BERLIN -- Withings has carved out a nice little niche in the wearable space with its semi-smart Activité watches that blend clean analog watch design with just enough fitness-tracking sensors to keep things fashionable.
At IFA 2016,Italy the Nokia-owned company announced the Steel HR, its newest "connected health watch" which adds heart rate monitoring and a new digital screen embedded into the watch face for displaying health data and smartphone notifications.
SEE ALSO: Withings Activité Pop: Finally, a fitness tracker you'll proudly wearThe Steel HR comes in two sizes: 36mm and 40mm. The 36mm case sports an 18mm strap and will be available in black and white, and the 40mm case has a 20mm strap and will come in black. Both watches come with a silicone strap.
The watches connect to your iPhone or Android device via Bluetooth through the Health Mate app.
Up until now, Withings' Activité watches only tracked activity goals via steps counted. I reviewed the Activité Pop last year and liked its simplicity.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable With the Steel HR, Withings is now adding heart rate monitoring into the mix. The watch uses photoplethysmography technology, which uses green LEDs lights to "see" through your skin and detect variations in your blood level. Both the Apple Watch and LG's G Watch R use the same heart rate monitoring technology.
This advanced tech can let users continuously track their heart rates while running and monitor it in real-time throughout the day and even during sleep.
The Steel HR can monitor your heart rate for up to 25 days on a single charge.
Continuous heart rate monitoring would normally be a battery suck, but Withings says it's figured out how to make the Steel HR last up to 25 days on a single charge. After 25 days of tracking your pulse, the watch switches to "power save mode" for an additional 20 days of battery life, which is quite impressive.
The other new hallmark feature is the small digital display. The E Ink display can show various health data and smartphone notifications. A button located on the side of the Steel HR is used to switch between notifications.
The Steel HR will be available on Withings.com in early October starting at $179.95 for the 36mm design and $199.95 for the 40mm. Retailers will stock the watches at the end of October. It joins the $130 Activité Pop, $150 Activité Steel and $450 Activité Steel; none of these watches, however, come with heart rate monitors or a notification display.
Topics Fitness Trackers Smartwatches
Today's Hurdle hints and answers for April 7, 2025
A New Machine: Remembering Don Buchla
'Quordle' today: See each 'Quordle' answer and hints for September 8
The Prescience of Aldous Huxley
The Mismeasure of Media
Omelets, Jams, Enemas, and Other Ways to Get It Up
Scientists zoom in on Betelgeuse, show why it hasn't exploded yet
Best Xbox deal: Save $30.99 on the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 Core at Amazon
NYT Connections Sports Edition hints and answers for April 17: Tips to solve Connections #206
Pigeons Can (Kind of) Learn to Read
Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Best portable speaker deal
What is Shibari or Kinbaku? Everything you need to know about BDSM rope play.
XREAL just announced 2 new AR glasses: How to preorder the XREAL Air 2 and XREAL Air 2 Pro
How to sign up for Community Notes on Twitter / X
44 GPU Fortnite Benchmark: The Best Graphics Cards for Playing Battle Royale
Apple announces Oct. 30 Mac event called 'Scary Fast'
TikTok's air fryer banana bread recipe is super easy and pretty tasty
Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint
LA Galaxy vs. Tigres 2025 livestream: Watch Concacaf Champions Cup for free
Ursula K. Le Guin: How I Started Writing
Tesla Cybertruck at New Orleans' Mardi Gras parade gets mercilessly booedZTE unveils Nubia Neo 3 series for gamers and Flip 2 foldable at MWC 2025Best earbuds deal: Save $30 on Beats Fit ProBest Bose deal: Save $70 on SoundLink Revolve+ (Series II)Best Kindle deal: Get $15 off essentials bundleZTE unveils Nubia Neo 3 series for gamers and Flip 2 foldable at MWC 2025'End DEI portal' will accept complaints from the publicBest Kindle deal: Get $15 off essentials bundleJohn Cena finally turns heel and the internet reactsNYT mini crossword answers for March 2, 2025'Anora' ending, explained: Sean Baker and sex workers share their thoughts'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4' gets July release dateBest Bose deal: Save $70 on SoundLink Revolve+ (Series II)Southwest Spring Sale: Fly for as low as $49 oneBest of MWC 2025: The age of ultraJohn Cena finally turns heel and the internet reactsBest of MWC 2025: The age of ultraWorld's largest call center using AI to 'neutralize' Indian employees' accentsThis ridiculously rugged phone has a builtSwiftScan VIP turns your phone into a scanner — save 79% The Paper Architecture of the Soviet Union On Prison Literature & Dostoyevsky’s Notes from a Dead House Of Tongues, Teeth, and Mouths: R. D. Laing at Work Feminist Filmmaker Chantal Akerman Has Died at Sixty The Future of Toilet Art Is in Japan Birtwistle and Harsent’s Operas Turn Myths on Their Heads The Ultimate Freelance Writing Gig: Fortune Cookies Best headphones deal: Save $120 on Sony WH Roland Barthes Foresees the Rise of Trump When Samuel Beckett Teamed Up with Buster Keaton The Camera Restricta Tells You Not to Take Photographs On a Train in Norway—Is That Kate Bush by the Waterfall? My Bitterness, My Mission: Poems by David Ray from 1977 They Tried to Guess My Age By My Vocabulary. They Were Wrong See Our Art Editor Charlotte Strick Discuss Magazine Designs The Mystery of the Plaster Plimpton What if Hamlet Were Fat? Looking at Shakespeare’s Diction Mapplethorpe’s “Polyester Man”—Own an Obscene Photo Taking Apart the Glitz and Glamour of Modern Websites The Most Misread Poem in America