What you need to know

• Huawei introduces the Watch 5 in 46mm and 42mm sizes with titanium and stainless steel finishes.
• The Fit 4 and Fit 4 Pro are the new fitness trackers with premium materials, water sports tracking, and specialized modes like professional trial running and pro-level golfing.
• Alongside the wearables, Huawei announced the FreeBuds 6 with a dual-driver unit and the MatePad Pro tablet featuring a 12.2-inch Tandem OLED PaperMatter Display with anti-glare technology.

Huawei has announced a bunch of wearables under its “Fashion Next” theme in Berlin on Thursday (May 15). Alongside the wearables, the company has also introduced new earbuds and a tablet.

The prominent ones in the lot happen to be the new Huawei Watch 5 series, and for the first time, the company is making it available in two notable sizes, measuring at 46mm and 42mm.

Both Huawei Watch 5 models look premium in design and feature titanium and stainless steel finishes, giving buyers a significant number of options. For wear resistance, these smartwatches are equipped with spherical sapphire glass.

The health monitoring features are promised to be superior with the incorporation of the company’s TruSense System paired with multi-sensing X-Tap tech, enabling users to monitor their health effortlessly through their fingertip measures for more “accurate, faster, and comprehensive health insights, ” the company notes in a shared press release. Additionally, there are gesture controls that support "Double Slide" and "Double Tap" motions for intuitive interactions.

Huawei Fit 4 Series

The Huawei Fit 4 series is another set of fitness/health-focused products that include Huawei Fit 4 and Fit 4 Pro. These are also made through premium materials like sapphire glass and use of aluminum body and titanium alloy bezel. While they have a strong build, the Fit 4 Pro manages to be slimmer with 9.3mm in thickness.

Both fitness trackers also feature water sports (route) tracking functionality, next to an air pressure sensor with a promise to enhance overall outdoor sports data measurement accuracy. The Pro model further includes sports modes like professional trial running, pro-level golfing, and a new barometer for elevation gain data in mountain climbing.

Huawei FreeBuds 6

The FreeBuds 6, on the other hand, are a pair of open-fit earbuds that feature a dual-driver unit and claim to deliver strong and punchy bass. They are offered in a sleek and ergonomic design and incorporate features like stable and clear calls for better communication.

Lastly, the MatePad Pro is the latest 12.2-inch tablet that equips a Tandem OLED PaperMatter Display, which further supports anti-glare and anti-reflection capabilities. The tablet can also be paired with Huawei’s Glide keyboard, which boasts typing convenience. It also features a charging compartment to store the stylus.

All these products can be purchased through the Huawei Store, and the Huawei Watch 5 starts at £399.99. The Huawei Watch Fit 4 starts at £149.99, and the Pro model at £249.99. The FreeBuds 6, on the other hand, are available at £139.99, and the MatePad Pro pricing is yet to be determined. These products, however, are very unlikely to make their way to the U.S. market since it’s Huawei.

• Smartwatch deals: Best Buy | Walmart | Amazon | Samsung | Dell

Whatever your reason is for shopping for a new band, you'll find there's a wide variety of options. Maybe you're looking to change up your style or you need something that's more practical for day-to-day wear. Either way, we've gathered some outstanding bands for you to consider.

What's on your Huawei Watch?

It's decision time! What band strikes your interest? We're big fans of the Barton Soft Silicone Watch Band. It comes in more than 10 different colors and feels soft on the skin. At the same time, they're built to withstand pretty much anything. Did we mention they're waterproof and washable? You'll be able to get your band wet and clean it as needed.

If you'd like a touch of originality with your watch, then you should consider the Fullmosa Leather Watch Band. You'll have the strength of genuine leather and a unique stylish color and pattern that will stand out from the crowd. We're confident that any of these bands will treat your wrist and your watch right!

Changing out the watch band on your watch is a great way to customize its look while also changing up its functionality. Perhaps you want a nice leather band for business and a silicone band for workouts. Either way, finding a great watch band for your Huawei Watch GT doesn't have to be difficult whether you have the 46mm style or 42mm version, these bands below will have an option for.

Variety in your watch band life

There's almost an endless number of watch bands out there, and it can make tracking the best down tough. I love to change out my watch band, and I do almost daily. When it comes to working out, or anytime during the summer really, I lean towards a good perforated silicone band like the Lwsengme silicone watch band. Kepping a comfortable and casual style canvas band like the Beafiry canvas watch band is fantastic to use as a day-to-day band that can keep up with anything thrown at it.

When it comes to a night out or a business meeting, a nice metal band like Fullmosa mesh watch band or a timeless leather style like the Ditou leather watchband are safe bets. Whatever your style or need, there is sure to be a color and material that will work for you and your new Huawei Watch GT.

The Huawei Watch line has changed dramatically since it first debuted in 2015. The first Huawei Watch (or the Huatch, as we liked to call it at the time) ran Android Wear and turned heads with its striking design. The second iteration focused on fitness tracking with a more rugged appearance. Then the Huawei Watch GT line traded smartwatch functionality for a trimmed-down OS and long battery life.

Now we have the Huawei Watch 3, which seeks to bring the best of all those earlier wearables into a single product. It's the first watch to run Huawei's HarmonyOS, a more fully-featured platform than the barebones LiteOS used in the Watch GT. Huawei is also aiming for multi-day battery life from this new model while also packing a full loadout of working and health-tracking capabilities. And to top it off, this latest Huawei Watch is the best-looking since the 2015 original.

While there are some trade-offs involved in using the very first watch in Huawei's HarmonyOS ecosystem, I've enjoyed my time with the company's latest wearable. It's a worthy successor to one of my favorite vintage smartwatches and a legitimate competitor to alternatives from Samsung and Google.

Huawei Watch 3: Price and availability

The Huawei Watch 3 will launch on June 18 in the UK, priced £349.99, with pre-order reservations running from June 2-17. Pre-order customers will get £20 off, plus a free pair of Huawei Freebuds Pro earbuds.

Huawei will also be selling a larger (and more expensive) Huawei Watch 3 Pro, which will sell for £499.99 and launch from June 28. A similar pre-order period starting June 2-27 applies, with a £50 discount for pre-order customers and free Freebuds Pro earbuds.

The Huawei Watch 3 series will be sold directly from Huawei and via selected retail partners in the UK.

Huawei Watch 3: What you'll like

The Huawei Watch 3 pays homage to the Chinese manufacturer's original 2015 wearable, with a design that's attractive but not overstated. The stainless steel body and lugs have a fairly masculine look, but the overall aesthetic is neutral enough to work with just about any strap or outfit.

The Huawei Watch 3 unit I've been using for the past week is the 46mm model in stainless steel with a brown leather strap; it's also available in a 42mm configuration with a rubber strap. Like most modern smartwatches not made by Apple, the Watch 3 uses a standard strap, so further customizing the look shouldn't be a problem.

The centerpiece of the watch, of course, is the circular OLED display, boasting a display density of 326 pixels per inch. Its edges are slightly domed, like the Watch GT 2, making the various swipes required to get around the HarmonyOS interface feel natural and pleasant. And even in bright direct sunlight, the 1,000-nit display was always bright enough for easy visibility.

Outside of internal upgrades, the biggest hardware addition this time around might be the rotating crown located around the two o'clock position. It looks similar to the Apple Watch's crown — save for the "Huawei Watch" branding engraved on its outer face — and is the best implementation of a digital crown that I've seen outside of the Apple Watch. That's largely down to the solid haptic feedback you get while rotating it — it provides a subtle tap as you scroll through notifications, menu options, and lists.

Pressing the crown functions as a combined wake, back, and home button. If you're in an app, you'll go back to the watch face. Or from the watch face, press it to view the app launcher. This is pretty much a copy of the Apple Watch's grid layout, though it's possible to change this to a list view if you prefer. If you're really into multitasking on a wearable, a double-press of the crown will fire up a circular recent apps menu.

The UI, in general, will be familiar if you've used a Huawei or Wear OS watch in the past. From the watch face, a swipe down shows quick settings. Swipe up for notifications, right for fitness tiles, or left to view the weather tile. That tile houses a shortcut to Huawei's Celia AI voice assistant too, which can also be loaded up anytime by long-pressing the secondary function key at the five o'clock position. It's reasonably capable when it comes to understanding on-device actions like starting a workout, but nowhere near the level of a Google Assistant for general queries.

The Watch 3 is the first wearable to ship on Huawei's own HarmonyOS — the company's new platform designed to work across a broad range of devices. On a watch, HarmonyOS generally looks a little like Huawei's previous LiteOS, albeit much more performant and polished. Scrolling is noticeably smoother than on the Watch GT series, and touch response is much improved as well. And obviously, you've got features like the task switcher and AppGallery store built-in that make it feel more like a complete device than just an accessory.

Despite its dressy exterior, fitness tracking is a major focus of the Huawei Watch 3, and the watch boasts 5ATM water resistance for activities around (or even in) water. By default, the programmable secondary button is set to start a workout, and there are countless preconfigured options covering everything from a light walk to a triathlon. Goals can be set by time, distance, or calories burned, all of which are synced back to the Huawei Health app on your phone. (Handily, Huawei Health can also sync data back to Google Fit if you're using that service to track other health info.)

The Watch 3 also includes a standard loadout of sensors on its rear, including heart rate and SpO2 (blood oxygenation), as well as continuous skin temperature monitoring. As with any smartwatch, it's difficult to know how accurate most of this stuff is, but I regularly recorded SpO2 levels of 99%, which is probably good considering anything below 95 is a cause for concern.

