Several years ago, Huawei unveiled a watch that housed earbuds inside it and released a fancy ProCollector’s Edition of the Watch GT 3. Today brings something similar.
The Huawei Watch Buds 2 refines the design of the original with a slightly slimmer (14.7mm vs. 15.0mm) and lighter (54.5 vs. 66.5g) build. It does this by dropping the stainless steel frame in favor of a titanium alloy. The back is made of skin-friendly fiber-reinforced composite material.
The Huawei Watch Buds 2 is a smartwatch and TWS buds case in one
The watch measures 47mm across and is suitable for 140-210mm wrists. You can have it in three colors: Obsidian Black (black leather fluoropolymer composite watch strap), Amber Brown (brown leather fluoropolymer composite strap) and Titanium Silver (titanium strap).
The clever thing about this design – and the reason for the name – is that you can flip the display up and take out a pair of TWS buds. There is no dedicated left and right bud, they will figure that out on their own as soon as you put them in. This also means that you can’t mix them up when storing them back in the watch (that’s quite a problem for some regular TWS buds).
Huawei Watch Buds 2 color options
Note that the buds are rated IP54. However, the watch is not water-resistant, so you can’t swim or even shower with it. The buds feature tap controls and can last up to 4 hours of continuous playback – this drops to 3 hours, if you enable Active Noise Cancellation.
Anyway, the front of the Huawei Watch Buds 2 is a 1.5” LTPO OLED panel with 466 x 466px resolution (310ppi). It can achieve a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. The watch promises an overall battery life of 3 days – this includes charging up the buds!
Huawei Watch Buds 2
The watch features a variety of health and exercise features. It has a sleep tracker that assesses your sleep quality, a 24/7 heart rate monitor that listens for heart rate variability and even a system that recognizes and logs 12 emotional states and moods.
It offers over 90 sports modes including walking, cycling and strength training. AI will analyze your performance and offer guidance to improve your results. Also, while you are out and about, there is NFC payment so that you can do your shopping or buy coffee. The NFC feature also lets the watch act as a public transport card – in China, at least.
The Huawei Watch Ultimate Star Diamond Edition is a riff on the Watch Ultimate 2, but with the bling factor dialed up to 11. Seriously, the sapphire crystal over the display has 60 diamond-cut facets going around its perimeter.
Huawei Watch Ultimate Star Diamond Edition
And if that wasn’t enough, there is a diamond (with 18 facets) set inside the crown. And we’re not done – the chassis and straps of the watch are also covered with a vine pattern of 98 natural diamonds.
Bedazzling aside, this is a highly capable smartwatch. The X-TAP Smart Button measures your heart rate and blood pressure and it has an ECG sensor. Core health metrics can be gathered in just 60 seconds.
Huawei Watch Ultimate Star Diamond Edition
The watch supports the StarFlash Car Key feature, meaning that it can unlock and start compatible vehicles once you set it up using the AITO app. If you are in a car crash, the watch can forward your health information via the watch or car to the emergency responders.
The Huawei Watch Ultimate Star Diamond Edition is priced as a luxury watch and it starts at CNY 30,000 – this converts to USD 4,400 or so. It’s currently on pre-order and will be available from May 15.
The Huawei Watch Ultimate Star Diamond Edition comes in a bespoke package
Meanwhile, the Huawei Watch Buds 2 are much more affordable at CNY 3,488 – this works out to USD 510 – if you go with the Black or Brown models with a leather strap. The Titanium version is a bit pricier at CNY 3,988 (USD 585).