Huawei has launched the Watch D3, a smartwatch with a small inflatable cuff inside its strap that takes real blood pressure readings. It costs EUR 449 or about KES 66,000 in Germany, GBP 399.99 or about KES 69,000 in the UK and CNY 2,988 or about KES 58,000 in China, where pre-orders opened on 15th September. Huawei first showed the watch at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Munich on 31st August and launched it in the same city on 2 September.
Why a blood pressure watch needs a cuff
Most smartwatches track your heart with a green light on the back, called an optical sensor. It sees blood flow, but it can’t see pressure. Apple’s hypertension notifications, for example, look at 30 days of optical data for signs of high blood pressure, then ask you to use a separate cuff to get actual numbers.
A doctor’s machine squeezes your arm with an air cuff, lets the air out slowly and reads your pulse through the cuff as it deflates. That’s called the oscillometric method, and the Watch D3 does it at your wrist. A tiny pump inflates an airbag in the strap, and a pressure sensor reads it.
Fitting all that into a watch is the hard part. That’s why the Watch D2 from 2024 was 13.3mm thick. The Watch D3 is 11.3mm, and its airbag strap is 25.5mm wide against 26.5mm on the D2. Huawei says the strap is 7.5g lighter and the whole watch is 9% lighter than before.
So if you found the D2 too chunky, the D3 sits two millimetres lower on your wrist.
24 hours of readings, including while you sleep
The feature doctors care about is ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, or ABPM. A cuff takes readings every 15 to 30 minutes, so a doctor can see how your pressure moves while you’re awake and while you sleep. Normally, that means wearing a hospital unit on your upper arm for a day.
The Watch D3 runs the same plan from your wrist and inflates on its own at night. You get daytime, night-time and 24-hour averages, but battery life takes the hit. Huawei rates the watch at six days in normal use and one day with ABPM running at 15-minute intervals.
Huawei also runs an opt-in Minimally Disruptive ABPM Study through its Huawei Research app. It cuts a day down to seven readings: four you take during the day and three automatic ones at night. It’s only open in some markets, and Huawei says results are for reference only.
New: before and after exercise
The biggest new feature is a blood pressure check around workouts. Before a run, walk or cycle, the watch takes a reading. If your pressure is too high, it tells you to hold off on hard exercise. After the session, you can measure again within two minutes.
Huawei says the D3’s CE MDR certification covers single readings, 24-hour monitoring and these pre- and post-exercise readings. CE MDR is the European Union’s medical device approval.
Even so, Huawei’s own product page tells you never to diagnose yourself or adjust medication based on the readings. Take the numbers to your doctor instead.
The rest of the watch
The screen is a 1.92-inch AMOLED, up from 1.82 inches on the D2, and Huawei says it peaks at 3,000 nits. There’s a 30-second ECG from the side button and irregular heartbeat alerts from the optical sensor.
You also get Bluetooth calling and more than 100 workout modes. The wireless charger has a USB-C cable, and a full charge takes 75 minutes. The Watch D3 works with Android phones and iPhones through the Huawei Health app.
Don’t swim with it. Huawei tells you to take the watch off before swimming, hot showers and saunas, because water getting into the watch can cause failed readings or an airbag that deflates slowly. Water damage from those isn’t covered by the warranty.
Colours and straps
Each of the three case colours comes with its own strap:
- Mocha Gold, with a sand composite leather strap
- Gold, with a white composite leather strap
- Black, with a black HNBR rubber strap
The airbag strap comes in two sizes, and both are in the box. The M strap fits wrists from 13cm to 16cm, and the L strap, fitted from the factory, fits 16.1cm to 21cm. Huawei warns that readings may be less accurate outside that range, so measure your wrist before you buy one.
Will it come to Kenya?
Huawei’s Kenyan website doesn’t have a Watch D3 page yet, and Huawei hasn’t given a Kenyan price. If it does arrive at the European price, it will cost a little more than the Apple Watch Series 12, which Nairobi shops list at about KES 55,000 to KES 60,000 in our comparison with the Ultra 4.
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