I've been using the LTE-equipped Huawei Watch 3 paired with a Galaxy S21 Ultra but without the eSIM configured, meaning I haven't experienced any of its standalone cellular capabilities. If that's your thing, the internal eSIM can be enabled as part of the normal setup. So while I wasn't able to take advantage of the device's standalone calling features, I did find that the call capabilities (via the paired smartphone) worked well, with ample volume and clarity from the internal speaker.

I've also been pretty impressed with the Huawei Watch 3's battery life compared to rival wearables. With my usage, I was getting just under five days on a single charge, with the always-on display disabled and around an hour or so of workout detection on most days. That comes with the caveat that I haven't been using the device's cellular functionality at all, so expect some additional battery drain if you're out and about and taking calls.

When it comes time to charge, you'll use the boxed hockey puck charger, which snaps to the back of the watch and refills it over the Qi wireless charging standard. The use of Qi also means you can use third-party pads to top up the Watch 3 — I had good results with Huawei's own 27W pad, in addition to an older Samsung charger I had lying around. (On standing chargers, your mileage may vary.)

Huawei Watch 3: What you won't like

Most of my gripes with the Huawei Watch 3 are software-related. While HarmonyOS generally works well, this initial release of the software isn't without a fair few bugs — as well as other pain points that get in the way of everyday use.

Firstly, the initial setup prompts you to download the new Huawei Health app. (That's not to be confused with the old version on Google Play, which per U.S. sanctions on Huawei can't be updated anymore and so doesn't support this new watch.) However, the QR code provided on the watch doesn't work, so instead, I was left searching Huawei's support site to find the APK to download. Progress was relatively smooth from there, but it's not a great first impression.

Similarly, whatever I tried, the Watch 3 refused to download its first over-the-air update over my Wi-Fi, complaining that the connection was too slow. A 160Mbps download speed should be enough to download a few megabytes of firmware, but the Watch 3 refused to budge until I connected it to a mobile hotspot, which it decided was fast enough.

I also experienced several frustrating permission prompts the first time I tried certain apps. The way these are handled on HarmonyOS right now is slightly confusing. Instead of a simple prompt within the Workout app, for example, you're directed to the app info panel and forced to navigate through two more pages to enable the background location permission. I get that this is a sensitive permission on any mobile device, but the way you're supposed to go about granting this permission feels clumsy and unintuitive.

The smartwatch app library in HarmonyOS is fairly limited at present, too. That's not a huge deal for me personally — I very rarely go out of my way to use third-party apps on a smartwatch. But if you're expecting an ecosystem to rival Google's Wear OS, then you'll be disappointed. Where I was able to find apps, download speeds were achingly slow, even over Wi-Fi for what appeared to be relatively small packages.

While the Huawei Watch 3's notification support is far better than the Watch GT and older models, you're still limited in the way you can interact with most Android notifications. Unlike Wear OS, there's no way to reply in-line. And notifications stick around on your watch even after you've dismissed them on your phone, often leading to a backlog of old notifications cluttering up the panel.

And rounding off my list of complaints is the relatively scant loadout of watch faces preloaded on the Watch 3. There are a few good-looking minimalist options, but most of the Huawei-designed faces are over-designed or just plain ugly. Many more third-party watch faces are available to buy via Huawei's storefront, but that, of course, involves spending more money.

Huawei Watch 3: Competition

The Huawei Watch 3 is likely to go up against many of the best Android smartwatches of the moment. Its main rival in the Android space is the Galaxy Watch 3, which boasts a bigger app ecosystem and tighter integration with Samsung's smartphones.

If you're after a more lightweight exercise-focused option, then the cheaper Galaxy Watch Active 2 could be worth a look. Its battery life will likely fall short of what Huawei offers, but it comes in a smaller and lighter package and also charges over the Qi standard.

Or if you want to save some money, the Fossil Gen 5E sacrifices features like GPS and LTE and features only a day of battery life, but still offers a great core experience thanks to Google's Wear OS, and available for considerably less than other rivals.

It's also worth considering Google's new Wear OS, which is being built in collaboration with Samsung. New watches from both companies are expected later in the year, including a Galaxy Watch 4 and a Fitbit-powered watch from Google. If you're heavily into either ecosystem, it may be worth waiting to see what comes later in the year.

Huawei Watch 3: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if ...

• You're looking for a great all-round smartwatch
• Multi-day battery life is a priority
• You want a design that works well with any strap

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You have very small wrists
• You want the best Google or Samsung integration in a watch
• You want the best voice assistant on your watch

The Huawei Watch 3 is easily the company's best wearable to date, combining a solid loadout of health and exercise-tracking features with a slick and performant UI. Unlike some of Huawei's older wearables, it actually looks good too.

4 out of 5

The Watch 3 trounces most Wear OS watches when it comes to battery life and has the best implementation of a digital crown on anything that's not an Apple Watch. The design is attractive yet neutral enough to work with just about any third-party strap that fits your style, and the focus on style doesn't come at the expense of durability, health features, or conveniences like wireless charging.

The only thing to bear in mind is that it's still early days for HarmonyOS, so some bugs are to be expected. And by the same token, you're not going to have a huge selection of apps to choose from on day one.

Nevertheless, the Huawei Watch 3 is definitely worth considering if you want a good-looking alternative to some of the more traditional smartwatches from Samsung, Fossil and others.

Huawei Watch 3

Bottom line: Huawei's third-generation smartwatch occupies the sweet spot between a great overall smartwatch and a capable fitness tracker. This HarmonyOS-powered wearable is a worthy alternative to Tizen and Wear OS.

• See at Huawei

When it comes to useful peripheral devices, there's nothing quite as valuable (or as elegant) as the smartwatch. Tiny in size but huge in versatility and capability, it's easy to see why smartwatches have become so popular in recent years.

Among the various smartwatches out there, none are quite as special as the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro. Here's a detailed look at what makes the watch so good and why it's an excellent gift to give to a loved one (or to yourself!) this holiday season.

Work hard, play hard

The Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is superb for people who like to get active during their day-to-day life. With full data tracking for heart rate, speed, slope angle, and distance for skiing, cross-country skiing, and snowboarding, the watch is perfect for adventurous sportsmen and women. Folks who like to golf can take advantage of the watch's golf data tracking that keeps an eye on your swing speed, posture, and consistency. This allows you to hone your skills and improve at an accelerated rate. People who simply like to work out will find the watch's 100+ workout modes beneficial, as each one will track important relevant data. Additionally, the watch is capable of fully tracking all of your physical activity so that you can maintain your fitness goals. Finally, in scenarios where you want to explore the great outdoors, automatic route tracking and severe weather warnings help ensure that you'll always be safe and will always be able to find a way back home.

Stay healthy, stay happy

Something about the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro that everyone can benefit from is the watch's health tracking features. With full 24/7 blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring, a special sleep monitoring system that can diagnose six different types of sleeping issues, stress monitoring with Huawei TruRelax, and 24/7 heart rate tracking, users of the watch can rest easy knowing that the Watch GT 2 Pro will help them remain in good health around the clock.

Your everyday assistant

In addition to everything listed above, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro also works excellently as a general companion device. Fans of music will love the fact that up to 500 songs can be stored on the watch and that you can sync the device with Huawei's FreeBuds Pro, while employees and leisure users alike will appreciate the watch's ability to take, reject, or mute calls. Additionally, you can pair the watch with Huawei phones in order to share photos to the watch, which you can then use as a watch face. You can even use the watch to remotely snap a photo with your phone. All of this is enhanced by the watch's 8-14 day battery life, and in scenarios where you need a quick recharge, five minutes of charging will net you 10 full hours of usage time. The watch also charges wirelessly, which is incredibly convenient.

A sleek style

Lastly, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is nothing short of a masterpiece in terms of design and craftsmanship. The frame of the watch is a sleek titanium frame, while the watch dial itself is made out of a damage-resistant sapphire. For maximum comfort on your skin, the back of the watch is also fitted with a pleasant glossy ceramic that feels great to the touch.

In addition to the superb design of the watch itself, there are also over 200 different watch dial customization options for users to choose from, each with their own unique visual styles. This gives users a wealth of different watch faces to choose from.

Perfection on your wrist

Ultimately, the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro is simply unmatched in terms of quality, design, and versatility. This makes it a phenomenal gift for the holiday season, and thankfully it's more affordable than ever. It normally costs € 220, but right now, you can get your hands on it for €125 – a whopping 45% off. Therefore, there's never been a better time to get one for a loved one or for yourself than right now.

If the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro isn't right for you, there are also Huawei's other smartwatches to consider. These include the fitness-focused Huawei Watch Fit as well as the less advanced but more affordable Huawei Watch GT 2. Also, make sure you check out Huawei's Christmas tree activity page for opportunities to win Huawei devices!

The AliExpress 618 Summer Sale is one of the biggest online shopping events in China, but that doesn't mean its deals are limited to China. That's good news, as this sales event is including some of their biggest discounts yet. One highlight deal is on the Huawei Watch GT 2, which you may be able to score for less than half of its retail price.

So, how do you get the discount? By stacking discounts. The first is the most straightforward as you can simply use a code to cut the price of the Huawei Watch GT 2 in half. A second discount code can cut $10 off the price of any items over $100.

Here's the information you need to get the biggest price cut possible:

• Add the Huawei Watch GT 2 to your cart
• At checkout, used the discount code HALFGT2 to immediately cut the price of the Huawei Watch GT 2 to $79.99
• While still in checkout, use the discount code get10 to save an additional $10 on orders over $100

These discounts will bring the price of the Huawei Watch GT 2 down to just $69, which is well below its starting price, which is roughly $250. But, you only have a limited time to take advantage of these deals, as they will end on June 21. And, if you manage to be one of the first 100 buyers, you can get a free Huawei Band 4e fitness tracker as well.

