Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro - Each More Beautiful Than the Last

You might find this hard to believe but I actually remember the first time I ever saw a Huawei Watch. I was in a shopping mall and it was being advertised on a giant banner suspended from the ceiling.

I thought it was about the coolest thing ever.

I'd seen other smartwatches. I'd even tried some of them. But at that time they all looked like something Captain Kirk would wear to work. And I mean the original, 1960s James T. Kirk - not the updated Chris Pine version. Back then, smartwatches were basically slightly smaller phones with a strap attached to them.

But the Huawei Watch... that actually looked like a watch - a real watch, with a round face and a proper band and wait... were those hands?

Since then, Huawei watches have always looked good; stylish, modern and elegant with a premium feel to them.

Even the sports bands, activity trackers and more specialised devices like the recent Watch D (the first and only wrist-worn blood-pressure tracker available) are engineered with flair and attention to detail.

So you'd expect Huawei's latest flagship watch to raise the bar again...

The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is inarguably a thing of beauty. As usual, it comes in packed in a nice-looking, substantial box that prominently displays the device as soon as you lift the lid.

Once again, Huawei has opted for a circular face and once again, at first glance most people probably wouldn't even realise this is a smartwatch. That's not to say they wouldn't take a second look, just as you might when you witness any luxury timepiece when you're out and about. 

To begin with, the crystal is made from sapphire glass, which in my experience has proven to be extremely durable and after a couple of weeks' constant wear is showing no blemishes at all - not a single scratch. That's despite being dropped on the bathroom tiles and covered in fence stain at one point. (Clumsy? Me? What do you mean?)

The case is also as hard as nails - actually, it's much harder. It's made of titanium and has been ingeniously crafted into a seamless, one-piece design.

Even the rear cover has been treated to a high-end makeover. The nanocrystalline ceramic has been specifically developed to ensure a more comfortable fit against your skin. This is a watch you simply won't want to take off.

The fluoroelastomer strap is also one of the most comfortable options I've worn. This is a material Huawei has chosen for many of its recent wearables and here it's been slightly textured on the outer surface to resemble leather - yet it's completely waterproof, so repels sweat, not like a leather band would.

As we've seen on previous models, there are two control buttons on the right-hand side to compliment the touch display - the upper of these also serves as a rotating crown for functions like scrolling through lists of apps or exercise modes, or perhaps adjusting the volume when using the media controller. On the Watch GT 3 Pro, this rotating crown has been machined to catch the light and is even engraved with the words, "HUAWEI WATCH GT."

Huawei's own website uses the adjective, "Classy." This watch exudes class.

And that's all before you turn it on.

The Harmony OS software experience is constantly evolving and it certainly has both advantages and disadvantages.

On the downside, as usual, compared to some other smartwatches, app selection is severely limited. Those available are generally of high quality and we'll dig down into how comprehensive the health monitoring and exercise tracking apps are shortly. However, as usual with any Huawei device there's no avoiding the long shadow cast by the lack of Google services.

As I often remind people though, there are alternatives. A great example is Petal Maps. For all intents and purposes, this seems to work just as well as any other navigation app I've used, syncing with your phone to provide turn-by-turn directions on the watch, although strangely this only seems to work when paired with an Android device, not with iPhone. In fact, although the Watch GT 3 Pro works effortlessly with iPhone, your options are definitely more limited, as there seems to be no App Gallery in the iOS version of the Huawei Health app, so you can't add other apps that aren't preinstalled.

Where the Watch GT 3 Pro truly excels though, is in health and sports. There's an ECG function - essential if you have a history of issues concerning irregular heartbeat. Like other recent Huawei wearables, functions like heartrate monitoring and sleep tracking are excellent - providing plenty of insight both on the watch itself and then even more detail on the Health app. 

While it's still quite a large watch, it's light and thanks to the added comfort of the fluoroelastomer strap and the nanocrystalline ceramic rear cover, I had no issues wearing it overnight to record my sleep habits. Now there's also a skin temperature sensor, which gives you excellent insight into trends over time, another reason to wear the Watch GT 3 Pro to bed, which unlike most other high-end smartwatches is totally practical thanks to the impressive battery life. 

Huawei often talks about a "two-week battery life," but in my testing, you'd really have to turn off a few functions in order to stretch it out that long, That said, I've certainly been able to coast through one week between charges - and that's including daily workouts using GPS tracking and several software updates.

But sports tracking is really the icing on the cake; I've been a fan of Huawei's exercise interface for years and it just keeps getting better - whatever the exercise (and you can choose from more than a hundred - from mountain biking to jazz dancing to darts to triathlon) the display is clear, useful and provides great updates on the go. Lap times, splits, pace, training zones, training load, running ability and even recovery time are all tracked and easily accessed.

And now there's even a freediving mode. Personally, I find the thought of holding my breath and diving so deep the pressure causes my lungs to shrink to a fraction of their normal size absolutely terrifying, but people do it, and the Watch GT 3 Pro can now help you. Obviously, I am certainly not taking up freediving to test this out. But I've met Nate Fairweather from the Auckland Freediving Club and he assures me it does the business. Yes, not only is it that waterproof but I've found the new screen works surprisingly well when wet. It's the first watch I've ever been able to control in the shower.

See? I told you I didn't want to take it off. Limited app selection aside, there's no doubt this is a versatile, high-performance smartwatch that looks... well, just breathtakingly good. It's more than just a tech statement, it's a fashion statement too.

    

Click here for more information on the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro.