I have had the incredible opportunity of getting to test watch pro 2 before launch and here are my initial thoughts based on my experience.
Disclaimer: the watch pro 2 that myself and other testers were using, were pre production units running beta software, which may not exactly reflect the final product. We also did not have any information regarding price.
Design
Straight away I was immediately drawn to the new form factor, circular. This is a huge departure from Watch Pro which has a rounded rectangle form factor. While I personally am a fan of Watch Proās shape, I would say that ultimately my preference is circular smart watches. This form factor has always had a more traditional feel and appears less bulky.
Watch Pro 2 has a sleek aluminium case, offering a comfortably light and premium looking build. CMF have done a great job of finding their brand identity, and looking at Watch Pro 2 for the first time, I immediately recognised it as CMF. One thing I did notice about the aluminium frame is that the two separate pieces - the main body and the removable bezel - were slightly different colours. This is only very minor, and noticeable only upon close inspection. To reiterate, my unit was a pre-production one and this may or may not reflect in the retail version.
The band on my unit was silicone, very reminiscent of stock bands that come with most smart watches, albeit slightly improved over Watch Proās stock band. I myself tend to struggle with silicone watch straps, and at times can suffer from irritation and discomfort. While this hadnāt happened during my time with Watch Pro 2, itās likely I would switch to a more comfortable offering, especially for wearing during sleep. Fortunately this is possible due to the fact that Watch Pro 2 supports 22mm bands, so itās very easy to change between them, including third party options.
A new addition to Watch Pro 2 which was not present on Watch Pro, is the crown (scroll wheel). I have loved having this available as it gives the user another way of navigating the software, instead of covering up the screen with their finger. I did notice during my testing that some areas of the software had not implemented any functionality for the crown and I had to revert to using my finger on the screen. It was also not possible to jump straight to the app menu by scrolling, or scroll through your widget pages. These are 2 areas in particular in which I would love to see crown scrolling functionality implemented.
And of course the standout new design feature for Watch Pro 2, the interchangeable bezels. While I didnāt get to swap these out during testing, I was still able to remove the one I had and the mechanism feels solid. This is something Iām really excited to try out, and if more options are made available, this could be a really fun way of changing things up and adding personality.
Display
As mentioned above, Watch Pro 2 has a brand new form factor, which in turn means that the screen is also circular. The screen is really bright and the colours seem very vivid. One of the first things I noticed was how crisp everything looks.
For the most part, CMF have done a great job of optimising their software and watch faces to fit this new display. However, there are some areas which I would love to see further improvement, such as the widgets. Watch Pro 2 offers the ability to create widget pages, but it doesnāt feel like it complements the circular display very well.Ā
Health TrackingĀ
Iām going to start off this section by being honest, Iām not much of a health person, and for that reason iāll keep it focused on the features that i used.
Firstly thereās sleep tracking. There was one week in particular where I wore Watch Pro 2 to sleep every night to test the accuracy of the sleep tracking. For the most part, the data that was generated seems very trustworthy, the watch was able to determine the time i went to sleep, the time i woke up, and tracked my heart rate throughout. The only thing i noticed was that more often than not, the time i went to sleep was off by around 10-15 minutes. I believe this is due to the watch tracking the time i started lying down, rather than the time i actually fell asleep.
Secondly thereās step tracking. Step tracking has generally been quite reliable based on my daily walk to and from work. Unfortunately I havenāt been able to test a dedicated fitness tracker to see how it compares.Ā Previously with Watch Pro there were several occasions where myself and other users would have route information that shows a completely different country. Iām happy to say that with Watch Pro 2 I have not once ran into this.
Another set of features I have used frequently are the heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen monitoring and stress monitoring. While I donāt track these for any specific health reasons, I do find it interesting to keep a loose eye on these. The data from these has been reliable and comparable to previous smartwatches that I have used. You also have the option to track some of these 24/7 which provides reliable, almost real-time information at a glance (if you have this data on your watch face)
For the duration of my testing i had workout detection enabled. While I didnāt expect to make use of this very often due to the fact that I donāt take part in much physical exercise, I was intrigued to see how it would function with my daily walks. The automatic workout detection seemed to trigger ~ 10-15 minutes into my walk which i felt was quite delayed. By that time I was around half way through, and triggering it from that point would not deliver the most accurate results. I also noticed that dismissing the notification didnāt stop the automatic detection and the prompt would appear again another 10 minutes later if continued walking was detected. I have not tried automatic detection for any sports/exercising other than walking.
The major addition to health tracking on Watch Pro 2 is the ability to share health data with third party apps. On android, this uses Health Connect, or there is an option to share data directly to the Strava app. I have found this to be a great addition as it now means users are not limited to the CMF Watch App, and health data can be viewed in one centralised location. Based on my experience, syncing with health connect has been fast and reliable.
Software
First of all I will mention that Watch Pro 2 is running the same base software as Watch Pro, and not an alternative such as Wear OS.
Software is also a talking point that I know a lot of the community are going to be interested in. I think itās fair to say that Watch Pro received criticism regarding its software due to bugs, crashes, and most prominently, the disconnects with the CMF Watch app. Due to the nature of this being a pre-production unit with beta software, I did encounter bugs and disconnection issues but these were raised to the team where necessary and each report was taken very seriously and fixed/mitigated promptly. During the later stages of testing I was no longer facing any disconnects with the CMF watch app. The team has done a great job of improving on some of the pain points of Watch Pro.
A new addition to the software is widgets - as briefly mentioned above - these offer the users the ability to add widget pages which can be accessed by swiping either left or right on the main watch face. This allows the user to view quick info such as; steps, music controls, sleep information, heart rate, and more at a glance.
Regarding the general experience of the software, there are still some areas that I believe would benefit from some attention, one example being that it is still not possible to exit the timer app while it is running without it resetting.
Watch faces this time around are more customisable which is something I really missed on Watch Pro. Watch Pro 2 has a great big selection of watch faces, some of which allow the user to select which data type is shown.
Battery Life
This paragraph is definitely going to be shortā¦ unlike the battery life on Watch Pro 2. For average use, I have experienced battery life up to a week. Itās been incredibly reliable and I have never found myself in a predicament where Iāve been racing to find a charger.
Conclusion/summary
I feel like I could talk for ages about my experience with Watch Pro 2, but for those of you who want to get a quick summary, here is a bullet list.
- New circular design - which certainly suits my preference with watches.
- New dial is incredibly useful as another means of navigation, at least in the areas itās actually implemented.
- Sleek, light, and premium looking design
- Interchangeable bezels make for a fun, personal touch.
- Crisp and bright display
- Ability to share health data with third party apps
- Software has seen vast improvement, and is definitely on the right track. Some things would benefit from some quality of life improvements such as; haptics feel a bit too strong and sharp, even on the lowest setting, and itās still not possible to leave a timer running while exiting the app. These are just two examples.
- Incredible battery life
Any questions at all regarding the above or anything that I havenāt quite covered, please feel free to ask myself, and the other community members who have had a chance to get hands on with the product.
I would also like to say a huge thank you to the team for this incredible opportunity.