Of course, it's not just the Huawei Band GT 2 that's on sale. Huawei has a huge array of products on sale for the AliExpress 618 Summer Sale, including Huawei's Freebuds3i for $89 and the Watch GT2e for $119 as well was discounts on Huawei's latest phones. You can see all of Huawei's products here.

Huawei Watch GT 2

Score the Huawei Watch GT 2 for just $69 after applying a pair of hefty discounts. With up to two weeks of battery life, a minimalist design, and heart rate monitoring for your daily workout regimen, the Huawei Watch GT 2 brings a lot to the table.

• $69 at AliExpress

Beyond the instant discounts, there are some extra discounts available. You can receive a $10 discount by sharing must-buy products on social media and sending a screenshot of your post. You can find out more here.

What you need to know

• Huawei has announced the Huawei Watch GT2e alongside the P40 and P40 Pro.
• It's a cheaper version of its Watch GT2, planned for an April launch.
• Huawei has also announced a new Sound X speaker, ts first wireless speaker. It's slated for a Summer launch.

Huawei today announced a cheaper smartwatch for those users embedded in its exosystem — the Huawei Watch GT2e. As its name implies, it is related to the Watch GT2, but it's not a successor. It's a slightly cheaper version with new colors that's ultimately meant to be more accessible and affordable for users. Many of the killer features from the GT will make a return here.

You'll see the 14-day battery life powered by the 455 mAh battery, the magnetic charger at the rear, and the round AMOLED screen. It's all powered by a Huawei HiSilicon Hi1132, with 4GB of flash storage and Bluetooth 5.1 for connectivity. It'll work with iPhones from iOS 9 and above, and Android phones running 4.4+.

As for the Watch GT2 itself, it's getting a small update with a new Champagne Gold edition.

Huawei also announced the new Sound X speaker, a beautifully designed wireless speaker and the first of its kind from the Chinese company. Huawei worked with the French audio brand, Deevialet, while building this. It made use of Deevialet's patented signal-processing SAM (Speaker Active Matching) technology, and iconic Push-Push symmetrical structure (in essence, symmetrically positioning two speakers so that their vibrations cancel each other out for a relatively impact-free experience.)

What Huawei brings to the table, aside from its design chops, is its Huawei Share for easy music streaming when using an EMUI 10.1 equipped handset (say, like the P40). You can use WiFi direct and Bluetooth to connect to the speaker as well, though while Huawei says Wi-Fi leads to lossless audio and fewer lag issues, it ultimately recommends Huawei Share as the optimum method of connectivity.

The Watch GT2e will set you back ₤199 when it launches in April. Huawei plans for the Sound X speaker to launch in early Summer 2020.

Huawei's P40 series is here to revolutionize mobile photography

The latest numbers are out for smartwatches in the first quarter of 2019, and it shows very good news for Apple. In year-on-year growth, Apple saw a growth rate of a whopping 48% in the first quarter, giving it 35.8% of the overall smartwatch market.

Sales were driven by the Apple Watch Series 4 and its continued focus on health-related features. According to a survey, the ECG capability was the most desired feature on the watch. Apple recently received approval in 19 additional countries for the ECG feature, which will open it up to even more customers in the future.

Other than notifications and cellular connectivity, the most important factor for smartwatch buyers has been health monitoring. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the largest complaint has been about the limited battery life. Counterpoint Research Analyst Satyajit Sinha had this to say.

Besides Apple's fantastic numbers, there was growth for Samsung, Fitbit, and Huawei as well. With the launch of the Galaxy Watch, Samsung saw very impressive growth of 127% in Q1 of 2019.

While that only adds up to 11% of the overall smartwatch market, it still positions Samsung as the number one Android smartwatch brand.

Huawei was able to grow its market share to 3% overall in Q1 of 2019 with the release of the Huawei Watch GT. At the same time, it also continues to sell fitness bands under its Honor brand.

Fitbit also stands out in the rankings, by growing from 3.7% in Q1 of 2018 to 5.5% in the first quarter of 2019 with its popular fitness-focused smartwatch lineup, such as the Versa and Versa Lite.

The numbers clearly show if you want to be successful in the smartwatch game, you better bring the fitness. Customers are willing to shell out money for smartwatches despite phone sales declining, but only if it has the features they are looking for.

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The smartwatch market is a tough place to compete. As it's evolved, it's become more focused on fitness tracking than blowing up your wrist with notifications. That's understandable given our increasing need to disconnect from our digital obligations.

So if the Huawei Watch 2 was the company's full-featured, app-running, LTE-connecting smartwatch then the Watch GT is a wearable with a different set of priorities. The idea is to target a lower price point with a watch that only does what you really want it to. So fully-fledged apps are out, basic notification mirroring and health tracking is in. As is epic battery life, by way of a pared-back OS that's far more limited than Google's Wear OS.

But as good as the idea may be, the execution, at present, is fatally flawed. Huawei's Lite OS fumbles the smartwatch basics, with buggy, jumbled notifications, bad watch faces and missing table-stakes features like music controls.

The Good

• Excellent battery life
• Pleasing design
• Decent loadout of workout-tracking features

The Bad

• Laggy, buggy software
• Poor message/notification management
• Annoying charging puck
• Missing other features such as music controls

Huawei Watch GT hardware and design

On the outside, the Huawei Watch GT is a pretty good-looking lightweight wearable. Like many fully-fledged smartwatches, it lacks the heft of a traditional timepiece, however that's not a bad thing given the health-tracking focus of the device. I've been using the plain stainless steel version, which has a pleasing polished finish, and comes with a leather-coated silicone strap. If you're after a more fashion-forward look, you could swap it out for a metal band of some sort. (Once again, since this is a health-focused wearable, chances are you won't want to.)

The underside of the watch is where it shows its true focus. The black plastic body houses a heart-rate sensor, while the back of the strap is very clearly an all-rubber affair.

The overall fit is comfortable, feeling like a lightweight sports watch as opposed to a heftier fashion wearable. In the silver color I've been using, reflective lugs contrast pleasingly with the front face, which shows off etched minute markers against a black bezel. Both the body and two side buttons are stainless steel adding a touch of flair beyond the basic plastic shell of the Huawei Watch 2.

It's not the style of what I'd usually go for, but I can appreciate its aesthetics. In that area, in my view, it's a step up from the Watch 2, but still can't match the elegant simplicity of the original 2015 Huawei Watch. (To say nothing of more recent offerings like the Samsung Galaxy Watch and Skagen Falster 2.)

Design-wise, I'm less of a fan of the Watch GT's charger, however. It charges through pins on the back panel, and is supposed to be held in place with magnets... only those magnets do a remarkably terrible job of holding the watch in place, much like the original Huawei Watch's circular charging puck. The watch struggles to stay in place, leading to instances where you'd think the device is charging, but in fact it isn't. (What's stranger is that this issue was fixed in the Huawei Watch 2 by means of plastic grips on the sides of that watch's charger.)

Frustrating as that is, I can overlook it just based on the monumental battery life of the Huawei Watch GT. This is by far the device's most outstanding feature. Whereas most smartwatches can only manage a day or two -- or maybe three if you're lucky -- the Watch GT routinely lasted me up to two weeks per charge. And when I did need to top it off -- assuming the charger held i place -- I could refill enough for multiple days of use in a matter of minutes.

All this means that over the course of a year using the Huawei Watch GT, you might charge it as little as a couple dozen times.

Huawei Watch GT software and features

But this legendary longevity comes at a cost. Huawei's Lite OS offers a much more limited feature set compared to a standard smartwatch, and there are additional trade-offs in the performance of the stuff it can do.

The Watch GT's UI is, at first glance, a reasonably accurate recreation of Google's wearable platform: Swipe down for quick settings, up for notifications, and horizontally to scroll between fitness and weather cards. The top button launches your apps list -- though you're limited to built-in apps only, since no third-party offerings are available -- while the bottom button lets you start a workout.

There's no always-on display option, unsurprisingly for a watch focused on battery life. Nevertheless, it's disappointing to see that basically all of the built-in watch faces look pretty clunky and unattractive, with many of them clashing with the outward appearance of the device's hardware.

What's more, the entire UI is pervaded by a weird frame-rate lag that makes even the less-than-silky Wear OS seem performant by comparison. The watch's notification support is also underdeveloped, without the ability to see which apps messages are coming from. (For instance, an email from Gmail and a WhatsApp message will look confusingly similar.) And a bug in the firmware at the time of writing results in duplicate notifications showing up for text messages. Plus it's impossible to open messages fully or act upon them like you can within Wear OS. The reason for this isn't clear -- Android's notification listener APIs allow any wearable platform to interact properly with notifications, just as Wear OS and Samsung's Tizen watches do. Finally, apps which use a persistent notification, like Uber, seem to confuse the watch. When waiting for an Uber to arrive, the watch would buzz every second or so as the ETA changed.

And then there's the fact that music controls aren't supported at all in the current firmware. That's not a feature I use very day when I'm on Wear OS or a Samsung watch, but it is an option I miss having.

Between all these bugs, and omissions, Lite OS's usefulness as a smartwatch platform is pretty limited.

As a fitness band, the Watch GT's offers a more fleshed-out feature set. As mentioned, the bottom key lets you start a workout at any time, with options ranging from runs in various conditions to climbing, cycling and swimming. For runs in particular, the Watch GT can help you select a course depending on your health goals (for example, fat burning). During other kinds of exercise, the Watch GT tracks your health stats using the heart rate sensor, and distance traveled via GPS.

