Review: The CMF Watch Pro is the best smartwatch you can buy under £70/$70

Best Prices Today: CMF Watch Pro by Nothing

Nothing has been making a good name for itself over the last couple of years thanks to its glyph-loaded phones and design-conscious earbuds. Now, its in-house budget brand CMF is turning its focus to the smartwatch.

Should you get excited about the results, and how much can the company really pack into a device that’s well south of £100/$100?

Also read our CMF Watch Pro 2 review.

Design & Build

• Aluminium alloy case
• Original design
• IP68 water and dust resistance

a distinct, industrial design that I happen to think looks very stylish indeed

Budget smartwatches can get a little boring after a while, as most offer a similar variation on theme when it comes to design – often emulating the Apple Watch but with plastic parts.

Thankfully, the CMF Watch Pro ploughs its own furrow with a chunky aluminium frame that instantly stands out from the crowd. The 46.9 x 39.87 x 12.89mm dimensions mean that it sits prominently on the wrist, so if you’re a fan of more petite smartwatches then this probably isn’t for you.

Weighing in at a fraction over 30g does mean that you hardly notice it, so it’s not some galumphing atrocity, rather a distinct, industrial design that I happen to think looks very stylish indeed.

My review sample has the silver livery, but you can also get dark grey and metallic finishes, with different colour straps to accompany them. The light grey silicon strap on mine is comfortable to wear and the clasp is a traditional type that’s easy to adjust and put on, even with one hand. If you want to swap it for another, that’s not a problem as it uses standard 22mm quick-release straps.

On the right flank, there’s a circular metal button that clicks in a solid and satisfying manner, while beneath this there are six drilled holes for the internal speaker.

Turning the CMF Watch Pro over reveals the standard raised circular module for the sensors like its optical heart rate monitor, plus the twin pins for the bespoke magnetic charger that comes in the box.

Most surprising of all, is that the watch features an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, which is about as good as it gets. It’s not something that’s a given on a device in this price bracket by any means.

Screen & Audio

• 1.96-inch AMOLED display
• Maximum brightness around 600nits
• No auto-brightness
• Built-in speaker and microphone for calls

CMF has done well with the display on the Watch Pro, as the 1.96-inch AMOLED display is a good-looking panel. True, there a noticeable bezel around the edge, but that feels like it’s been rolled into the design enough that you don’t notice too much, especially with a black background watch face like below.

text and images are all pin-sharp

The retro-style pixelated text for many of the watch faces fits well with the aesthetics, but the 410 x 502 resolution means that normal text and images are all pin-sharp, and a 58fps refresh rate keeps things very smooth when scrolling or switching apps. Touch response is also good, with taps usually being registered accurately.

You get a decent selection of watch faces to choose from, although I have to say that many seem a bit on the arty side, which makes them looks nice but there’s not much in the way of additional useful information. You do get an always-on display option, albeit at a slight cost to battery life.

The panel is pretty bright, getting up to around 600 nits on the maximum setting. There’s no auto-brightness though, so you’ll need to nip into the quick setting section to adjust this manually.  Also, the raise-to-wake feature can be unresponsive at times, requiring a more purposeful move of the wrist to light up the screen.  

As mentioned above, there’s a speaker built into the Watch Pro. With this and the accompanying microphone you can interact with the digital assistant on your phone and take Bluetooth calls on the device (again, streamed from your phone). The voices all sound decent, and CMF’s AI noise reduction feature does help to clarify your voice in noisy areas.

Obviously, you wouldn’t really want to be that person who takes calls in public on a watch, but at home or even in the car, it can be a useful way to chat without needing to reach for your phone.

Specs & Performance

• Reliable performance
• GPS
• No NFC

At this price point, it’s impressive to see onboard GPS

CMF doesn’t state much about the internals of the Watch Pro, so we don’t know what processor or RAM allocation it has on board. From the performance though, it all seems up to the job. The pre-loaded apps all opened snappily during my testing, and responses to commands were just as spry.

At this price point, it’s impressive to see onboard GPS, and while it often could take a little while to locate my position, this could be more to do with the rural Cornish setting in which I tested the device.

After that, it seemed quite accurate in its tracking, so I could measure my walks and runs with some confidence. If you need ultra-precise measurements though, I’d suggest investing in a serious running watch instead.

One downside to the price is that NFC has been left out of the Watch Pro, which means you can’t use it to make payments with Google Pay, Apple Pay or otherwise. Whether this matters to you or not is a personal preference, and you can of course always whip out your phone at the checkout.

Bluetooth 5.3 should mean that connections to your phone are strong, but I did notice that my review unit disconnected itself quite regularly, requiring me to open the app and get things back on track.

I wondered if it was just me, but after checking with a few other reviewers it seems that this is something of a trend. Hopefully, it’s not hardware-related and can be fixed with a software patch at some point.

Software & Features

• Custom software
• Compatible with iOS & Android
• No app store

CMF has built its own operating system for the Watch Pro, which has the advantage of making it just as functional whether you connect it to an Android phone or iPhone.

The interface is quite well laid out. From the home screen you swipe left or right to cycle through a selection of apps (there doesn’t seem to be any way to change these, unfortunately).  

Swiping down opens the quick setting menu where you can control things like brightness, Do Not Disturb, and turn the torch on or off (still one of my favourite smartwatch features). Swiping up takes you to the notifications you’ve received.

These can be read, but there’s no way to respond, which is a shame. I’d like to see a selection of quick replies, even just “Ok”, added here to make the device that little more functional.

Pressing the physical side button opens the app menu, where you can cycle through the main features on the watch. These include the various fitness and health apps, music controls, weather, as well as a remote-control shutter for your Android phone.

