Withings, which is best known for its smart scales and similar devices, also makes a smartwatch series, the latest of which is the ScanWatch 2. At IFA 2025, the company announced a new blue and silver version of the 42mm model. It also unveiled HealthSense 4, an AI-laden software update that leverages the tech to handle a set of new health- and sleep-tracking features.
I grabbed a picture of the ScanWatch 2 while I was there, and now I get the appeal of this watch. If you’re not familiar, the ScanWatch’s big deal is that they’re like smartwatches disguised as regular old analog watches, complete with mechanical time-telling hands and a more standard overall watch face. The screen itself is just a watch face complication—a tiny circle embedded in the upper part of the screen. The ScanWatch 2 looks nice, and the blue-banded, silver model is no different. In fact, I’m a fan of the blue, if only because it reminds me of the blue suit Adam Sandler wears throughout the movie Punch Drunk Love. (If you haven’t seen it and you’re scoffing at an Adam Sandler mention in this Very Serious Smartwatch Article, cut it out, and go watch the movie.)
This version of the ScanWatch 2 is available now on Withings’s website, Amazon, Target, and Best Buy, and costs $369.95. Buyers will get a month of Withings Plus for free. (After that, it’s $9.95 a month, or $99.50 per year.)
Under the hood, the ScanWatch 2 does a lot of what other, more conspicuous smartwatches do. It takes measurements of things like heart rate and blood oxygen level, or carries out ECG readings to power atrial fibrillation detection.
With HealthSense 4, the ScanWatch 2 (and ScanWatch Nova and Nova Brilliant, but not the original ScanWatch or ScanWatch Light) can now track REM sleep and take more accurate measurements of your breathing rhythm while you sleep. Withings says its new algorithms, using data gathered by the smartwatch—such as heart rate variability, physical activity, body temperature, and respiratory rhythm—can find possible causes of fatigue, and provide AI-powered recommendations telling users what they might be able to do to feel less tired all the time. These recommendations are collected under what Withings calls the Vitality Indicator, which you need a Withings Plus subscription to access on your phone.
Withings product manager Etienne Tregaro walked me through some of the new app features at IFA 2025. The Vitality Indicator screen gives you an overview of your “vitality,” which I took to be a sort of shorthand for Withings’ AI system’s impression of your overall readiness to face a given day. Days of the week at the top of the screen are filled with circles with green outlines that can be anywhere from nonexistent to a complete ring—the fuller the ring, the less fatigued you are. At the bottom, various boxes tell you where you are for the day in categories like Recovery and Effort.
The Withings app also features Withings Intelligence—a chatbot you can talk to about your health metrics. It can take note of patterns; another Withings representative I spoke with showed me a screen where the chatbot noted he had just lost a little weight, speculated about the causes, and asked if he’d been intentionally trying to lose weight. In theory, it would give him helpful guidance, depending on his answer.
The subscription also gives access to AI-powered notifications letting users know when their menstrual cycle is beginning or when the ScanWatch 2 has picked up signs of an infection. The Withings Plus service also comes with Cardio Check-Up, an option to have your cardiovascular data checked by a professional cardiologist, who returns a basic summary of what they saw and recommendations for dealing with issues that may have cropped up.
It’s a staggering update that leapfrogs over Apple’s more passive presentation of health information and more closely mirrors efforts by companies like Samsung to deploy AI, informed by smart wearables data, as a health coach. I worry it could draw certain people further into unhealthy obsessions with constantly tracking and micromanaging their health? I’m not an expert in this; for that, I’d encourage you to read the many articles on the subject. We’re riding into a new frontier with generative AI now becoming more deeply enmeshed in smart wearables, and only time will tell.
One thing you won’t need a subscription for is the battery life improvement that comes with the new HealthSense4 software. Now, the ScanWatch 2 gets 35 days on a charge, which is up from 30 days before, already way more battery life than most standard smartwatches. Although to get there, you’ll probably need to turn off a number of the ScanWatch 1’s features, like its always-on display or blood oxygen sensor.
Tregaro told me Withings managed to add those days by identifying areas it could optimize its code. I asked what your settings would have to look like to actually reach 35 days on a charge, because obviously you can’t expect that while using every single feature the ScanWatch 2 offers. He said you’d need to turn off a number of features, including some of the overnight tracking or notifications. Withings, to its credit, has a chart that can tell you which features incur the biggest battery life penalty. Nice to have a guide.
