Huawei Watch D3 review: protects you from what quietly kills you

Measuring blood pressure with a smartwatch sounds like an advertising promise. But the Huawei Watch D3 is medically certified and doesn’t measure via a light sensor and estimation like other smartwatches, but with a small cuff on the wrist.

Upfront: Huawei did not sponsor the video. I borrowed the watch as a test device.

What the Watch D3 is

The Watch D3 is not a fitness watch that can also measure blood pressure on the side. Huawei positions it as a blood pressure monitor for the wrist that is also a normal smartwatch.

Compared to the Watch D2, it is 2 mm thinner, the strap is about 9 g lighter, and the screen is bigger at 1.92 inches and has slimmer bezels. There is also a new gold-colored variant. From the outside, you can’t tell the watch has a health function.

How the watch measures blood pressure

Under the strap sits a mechanical air cushion, driven by a tiny air pump. During the measurement, the cuff briefly inflates and presses specifically on the artery, like a classic blood pressure cuff at the doctor’s, just much smaller. It is roughly a fifth as wide as a normal upper-arm cuff.

The difference from most other smartwatches: they measure optically via the pulse wave and estimate a value from it. The D3 measures mechanically, with real pressure.

How reliable is it?

The D3’s blood pressure measurement has approval as a medical device in Europe and the NMPA approval in China. Those are official certifications, not advertising seals. So the values aren’t an estimate, but a measurement with medical approval.

The watch doesn’t replace a doctor’s visit or a diagnosis. It is a tool for your own regular monitoring. Its advantage: at the doctor’s, the measurement is a snapshot. With the watch, you get a long-term measurement and see trends much more precisely.

Three ways to measure

1. Single measurement: measure once, see the value. For a quick check in between.
2. 24-hour measurement: The watch measures automatically spread over the day and night. For me the most important function. A single value at the doctor’s can be skewed because you’re nervous. And some people have elevated blood pressure at night, which would never show up in a daytime measurement.
3. Measurement before and after exercise: according to Huawei, the first smartwatch with this function. Some people with normal resting blood pressure react to exercise with a sharp rise. The D3 measures the baseline value before the workout and the recovery value afterward and estimates whether the training intensity is right.

If you don’t want automatic measurement, you can have it remind you at regular intervals. The watch also reminds you depending on the situation, for example at higher altitude or when the temperature drops sharply. Both can affect blood pressure.

How to measure: hold your arm at heart level, sit still for a few seconds and don’t talk.

Health Glance and reports

In a 60-second check, the D3 collects further values besides blood pressure, from heart rate to stress to sleep. For that, you put your finger on the side button and have your blood pressure measured once.

The analysis puts the values in context over days, weeks and months and explains why a value was higher or lower in the short term. That takes away unnecessary worry about individual outliers. In the Huawei Health app, there are long-term blood pressure reports that you can download and send to your doctor.

The D3 as a smartwatch

• bigger, brighter display
• over a week of battery life
• many sports modes
• phone calls via Bluetooth, notifications and direct replies, for example on WhatsApp
• paying via NFC with Curve Pay
• works with iOS and Android

What bothers me

As for years, there are no Google services on the watch, so no Maps and no Spotify. It also annoys me that the “Do Not Disturb” function isn’t synced between smartphone and watch. And the price is high at €449. Measured against the benefit, though, these drawbacks weigh little for me.

Who is the Huawei Watch D3 worth it for?

If you have no problems with blood pressure, you don’t need it. If you just want a fitness watch, you’ll find cheaper and sportier models.

The D3 is worth it for:

• People with known high blood pressure who are looking for a simple way to monitor regularly without unpacking the classic cuff every time
• Health-conscious people who want to notice early when something changes
• Relatives who want to keep an eye on the values of older family members
• Anyone who wants to give a watch as a gift that doesn’t look like a medical device