Maybe it's because I spend all day writing about them, but very few new smartwatches excite me. However, Huawei is about to announce a new wearable that does it, at least a little bit, and while I definitely won't buy it, that's okay, because it's not for me.
The company has announced that it will introduce the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro on April 28, and all the teasers of the watch are focused on one thing: the water resistance of the wearable device.
According to Huawei, its upcoming wearable device has all sorts of water-resistance certifications and ratings, including IP68, 5ATM, and an EN13319 diving certification. In fact, its diving credentials are the most notable part of all that water resistance, as the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is apparently suitable for deep-sea freediving to depths of 30 meters.
It is an upgrade from the Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro, which was only designed for activities in shallow water. It's also an upgrade from the vast majority of other smartwatches, which tend to have reasonable water resistance, so you can wear them in the shower or in many cases even in a pool, but they're generally not suitable for wearing under deep water.
(*two*)
(Image credit: Huawei)I don't want it, but someone will.
As someone who hasn't even stepped foot in a pool for the better part of a decade, I'm not interested in this feature at all, but it will be of interest to divers, and probably surfers, boaters, and anyone else as well. someone else who just wants a little more reassurance that his smartwatch can save an encounter with the ocean.
It's probably still a very small percentage of people, but it's a percentage of people who probably wouldn't have double-checked the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro without this feature, so it's probably a smart approach for Huawei. In fact, I'd say most smartwatch manufacturers could learn from this because very few smartwatches stand out.
With a few exceptions, they all have essentially the same feature sets: notifications, music controls, timers, and in some cases, access to apps and voice-activated assistants like Google Assistant or Siri.
Some higher-end models like the Apple Watch 7 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 add extra features to the mix, like an ECG, and those models inevitably stand out more. But even so, they are rarely the only ones to offer these features, and their manufacturers won't add significant new features to each new model.
So we're left with some vaguely interesting (albeit slow) smartwatches at the top end, and then a sea of largely interchangeable devices below. But if more of that sea were meant to fill a niche, as the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro does, then they would have a USP and stand out to at least some people.
Huawei's hurdle
While any company can learn from Huawei's approach here, it's especially sensible in the case of Huawei itself, as the company's smartwatches arguably have an additional hurdle to jump to stand out.
Huawei wearables often impress, with the Huawei Watch GT 3 and Huawei Watch GT 2 Pro, for example, both scoring four stars in TechRadar reviews, but like other Huawei wearables, they're not available to consumers. US consumers, which already limits its potential audience.
On top of that, they don't run Wear OS or watchOS, the two main smartwatch operating systems, which can mean they're limited in terms of apps and familiarity.
So Huawei really needs something to grab the attention of a potential buyer, and in the case of the Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro, that something is an immersive reference. But even if you don't dive in, don't write this smartwatch off just yet, because there may still be other USPs. We will know on April 28.