{"id":947499,"date":"2026-10-31T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947499\/"},"modified":"2026-10-31T11:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T11:00:14","slug":"my-favorite-smartwatch-has-stayed-on-my-wrist-for-years-no-its-not-an-apple-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/947499\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favorite Smartwatch Has Stayed on My Wrist for Years – No, It’s Not an Apple Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve seen many smartwatches<\/a> in my 15 years as a mobile reviewer for CNET. From Samsung\u2019s first Galaxy Gear back in 2013<\/a> to Apple\u2019s latest Watch Series 12<\/a> with its advanced health-tracking features, I\u2019ve put all kinds of wearable gadgets on my wrist. While most were subsequently taken off and put away in a drawer, there\u2019s one smartwatch that I\u2019ve donned again and again. And it\u2019s probably not what you\u2019d think.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll cut to the chase: It\u2019s the Huawei Watch Ultimate<\/a>, a smartwatch the Chinese company launched in the UK back in 2023 for the princely sum of \u00a3800, or roughly $1,000. Even today, that would make it among the most expensive smartwatches around, but it wasn\u2019t the price that caught my eye.<\/p>\n

\"ImageAndrew Lanxon\/CNET<\/p>\n

Smart style for a smartwatch \u2014 which is sadly rare<\/p>\n

The first thing that got me was the look. With a titanium link strap, butterfly clasp<\/a>, multiple buttons and a diver\u2019s 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\u2019s wearable didn\u2019t look like a gadget. It appears traditional yet stylish and doesn\u2019t look out of place when paired with a nice suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I generally don\u2019t wear watches at all \u2014 smart or otherwise \u2014 but when I do, I want to make sure they complement whatever I\u2019m wearing, especially if I\u2019m 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I like that the Huawei Watch doesn\u2019t just fade into the background as \u201cjust another smartwatch.\u201d 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<\/a>. I guess that helped endear it to me, even though it didn\u2019t win.<\/p>\n

\"ImageAndrew Lanxon\/CNET<\/p>\n

Smartwatch smarts, but not if you don\u2019t want them<\/p>\n

The Huawei Watch Ultimate is still a smartwatch, though, and suitably packed with tech. There\u2019s a heart-rate sensor, an SpO2 blood oxygen tracker and an ECG function. The adventure button turns it into an outdoor enthusiast\u2019s best friend, tracking altitude, distance between mountain peaks and all kinds of other things you\u2019d need if you\u2019re keen to scale Everest and track your vitals while you do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t 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\u2019s yet another meme from my WhatsApp group with my old school friends. This is a real boon, especially when I\u2019m out and about taking photos or preparing a meal when my hands aren\u2019t free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ImageAndrew Lanxon\/CNET<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t use many of its \u201csmart\u201d features because I don\u2019t want to. I wrote recently about my struggles with health anxiety<\/a> 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\u2019t track anything if you don\u2019t activate them. Nor does it have an AI assistant that tracks all the metrics throughout the day to give you a health score \u2014 which I would inevitably fret over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, I largely use it as a second screen for my phone; checking who\u2019s calling, ignoring some texts or controlling my music without having to slide my iPhone out of my skinny jeans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This thing just does not quit<\/p>\n

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\u2019ll happily go away for a weekend with only 10% battery left. It\u2019s a far cry from the \u201cup to 24 hours of normal use\u201d Apple promises with the Apple Watch Series 12, and it means I don\u2019t have to think about putting it on a charger every night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ImageAndrew Lanxon\/CNET<\/p>\n

If I take it on vacation, I can simply charge it fully before I leave, knowing that it\u2019ll easily get through the week \u2014 or two \u2014 I\u2019m away without me having to pack yet another charger. Granted, by not using most of the smart functions, I\u2019m not exactly hammering the battery, but even so, no other smartwatch I\u2019ve used can get close to what this thing manages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I take it off at night, largely because I don\u2019t like wearing a watch to bed. Especially not this watch: It\u2019s a hefty beast. It does offer various sleep-tracking functions, but I can\u2019t imagine anyone being able to sleep while wearing this thing. I can\u2019t even sleep wearing an Apple Watch, and Huawei\u2019s is far bigger and far heavier than that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that the Huawei Watch Ultimate is the best smartwatch around. It isn\u2019t. It\u2019s three years old now, has been replaced by the Watch Ultimate 2<\/a> and there\u2019s probably a third on its way at some point soon. But I don\u2019t need the \u201cbest\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the Watch Ultimate ticks those three boxes better than anything else I\u2019ve put on my wrist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Andrew\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAndrew Lanxon\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEditor at Large; Lead Photographer, Europe\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen he’s not testing the latest phones or phone cameras, Andrew can normally be found with his own camera in hand or behind his drums or eating his stash of home-cooked food — sometimes all at once.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve seen many smartwatches in my 15 years as a mobile reviewer for CNET. From Samsung\u2019s first Galaxy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":947500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[64,63,213,105],"class_list":["post-947499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gadgets","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=947499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/947499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/947500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=947499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=947499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=947499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}