Like the look of the Apple Watch 2, but can't stomach its full asking price? Then health insurer Vitality may have the deal you've been looking for - providing you've got the vim to work for it.
The company has partnered with Apple to tie its Vitality Active Rewards scheme to the new Apple Watch Series 2 wearable, effectively subsidising the cost of the timepiece for Vitality's most active customers.
It'll offer an Apple Watch 2 starting at £69. But whether that'll be the final price you end up paying is down to how active you remain while wearing it.
Vitality will track your fitness activities through the wearable, and, over the course of a 24 month plan, assign how much you have to pay on top of that £69 fee per month based on how much exercise you've carried out.
Sit on your backside for a month and pick up 0-39 activity points and you'll pay back £12.50 for that month, dropping dependant on exercise to £10, £7.50, £5 and finally £0 for those that hit the gym hardest and build up 160+ points.
A marathon gamble
A little bit of maths reveals the deal to be a bit of a gamble though. Sure, the most active of participants will be sitting pretty (well, probably not sitting) with a £69 bargain.
But fail to hit anything above that lowest tier and you'll end up racking up a £369 total cost so you may want to hedge your bets unless you're Mo Farah. That's before factoring in a Vitality membership cost.
There's also the data privacy angle to consider - do you really want your health insurer knowing precisely the amount of exercise you're doing?
Vitality admittedly makes no mention of its health insurance premiums in relation to scheme, but it doesn't take a huge leap to imagine this affecting future health insurance rates - on a policy-wide level, if not a personal one.
Still, for the most invested, it's a win-win for Vitality and the customer - it gets the reassurance that it has got healthy customers on its books, and its clients get a shiny new wristable to work out with.
- Not convinced it's for you? Check out our Apple Watch 2 review