Sleep recording is also supported, though the relatively large size of the Watch GT may make it unwieldy to wear in bed depending on the size of your wrists. The Huawei Health app, which you'll need to use to pair the watch to your phone, keeps track of all your exercise data, and from there it can also be sync'd to third-party platforms like Google Fit (although I found heart rate data in particular would sync unpredictably, sometimes not showing up in Google's app for several days.)

2.5 out of 5

Ultimately, the Huawei Watch GT is a decent, cheap fitness band dressed up as a smartwatch -- and not a particularly good smartwatch. If you're looking for a wearable to help you see notifications and juggle music playlists, this is not it. Instead, the Watch GT is aimed at a very specific target consumer who wants a focus on health tracking in an inexpensive wearable with long battery life. That's somewhat at odds with the "watch" part of this wearable though, and so for many potential buyers, the Huawei Watch GT will be a device to pass on.

$199 at Amazon

After officially rebranding Android Wear to Wear OS a few weeks ago, Google has released a developer preview for the Huawei Watch 2 that gives us an early look at some of the improvements Android P will bring to the platform.

The preview system image is available on the Android Developers site, where Google also provides instructions on how to install it through ADB on any Windows, Mac, or Linux computer. The developer preview works on both the standard Watch 2 and the more ritzy Huawei Watch 2 Classic — I've been testing it on the latter for a few days now, and making notes of some of the changes made to Wear OS.

Download Wear OS preview

The biggest visual change to Wear OS is the dark UI that's now enabled by default. This isn't necessarily a new feature — dark mode has been around since Android Wear 2.8 — but having it enabled by default encourages much better power efficiency on watches with AMOLED displays. The Huawei Watch 2 only has to illuminate the pixels for text and icons, leaving out the pitch black background and causing significantly less power drain.

That's not the only new way that Wear OS conserves power, though. With some exceptions like watch faces, apps can no longer run in the background unless the watch is on its charger. Wireless connections like Bluetooth and WiFi will also automatically turn off when the watch detects that you're not wearing it. If you have a Huawei Watch 2 with LTE, your cellular radios will be disabled as well.

WiFi no longer turns on automatically when Bluetooth is disconnected. In the past, this has been a measure to continue seamlessly receiving notifications when you're not connected to your phone, but moving forward you'll need to turn on WiFi manually if you want to keep on top of new notifications. This may seem like an annoyance, but it's a good way to keep your power consumption low when, for example, you're at the gym and only brought your watch to stream music to your headphones.

In the Wear OS release notes, Google lists a few known issues, but they're mostly related to filing bug reports. For the most part, the Android Pie developer preview has been perfectly stable, though one usability issue to bear in mind is that the Watch 2 sometimes has trouble accepting incoming phone calls. If you like to handle most of your calls from your smartwatch, you may want to hold off on the developer preview build for now.

It's great to see Google finally giving its wearables some attention again, but I fear it may be too little, too late. The Wear OS selection has been dwindling for years, and the Huawei Watch 2 is already over a year old — how much does new software matter without any new hardware to demonstrate it on? Still, even in their diminished state, smartwatches offer a number of conveniences for the right kinds of people, and it's good to know that Google hasn't completely given up on the market.

Are you still interested in Wear OS and smartwatches in general? And if you have a Huawei Watch 2, would you or have you installed the developer preview? Let us know in the comments below!

Update: B&H dropped the price of the Huawei Watch by $50 since we last posted. The blue Fit Sport watch also dropped by $20 on Amazon

B&H Photo currently has some great deals on both the Huawei Watch and Huawei Fit Sport Watch, dropping prices down to as low as just $79.99. The Android Wear-powered Huawei Watch is starting at $149.99 with a black stainless steel band (open box) or $199.99 brand new. The Huawei Watch is still one of the best Android Wear smartwatches, but keep in mind that it is 2 years old at this point, and isn't likely to receive many more updates.

If you don't need the full Android Wear integration, you can pick up the Fit Sport Watch for $79.99 or $89.99, depending on color preference. The Fit Sport Watch offers heart rate monitoring, IP68 waterproof rating, fitness tracking, phone notifications, and more. Amazon also has the blue version for $69.99

See at B&H Photo

More from Thrifter:

• How to get the most out of your Amazon Prime membership
• How to save money when driving

For more great deals be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

You could be forgiven for forgetting all about the Huawei Porsche Design Smartwatch, a footnote at the company's Mobile World Congress press conference back in February. But now the watch is actually available to buy, with the listing on Porsche Design's official site having quietly gone up in the past 24 hours.

Porsche Design's first smartwatch will set you back a cool €795 ($925) — not a huge amount by luxury watch standards, or Porsche Design standards — but around double the cost of the non-PD Huawei Watch Classic, upon which it's based. There are European and UK SKUs available direct from Porsche Design, but no words when (or if) the watch will be heading to American shores. (The $1,500 Porsche Design Mate 9 never came to the U.S., so maybe don't hold your breath.)

Aside from the extra branding and design flair, you're effectively getting a Huawei Watch 2 Classic with some extra watch faces. On the inside, it's the same Snapdragon Wear 2100-based setup, complete with 1.2-inch AMOLED display and 768MB of RAM.

If you're curious about how this device would look and feel in a cheaper plastic shell, check out our Huawei Watch 2 review.

See at Porsche Design

It's no secret that we weren't big fans of the Huawei Watch 2, a plastic-and-ceramic successor to a metal legacy that left us feeling dejected and a little confused over the company's seemingly half-baked plans for wearables.

Well, after having used the Huawei Watch 2 Classic for some time, I can safely say the issue lies largely with branding and marketing than with the series itself. While the Classic is by no means a true visual successor to one of 2015's best Android Wear devices, its use of actual metal around the frame and replaceable 22mm bands certainly gets it close.

Like the Watch 2, the Classic is equipped with a bunch of top-notch specs for a modern smartwatch, including a super-sharp 1.2-inch OLED panel at 390x390 pixels, a Snapdragon 2100 processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of storage (which can be used to store and play music offline), a heart rate sensor, a GPS radio, IP68 water resistance, and a 420mAh battery that's quoted for two days (but is closer to a day and a half).

All it lacks compared to the Watch 2 is an integrated LTE radio and eSIM, which provides 4G service with a compatible carrier.

But here's what you gain: a much more attractive and "public-friendly" timepiece that, at just 60.5 grams, is considerably lighter than much of the competition. And while I don't love the fake chronometer bezel that doesn't spin despite looking like it should, overall I find the Huawei Watch 2 Classic extremely easy to wear, and quite enjoyable to use.

Of course, it comes with Android Wear 2.0 included out of the box, which took some time getting here but the wait was worth it: this is a much more polished experience than what debuted in 2014. Google took its time to figure out exactly what was needed from its nascent wearables ecosystem, and the result is a platform that can stand on its own — with GPS you can take this running sans phone and record a run while listening to locally stored music — but is best when paired to an Android phone.

The Huawei Watch 2 Classic does come equipped with a quick release mechanism for its included leather band, which is appreciated since the inclusion of a second button on the right side and a GPS radio primes the watch for running, which doesn't go so well with the leather strap.

Huawei's included Workout app, which launches with a press of that bottom button (say that five times fast!), is quite impressive, though Google Fit Workout and Runtastic were also included on my version.

Any other app that isn't included can be downloaded directly from the now-local Play Store, a move that, as mentioned, brings additional independence to the Android Wear platform.

In reality, the only real differentiation here is something I'd rather try to overlook: the watch faces that don't fit at all with the Watch's aesthetic. They're garish and skeuomorphic and feel out of place on this still-sporty metal design. Instead, I'd recommend diving into the deep, deep library of available third-party watch faces.

Of course, notifications are still Android Wear's strong suit, and the Watch 2 Classic performs that duty with aplomb. Without delving too deep into the app or workout side of things, I was able to stretch the Classic's battery life to just over a day and a half.

The Huawei Watch 2 Classic makes up for the missteps of the mainline Watch 2, and that's good enough for me to keep it on my wrist for the next little while. I prefer to it the gargantuan size of the LG Watch Sport, and though I could live without the fake chronometry around the admittedly large bezels, the fundamentals are excellent.

At close to $360 on Amazon right now, this is not a small investment, but if you're looking for a high-end Android Wear watch in 2017 with a GPS and a reasonable footprint, the Huawei Watch 2 Classic is your best bet.

See at Amazon

Android Wear is kind of all over the place right now. All the watches released in the past few months have either been ridiculously huge — hi there LG Watch Sport and Huawei Watch 2 — or underwhelming for other reasons — sup LG Watch Style, with sub-24-hour battery life. Even outside of the Android Wear world, the smartwatches of 2017 seem dead set on pushing superfluous features like LTE connectivity at the cost of aesthetics — whaddup Samsung Gear S3. And maybe I'm just weird, but the first thing I want from a watch is for it to look good. The functionality I seek from a wrist computer is relatively basic — show me notifications and keep the cruft to a minimum.

You'd think that wouldn't be too much to ask. And yet it's been surprisingly difficult to find a modern watch that delivers on those basic requirements, without complicating things too much.

For that reason, I've found myself turning to the previous generation of wearables as they're updated to the new Android Wear 2.0, and my current favorite is a device I've used on and off for the past couple of years — the original Huawei Watch.

The primary reason I'm using the OG Huawei Watch right now, as opposed to anything more recent, is the way it looks. The model I'm using is the silver variant with a metal strap, and despite its lack of ambient light sensor, this thing looks better than just about any other smartwatch — with the possible exception of the Apple Watch, if that's your thing.

The appearance of the first-gen Huawei Watch hasn't changed since we reviewed it way back in September 2015. It's admittedly chunky, but the appearance of the device isn't completely entirely removed from that of a fashion watch. The strap doesn't fasten quite as effortlessly as Apple's milanese loop, but it's close. And it's aged better than the relatively cheap leather paired with other Huawei Watch variants.

