Withings relaunches its brand with hybrid Steel HR Sport smartwatch

Abner Li | Sep 18 2018 - 12:00 am PT

Rumors emerged earlier this year that Google was interested in acquiring Nokia Health. While Google Fit was redesigned and given more prominence in Wear OS, the health company returned to its co-founder. Regaining its original name, Withings today relaunched with a new brand, logo, and the Steel HR Sport.

Competing with the likes of Fitbit, Garmin, and other dedicated fitness companies, Withings has returned to its original brand before Nokia’s 2016 acquisition. The 2018 sale back was due to a leaked memo and “strategic review” revealing that Nokia’s health business was financially struggling.

Since the May sale, Withings has been slowly reintroducing its brand, but kept the Nokia Health moniker around. Today, the latter has been formally shed, with a new logo using a rounded font where the ‘t’ in ‘Withings’ is cleverly a “+” sign.

Beyond the new icon, the return is notably marked by the Steel HR Sport. It very much builds off the current Steel HR lineup, but has a more active and modern look that contrasts with the classic appearance of the original.

Steel HR Sport – Design

At 40mm, the Steel HR Sport comes in either a white or black face, though the exterior bezel is always black and has engraved 5-minute interval markers. The 0 or 60 minute mark features a flashy red chevron, with that same accent present on the ends of the otherwise dark gray minute and hour hands.

That same shock of red, which is apparent regardless of watch face color, is present on the activity indicator that notes your daily progress. This dial is at the 6 o’clock position and above it is the OLED display to see your various health stats for the day.

Tapping the Steel HR Sport’s sole button will turn on the screen and subsequent presses will cycle users through the interface. Given the relative largeness of the activity dial and circular screen only 2-4 and 8-10 are printed on the watch face.

Steel HR Sport – Functionality

This screen can display phone notifications from your calendar, messaging, calls, and other third-party apps, with a tiny vibration on your wrist alerting you. An all-day tracker, it can be worn at night to detect length, quality, and disruptions to sleep. Smart Wake-up will invoke vibration alarms at the most optimal time of you sleep cycle.

When in a workout session, your heart is continuously tracked and displayed on the watch screen, with the Steel HR also noting workout intensity via heart rate zones and calories burned.

Connected GPS is also available if your phone is with you during exercise. It will provide users with pace, distance, elevation, and a map. For fitness enthusiast, the Steel HR Sport is the first Withings device to track VO2 max, or the ability of your heart and muscles to convert oxygen into energy during physical activity

Made of stainless steel, this watch is 50 meters water-resistant and has a 25 day battery life, in addition to 20 days in power serve mode.

The Steel HR sport is priced at $199.95 on available starting today from Withings and other retailers in two colors and various bands.