I'm all for technology making my day easier. If I'm wearing something "smart" on my wrist from the time I leave home until I'm winding down at night, give me more than a clock and a step counter at a good price.
That's what caught my attention with the CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro. And right now, the price makes it even harder to ignore.
The Watch 3 Pro is currently available for $69 for a limited time, bringing quite a collection of smartwatch features into a much more affordable price range.
And yes, it works with Android and iPhone. As an iPhone user, that really caught my eye. 😄
A Good-Looking Watch With a Great Display
The Watch 3 Pro features a
1.43-inch AMOLED display running at up to 60 fps, with automatic brightness adjustment and a 91% screen-to-body ratio.
There's plenty of room for personalization, too. You get more than 120 watch faces, including animated, interactive and Always-On Display options. You can even turn your own photos or short five-second videos into watch faces.
The watch uses a metal frame with a silicone strap and carries an IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating, giving it some protection against the everyday situations you're likely to encounter while wearing it.
Okay, What Can It Actually Do?
Quite a bit.
You can make and receive Bluetooth calls from your wrist, with two microphones, a built-in speaker and AI-based noise reduction. Up to 30 contacts can also be synced to the watch for quick access.
Then there are the smaller functions that can actually become useful throughout the day:
* Alarm
* Calendar
* World clock
* Weather
* Stopwatch
* Timers
* Calculator
* Flashlight
* Camera remote
* Music controls
* Find My Phone
* Notifications
* Quick message replies
* To-do reminders
* Voice assistant
* Breathing exercises
* Menstrual-cycle tracking
* Do Not Disturb
* Gesture shortcuts
* Voice recording
* Recording transcription
That camera remote is particularly useful when you want to position your phone somewhere for a group photo or recording and trigger the camera from your wrist instead of racing against a timer.
The built-in recorder can capture up to 30 minutes at a time, and recordings can be transferred to the Nothing X app and converted into text. Nothing says those recording files remain locally stored on your phone rather than being uploaded to its cloud for transcription.
Fitness Gets Plenty of Attention Too
The Watch 3 Pro supports 131 sports modes, so we're talking about considerably more than running and walking.
There's cycling, hiking, basketball, soccer, boxing, yoga, skiing, snowboarding, Pilates, CrossFit, strength training, rowing, tennis, golf, pickleball, swimming-related activities, skateboarding, rock climbing, dancing, martial arts, kayaking and plenty more.
Seven types of exercise can also be automatically detected, allowing the watch to recognize certain activities and prompt you to begin tracking if you forgot to start a workout manually.
For outdoor activities, dual-band L1 + L5 GPS provides independent positioning, with support for GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou and QZSS. That should be especially useful for tracking routes through cities or more complicated terrain where positioning can become difficult.
There's even a 3D warm-up and stretching guide, estimated post-workout recovery times, heart-rate zones, training-load information, VO₂ max insights and customizable running plans.
Keeping Track of Your Wellness
Outside of workouts, the Watch 3 Pro provides quite a few ways to monitor general wellness.
It supports:
* 24/7 heart-rate monitoring
* Resting and exercise heart rate
* High and low heart-rate alerts
* 24/7 blood-oxygen monitoring
* Low blood-oxygen alerts
* Stress monitoring
* Enhanced sleep tracking
* Sleep-stage tracking
* Nap detection
* Step counting
* Calories burned
* Distance traveled
* Exercise duration
* Active Score
* Hydration reminders
* Stand-up reminders
* Guided breathing
Nothing's enhanced sleep mode uses continuous heart-rate monitoring to provide more detailed sleep-stage information, while its Active Score combines activity intensity and movement into a weekly measurement of your physical activity.
Of course, these are wellness features rather than medical diagnostic tools, so I'd look at them as information that can help you better understand your habits rather than something replacing professional medical equipment or advice.
Nothing X Adds Even More
Pairing the watch with the Nothing X app gives you a central place for device settings, health information, fitness plans, SpO₂ data, VO₂ max information, recovery data, voice memos and other features.
Your fitness information can also sync with Apple Health, Google Health Connect and Strava, so you aren't necessarily starting from scratch if you already use one of those platforms.
For United Health Care users: If you use a smart watch with the capability of connecting with your phone (Android for example) you can earn money while taking those daily steps... and even sleeping for 7 hours per day. Just access your UHC app, and once you're in... go to the Rewards & Spending section that will show you how much you've earned. This can land you at least $300 per year. Since you're able to earn money without the watch, you can even use the rewards to buy a smart watch, redeem them for a Digital Visa gift card, or One Pass Select. Let your watch pay for itself. - Blu
Nothing also offers Essential News, which can deliver a morning digest to the watch based on topics you're interested in, including technology, health, entertainment and global news.
And You Don't Have to Charge It Every Night
Nothing rates the Watch 3 Pro for up to 13 days under its typical-use testing, around 10.5 days with heavier use, or approximately 4.4 days with Always-On Display running for 12 hours each day. Your actual results will naturally depend on how heavily you use calling, GPS, health monitoring, workouts and the display.
That's something I can appreciate because I already have enough things asking me for a charger. My phone's battery saver is on right now.
Could It Be Worth Your Time?
This is where the CMF Watch 3 Pro makes sense to me.
It doesn't need to pretend it's an Apple Watch or compete feature-for-feature with every premium smartwatch. Instead, Nothing has packed in calling, messaging tools, GPS, fitness tracking, wellness monitoring, productivity functions, recording, transcription, customization and genuinely useful everyday conveniences.
That's a much more interesting proposition than simply saying it's an "affordable smartwatch."
Some people want something attractive on their wrist that helps them stay connected, keeps track of their activity, provides useful information throughout the day and doesn't turn into another complicated piece of technology demanding their attention.
The CMF by Nothing Watch 3 Pro seems to understand the assignment.
That's quite a bit of something coming from a company called Nothing.
Could it be worth your time?