Battery life, too, has held up well. I haven't used the Huawei Watch ever single day for the past two years, but still, it's still able to get me through a full day of notification wrangling, music shortcutting and call rejecting with around 50 percent in the tank by the day's end. There's been no change — either positive or negative — with the Android Wear 2.0 update.

The same goes for the display, which in a world of Huawei Watch 2s and LG Watch Sports which can adjust their brightness on the fly, stands out as a minor inconvenience. I still need to set the brightness level of my Huawei Watch manually whenever I go inside. And that means I'm constantly bouncing between not being able to see it in daylight, and having to scramble to dim the brightness level in darker settings.

I'm also aware of at least two friends who've experienced significant display burn-in after using the same watch face on their Huawei Watch for the past year or so. (That's where parts of the watch face appear to be inked permanently into the panel.) That's not unexpected for an OLED panel, but something to watch out for as the device ages. And another long-running annoyance: I've been continually vexed by the watch's frustrating charging dock — which loves to slip free from its contact pins — and the physical button, which feels decidedly squishy on my unit.

All of these are hardware quirks which aren't going to disappear anytime soon. But the Huawei Watch's software has changed significantly over the past couple of months, as the Android Wear 2.0 update has been rolled out. It's now easier to hop between watch faces with a quick swipe. The circular app drawer is immediately accessible behind a press of the hardware key — and like Wear 2.0's notifications, this part of the UI is now better suited to a circular display.

Notifications themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. If you're used to the ease with which you could dismiss or read alerts on a Tizen watch or Android Wear 1.x device, you'll find a few more taps and swipes are required to drill down and deal with emails, instant messages, calls and other notifications. Nevertheless, the whole UI seems more at home on the Huawei Watch's circular screen, which is something you couldn't say about the preloaded software back in 2015.

The other big change in Wear 2.0 is the ability to — independently — run apps directly on the watch itself. There's a Play Store app on the watch, and the device now functions like any other Android gadget, with your Google accounts and other data being copied across during setup.

I'm not big on running apps on my watch, for one pretty simple reason — if a task takes me more than a few seconds to execute, I'm just going to pull out my phone anyway. And so I haven't gone into great depth with on-watch apps. I've dabbled in Google Assistant, and Google's AI seems to have stepped up its game significantly since it first debuted on Wear, with speech recognition being one notable area of improvement.

Nevertheless, no amount of software can eliminate the social stigma of talking into your wrist, and so I've also appreciated the move towards on an on-watch keyboard in Android Wear 2.0. Ironically, this works better on the older Huawei Watch compared to the newer one, due to the larger screen, and I've found it fits the bill when I need a quick, convenient way to fire off a reply without reaching for my phone.

I'm still not using the Huawei Watch to anywhere near its full potential. But given that newer watches are building out functionality that I, and many others, simply don't want or need, I'm happy to use and recommend it even two years on from its initial debut. The lack of automatic brightness is a downer. I'm moderately) disappointed that there's no NFC for Android Pay. But on a day-to-day basis, it's hard to argue with the basic "meat and potatoes" experience offered by the Huawei Watch.

Meaningful progress in the smartwatch space may have stalled, but at least we still have attractive, capable Android wearables like the "Huatch" that do a great job of putting notifications on your wrist.

More: Huawei Watch 2 review

Better late than never: Over the weekend, the original Huawei Watch, released in late 2015, finally started to receive its Android Wear 2.0 update. Three months after Wear 2.0 first debuted, the update is rolling out to both developer preview and stable channel Huawei Watch devices. If you were running the previous Wear 2.0 preview build, the final over-the-air update will factory reset your device.

To update, head to Settings > System > About > System updates. It's been reported on Reddit that anyone not seeing the update notification can try disabling Bluetooth on their phone, connecting their watch to Wifi and repeatedly tap the blue check mark until something happens. Alternatively, OTA packages are also available for manual flashing. (Lastly, you could also manually flash the Wear 2.0 developer preview and then take the OTA from there, if you're not seeing it on your Wear 1.5-running Huawei Watch — but that's a more involved process.)

So far the Android Wear 2.0 update appears to be a significant upgrade for the watch, bringing its performance and feature set in line with the Huawei Watch 2 (save for LTE connectivity and Android Pay support, of course). Performance is noticeably smoother throughout the software, and the Wear 2.0 experience is much better suited to a circular display. And there's also the much-hyped ability to directly install apps on the watch, and directly reply to messages through the built-in keyboard.

More: Android Wear 2.0 review

If you've got Wear 2.0 up and running on your Huawei Watch, be sure to let us know how you're getting on down in the comments!

We weren't too impressed by the Huawei Watch 2 in our initial review, but perhaps the ten weeks of free Google Play Music could entice you to give it a try, anyway. The Android Wear 2.0-based smartwatch is now available for purchase at various retailers around the U.S., including BestBuy and Amazon.

The Huawei Watch 2 is the successor to the widely popular Huawei Watch from 2015. It runs on a Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor and 768MB of RAM. It also offers 4GB of storage, a heart rate sensor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC and optional LTE. You can get it in carbon black or a color called concrete gray, which features brightly colored speckles and a more athletic aesthetic. There's also the Huawei Watch 2 Classic, which comes in Titanium Grey. The watches cost $299.99 and $369.99, respectively. You can read more on the Google Play Music deal in Huawei's official press release.

Read more in our review of the Huawei Watch 2

I loved the Huawei Watch. It was sleek, it was sexy, it had a battery that went for days... but it doesn't have NFC. We can't change that, much as we wanted to after we saw the headscratchers that were the Huawei Watch 2 and the Huawei Watch 2 Classic.

Although a Huawei representative confirmed to Ausdroid that the watch does have a latent NFC chip inside — it just needed to be turned on — we can confirm that, after reaching out to the company, the Huawei Watch doesn't have NFC, and won't be getting Android Pay when it receives Android Wear 2.0.

If you are looking for a nice-looking Android Wear watch with NFC and battery life for days, you can check out the LG Watch Sport, or wait for the inevitable influx of other smartwatches coming in the next few months with a similar look and feature set.

The best Android Wear watch

The original Huawei Watch was a go-to choice for those who wanted an Android Wear watch that was a bit sleeker and better built than most other choices throughout 2016. It was a bit on the expensive side, and yes it was thick, but it had a slick exterior and lugs that could adapt to just about any sort of band you wanted to put on it. When Android Wear 2.0 was readying for launch, fans awaited a refresh of the Huawei Watch for 2017 that could carry on that good will.

And then, we got this: the Huawei Watch 2. A watch so clearly not designed in any way to be a successor to the original Huawei Watch, and unfortunately also not built to the same hardware standards. The Huawei Watch 2 actually had a last-minute branding change from "Huawei Watch 2 Sport," and had Huawei kept that name it would have made a bit more sense overall — but still, the more classically built Huawei Watch 2 Classic doesn't exactly follow the original Huawei Watch's design or quality, either.

This is a clean break from the original Huawei Watch in terms of everything but branding. This is a big, feature-packed watch, but unfortunately one that takes a different direction in quality while retaining a high price. Does it have enough to stand out from what is already a growing crowd of 2017 Android Wear 2.0 watches? Our full review covers all the bases.

About this review

I (Andrew Martonik) am writing this review after 11 days using the Huawei Watch 2, connected over Bluetooth to an LG G6. The watch arrived with pre-release software, and was not updated during the course of the review. It was provided to Android Central for review by Huawei.

New big watch

Huawei Watch 2 Hardware

From a distance, the Huawei Watch 2 looks like a typical big sport-focused watch not too different from the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier. But when you pick it up, strap it on your wrist and interact with it, the watch feels much more like a toy than anything else. The so-called "mixed plastics" that make up the body range from thin textured panels around the side to faux metal buttons and a polished glass-like (but undeniably still plastic) bezel.

That bezel, which is gnarled like the Gear S3's, evokes the feeling that you should be able to rotate it ... but alas, it is fixed in place. Incidentally, the back of the watch that rests on your wrist is the best-feeling part as it's a solid piece of milled metal — an interesting reversal from most other smartwatches that use metal primarily and cheap-feeling plastic on the back, but disappointing nonetheless. Despite all of the apparent openings around the case, the Huawei Watch 2 is also IP68 dust and water-resistant, which is important to offer on any smartwatch today.

The included sport-styled rubber band is perhaps the cheapest feeling piece of the entire watch. Even though it is plenty thick and feels relatively robust like it could survive some damage over time, it is super glossy and slick feeling — befitting of a $25 Timex from Walmart, not a $300+ smartwatch. Look no further than the quality of band you can get on the Gear S3 to see how to do this type of band right at the same price. Huawei's band certainly looks the part, but in no way executes on the quality.

The Huawei Watch 2's thick bezel stands up tall over the circular display that clocks in at just 1.2-inches across, which is definitely on the small side compared to the overall size of the watch case. The 390x390 AMOLED display looks pretty good, but isn't to the level of what Samsung and LG are doing on their wearables today — thankfully it has automatic brightness without a flat tire, and is covered with Gorilla Glass.

Internally the Huawei Watch 2 has the same story we're going to see time and time again in 2017 Android Wear smartwatches. A Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a heart rate sensor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC and optional LTE. Perhaps the only impressive part of this hardware is that Huawei managed to fit everything listed previously inside a case that is 49 x 45 mm, and just 12.6 mm thick, while retaining a removable 20 mm watch band — a solid improvement from the much larger and heavier LG Watch Sport.

