The Huawei Watch is the company’s first attempt at creating a smartwatch and it’s a really good first attempt. Right from the very box of the Huawei Watch alone, you can see the attention to detail on the premium packaging (even better than the packaging of the Php20k Diesel watches we’ve been buying for years).
The watch comes in a silver stainless steel body and a genuine Italian leather strap. We tried replacing the straps from Aspray and we got a 20mm strap to fit just about right though we had to clip a millimeter off of the leather to fit it perfectly.
The circular face is a 1.4inch AMOLED display with a 400×400 pixel density and protected by sapphire crystal to make it very scratch resistant. Huawei decided to use sapphire glass crystal for the face as this is the most scratch-resistant type used in most premium watches. As a comparison, the Apple Watch model that uses a similar sapphire crystal and stainless steel case starts at Php31,000 right up to Php63,000.
The screen is always on by default with brightness settings from 1 to 5 with 4 being the default level. However, you can also set it to sleep in the settings menu if you want to conserve on battery life. The body is a bit thick at 11.3mm but doesn’t look that bulky when you are wearing it. There is a heart rate monitor at the underside of the watch and it is also IP67 rated so you can bring it for a quick swim or not worry when you get caught in rain.
The Huawei Watch runs on the latest Android Wear operating system and is compatible with almost all Android smartphone and even Apple’s iPhone. Huawei didn’t make a lot of customizations on the os but there are over 3 dozen of different face designs to choose from.
The charging cradle uses a magnetic plate to set the watch at rest and allow the metal contact points to align in order to charge. We were hoping they’d move up and use wireless charging instead.
Huawei is releasing the Watch in the Philippines this December 10 with pre-orders starting on December 1. The Huawei Watch Classic has a suggested retail price of Php19,990 while the Active Black will set you back Php24,990. More details on the pre-order here.
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