- Huawei launches its Huawei Watch D3, its third iteration of its blood pressure-focused health watch
- With an inbuilt inflatable cuff, the watch now suppors 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, helping users track trends
- It comes as Apple, Google and smart ring startups have made advances with LED-based monitoring
Huawei has unveiled its Huawei Watch D3, the latest version of its health watch with a specific focus on blood pressure. The Watch D series is a cool bit of kit that stands out from the best smartwatches on the market by way of its mechanized components — its main selling point is a strap with inflatable bladders running through it, swelling and acting as a cuff to measure blood pressure accurately at any time.
While a great idea, previous iterations looked quite boxy, and more like the medical devices they clearly are intended to be than daily wear smartwatches.
The Huawei Watch D3 aims to change that, boasting advances over previous iterations — especially in design. It’s said to be just 11.3mm thick and weigh 40g, with an ‘ultra-narrow’ version of its inflatable band. This makes it not only easier to wear all day, but also at night.
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Night wear seems to be crucial, as the Watch D3 offers ’24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM)’ in accordance with medical guidelines according to Huawei. Its press release says ABPM helps users “track blood pressure trends throughout the day and night, even while asleep.
“During the day, intervals can be customized and manual measurements taken as needed; at night, the watch inflates automatically with quieter operation for reduced sleep disturbance.”
The watch also takes pre- and post-exercise blood pressure measurements, and comes with other smartwatch features such as GPS, outdoor route navigation, and running analytics. Family members can view each others’ stats via the Health Community feature, checking in on those at risk.
Available in black, white and gold from £399.99 (around $545 / AU$745), the watch is unavailable in the US due to the ongoing Huawei telecomms tech ban.
Instead, people in the US who want a blood pressure-measuring wearable have to look elsewhere. No one is quite doing what Huawei is with the inflatable wrist cuff technology, even three years on from the original Watch D, but great strides have been made with optical LEDs, which were once thought of as the ‘holy grail’ of smartwatch capabilities.
Apple now offers a Hypertension feature, monitoring your sleep over 30 days to flag signs of possible hypertension, while the Google Pixel Watch 5 sports a Blood Pressure Detection feature.
Elsewhere, the Signal Ring startup from an ex-head of Android is focused solely on cuffless, calibration-less blood pressure sensing via a smart ring.
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