This dovetails into the only other redeeming quality of the Huawei Watch 2: it is so much lighter than the competition. It's made out of plastic, so it darn well better be lighter, but the Huawei Watch weighs just 59 grams — a full 30 grams lighter than the LG Watch Sport. So even with its 12.6 mm thickness and relatively large case size, it doesn't feel as large. And for a watch that is undeniably styled to be a go-anywhere, do-anything type of wearable, that's very important.

Wear 2.0 is still good

Huawei Watch 2 Software and experience

An important quality of Android Wear from the perspective of someone who will use multiple smartwatches over the course of the year is how similar the experience is from model to model. With near-identical internals and software, the core experience of Android Wear 2.0 is consistent across watches — and indeed the Huawei Watch 2 handles notifications, navigation, Google Assistant and fitness tracking the same as the LG Watch Sport I reviewed less than a month ago.

The only places that Huawei can differentiate itself is with pre-installed watch faces and apps, which in both cases — at least on this pre-release software — it hasn't executed dutifully.

Many of the pre-installed watch faces are not well-styled to match the Huawei Watch 2's hardware, and don't integrate with Android Wear 2.0's new watch face complication API. Thankfully there's a growing number of good watch faces in the Play Store, but I just wish I had the same great ones available on my LG Watch Sport (and perhaps it will in final firmware). Huawei's integrated fitness app is also a hot mess, with a subpar design and annoying reminders to do stretches throughout the day, but thankfully you can bypass it in favor of the revamped Google Fit (which can do daily step tracking and workouts) and a cadre of third-party fitness apps.

Our complete Android Wear 2.0 review!

Android Wear 2.0 is a complete overhaul of Google's wearable platform, from interface and design to apps and functionality. For the complete breakdown of everything that's new in the latest release, be sure to read our complete Android Wear 2.0 review.

Read our complete Android Wear 2.0 review here!

One of Android Wear 2.0's optional features, the aptly named "rotational input," is unfortunately not here in any form. At one time I would have balked at this as a superfluous addition, but my time with the LG Watch Sport and Samsung Gear S3 has completely converted me to wanting a rotating bezel or crown on a smartwatch. It's a clean and fast way to navigate the interface — particularly on Android Wear 2.0 — and would have been extra helpful considering the Huawei Watch 2's small 1.2-inch display and large bezel that gets in the way of precise edge touches.

Two of Android Wear 2.0's new features — mobile payments and independent cellular connectivity — have made their way here, though, and work as they do on the LG Watch Sport. The Huawei Watch 2's SIM card tray is easily accessible without tools, and though U.S. carriers have yet to announce formal support for the watch (which hasn't yet launched stateside) there's no reason why it couldn't integrate with their number sync systems just as any other Android Wear 2.0 watch. Android Pay on a watch of this size is table stakes going forward, but again it's great to see it in a watch that's smaller than LG's and has a removable band.

Battery life

After using the LG Watch Sport and needing to charge it each and every night, I was surprised to see Huawei claiming two days of use out of its 420 mAh battery. Thanks to its smaller display and perhaps some software tuning, the Huawei Watch 2 absolutely can handle two days of use — at least in my usage with an always-on watch face, automatic brightness but not using LTE. A typical day of light usage would leave me with upwards of 60% battery when I went to bed. I would guess that with LTE turned on and always-on watch faces turned off, you could maybe eke out two full days depending on how much you hit the mobile data.

More realistically for those who are expecting to charge their smartwatch every night right where they charge their phone, the Huawei Watch 2 offers plenty of head room in terms of being able to hit the watch hard with app use, fitness tracking and even GPS for runs without worrying about it dying in a single day.

Huawei's clip-on charger feels just as cheap as the watch, and while it isn't as elegant as the stand-up inductive chargers that you find on other watches it definitely gets the job done and is far preferable if you need to travel. The charger can easily be wound up and stuffed in a bag, and for a lot of people that's a bigger feature than being able to nicely display the watch on your bedside table in a cradle. It also clips on satisfyingly with magnets, so you know it will always charge when it's attached.

A disappointing round 2

Huawei Watch 2 Bottom line

Huawei unfortunately squandered the good will it built up over the past two years with the original Huawei Watch. The Huawei Watch 2, while retaining a sequential naming convention, is in no way a worthy step up from the original. To its credit Huawei did execute on the core feature set we expect in order to recommend an Android Wear 2.0 watch: good performance, a full spec sheet and solid battery life.

Unfortunately, it's the fringe decisions that don't give you the feeling that this is a complete product. The Huawei Watch 2's design seems fine from a sport watch perspective, but the build quality and materials are far from great. The display is a bit on the small side and is just middle-of-the-road in terms of quality. The Huawei-added watch faces and software aren't compelling, and the lack of a rotating bezel or crown feels like a missed opportunity.

For less money, it may be easier to accept the Huawei Watch 2 for what it is. But at €329 for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi or €379 with LTE, Huawei is asking way too much money for this low level of design and hardware execution. As a complete product, the Huawei Watch 2 feels befitting of a small company making its first smartwatch, not a massive global consumer electronics maker aiming to improve on what was one of the best smartwatches of the last generation.

If you're feeling nostalgic about the original Huawei Watch, or just enjoy all of the specs and features that Huawei is able to push into the Huawei Watch 2, but (understandably) don't like its exterior, there's a good chance that the metal-and-leather Huawei Watch 2 Classic will be a better one to consider. Its more understated case, metal construction and more typical lugs will fit with more styles of clothing — but at €399 is even more expensive than the Huawei Watch 2.

See at Huawei

Whether you want a different watch band to wear with your Huawei Watch or you need to replace your charging cradle, there's an accessory for the Huawei Watch out there for you.

Update January 2017: These are still our top picks of accessories for your Huawei Watch.

• Motong tempered glass screen protector
• Yesoo magnetic Milanese stainless steel strap for Huawei watch
• Huawei Watch charging cradle
• Swiss Watch International 24-slot watch strap storage case
• Mudder 5-piece watchmakers screwdriver set
• Mode Bands

Motong tempered glass screen protector

You paid good money for your Huawei Watch. Protect your investment with a tempered glass screen protector.

Motong's tempered glass screen protector melds closely with your watch's screen so that there aren't any gaps where dust can accumulate or that might get damaged.

At 0.3mm, the glass overlay is very thin and is therefore hardly noticeable. Better still, since it is designed with touchscreens in mind, it doesn't interfere at all with the screen's sensitivity.

Although thin, it is quite strong with a hardness level of 9H, just under the hardness rating for diamonds.

See at Amazon

Yesoo magnetic Milanese stainless steel strap for Huawei watch

If you're looking for style and that rich, upper-crust feeling, then look no further than Yesoo's magnetic Milanese watch strap.

Yesoo blends elegance and durability together with this watch band. Made of stainless steel, its beautiful Milanese loop pattern won't look out of place at a black-tie event.

Forget fumbling and struggling with buckles to get your watch strapped on. Yesoo's magnetic clasp clicks into place with little effort and stays closed until you decide to take your watch off.

This watch band is 18mm wide and adjusts to fit wrists that measure 12.5mm to 17.5mm in circumference.

For more watch bands, head on over here.

See at Amazon

Huawei Watch charging cradle

If you've misplaced the charging cradle for your Huawei Watch — or if you just want a spare one for the office or your travel bag — you're in luck because the Google Store sells a replacement.

Made of brushless stainless steel, the cradle is attractive and strong.

See at The Google Store

Swiss Watch International 24-slot watch strap storage case

There are so many different watch bands available for your Huawei Watch — so many in fact, that you need a place to keep all of them

This storage case from Swiss Watch International is perfect for all your watch band storage needs. The exterior is made out of durable synthetic leather while the interior is covered with soft black velvet that's perfect for protecting your watch straps

It holds up to 24 straps that measure up to 22mm wide. Each watch strap slides onto a holder though the loop in the band.

See at Amazon

Mudder 5 piece watchmakers screwdriver set

If you frequently replace your watch band, then you might like to have a watchmaker's screwdriver set. These small tools make removing those tiny watch screws a simple matter.

Mudder's watchmaker tool-set has five pieces:

• 0.80mm screwdriver
• 1.00mm screwdriver
• 1.20mm screwdriver
• 1.40mm screwdriver
• 1.60mm screwdriver

Each screwdriver is color-coded so that you can easily find the size you need, and replacement tips are included, too.

See at Amazon

MODE Bands

If you are tired of watch band pins and the tiny tools you need install them MODE bands could be for you! Google has now released their MODE bands and they might just be the easiest watch bands to install ever! If you take a look at the neat video on the MODE site, you can see just how easy these bands can attach to your Huawei Watch.

All you have to do is replace the original pin that is on your Huawei Watch add the MODE pin. The it's just a simple matter of sliding your MODE band over the pin, and locking it shut!

Hadley Roma is currently the only manufacturer making the MODE bands, and they start around $50. Remember, in order for this to work with your Huawei Band you need to get the the 18 mm band so it fits properly.

See at Amazon

Do you use accessories for your Huawei Watch?

Tell us in the comments which accessories you like to use, and which are your favorites!

See Huawei Watch at Amazon

The stainless steel mesh band for the Huawei Watch is a beauty. It's modern and classic at the same time, looks great with every outfit, and it's popular. But with a starting price of $129, it's not exactly nice to your wallet. We have some options that will still look great for way less.

• PluStore stainless steel mesh band
• Threeeggs stainless steel watch strap
• Rerii mesh stainless steel watch band
• Aim101 mesh stainless steel watch band
• Ritche 18mm mesh stainless steel bracelet

PluStore stainless steel mesh band

Coming in mighty close to the real thing, the stainless steel mesh band from PluStore comes in silver, black, and rose gold. The metal is flexible, comfortable, and durable; wear it at the office or leave it on for your post-work workout.

