Huawei's smartphone era ended with Trump's ban in 2019. Of course, that wasn't the end of the company.

According to the order of the American President at the time, the Chinese manufacturer has not been allowed to upload any Google services to its devices since then.

Until then, Huawei had written an unparalleled success story in the smartphone market: high-quality cell phones with many refinements conquered the world.

That's over now.

Huawei has developed its own operating system called Harmony, which has not been adopted in the western world, so it is now focusing on other products.

In Europe, these include smart wristwatches.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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Once again, the Chinese manufacturer makes the long-established look pretty pale.

The watches with a high-quality Amoled display and fascinating brightness come with noble materials and the price remains moderate.

We've been trying out the new Watch GT 3 Pro for some time now, which comes in a variety of flavors.

The version in a white ceramic case is the most spectacular.

Some remember the Apple Watch with this material, which was available from Series 2 to Series 5 at prices of around 1500 euros.

Then she was hired.

Huawei is now bringing the Watch GT 3 Pro in a 43-millimeter case in two ceramic versions: with silver accents and a leather strap for 500 euros and with gold and a ceramic strap for 600 euros.

We looked at the former.

The ceramic has a special charm that is underlined by the dials that come with the app.

Everything looks high-quality and classy, ​​a feast for the eyes.

However, the impression of the white leather strap is underground cheap.

There is no mistake here: the ceramic bracelet is the better choice, and a tool is included to adjust the circumference, with which you can remove individual chain links.

Stunning selection of dials

In terms of equipment and functionality, we tried the Watch GT 3 Pro in the 46 mm design.

It costs 370 euros with a plastic or leather strap and 500 euros with a titanium strap.

The case is always made of titanium and the glass is sapphire glass, which has a scratch resistance of up to 9 Mohs hardness.

The only difference to the smaller 43 millimeter version is the battery capacity, which is almost twice as large at 530 compared to 290 milliampere hours.

Regardless of the 46 millimeters in diameter, the Watch GT 3 Pro with a height of 10.9 millimeters looks extremely slim and can easily be worn under a shirt sleeve.

The back is glass-coated, and there are no annoying contact pins for a charging cable.

Rather, the battery of the Watch GT 3 Pro is charged inductively with a charging puck.

To put the Huawei watches 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.

The watch runs in "always on" mode when needed, like the Apple Watch.

When you move your arm, the display appears in full splendor and brightness, in phases of rest there is an automatic switch to a reduced display that uses less energy.

The display has a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels, brightness, colors and contrasts are convincing.

The Watch GT 3 Pro is operated with the crown at the top right, it can be rotated and pressed, and with the side 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.

As usual, the Watch GT 3 Pro 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.

Further additional services planned

The watch has sensors for GPS, heart rate, oxygen saturation, acceleration, body temperature and a barometer.

An ECG function with arteriosclerosis risk screening will be available soon.

Dozens of sports and sleep are already being recorded very neatly and with high accuracy.

Unfortunately, the sports tracking results can only be viewed in the smartphone app, not in the web browser.

It is also very cumbersome to export training data, for example to import it into other platforms.

As with the high-quality Garmin sports watches, you can make individual settings for each sport, such as configuring the display.

The analytics play at a high level, for example when running performance is calculated.

A stroke measurement for the golfer is new.

With a day's work-out, the battery of the large Huawei easily lasts for several days, while the small one has to go to the charging station more often.

In the future, Huawei wants to offer additional services related to sports and fitness via subscription.

As with Apple's Fitness Plus, there are breathing exercises or fitness courses with video instructions.

Huawei Health Plus should cost 8 euros a month or 60 euros a year.

However, one can confidently doubt that the Chinese will be successful in this segment.