You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to find out where Huawei got the inspiration for its newly announced Watch Ultimate. It’s clearly Huawei’s not-so-subtle answer to the Apple Watch Ultra, and now we know the similarity extends to the price tag too. From tomorrow the Ultimate will go on sale in the UK and Europe for €749 / £700 for the “expedition black” colorway and €899 / £800 for the travel blue version.
If you’ve missed any news about the Watch Ultimate, it’s probably because the company currently has no plans to launch the device in the US. (That Huawei ban is still running in 2023.) While the company once had quite a foothold in the wearable market, the ban has since limited its reach to the American public, save for the most dedicated users. That said, here’s a brief overview of its features.
Each of these is a feature Apple introduced on the Ultra, but to be honest, the Ultimate is so different you won’t notice it. completely knock off. In any case, this is evident from the design, which is much more similar to traditional mechanical watches. There are also differences within the specifications and materials. For example, the Watch Ultimate uses a “zirconium-based liquid metal case,” which it says is 4.5 times stronger and 2.5 times harder than stainless steel. It’s not titanium, unlike the Ultra, but the implication of extreme ruggedness is the same. (It’s not liquid, of course.) Both have nanotech ceramic bezels and sapphire glass on the LTPO OLED screens.
Huawei also wants to be a step ahead of Apple in some areas. Like the Ultra, the Watch Ultimate is EN13319 certified, the standard for diving equipment. But while Apple doesn’t recommend diving beyond 40 meters, Huawei says the Watch Ultimate can go down to 110 meters and supports technical and free diving in addition to recreational dives.
The battery life is also much longer. Huawei claims the Watch Ultimate can get up to two weeks off on a single charge, though it didn’t elaborate on the parameters it used to arrive at that estimate. As always with smartwatches, the mileage of your battery varies with use. That said, Huawei noted that users can go from zero to 100 percent battery in 60 minutes and 25 percent in 10 minutes.
Huawei’s own operating system doesn’t have the most robust app ecosystem, but there’s some improvement on that front too. Huawei says users can now use third-party Strava, Komoot and Runtastic integrations. It’s not rather same as having the app on your wrist, but it makes sharing data between those services much easier.
Regardless of how you feel about Huawei, the Watch Ultimate is the closest competitor to the Apple Watch Ultra in a single smartwatch – at least on paper. Garmin has a few options, such as the Epix 2 and Fenix 7 series, but those are more robust fitness watches than ambitious luxury smartwatches. It would be nice if everyone had more options on that front, but if you’re in the US, there’s no official way to get the watch through US retailers. Otherwise, you’ll probably have to wait to see what Samsung and other Wear OS watchmakers have in store.
