This hybrid smartwatch I tested is the perfect blend of form and function – and it’s on sale

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Pininfarina Sintesi hybrid watch retails for $329, though it’s often on sale for the holidays.
• The watch incorporates high-quality materials, has an elegant look and feel, a sports battery life of more than a week, and has a capable smartphone app.
• I just wish there were more than one size, and that the notifications weren’t so limited.

While I love wearing a watch to track every detail of my health, I also enjoy wearing a fashionable watch that shows me the time without me having to turn on a display. Earlier this year, I enjoyed testing a Pininfarina Senso hybrid smartwatch, which has a unique shape and powerful hybrid capability.

Also: The best smartwatches you can buy: Expert tested

The company has since released another model, the Sintesi, and after a recent smartphone app and watch firmware update, I can share my experiences with you. The Pininfarina Sintesi has a more traditional round watch body, which I’ve come to prefer over the Senso watch’s more square casing.

I was sent the Midnight Shadow (black) model to test, but you can also select Sand Dune, Midnight Rose, or Azure Horizon (blue). I’m considering ordering a Black Friday special Azure one with that lovely blue watch face background and silver bezel, as $249 is an outstanding price for a luxury watch that has a stainless steel case/bezel and a sapphire crystal glass cover.

The analog hands are visible in the dark, so you can check the time while your watch tracks the details of your sleep. You can configure the lower sub-dial as a secondhand, or to show your step, distance, or calorie goal progress. I use it for my step goal progress, since enabling it as a second hand cuts into the battery life.

As I was testing the Sintesi, I noticed that a few metrics from the Senso were missing, like the HRV, ECG, and stress monitoring. I commented in my previous review that these were not as useful because measuring them was a manual process, which especially does not make sense for stress tracking. That said, my heart rate tracking is now set to continuous and the health functionality is consistent, accurate, and reliable.

The Sintesi hybrid watch tracks your sleep, heart rate, steps, active minutes, and estimated calories burned. Like the Senso, you can view the date and time, the weather, health metrics, activities, and sports on the small OLED on the upper sub-dial, and remotely control your camera and music. The ability to initiate a capture action for your smartphone camera could be useful during the holidays when you are trying to capture family images with yourself included.

Also: This Android smartwatch undercuts what Samsung and Google offer, and I prefer it more too

Sports tracking is fairly basic, but the heart rate monitoring is accurate, and you can sync the data collected by the watch to Apple Health, Google Fit, and Strava. The watch has no GPS, so tracking outdoor activities relies on your connected smartphone GPS. The watch has a cool compass mode where the hands function as compass hands and the OLED shows you the compass reading as well.

The Pininfarina Sintesi has a long battery life. With three workouts a week, I’ve found I only needed to charge it once. If you need less activity tracking, yours may last 10 days or more. If the watch hands are covering the OLED, they move dynamically out of the way so that you can view the display.

The smartphone notifications are a bit inconsistent and given the very small OLED, I didn’t really find them useful, so I toggled them off. You can also set alarms, but I recommend increasing the vibration to high since I slept through my first couple of wake-up calls.

ZDNET’s buying advice

As I grow a bit tired of all the data, animations, colors, and overwhelming notifications on my wrist, it’s great to glance down at a lovely analog watch and just see the time. The Pininfarina Sintesi hybrid smartwatch is made with high-quality materials, looks like a luxury watch, and is available now for $279 instead of $329.

It’s an amazing option if you love watches and want to track the basics like your sleep, steps, and heart rate. Plus, it has a few other hidden tricks to show off at parties.