我多年來最喜愛的智能手錶不是 Apple Watch，而是 Huawei Watch Ultimate

I’ve seen many smartwatches in my 15 years as a mobile reviewer for CNET. From Samsung’s first Galaxy Gear back in 2013 to Apple’s latest Watch Series 12 with its advanced health-tracking features, I’ve put all kinds of wearable gadgets on my wrist. While most were subsequently taken off and put away in a drawer, there’s one smartwatch that I’ve donned again and again. And it’s probably not what you’d think. 

I’ll cut to the chase: It’s the Huawei Watch Ultimate, a smartwatch the Chinese company launched in the UK back in 2023 for the princely sum of £800, or roughly $1,000. Even today, that would make it among the most expensive smartwatches around, but it wasn’t the price that caught my eye.

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Smart style for a smartwatch — which is sadly rare

The first thing that got me was the look. With a titanium link strap, butterfly clasp, multiple buttons and a diver’s watch style, it looked just like any other luxury watch you might find from the likes of Rolex or Omega. By eschewing the square minimalist look of the Apple Watch, Huawei’s wearable didn’t look like a gadget. It appears traditional yet stylish and doesn’t look out of place when paired with a nice suit. 

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I generally don’t wear watches at all — smart or otherwise — but when I do, I want to make sure they complement whatever I’m wearing, especially if I’m attending an event. While the black Milanese loop strap on an Apple Watch is fairly innocuous, the best I can hope for is that it blends in. 

But I like that the Huawei Watch doesn’t just fade into the background as “just another smartwatch.” It has a definite sense of style of its own, which I tried to capture in a hero product image (at the top of this page) that was shortlisted for a major photography award. I guess that helped endear it to me, even though it didn’t win.

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Smartwatch smarts, but not if you don’t want them

The Huawei Watch Ultimate is still a smartwatch, though, and suitably packed with tech. There’s a heart-rate sensor, an SpO2 blood oxygen tracker and an ECG function. The adventure button turns it into an outdoor enthusiast’s best friend, tracking altitude, distance between mountain peaks and all kinds of other things you’d need if you’re keen to scale Everest and track your vitals while you do it. 

I don’t use any of that. For me, the most useful part of a smartwatch is simply for incoming notifications. My phone buzzes seemingly a million times a day, and having a smartwatch means I can easily see and dismiss a notification, rather than getting my phone out only to see it’s yet another meme from my WhatsApp group with my old school friends. This is a real boon, especially when I’m out and about taking photos or preparing a meal when my hands aren’t free. 

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I don’t use many of its “smart” features because I don’t want to. I wrote recently about my struggles with health anxiety and how constant tracking of my heart rate or other metrics is, for me, a fast track to a panic attack. The Watch Ultimate has these functions, but it doesn’t track anything if you don’t activate them. Nor does it have an AI assistant that tracks all the metrics throughout the day to give you a health score — which I would inevitably fret over. 

Instead, I largely use it as a second screen for my phone; checking who’s calling, ignoring some texts or controlling my music without having to slide my iPhone out of my skinny jeans. 

This thing just does not quit

But the best part of the watch for me is the battery life. Huawei reckons you can get up to 14 days of use from a single charge, and I think that might even be underestimating it. A fortnight of use is no problem at all, and I’ll happily go away for a weekend with only 10% battery left. It’s a far cry from the “up to 24 hours of normal use” Apple promises with the Apple Watch Series 12, and it means I don’t have to think about putting it on a charger every night. 

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If I take it on vacation, I can simply charge it fully before I leave, knowing that it’ll easily get through the week — or two — I’m away without me having to pack yet another charger. Granted, by not using most of the smart functions, I’m not exactly hammering the battery, but even so, no other smartwatch I’ve used can get close to what this thing manages. 

I take it off at night, largely because I don’t like wearing a watch to bed. Especially not this watch: It’s a hefty beast. It does offer various sleep-tracking functions, but I can’t imagine anyone being able to sleep while wearing this thing. I can’t even sleep wearing an Apple Watch, and Huawei’s is far bigger and far heavier than that. 

It’s not that the Huawei Watch Ultimate is the best smartwatch around. It isn’t. It’s three years old now, has been replaced by the Watch Ultimate 2 and there’s probably a third on its way at some point soon. But I don’t need the “best” tech from a smartwatch. I want basic smart functions, I want long battery life, and I want it to look good when I wear it. 

And the Watch Ultimate ticks those three boxes better than anything else I’ve put on my wrist.