Withings Scanwatch 42mm

I'm still wearing a smart watch with fitness tracking, so not got back to wearing different watches each day (but considering restarting the trend).

Previously I blogged about the 38mm Withings Scanwatch, but after many years of wearing day and night the back came off and the insides got damaged so I needed something new. As I had been using the Withings system for a while, I changed to the 42mm version of the Scanwatch. The 42mm has a thicker case and wider bezel than the 38mm version, but retains the same functionality (steps/height counter, oxygen saturation, pulse, ECG, and breathing exercise). This time I went for the black version, with the same style of oled screen and steps tracking dial. This model has a two hand dial, but this time with luminescent hands for telling time at night without needing to use the (very bright) oled screen

Withings Scanwatch 38mm

It's been quite a while since my last post, mainly due to other commitments, but also because I started wearing smart watches.

But, I just saw my blog had hit 1 million total pageviews, and thought it would be nice to get back to blogging sometimes again (and I still have a lot of cool watches to come) .

My first watch back is the Withings Scanwatch which I've been wearing a lot over the last couple of years. This version is the 38mm model in white and silver (model number HWA09). 

The watch is a hybris smartwatch with an electronic 2 hand dial, round oled screen, and small activity dial. The activity dial shows the percentage of your daily target (set through the Withings Health Mate app), while the Oled screen shows the other functions.

The oled screen is triggered by pressing the crown, which displays time and date, and rotating the crown allows you to scroll through the various functions. As you would expect, the watch has pulse rate, step counter, and distance/floors measurement, but this watch goes further with a medical grade ECG and oxygen saturation (SpO2) reading from the sensors on the back. These can be used in conjunction with the sleep tracking to provide estimes of breathing disturbances in the night. 

The watch is charged through a USB adapter, and I usually get around 2 weeks of use before recharging (but this drops if the monitoring features are used very frequently). 

The watch is on the map at the moment with an rrp of around $280

Seiko Memo Diary UW02-0010

Smartwatches have become very popular nowadays and are seen by many as new gadgets. Since the early 80s, many designs of smartwatch have been released, and today's model is one of the early ones.

This watch is the Seiko Memo Diary, and was released in 1984 at the height of a Japanese economic boom. It is very similar to the UC-2000 (or UC-2001) Wrist Information System, but this model seems to have been aimed at a more upmarket crowd with a heavier and more refined look, and choice of shiny silver or gold colours. There was also a keyboard for the watch which would communicate through the back of the watch (by magnetic pulses) to help input memos.

It has a 4 line dot matrix display with each line having 10 characters (each being 7x5 dots). It could store a memo of up to 1000 characters, but the schedule function was quite impressive. Overall, it would hold up to 31 days of appointments with up to 15 per day (although no more than 43 in total), which meant you could keep the next months appointments with you at all times. Apart from the memo and scheduling there is an alarm function, but nothing else.

The full model number is UW02-0010, and it has a Seiko GA13B stainless steel strap.

Seiko D409 Sign Table

It's been Casio for a few days now, so I thought I'd switch over to a Seiko with another of their high-tech 80s models.

This watch is the Seiko D409, also known as the Sign Table. It came out in 1984 along with other data storage watches like the UC01 that I blogged a while ago. The main difference as that this model didn't have the keyboard dock for data entry, instead having a noticeable 'sign table' at the bottom of the LCD. This table has all of the entry digits shown, and it works like an old video game high score entry where you cycle through the letters to select the one you want next. The memos are then shown on a two line dot matrix display, each line having 8 blocks of 5x6 (so covering 16 letters at a time). Each memo could have up to 112 digits, and there are 7 memo channels (with a marker in the top right showing which one is active). In one of the memo slots, the watch has a message for the owner which shows when you press the memo select button (top right). The message explains what the watch can do and reads: "This is your memory watch. Let us memorize anything you like for example tel. no. card no. name and address". The watch also has alarm and stopwatch modes, and there is small bulb powered light.

This particular version has the model number D409-5020, and has a Seiko GA53A strap. Although these are only quoted as released in 1984, this one appears to have been made in 1982...

The model is quite highly regarded, and was featured in the T3 magazine list of top smartwatches from the last 30 years.