When Apple added EKG to the Apple Watch for the Series 4, you knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of the industry followed suit. This, however, is a bit of a surprise. The recently resurrected Withings just announced that it will be bringing the heart monitoring tech to its line of hybrid smartwatch.
The company says the Move ECG is “the world’s first analog watch to record an electrocardiogram (on-demand), and I’m not sure anyone can really refute that claim. The watch features a trio of electrodes — two on the rear and one in the bezel (versus the crown with the Apple Watch) — which take a reading in around 30 seconds.
While Withings isn’t the first smartwatch the add the technology, there’s probably a lot said for bringing it to a simpler product with an analog face. I suspect that many users at risk of AFib and other series heart conditions might gravitate toward a more classic design. And Withings has already proven that it’s capable of making some solid devices in that category.
Beyond that, you get the standard array of sleep and fitness tracking, including the on-face dial, which show how close you are to achieving your daily step count. The watch is water resistant up to 50 meters and should get as much as 12 months of battery life.
The Move ECG will be available in Q2, priced at $130.
