On Tuesday,聽Fitbit announced the latest addition to its fleet of wearable fitness trackers: the $199聽Versa. The Versa appears to be Fitbit鈥檚 attempt at a quiver-of-one smartwatch鈥攖he sort of device that tracks both your workouts and your overall health, looks fashionable enough to wear everywhere, and does it all at a pretty affordable price.聽
The Versa has many of the same core functions as Fitbit鈥檚 first full-featured smartwatch, the Ionic: fitness tracking, wrist-based heart-rate detection, guided on-screen workouts, and an automatic recognition system that knows when you鈥檝e begun聽exercising without the need聽to press Start.聽It maintains fan-favorite lifestyle features like sleep tracking, breathing exercises, resting heart rate, music, and text, call, and e-mail integration (the latter is available for Android only). Like the Ionic, it鈥檚 also waterproof down to 164 feet.聽
But the聽Versa will retail for $100 less. Why聽the price difference? Where the Ionic has built-in GPS, the Versa has聽鈥渃onnected GPS,鈥 which means that it tracks聽distance only when paired with a smartphone.聽However, the Versa does offer a few things the Ionic does not, including a new聽dashboard, called聽Fitness Today,聽that collects activity stats, workout聽history, and health information, then uses that data聽to give you daily advice and inspiration. (I have yet to get my hands on a working model of the Versa, but one is on the way. We鈥檒l post a full review of the聽new features after further testing.)聽

Arguably, the Versa鈥檚 most interesting capability is what Fitbit calls聽female health tracking.聽This cluster of functions allows users to record menstrual cycles and symptoms, among other, more health-oriented聽stats,聽and to keep聽tabs on聽fertility windows. Fitbit claims that its new聽app will allow wearers to see how their聽weight and sleep patterns change throughout their menstrual cycle. The Versa isn鈥檛 the first to include this kind of functionality鈥擝ellabeat makes a jewelry-inspired women鈥檚 health tracker that logs menstrual cycles, among other things. But Fitbit鈥檚 is the first fitness watch to offer a broad聽menu of聽women-specific health tracking.聽
I鈥檓 not sure yet how I feel about taking training and reproductive advice from a watch. I鈥檓 much more inclined to trust a human鈥攕ay, a running coach or聽gynecologist. But I鈥檓 intrigued by how tracked data could inform the advice I鈥檓 already getting from the good old-fashioned聽people in my life.
Fitbit is also launching its first kid-specific product,聽Fitbit Ace. The device will count steps, activity time, and sleep stats, provide reminders to move,聽and reward users with merit badges for goals met and challenges won. A family-account option in the聽app will allow parents聽to track their kids鈥櫬燼ctivity patterns聽and will give kids their own app interface, which displays only certain types of data. (They won鈥檛 see calories or body fat, for instance, just activity time, number of steps, and badges earned.)聽
The new launches seem to indicate an attempt by Fitbit to do what the Apple Watch does鈥攊ntegrate sport and lifestyle tracking into a device you never have聽to take off鈥攁t a more affordable price and in a family-friendly package. I look forward to getting my hands on the聽Versa to see how it fits in with my daily life, both athletically and otherwise.