Huawei has unveiled the Huawei Watch Final—a premium watch with a brand new liquid steel casing, dive pc functionalities, and a reputed 14-day battery life—forward of its official launch date on three April 2023.

It definitely seems to be like it’ll earn its place in our greatest smartwatch record, the place its fundamental rival the Apple Watch Extremely at present holds high spot. The watch’s design mimics an actual high-performance dive watch, with a giant 1.5-inch AMOLED sapphire glass show able to emitting as much as 1,000 nits of brightness. That is excellent to be seen at night time (until you’re utilizing the watch’s new Darkish Evening Mode, which lets you see key exercise and navigation info whereas defending your eyes), or deep underwater. 

It simply so occurs that it’s the watch’s underwater options that Huawei is championing hardest. The watch is reportedly able to surviving depths of over 100 meters for as much as 24 hours, and has handed particular diving tools exams akin to EN13319—a certification awarded to specialist depth gauges—and has been awarded an ISO 22810 water resistance customary, bringing it in step with the Apple Watch Extremely’s diving credentials. Diving Mode presents 4 completely different choices to select from: leisure scuba dive, technical scuba dive, free-dive and gauge.

As a way to face up to the pressures beneath the water, the watch must be exhausting, and Huawei is delivering with a ‘liquid steel’ zirconium alloy case mentioned to be 2.5 occasions tougher than titanium and fewer vulnerable to corrosion. The Watch has been redesigned to perform simpler with gloves on, utilizing an ‘Final Mode’ button alongside Huawei’s customary digital crown and performance button. 

The Final Mode button may be programmed to entry superior options akin to Dive Mode or the brand new Expedition Mode, which is a brand new adventuring mode you possibly can change on for overground treks. The Expedition Mode routinely switches on superior dual-positioning GNSS satellite tv for pc navigation, waypoints, and different options to cease you getting misplaced, alongside key well being information akin to blood oxygen ranges which might be helpful at excessive altitude.

Exterior of specialist modes, it’s additionally packing the standard sports activities profiles, well being information together with round the clock SpO2 evaluation, and the newest iteration of Huawei’s TruSleep sleep monitoring algorithm.

The Huawei Watch Final might be obtainable within the UK and Europe, with pricing TBC. As but, it isn’t as a consequence of be launched within the US as a consequence of Huawei’s ongoing dispute with the US authorities.

Coming for the Apple Watch Extremely

The Huawei Watch Final seems to be like a beast. We’ll be posting our first impressions and full overview afterward, however suffice to say it’s coming for the Apple Watch Extremely’s ‘greatest good dive watch’ crown.

Probably pitched at the same value level, it’s obtained diving functionalities and is designed to function at excessive altitudes, similar to the Extremely. It’s obtained the equal of the Extremely’s Motion Button with the Final Mode button. It’s even obtained the same title. 

Nonetheless, the Huawei Watch Final is ready to dive deeper than the Extremely, though solely probably the most enthusiastic divers will make full use of the dive mode options, and its battery is alleged to final far longer. We’re eager to see what the professional divers make of this, as we did with the Apple Watch Extremely.

We’ll check the accuracy of the GPS and the smartwatch’s well being metrics when our overview unit arrives – towards the Apple Watch Extremely, after all. Nonetheless, there’s one space during which it differs vastly from the Extremely, and that’s in design. With the titanium strap that comes with the watch’s Voyage Blue coloration, it’s designed to imitate a premium analog dive watch, the type of watch you may purchase at a jewellery retailer fairly than on-line.

It’s actually a nice-looking piece of package, particularly with the analog-mimicking watch face, and additional proof the pattern of smartwatches borrowing design parts from analog watches will proceed. It maintains Huawei’s distinctive two-button design language, even after including a 3rd, to make it recognizable for these conversant in the Huawei GT sequence. Nonetheless, efficiency is essential: if the Final can’t measure as much as its guarantees, the Apple Watch Extremely will depart it within the mud.