Withings Activité review: The Apple Watch alternative that wins on style and fitness

If everyone seems to be a bit focused on the Apple Watch right now, you might like to divert them to a wearable they're probably not talking about, but should be. It's the fairly stunning Withings Activité, a fitness tracker disguised as a regular wrist watch, and we think it's rather nice.

If you don't think the design of the current smartwatch and fitness-tracking crop is much cop, preferring more traditional angles strapped to your wrist, the Activité was certainly created with you in mind. In fact, most people wouldn't even know it could do anything more than tell the time. It's tech by stealth.

The only thing that gives the game away is a smaller secondary dial, which goes from 0 to 100. This represents your step goal, which is set using a companion app on your smartphone –the default is 10,000 steps, so once the small dial reaches 100, you know you're home and dry.

Much like Apple Watch's Activity app, this works more as motivation than as a specialist fitness band – if you've finished work and your watch shows you're at 80%, perhaps you'd be persuaded to walk home instead of catching the bus. It's a very useful addition to a regular watch, but of course, whether it works as a motivational tool depends on your willpower.

The Activité connects to the companion app using Bluetooth to provide more detailed information. As well as the exact step number it shows you a breakdown of exactly when those steps were made throughout the day, the distance you covered and calories burned.

This data is interesting, but it's far from in-depth, not including intensity or heartbeat info – there's no heart-rate sensor in this strap, alas – so if you're looking for a more focused fitness tracker, this isn't for you. However, the app will give you badges for certain goals, like Xbox Achievements – such as the 'O'ahu Island' badge for walking 330km (the length of the island's coastline).

As well as step tracking, the Withings also measures a user's sleep quality, if you're one of these monsters who wears a watch to bed. Sensing when you drift off and analysing periods of light sleep, deep sleep and, of course, when you wake up, in the morning it then presents you with a breakdown of how your night was.

If you're starting to worry about needing to wear the device 24/7 to capture all this data, then you shouldn't – worry, that is, as we're sure you'll quite like doing it. We're used to smartwatches and fitness trackers being heavy, uncomfortable or ugly, but Withings has designed the Activité so well – comfortable and attractive, a rare combo – it can be worn for weeks without taking it off (other than needing to wash behind it, of course).

Designed in France and manufactured in the 'watchmakers' valley' in Switzerland, the Activité's case is made from stainless steel alloy, with the face protected by domed, durable sapphire glass. It also comes attached to a 'French calf leather' strap, which is incredibly soft and looks damn classy (there's a soft rubber strap to assist intensive sweaty exercise and its water resistance to 3 ATM). It's a nice option to have if you're opposed to leather, but to be honest we found the rubber to be much more comfortable.

As well as its fitness capabilities, the watch also works as a humble old alarm (set your time using the smartphone app, and the watch will vibrate to wake you) and synchronises with your smartphone so the time changes automatically with any timezone.

Our major complaint against most smartwatches and fitness trackers has been the battery life, but thankfully that's not a problem here as it doesn't need charging. The Activité also uses a CR2025 button cell, which manages a very impressive eight months' life before it needs to be changed.

Not everything about the Activité is perfect, though, that would be too simple. During our time with it, the app was a bit temperamental. Instead of maintaining a constant connection with our phone, the Activité only connects to the phone twice a day if you don't prompt it by opening the app yourself. This is clearly to improve the battery life, but sometimes it simply wouldn't connect.

When we first started testing on an Android version of the app (which could be to blame) we actually lost an entire week's worth of steps, but after a recent update it has become far more reliable. It would still be great if the watch vibrated to notify users to calls and messages – something we've become used to with the Apple Watch – but again, this would probably drain the battery too quickly.

There's also the cost to consider, but how much is 'a lot' nowadays? The £320 this will set you back may seem expensive for a smartwatch, especially for one that acts as a glorified Fitbit rather than an exhaustive data centre. But this is down to the expensive materials and craftsmanship – the Withings Activité is more traditional style watch with smart bonuses than a smartwatch that looks nice, and this is definitely how it should be considered.

For those who don't fancy spending that much and are strictly in 'cheap fitness-tracking smartwatch' territory, Withings also sells the very good Activité Pop, which offers pretty much the same functionality in £120, Swatch-like plastic form. It comes in three different colours, Shark Grey, Bright Azure, and Wild Sand, whereas the more expensive Activité comes in the more classic dual option of black face with black strap and white face with tan strap.

Verdict

If you like your watches as the watch gods intended them, made in Switzerland but with a bit of this modern connectivity that people speak of, then the Withings Activité should definitely interest you. This is without doubt the most attractive fitness tracker with the added benefit that people won't even know you're wearing a piece of smart tech on your wrist. But if you're looking for more than step counting and sleep monitoring, there are deeper dives into your daily data to be had.

4