In September last year, the Apple Watch Ultra went on sale with a special design, a new control button on the left and special functions for diving and expeditions. The Chinese manufacturer Huawei only needed six months to implement amazingly similar ideas in its Watch Ultimate. It is aimed at divers and also has an expedition mode installed.
Like the Apple Watch Ultra, the Ultimate is large, measuring 48.5 × 48.5 × 13 millimeters and is made of a special material. The case is made of an amorphous zirconium-based alloy, which is stronger and harder than stainless steel and also superior to the titanium used by Apple. The watch is available either with a blue ceramic bezel and titanium bracelet (for 900 euros) or in the version we have with a dark case and a rubber strap for 750 euros.
Sapphire crystal protects the display. The display has a resolution of 1.5 inches with 466 × 466 pixels, the AMOLED technology ensures a high-contrast, bright image, of course also in always-on mode. When it comes to hardware alone, Huawei has hit a great serve. The high-quality appearance is convincing, we wore the watch for a few weeks.
Operating system Harmony in use
To put the Watch Ultimate into operation, the manufacturer’s health app for iOS or Android is required. You can also use it to make all device settings or select a watch face. There are hundreds of the latter, free of charge and for a fee, the selection is almost overwhelming, but unfortunately a lot of them also seem very cheap. The fact that the two most beautiful dials bear a Huawei lettering is unworthy for this price range.
It is operated with the crown at the top right, which can be turned and pressed, as well as with the button below. Harmony is used as the operating system, there is an app store for loading additional programs, the offer is meager. As with Google’s Wear OS operating system, finger gestures are used to make settings, start apps or take a look at various diagrams. The Watch Ultimate remains weak in terms of smartwatch functionality. You can only reply to incoming messages with pre-formulated text modules, and there is no model variant with an e-sim that would allow use without an accompanying smartphone. After all, you can use the watch as a Bluetooth hands-free speaker when the cell phone is nearby, the acoustics are convincing.
In the test
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Huawei Watch Ultimate
The watch has sensors for GPS, heart rate, oxygen saturation, acceleration, body temperature and a barometer. There is also an ECG function. The recording of sports worked well, although the heart rate was always measured far too low during our training sessions, 80 instead of 120 beats per minute. In addition, the details of the sports tracking can only be viewed in the smartphone app and not in the web browser. Furthermore, there is no export function for detailed training data.
Disappointing expedition mode
The watch is submersible to 100 meters and offers multiple dive modes including scuba, technical and freediving. Dive data can be monitored continuously, and there are also various assistants, for example for apnea training or for calculating decompression.
The new expedition mode is a disappointment. Recording waypoints at intervals does not currently work, nor is there breadcrumb navigation back to marked points. You can set a marker manually, but even then the navigation fails. Completed expeditions are not listed in the app, which is now so overloaded and plastered with advertising for paid offers that people don’t like using it. All in all, what I particularly like about the Watch Ultimate is the hardware.
The software lags far behind the possibilities. Athletes are better served with the Apple Watch or a Garmin watch. The similarly well-equipped Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro with a titanium case has a street price of around 270 euros, which indicates that the Chinese high-price strategy will not work in this segment.