Best activity tracker that looks like a watch

Withings Steel HR Price: £179 from fave.co/2IAL8D5

Withings upgraded its elegant activity-tracking watch with an optical heart rate sensor and digital display. It’s worth buying, but built-in GPS would make it even better. I test a lot of fitness-tracking devices for my job, most of which have comparable features in similar-looking packages. Most activity bands look very obviously like activity bands. But a new genre of fitness gear tracks your steps and sleep without being so obvious about it. Some of these new bands look like jewellery, but others, like the Withings Activité Steel HR, look like analogue watches. I recommend the Activité Steel HR to everyone who wants the look of a classic watch but all the features of a highpowered activity tracker.

At first glance, the watch looks just like a, well, watch. But the Steel HR has a subdial that displays at a

glance the progress you’ve made toward your daily step goal. In a departure from previous Withings Activité models, the Steel HR puts a small round digital screen at the top of the watch face to show you other snippets of info, including your heart rate. That’s where the Steel HR shines – it puts an optical heart-rate sensor in a watch-like package at a moderate price tag.

The Withings Health Mate app does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work – that’s where you set up your goals, and also where you see your workout stats and sleep analysis. If you want all of that visible at a glance, the Activité Steel HR isn’t the fitness tracker you need. But the watch accurately tracks steps, running mileage, and even swims – the Activité Steel HR is water

resistant up to 50m. With continuous heart-rate tracking and 25-day battery life, the Activité Steel HR is one of the best under-the-radar fitness trackers you can buy.