The quick-release interlocking clasp is a spot-on match to the original band. Installation is simple and the pins are of excellent quality; exactly what you're looking for. For around $20, you might as well get one in each color and still stay well within the budget lines.

See at Amazon

Threeeggs stainless steel watch strap

If you're looking to stay true to the solely silver look of the Huawei band, the Threeeggs stainless steel strap will do very nicely. The smooth stainless steel mesh is lovely from a distance or when admired close up close (and you know you want that Huawei Watch to be admired).

Whatever your wrist size, you'll find a snug and comfortable fit with the watch strap, so there's no need to worry about ordering the right size. The six-month warranty should also give you some peace of mind while you take it on every test drive you can think of, and at around $17, you'll have plenty of people thinking you're one big spender (what they don't know won't hurt them).

See at Amazon

Rerii mesh stainless steel watch band

Another contender in the colorful bands category comes from Rerii. Their variations of black, silver, and rose gold are all gorgeous match to the Huawei Watch. The brand is known for its wide variety of band styles and solid customer reviews, not to mention the one-year warranty on these stainless steel bands.

The quick-release band is secure but easy to work with and it's not going to shake around on your wrist while you go about your day, whether you're spending your hours at a desk or out and about in the city. Rerii bands start around $20, so nab a couple for yourself to match up with absolutely everything.

See at Amazon

Aim101 mesh stainless steel watch band

Three more beauties to bid on in black, silver, and rose gold can be found courtesy of the Aim101 store on eBay. You won't need any tools to install this band; the quick-release pins make installation and removal a breeze, although we suspect that once you put the band on, you won't want to take it off.

The quick-release clasp is secure, the band is fully adjustable to any wrist size, and it's a near perfect match to the original Huawei mesh band. The mesh weave is soft but sturdy, so it won't feel rigid or uncomfortable with prolonged wear. At just under the $16 mark, it's a fantastic buy.

See at ebay

Ritche 18mm mesh stainless steel bracelet

If you're still looking for a better bargain price, then you'll be pleased with the mesh bracelet from Ritche, which comes in just a hair under $10. It comes in beautiful polished silver and, although it's not specifically made to replace Huawei's original, the 18mm size is a seamless fit.

The bracelet itself is slightly thinner than the original band, but mesh bands are designed to be lightweight and flexible, so the Ritche fits the bill for sure. Only you'll know what a steal this accessory was!

See at Amazon

Bargain hunters, rejoice!

Still not convinced that these are ideal replacements for the real thing? Have a look at Huawei's band and see for yourself. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

If you've found a stellar alternative band for much less, shout it out in the comments below.

Sweat and water-resistant, silicone bands are perfect for handling any activity you can think of!

We found some of the best silicone bands you can use with your Huawei Watch, so you can sweat it out anytime you want.

• Rerii silicone band
• Barton silicone band
• JP Leatherworks Rubbertech band
• MOTONG silicone band
• MODE bands

Reri i silicone band

The Rerii silicone band is everything you could want from a watch band.

It has quick release pins for easy and frustration-free installation, and it can be adjusted from 120 mm to 170 mm in length, so finding the size that fits you should be easy.

Available in multiple colors such as red, green, sky blue, and black, the Rerii silicone band will fit anybody's style.

See at Amazon

Barton silicone band

Barton's silicone band has a brilliant quick release system that anyone can do with one finger. You won't need to fiddle around with tools, so changing bands won't take time out of your day.

This band has a slightly textured back that is designed to allow airflow between the skin and the band, providing you with comfort throughout the whole day.

Available in a variety of colors such as cool grey, roarange, and soft blue, the Barton silicone band is great at being truly eye-catching.

See at Amazon

JP Leatherworks Rubbertech band

We know leather is in its name, but the JP Leatherworks Rubbertech band is the real deal.

It's a little thicker than your average silicone band, which means it feels very solid on your wrist and more resistant to your average wear and tear.

The tire tread design may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it certainly stands out in the crowd of plain silicone bands out there.

If you want something a little different looking this could be the one for you.

See at Amazon

MOTONG silicone band

MOTONG makes a plethora of quality watch bands for all sorts of smartwatches and the Huawei Watch is no exception.

This comes with all the new hardware you need to install the MOTONG silicone band, so it's perfect if you want new pins to replace your old ones.

The clasp also comes with a push button close, meaning you never have to worry about your watch band accidentally coming undone.

See at Amazon

Mode bands

Google's Mode bands are perfect for people who want a permanent solution to dealing with those pesky pins.

The bands attach with a quick release mechanism that is super simple to use.

All you have to do is remove your old pins and put in the Mode pins. After that, you just clip on the Mode band and lock it in place.

There are tons of colors and styles available.

See at Google

The Huawei Watch, has gotten a $100 price cut this week over at Best Buy for the stainless steel and black leather version, bringing it down to $250 from it's normal $350. We've seen a number of deals on this watch lately, but this is one of the steepest discounts we have seen so far.

If you've been on the fence about getting this watch for yourself, it's still topping our Best Android Wear smartwatches list, and even if you're not a huge fan of the black leather (though the band here is by no means bad), the bands on the Huawei Watch are easy to swap out for your favorite 22 mm band. It's also two weeks to Father's Day, should you be looking for something to get your old man.

See at Best Buy

The Huawei Watch Elegant and Jewel are two female-focused Android Wear smartwatch options from the company, and both are now available to purchase in the U.S. With these you'll find a subtly curved watch body, thin leather band, rose gold-plated stainless steel and more. The watches were announced back at CES, and now they are finally able to be purchased for those interested in picking one up.

The Jewel variant has jewels embedded in the bezel while the Elegant model has a textured look to the bezel. These two watches are slightly larger in size than the original one, coming in at 44mm instead of the previous 42mm.

You can pick them up from a number of retailers, like Amazon, Best Buy, Huawei, B&H Photo, and even the Google Store. The retail pricing for will be $499 for the Elegant and $599 for the Jewel. For a limited time, you can pick one up at select retailers for $50 off. If you are in the market for the original variant of the Huawei Watch, you can pick one up for as little as $250 right now.

See at Amazon

Press release:

WOMEN'S SMARTWATCH OPTIONS WIDEN AS HUAWEI BRINGS NEW MODELS TO U.S.

Premium Jewel and Elegant models designed with women in mind will retail for $499.99-$599.99 USD

PLANO, Texas [May 3, 2016]: Huawei Watch, the smartwatch collection known for its classic, high-end design, is expanding to include two new luxurious models for women on sale in the U.S. starting today.

Elegant and Jewel deliver the same timeless, uncompromising style and function that won acclaim for the original Huawei Watch models but are designed specifically with women in mind. A subtly curved watch body and a soft, thin Italian leather band make the watch even more comfortable on a woman's wrist. Both models are crafted in premium rose gold-plated stainless steel and available with a pearl white or sapphire blue band. Elegant features a clous de Paris pattern encircling the face, while Jewel sparkles thanks to being made with 68 SWAROVSKI ZIRCONIA. Plus, both models are preloaded with more than 40 watch faces, including 10 exclusive to Elegant and Jewel.

"We have seen great interest in Huawei Watch from men and women alike but want to give consumers more choices to match their personal style," said Yanyan Ji, vice president, head of marketing for Huawei Device USA. "With Elegant and Jewel, we are bringing more options that blend the practical function of a smartwatch with the flair of a fashionable accessory."

Style Statement

Inspired by traditional timepieces from the finest Swiss watchmakers, Huawei Watch is designed to look heirloom-worthy. It complements outfits for any occasion, whether it's an important business meeting or gala of the season. It also allows you to have fun customizing. Like all Huawei Watch models, Elegant and Jewel's bands can be easily swapped for a fresh look. Countless designer faces can be downloaded instantly from the Google Play store to suit your mood, and the screen will stay beautiful thanks to scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.

Sophisticated Smart

With the same best-in-class specs of the original Huawei Watch, Elegant and Jewel excel in work and play. Powered by the latest version of Android Wear™, Elegant and Jewel feature the latest in smartwatch technology: hands-free calling made possible through a speaker within the watch. Notifications for texts, emails, and apps are displayed on a sharp 400 x 400 AMOLED screen. Bluetooth™ connectivity for wireless headphones lets you listen to offline music downloads while you work out, and with voice commands capable of controlling music as well as navigation, plus heart rate and motion sensors, it's the perfect running companion. Huawei Watch is compatible with iOS and Android operating systems.

Elegant and Jewel were unveiled at CES 2016 and are available in the U.S. just in time for Mother's Day. They are available for purchase at Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and select Best Buy store locations, BHPhotoVideo.com, Google Play™ store and NewEgg.com. To learn more about Elegant and Jewel, or the entire Huawei Watch collection, visit http://consumer.huawei.com/minisite/worldwide/huawei-watch/for-ladies.htm

Huawei is currently offering an enticing deal on the company's smartwatch at vMall. Should you purchase the Huawei Watch through the UK or select European online stores, you'll be able to take advantage of a £80 (or equivalent) sign-up bonus on the watch with a leather strap or link band.

Pricing for the two listings are £289 and £329, respectively. Include the £80 new member sign-up bonus and you're looking at £209 and £249. This promotion appears to be valid for other European countries too with a €100 bonus, so be sure to check vMall in your location to see if there's a sign-up bonus on the Watch in your area. (Hit "vMall Deals" on the vMall website.)

Here are links to the UK vMall store:

• Huwei Watch with leather strap
• Huawei Watch with link band

We recently had a company-wide summit outside of Atlanta, GA. You've probably seen pictures on social media of the fun stuff — imagine a boat filled with tech bloggers, an open bar and an Xbox — but a good portion of our days were spent in meetings trying to figure stuff out. Many of us have been to similar company retreats.

