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It comes with strap attached but for those with a small/large wrist a separate strap is supplied to avoid large amount of excess strap. The watch is black as is the strap and it looks normal with only a shiny outer ring. The default display is a very traditional analogue but you can choose a digital one in settings. However telling the time is just a minor part of what it does.

The watch is circular at 3.5cm and it is 1cm thick with the rubberised strap attached it weighs 51 grams.

The standard display is an analogue one with marks for the hours and just the date inset near the 3 o’clock the only other standard item is a closed padlock above the 6 o’clock.

Around the edge are certain invisible control points with only a circle showing at the point above 12 o’clock. In daylight the watch is readable however in low light / no light a tap on the screen will show the time for five seconds.

See also: Health and Fitness

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When you first take the watch out of the box you will need to charge it which takes around 30 minutes. It will still not be showing any information apart from a Philips logo.

Download the App to your SmartPhone and set up a free account, turn on Bluetooth and the Philips Health Watch should be found and after a little while your watch will display the time and date.

The first thing to learn is how to tap the base of the display lower than the 6 o’clock position three times in quick succession this will open the padlock and you also get a slight vibration. Now touch the circle above the 12 o’clock and you see six icons around the watch dial. These are User Settings, Alarm, Exercise, Food/Drink, Bed and Heart. Each will show some features and these include your current pulse. After a time interval the display will change back to an analogue display.

Open the App on your SmartPhone and the watch will sync automatically the time taken will depend on how long it has been since the last sync. At the end of this ‘Good to Go Thanks’ will be displayed.

The front screen on the SmartPhone is the Dashboard view which shows your daily score as a % it is possible to get a figure of more than 100%. Lower down Active minutes and Steps. Then Heart showing Blood Pressure and Resting Heart Rate. The Blood Pressure needs to be entered manually and a pen symbol shows this. Next two icons are Time Slept (time in bed) and Sleep Efficiency. Next pair are Total Calories and Active Calories, you enter these as an estimate on the watch by tapping food and drink and entering large medium or small to the breakfast lunch or dinner prompt, less stressful than counting calories but of course less accurate. The last icon is another that you need to write into the App, actual calorie intake which is more accurate but takes time to calculate.

If the watch and phone are within a metre or so the sync will take place.

I found that the charge in the watch lasted around five days of heavy use maybe a week would be possible for normal use, there is a battery icon to tell you discharge state that appears when you tap the display.

Even after several weeks I am still learning new features. There is a small manual that shall we say could be better, try downloading the PDF copy to a PC for easier reading but it’s still ‘suck it and see’ for a lot of the features. A lot will only appear after a few days use.

The Philips Health Watch is the first of a range of new health items from Philips I should be telling you about some others shortly.

Philips Health Watch is available from Amazon for £249.99 with free delivery.