This is all you’ve got though, as there is no app store available. It should be fine for most people, but if you were hoping for particular favourites from your phone then you’ll be out of luck.  

For the most part, the interface is clean and easy to understand. There’s not a lot of depth to most of the apps so you won’t get lost. You can see a fair amount of fitness information (more on that below), and navigation is mainly swiping back and forth, so it’s standard fare.

I did encounter some peculiarities though. For instance, I set a timer while I was cooking, then looked at the watch a minute or two later only to find that it had stopped. I’m guessing the screen stayed on and I must have brushed the pause button. If CMF could add some kind of haptic or sound to signify that a timer had been paused, this might have saved me from nearly overcooking the fish that I was preparing for dinner.

Stranger still, when the timer started again I wanted to check the time and see a message that had come in, so I pressed the side button (as I couldn’t get back to the home screen by swiping). The watch didn’t tell me, but this meant that I’d shut down the timer, which no longer worked.

Little things like this seem trivial, but I haven’t noticed them on other cheaper wearables I’ve tested, at least not without being warned that I was about to close an app. It does feel like the OS needs more work before it can deliver the experience it promises.

There’s an accompanying app for your iOS or Android device. Here you’ll be able to see the records of your exercise sessions, change some of the settings on your Watch, as well as peruse the selection of watch faces available to customise the look of the Watch Pro.

It’s a bare-bones app compared to some of its rivals, but there are a few nice features and settings available.

Fitness & Tracking

• Heart rate, SpO2, stress and sleep monitoring
• Sleep tracking is a bit wayward
• No auto-detect for exercise modes

At £69/$69 you shouldn’t expect too many bells or whistles with the Watch Pro, but it still has enough fitness tracking features to make it a fine companion when you’re trying to improve your overall health.  

CMF packs in an optical heart rate monitor, plus tracking for blood oxygen (SpO2) levels, stress, as well as sleep tracking. The accuracy of the tracking was something of a mixed bag, but all still within the boundaries that would make it helpful when measuring your progress or current state.

The heart rate monitor regularly returned figures that were in keeping with several other (more expensive) smartwatches I’ve tested, even during exercises.

With over 100 sports modes you can be sure to find something appropriate to your regime, although one thing I wasn’t too happy with is that the Watch Pro doesn’t have any kind of autosensing of when you’ve started a session. So, if you forget to press go at the start of your run, swim or hike, the Watch Pro won’t prompt you at any point or record it as exercise.

There is onboard GPS, as mentioned earlier, which can track your routes, but connection times could be quite long, meaning I often abandoned the feature and started my session without it.

SpO2 tracking matched up with a dedicated blood oxygen monitor I own, so that suggests it’s pretty accurate.

The main downside was sleep tracking. The Watch Pro does a fair job of noting when I went to bed and got up but wasn’t so hot on noticing when I had sleepless nights.

There were a couple during the testing period, but it registered both as good, which they weren’t. As a rough guide, it’s probably just enough, but if sleep monitoring is an important factor, you’ll need to invest in a more premium device.

Battery Life & Charging

• 340mAh battery
• Around 10 days from one charge
• Proprietary charging cable included

Battery life is an area where the Watch Pro really shines. If you’re used to the Apple Watch experience, where you need to recharge the device each day, then a Watch that can last well into a second week could be a huge relief.

CMF does state that you can get up to 13 days of life out of a single charge, but that would presumably come from disabling a lot of the real-time tracking and always-on display.

I didn’t take that route, but still got around nine days with most features switched on. That’s a refreshing change from many of the power-hungry smartwatches I’ve used over the years.

Battery life is an area where the Watch Pro really shines

Recharging is a bit on the slow side though, with a full recharge with the provided cable taking the best of two hours to get from 0-100%, while half an hour only gets you 25%.

Price & Availability

The CMF Watch Pro costs only £69/$69 which is a very good price for a device with this design and build quality, not to mention a fair selection of health and fitness features. It’s not available directly from CMF, but you can pick it up on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

If you want an alternative to the Watch Pro, then the Xiaomi Redmi Watch 4 has many of the same features and even longer battery life for £89.99 although not available in the US.

Another option is the Amazfit Band 7, which is a wider tracker than normal so that it looks more like a smartwatch. At £49.99/$49.99 it’s a real steal, so long as you’re happy with plastic construction.

Check out our charts for the best smartwatches and best fitness trackers.

Should you buy the CMF Watch Pro by Nothing?

At this price point, the CMF Watch Pro really does stand out.

The design is unique, with its industrial, minimalist approach and retro software theme. But, it isn’t all looks, as the IP68 waterproofing and built-in GPS make it a very useful device.

The health and fitness monitoring features are solid, with the exception of sleep monitoring which can be a bit wayward at times. Plus, there’s plenty of other functionality that make it feel like a smartwatch from a more expensive bracket.

Yes, the software can be patchy, with a few limitations and glitches making the experience not as premium as its aesthetics, and no ability to send preset responses to messages is a shame. But, for under £70/$70, it’s a rare beast – a cool-looking device that doesn’t try to copy anything else.

I’m not sure it earns the ‘Pro’ moniker, but it’s still an excellent budget smartwatch that defies its low price.

Specs

• 1.96-inch AMOLED display (410 x 502 resolution, 58fps)
• Maximum brightness around 600nits
• Built-in speaker and microphone for calls
• Aluminium alloy case
• IP68 water and dust resistance
• Heart rate, SpO2, stress and sleep monitoring
• Custom software (Compatible with iOS & Android)
• GPS
• Bluetooth 5.3
• 340mAh battery
• Proprietary charging cable included
• 22mm quick-release straps
• 46.9 x 39.87 x 12.89 mm
• 30g

Best Prices Today: CMF Watch Pro by Nothing