Sports watches and smartwatches are also a hit this year.
Record your own activities, monitor your heart rate throughout the day and discreetly receive push notifications from your smartphone: these are the most important scenarios in favor of a purchase.
Even if you are not an active top athlete with daily training, it can be extremely motivating to record the number of steps taken each day.
When an average of 5000 becomes twice as many at some point, it is a great sense of achievement.
Michael Spehr
Editor in the “Technology and Engine” section.
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It doesn't always have to be the outrageously expensive smartwatch. Since this is a growth market with great dynamism, many newer watches are extremely efficient even in the lower price segment. The quality of workmanship is also astonishing, as shown by two products that we tried out. Anyone who toying with an Apple Watch in a stainless steel case pays around 800 euros. How cheap can the competition be?
Our two candidates don't cost 200 euros and you can't go wrong with them. The Watch Fit from Huawei in the new model variant Elegant for 110 euros is surprisingly powerful and well made. As the name suggests, it is an elegant version of the Watch Fit, which has been available for some time. The new one, in black-silver or white-gold, has a center frame made of polished stainless steel, and instead of the silicone strap, there is a strap made of fluoroelastomer, which makes a slightly higher quality impression.
The design in portrait format with dimensions of 46 millimeters in height and a width of 30 millimeters is original. The 20-millimeter tape should be exchangeable, but we didn't succeed. The housing is protected against water up to 5 bar, and the built-in battery is charged on the back via two pogo pins. It lasts for several days. The watch weighs only 27 grams and the display is a high-resolution OLED display with automatic brightness adjustment and rich, high-contrast colors. Operation is via the one button on the right and with finger movements on the touch-sensitive surface. The operating system is easy to understand. There is a menu for setting the clock, a message menu and various screens with detailed information, such as heart rate or weather.
The Huawei Health app for the iPhone or Android is required for commissioning. Here you can choose from an abundance of several dozen dials and thus individualize the clock. You will also be pleasantly surprised with the fine adjustments. For example, it is possible to specify individually from app to app which push messages of which application are forwarded to the watch. It should be noted, however, that you don't see much of incoming messages from WhatsApp or e-mail. Calls are also signaled, but you cannot make calls with the Watch Fit.
When it comes to the built-in sensors for fitness and sports, the Huawei is amazingly well equipped: GPS allows route recording of sports activities without having to have the smartphone with you.
The heart rate is measured precisely, around the clock, and there is even a recording of the oxygen saturation, which otherwise only expensive sports watches bring.
Stress is measured with the help of heart rate variability, and the sleep program not only records different phases of sleep, but also reliably detects the nap on the sofa.
Several dozen sports activities can be recorded, the data all end up in the Huawei app, and there are running courses for beginners and advanced users.
It is a hybrid watch
If you are looking for the differences to an expensive Huawei watch, you will only be able to enumerate a few details here. NFC for payment systems and a barometer for recording altitude profiles are missing. All in all, what is offered is outstanding. You get a lot of performance for a small price. Most people will not need more sports watches.
Or the Jorn Hybrid HR from Skagen? It is a hybrid watch that tries to do the balancing act between a smartwatch with a display and a classic wristwatch with analog pointers. The watch has conventional hands, but the dial consists of a display, as is known from e-book readers. Such displays only consume electricity when the content is changed, so it is hardly surprising that the Jorn Hybrid HR can last longer than two weeks on one battery charge. The display behind the pointers looks high-contrast, sharp and as if printed. What is shown in several fields can be set in the associated smartphone app: steps, probability of rain, heart rate, battery level, time zones or push messages from the smartphone. With a double tap on the watch glass, the display and pointer are illuminated for a few seconds.
The clock is otherwise operated with the three buttons on the right-hand edge and is not always self-explanatory.
If new messages come in from the cell phone, the two pointers turn horizontally at 9:15 a.m. so that the beginning of the message can be read.
As with the Huawei, you can specify which apps are allowed to send messages to the watch.
It doesn't always work smoothly for us.
If the Android phone was muted, the watch didn't vibrate either.
The idea of discreet delivery of new messages was over.
As far as the sensors and sports programs are concerned, you have to do without a lot here, especially GPS for route recording, although all types of training including heart rate are logged.
The watch faces can be changed and adjusted in the app.
The watch is available in two sizes with 38 and 42 millimeters and in black, silver and rose as well as interchangeable bracelets made of leather, silicone or metal at a price of around 200 euros. If you are looking for a little smart and sports watch with the design of good old analog technology, this is the right place.