Huawei’s latest wearable goes a bit further than accelerometers or heart rate sensors to measure a wearer’s blood pressure. The new Huawei Watch D3 includes a watch band with an inflatable diaphragm that can act as a miniaturized blood pressure cuff. Plenty of other smartwatches now include some way of detecting signs of high blood pressure, but Huawei’s watch makes both on-demand and continuous readings throughout the day possible, offering a more detailed picture of your heart health over time.
The Huawei Watch D3 is technically the company’s third iteration on this idea but arguably the first that looks like a normal smartwatch. The new watch includes a 1.92-inch AMOLED screen that reaches 3,000 nits of peak brightness, while the watch itself is 0.44 inches (11.3mm) thick and weighs 1.41 ounces (40 grams). A major part of Huawei’s improvements here are focused on the watchband, which the company says features a narrower airbag that’s both more comfortable to wear and more stylish in the Mocha Gold, Gold, and Black color options Huawei sells.
Using the inflatable band, the Huawei Watch D3 can take blood pressure measurements in a similar fashion to the blood pressure cuff you might have used at a doctor’s office or have at home. The smartwatch also supports Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM), which means it’s able to measure your blood pressure at set intervals across a 24-hour period and pair it with other metrics the watch tracks, like your pulse. The Huawei Watch D3 can also remind you to take readings before and after workouts or when things that could affect your blood pressure, like elevation or temperature, change. Combined with features like workout and sleep tracking, it covers the smartwatch basics, too.
The watch approaches blood pressure in a way that’s radically different than most smartwatch companies. Apple and Google offer what amounts to tracking blood pressure trends on their watches to avoid the regulatory scrutiny that comes from trying to determine systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Recent competitor Vital Signals is using similar sensors to the Oura Ring 5 but believes its unique algorithms could allow it to offer more detailed readings without the need to calibrate with a blood pressure cuff. No one approach is necessarily right or wrong, but Huawei is getting the closest to recreating the experience you’d get with professional equipment.
The Huawei Watch D3 will be available for £400 or around $540, though due to the company’s products being banned in the U.S., it’s unfortunately not something we’ll be able to try over here anytime soon.
