Smartwatch for under a thousand kronor

Review: Nothing CMF Watch Pro 2 - Cheap and Really Successful Watch

The second watch from CMF by Nothing feels like a significantly more polished product.

Published 8 August 2024 - 09:09 Modified 24 January 2025 - 16:20

Nothing is the mobile manufacturer founded by Carl Pei after he left Oneplus, and CMF by Nothing is their brand for slightly cheaper products that often still stand out, with the design and perhaps with some unique function or gimmick.

CMF Watch Pro 2 is the second watch from CMF by Nothing. Where the first watch was insanely cheap but a bit unpolished, the CMF Watch Pro 2 costs a bit more but still under a thousand kronor, while it feels significantly more finished.

CMF Watch Pro has a round dial and looks like a typical watch overall. The black bezels around the screen are quite thick, but they are hidden by the case, which is the watch's particular gimmick.

You should be able to change the appearance of the watch, and you do this by changing the strap and bezel. Changing the strap is obviously something you can do on a watch, and the CMF Watch Pro 2 also has a standard attachment, so any watch strap will work. You can also change the bezel around the screen, which comes in slightly different metal finishes and either rounded or flat. However, if you change it, it doesn't quite match the rest of the watch's metal casing. The replacement ring we received for testing and the one pre-installed on the watch are both of the rounded type, so the difference in changing the color tone feels quite marginal, but it's certainly practical to be able to change if the ring becomes ugly or damaged. The ring makes the watch's screen slightly recessed, which makes it a bit fiddly to access at times, but at the same time, it protects the screen from scratches.

Good screen with many watch faces

The screen itself is fairly large with bright colors and feels sufficiently fast in response. The brightness is adequate for most situations except summer sun; in direct sunlight, the screen becomes difficult to read. You control the watch by swiping on the screen, which feels intuitive, and a rotating button on the side that you use to scroll through the functions. Of course, you can choose a watch face, and there is quite a large number of different options where you can also configure them by changing which data is displayed in the different fields.

The focus of the watch is partly on getting notifications to your wrist, partly on training and health functions, which is probably what people find most important, but it sometimes makes the watch feel like a glorified fitness band. In addition to the pure health functions and notifications, there are a few additional features such as music player control and a calculator. You can also answer calls and use the watch as a kind of Bluetooth headset, but don't expect to be able to listen to music or log with GPS without having your phone with you; you can't get everything for a thousand kronor.

CMF states that the watch has 11 days of battery life with typical use, and my usage seems to be typical as it matches my experience. So you don't need to charge it very often. You can choose to enable, for example, continuous blood oxygen measurement and always-on display, but especially the latter drains the battery significantly faster. I find the always-on display a bit too dim to be practical, so even though the watch doesn't always light up when I raise my arm, I still prefer to go without always-on.

When you first start the watch, you get to choose a language, and unfortunately, Swedish is not one of the options, so I have to settle for English, but in any case, there is rarely much text displayed on the watch's screen. You sync the watch with Nothing's app that you install on your phone, where you can see more detailed information about your training data and change settings on the watch. There, you can also set the predefined messages you can choose from when responding to a notification from the watch, and you might want to replace the English messages with Swedish right away. The list of ready-made options can be quite long, and it works smoothly to reply with the watch.

Syncs training with most things

When it comes to the training functions, as usual, there is a large number of training forms to choose from. However, swimming is absent; this watch is only water-resistant according to IP68, so it will probably withstand if you fall into the water, but you cannot use it to log swimming.

I am quite impressed by the amount of data the watch provides me after a workout, not just steps and distance but also average step length, average and max heart rate, and more. This is perhaps what one has the right to expect from a fitness watch, but not necessarily from a smartwatch for under a thousand kronor. Another positive surprise is that you can sync your training and health data with Strava, Google Health Connect, and Apple Health, so you are in no way locked to the watch's own health app when you do your health logging.

The watch can prompt you to move at regular intervals and it can automatically detect runs and walks, but the latter works a bit primitively. For example, if you've been out walking, you might get asked after about seven minutes if you want to start logging a walk, but the logging then starts from the moment you say yes to it, not from when you started walking as most other systems manage.

The health data the watch continuously collects is quite typical for smartwatches, which means you don't miss anything. Step counting, calorie measurement, heart rate monitoring, and the usual circle with three goals you should achieve during the day to encourage you to move are here, and the measurement data feels reliable and useful.

I'm reading my colleague Erik's test of the first watch from CMF by Nothing, and I can state that the shortcomings in details that he was bothered by in that watch are not noticeable in the CMF Watch Pro 2. Emojis, for example, are displayed correctly in notifications, it's now possible to reply to messages, sleep tracking seems to be more reliable, and I have no issues with parts of the workout disappearing. CMF Watch Pro 2 feels like a polished and well-thought-out product. The interchangeable appearance feels mostly like a gimmick, and the watch's ambitions are modest, but they live up to them well, especially considering the low price tag.