nova is a perfect smartwatch, as you'll find out in my review. Withings Nova Smartwatch Review – but I’m not entirely convinced by the Withings ScanWatch Nova Brilliant for one obvious reason.
It certainly looks like an analog watch (the Rolex Day-Date is an immediate comparison that springs to mind) and I like the use of a white dial as a means of offering customers something different than the black of the Nova. But the fact that the digital display at 12 o’clock remains black is a bit of a misstep in my opinion.
The appeal of Withings watches for me is that they hide the fact that they have a digital brain, something that is amplified by the use of black dials to camouflage the OLED display. But having the obvious contrast of black and white dials on the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant ruins that illusion. Something I think Withings could have done is produce a sort of “panda” watch – a term in the watch world to refer to watches with white dials and black subdials at 3 and 9 o’clock.
On the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant, there could have been a black subdial at 6 o'clock to balance out the overall look. Of course, since many “panda” watches fall into the sports or aeronautical-style watch categories, and the Nova Brilliant is more of a dress watch, this might not have worked.
The other option would be to give the digital display at 12 o’clock a white background with black numbers and characters. It is an OLED display after all, so that’s something that can definitely be done. At the very least, it would have been nice to have seen an option in the companion app that lets you change the background in a manner similar to how we can change the theme on other smartphones to light or dark. But there’s no mention of this in the official press release, and there’s currently no such option available for the ScanWatch Nova, so I don’t expect it to appear for the Nova Brilliant. It’s also not possible to make the display white on the white-faced ScanWatch 2, which only increases the expectation that the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant will be left without that as well.
I think that's a shame, because as much as I love Withings watches, I personally can't see myself wearing the ScanWatch Nova Brilliant to a formal event. I'd rather wear something a little more understated, or at least stand out for the right reasons. Having a black OLED display in plain sight just isn't a good fit for me. But maybe I'm just a watch snob?
