The new Huawei Watch 3: High end meets hi-tech

All good things come to those who wait and if you’ve been hankering after a watch that thinks it’s a smartphone, you’ll find the Huawei Watch 3 was worth the four-year delay.

Sporting a battery that will last five days and the ability to communicate as a stand-alone device, the latest in Huawei’s Watch series has evolved into a hi-tech tracker of your health and fitness that can make calls and play music without being paired to your phone. Smart.  

On the face of it, Watch 3 continues the classic round design that saw its original smartwatch so well received when it launched in 2015. However, Huawei has taken style a step further and individualised it. You can now match your watch to your outfit, mood or occasion using one of 30 pre-installed face designs, including animated watch faces you can create from your own short videos.

Beyond the 1.43-inch touch display, you can control your Watch 3 with the side button or a new 3D rotating crown, which puts all the watch’s features literally at your fingertips. This highly precise feature will recognise your finger movements as you zoom in and out of pics or swipe through menus. It provides instant feedback too, vibrating according to your tactile inputs with accuracy and efficiency.

The wizardry underneath these new developments comes from Harmony OS 2, Huawei’s operating system for many of its smart devices, including its watches. The smartphone-like interaction this enables means the Watch 3 can perform a number of your cellphone’s duties when it’s just not possible or convenient to take it with you. 

Need to call home and check you turned the oven off? No problem. With your eSim service activated on your Huawei Watch 3, you can have the same number and enjoy the same data and tariff plan as what you have on your phone. You can play music, download apps and make as many calls as you like, using the integrated speaker and microphone, without being connected to your phone at all — your Watch 3 acts as a stand-alone device. It also supports MeeTime, Huawei’s video calling app which allows you to connect across Huawei devices, even if there’s a weak connection.

When you return to proximity with your other devices you can synchronise your new watch so they’re all talking the same hi-tech language. Watch 3 will become your new BFF as it reminds you of flight details or a taxi booking, syncing appointments and meetings so you get all the notifications at all the right moments. 6GB of storage space means you can download and save up to 200 songs on the watch itself.      

Smart features for managing fitness and health were introduced in the second iteration of the Huawei Watch in 2017. Now, the company has boosted the device’s tracking capabilities to allow more scientific and continuous management of your health. There’s a heartbeat sensor and a new high-precision temperature detector, which monitors the temperature on your wrist. Oxygen levels are monitored too. Watch 3 continuously and automatically checks your Sp02 using some clever technology which accurately detects blood oxygen molecules. You’ll be notified if you need a rest when in cold temperatures or climbing high mountains, or even if you’re feeling a little anxious and out of breath.

All this smart data on your fitness can be fed into the Huawei Health App, allowing you to track your progress and monitor your physical development, even when you’re sleeping.  A great new addition is Fall Detection and SOS Alert, which can be enabled to raise the alarm in case of emergencies. If it detects a fall, Watch 3 will automatically enter Help mode — valuable for older users or extreme sports enthusiasts who like to push the limits.

While your own energy levels may slump after strenuous activities, you can rest assured your Watch 3 is happy to power on for days. Three days, in fact, if you have it in smart mode, or an impressive 14 days in ultra-long battery life mode, which scales back your use of some apps. The Watch 3 Pro stretches those numbers out to five and 21 days respectively. 

With the Watch 3, Huawei has brought its A game to the wearables market. Stylish to look at, simple to operate and boasting impressive new technology, this new smartwatch will carry the baton for your phone when you need it to and go the distance with you in achieving your health and fitness goals.

This article was paid for by Huawei.