Of course, we couldn't just drop everything else going on. Android stuff doesn't stop happening just because people are busy doing other things. The skeleton crew at home did a wonderful job, and were lifesavers for the most part. But if you're a slave to your inbox like I am, you know that you can never really get away.

Normally, I sit at a desk all day long and let the email flow and ding and flash tabs and otherwise let me know that a beast needs fed. When I'm not working, I just don't care and never check anything (something everyone needs to try). But that wasn't going to happen while AC was in Atlantis, and we actually had to pay attention to what was happening in front of us during the workday or run the risk of being left behind.

Enter my Huawei Watch and Android Wear.

About 15 minutes into our first presentation, I realized how easy it is to triage email from my wrist. Kevin Michaluk, Mobile Nations' commander-in-chief, master of all things BlackBerry and quite the master of the whiteboard, was telling us about a bunch of mostly exciting new things and if I'm there with my face in a laptop or even a phone, I'm going to miss a good bit of it. And be that guy in the front row who wasn't paying attention — never a good position to put yourself in during any company meeting where all the people who decide if you get a paycheck are in attendance. But I could take a look at my wrist when it buzzed at me, and swipe away what's not important or pull out my phone for what was. It worked.

I'm still not all-in with wrist computing, and will never understand some people's passion for that tiny screen (don't even come at me with a keyboard or web browser unless you want to see how hard I can laugh), but my Huawei Watch actually helped and made things better for a few days in Atlanta. I'll be sure to wear it the next time I need to be distracted by email while still paying attention.

Google is finally enabling speaker support in Android Wear, meaning select smartwatches will be able to make calls and listen to messages using the included speaker. We've seen watches like the Huawei Watch and ASUS ZenWatch 2 have speakers inside, but they were not active at release. Google has announced a number of changes for Android Wear-powered smartwatches that make controlling things easier from your wrist. These changes include:

• Navigate your watch with new gestures. Scrolling up and down your card stream is as simple as flicking your wrist. Starting today you can also expand a card, bring up your apps, or return home to your watch face with a push, lift or shake. You'll be able to stay connected to what's important, while keeping your phone (or other hand) in your pocket.
• Send more messages with just your voice. With Android Wear, you've always been able to get answers to spoken questions. Now you can also use your voice to send messages from apps like Google Hangouts, Nextplus, Telegram, Viber, WeChat, and WhatsApp. Running late for lunch? Just say "OK Google, Send a WhatsApp message to Nathan: I'll be right there."
• Make calls and listen to messages with speaker support. Screening calls from your wrist is a nice convenience that comes with Android Wear. Thanks to speaker support, you can now make and take calls over Bluetooth. And you can listen to audio/video messages with apps like Glide. All you need is a watch with a speaker, which today includes the Huawei Watch and the ASUS ZenWatch 2 (49mm).

These changes will be rolling out to all Android Wear watches over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for the update on your watch.

Source: Official Android Blog

At CES 2016, Huawei unveiled the first expansion of their Android Wear watch line: the Watch Jewel and the Watch Elegant, two fashion-focused watches that they'll be pitching towards women. The two are built on the same general specs as the Huawei Watch, including the 400x400 circular AMOLED display, covered with a layer of sapphire and set in a 42mm body.

But they're also different in notable ways, particularly in what you'll find around the face. The Huawei Watch Jewel has 68 Swarovski Zirconia crystals embedded in the bezel around the display, bringing a whole new kind of bling to the party. It's nothing like the crystal-encrusted Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Gear S from IFA 2014 — what Huawei's done here is actually made a blingy watch that's not terribly gaudy. You'll pay for the privilege, though, with the Watch Jewel set to debut at $599 in the first quarter of 2016.

The other option is the Huawei Watch Elegant, which like the Jewel is pretty much the same as the standard Huawei Watch. The body here is coated in a rose gold finish instead of the gold of the Jewel, and the bezel is composed of three rings of tiny rose gold studs. Also set for the first quarter of 2016, the Watch Elegant will be priced at $499.

Both the Elegant and Jewel have new bands: Huawei was mum on the material, but they appear to be faux-crocodile stamped leather, and are available in white and a navy blue. They both also have a slew of custom watchfaces to complement the styling of the bodies.

There is one technical difference between these new fashion-friendly Watches and the original Huawei Watch, and that's the activation of the speaker in the body (the original Huawei Watch also has a speaker, but it's yet to be enabled on the software level). The only functionality that Huawei highlighted here was the ability to place and receive calls (through your phone), though it would appear that we're finally getting to see the features from the ill-fated LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE coming to the rest of Android Wear.

Though Huawei already offers a respectable set of case and band options for the Huawei Watch, it's expanding its lineup today with the new "Elegant" and "Jewel" models. The design of the two new models skews toward the female contingent, with gold cases, thinner bands and in the case of the Jewel model, jewels on the bezel. Naturally they're being shown off with some pre-loaded watch faces that match that aesthetic as well.

The watches are identical in terms of specs to the original slate of designs, with the one key exception being an overall case that's actually larger than the original — now 44mm instead of 42. That's an odd bump in size for a watch that you'd expect to be smaller considering its positioning, particularly with how big the Huawei Watch already is. But in the grand scheme of this big of a watch 2mm isn't going to be a deal breaker, and the models seem to offer a bit slimmer of bands (though the lugs are the same 18mm).

Huawei isn't spilling too many details on the availability of the new Elegant and Jewel models, though we know to expect them at some point in Q1 of this year. Pricing isn't specified just yet other than the fact that they'll land in the current Huawei Watch range of $349 to $799 — and just like the original models we can likely expect a few different choices of bands with a variety of looks and prices.

As early adopters, many of us Android folk are used to living on the bleeding edge. The hardware, powered by not-quite-polished software, is what some of us live for. It's cool to have access to the next generation of technology, stuff that the average user won't even touch for months. We look for phones and tablets with the fastest processors, the densest pixels, and the most interesting design, because it makes us happy to do so.

As a result, what is happening with Android Wear right now frustrates a lot of early adopters. With the release of Huawei's Watch, the Moto 360 refresh, and even the new Asus Zenwatch, it almost feels like progress has slowed on purpose. While that's not totally true, it has become increasingly clear Android Wear will never be a hardware arms race. Some of that has to do with the manufacturers, but most of why Android Wear will be different from Android has to do with decisions made at Google.

The cost of tiny

Without a doubt, the most complicated part of developing a smartwatch is combining miniaturization with style. Making something small and functional is hard, but making that same small, functional thing look nice and still do everything you want it to do takes an entirely different skill set.

Looking at the Android wear Gen 2 watch lineup, which essentially starts with the LG G Watch R and end with everything announced at IFA this year, you'll see most manufacturers hit the same basic roadblocks. The watch needs to be small enough for mass appeal, but it also needs to have a minimum amount of hardware to make it something people will actually buy, at a price people will actually pay. It doesn't do the company any good to release a $600 base model with a 500mAh battery and a next-gen processor, nor is it functional to release a razor-thin smartwatch with a 150mAh battery and a terrible display.

The balance point is what you see on the market today, slightly better than 330 x 330 resolution displays with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 powered by something in the neighborhood of 350mAh. Each manufacturer made some choices about which side of this balance point they thought would sell the most watches. Huawei focused on the highest resolution display and the most watch-like design at the cost of battery capacity and features. Motorola focused on features and the least possible bezel at the cost of a truly watch-like design. Every watch leans in one direction or another, but they all lean from this same basic balance point. It's easy to confuse this for stagnation, but in truth it's the cost of placing design on the same pedestal as functionality.

Unity above all else

Unlike Android, where manufacturers can make deep and lasting changes to many parts of the Operating System and choose to maintain a fork of the core themselves, Google controls the keys to the Android Wear kingdom. Manufacturers can add apps and watchfaces to their launch builds, but you're going to get the same overall experience when you move from watch to watch. Google's walled garden gives the company a great deal of control over what is supported, and manufacturers need to operate within those boundaries to create their products.

The benefit to users is a guaranteed set of updates, with new features added as soon as Google has them ready. The natural cost there is anything a manufacturer thinks is a great new usage paradigm or feature set has to either be approved by Google or put in something that doesn't run Android Wear. The Samsung Gear S2 is a perfect example of this. There are a lot of folks that enjoy the Samsung Gear Live, but the Gear S2 includes features and hardware ideas that don't function within the current Android Wear usage paradigm.

This isn't likely to change anytime soon, for a couple of reasons. First, Google's ability to manage expectations with software updates is incredibly important to their ability to compete with Apple's Watch, especially now that iOS support has been added to the mix. Second, manufacturers have proven at just about every turn that it's easy to decide something shouldn't be supported if it didn't sell enough. Google's ability to offer a single target for developers to create against, while offering a similar experience across the board, is its greatest strength in the wearables market for the time being.

Far from stagnant

The most important part of Android Wear right now is the ability to pick which shape and size you want your wrist computer to be. In this context, where Android Wear is a single experience with multiple outer shell options, similarity doesn't mean stagnation. Google can continue to support this single basic template for quite a while, and while there are those out there who wish these watches had a little more storage for music modes, the rest of the hardware in these watches is going to be more than enough for a while. There's not going to be a major hardware evolution in the next year that will lead to a wildly different Android Wear experience, and that's a good thing.

It's probably inappropriate to go so far as to call these watches built to last, but it's clear there's a focus on this design being built such that it's not obsolete in a few months. Many early adopters are used to that happening with phones and tablets already, so in some ways it was expected with Android Wear, but at this intersection of miniaturization, cost, and design, it's clear we're going to see improvements happen in waves. So settle in, we're not due for another wave for a bit.