TECH REVIEW – Huawei has pushed the whole “high-end adventure watch” concept so far that the Watch Ultimate 2 is basically a full-on dive computer shrunk onto your wrist, with every modern smartwatch trick bolted on top. On the menu you get sonar-based underwater communication, 20 ATM water resistance, certification down to 150 meters, a seriously beefy battery and a liquid metal case you will not be afraid to bang against rocks, railings or the side of a boat. The trade-off is a case so big that many will see it more as rugged sports equipment than an “elegant everyday watch”, but if you can live with the size, there are very few smartwatches that can really compete right now.

In recent years, Huawei has steadily turned its watches, just as much as its smartphones, into a showcase for its in-house hardware and software know-how. The GT line and the more sport-focused models were already delivering great battery life, solid sensors and a well tuned system, but the Watch Ultimate 2 clearly sits above the usual “good smartwatch” level. This is the one where you can almost see the internal brief: put everything on a wrist that is technically possible to integrate in 2025.

Huawei also treats it as the very top of its watch lineup. It is not aimed at someone who jogs from time to time and casually checks their heart rate, but at people for whom spending close to 1,000 € on a watch is no big deal because they dive, play golf, climb mountains, or just like wearing a gadget on their wrist that instantly makes others ask: “what on earth is that?”. The sonar communication, fingertip X Tap health measurements, advanced dive and sport modes, armored case and new battery technology all send the same clear message – Huawei did not cut corners here.

The price confirms that this is nowhere near entry level. In France, the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 is listed at around 899.99 € for the black version and 999.99 € for the blue one, which puts it firmly among the most expensive smartwatches on the market. In the same bracket, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 starts at about 899 €, and will remain the obvious pick for anyone already locked into the Apple ecosystem. If you can live without sonar but still want a tough, premium watch, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra at around 699 € is a much more affordable alternative and integrates far more naturally with the Android and Google Play world.

Huawei on your wrist – when everything is pushed to the max

Over the last few years, Huawei has focused so hard on wearables that by 2025 it was already shipping more watches worldwide than any other brand, including Apple. That did not happen by accident. GT5, D2, Fit 3 – several of these models have passed through my hands over the last twelve months, and every single one landed comfortably around the 4.5 star mark. That says a lot – the company’s reputation does not rest on one or two lucky products, but on solid, consistently good lineups.

In that context, the Watch Ultimate 2 is no longer “just another good Huawei watch”, it is the current flagship. According to Huawei, it packs in everything the brand considers technically feasible and actually useful on a smartwatch today. Sonar-based underwater communication, the in-house TruSense system that combines multiple types of sensors, X Tap fingertip readings, full dive profiles, golf functions, extreme water resistance, powerful GPS – on paper, everything points to a direct challenge to the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and the larger high end Garmin models.

You do have to be clear from the start though – this is not the watch for someone who only wants to log a daily walk and see a step count. The Watch Ultimate 2 is aimed at pro or semi pro athletes, divers, very serious hobbyists and all the adventure junkies who care about depth, decompression curves, accurate training data and who like the idea of a “smarter” dive watch. On top of that, you still get the full health package – heart rate, blood oxygen, ECG, stress, sleep – which at this price point is simply expected.

In terms of performance, there is very little to complain about. The display stays readable in full sunlight, the interface is fast and smooth, the GPS locks on within a few seconds without wandering across the map, and the waterproofing delivers in both the spec sheet and real world use. If Huawei had managed to rein in the physical dimensions a bit and avoid such a massive case, it would be very easy to call this an almost flawless package.

That leaves the obvious question – who exactly is this beast for? During workouts like running, cycling or gym sessions, I often felt it was getting in the way more than helping, and it is definitely not the kind of watch you just forget about on your wrist all night for sleep tracking. If you love big, statement pieces on the wrist, you will be fine. But for slimmer wrists or users who are picky about comfort, trying it on in a store really is a must before you hand over your card.

Liquid metal case, ceramic ring, sapphire glass up front

Once you put the size question aside, the build quality of the Watch Ultimate 2 is genuinely impressive. The case uses a zirconium based “liquid metal” alloy which, according to Huawei, is harder and more corrosion resistant than standard stainless steel. In practice that means salt water, sand, mud and repeated knocks will leave far fewer marks than on a cheaper steel case.

The ring around the dial – blue and white on my unit – is made from nanocrystalline ceramic. It feels smooth and pleasant to the touch, shrugs off scratches and should keep its look for years. Under certain lighting it can look a little plasticky, which takes a tiny bit away from the “ultra premium” vibe, but overall it still very much reads as a luxury dive watch.

The display is a 1.5 inch LTPO AMOLED panel covered by sapphire glass, which is about as good as it gets right now in terms of hardness and scratch resistance on a smartwatch. Over the entire test period I could not put a single scratch or hairline crack on it, even though it did take a few knocks against walls, railings and table edges while hiking, riding and just wearing it around town.

The version I tested comes with a blue and white strap made from tough, flexible fluoroelastomer. It fits the half sport, half luxury look of the watch very well and is comfortable and secure without cutting into the wrist. The blue package also includes a metal link bracelet for more formal use, plus an extended dive strap designed to go over a thicker neoprene wetsuit.

Good software, annoying wall of consent pop ups

One long standing gripe with Huawei watches is how many legal and privacy pop ups sit behind almost every feature. Instead of a single, clear “yes, I agree” screen, the Watch Ultimate 2 makes you approve separate permissions and data notices feature by feature. As far as I can tell, Huawei is almost alone in sticking to this approach, and it really breaks the flow during the first few hours with the watch – exactly when you just want to enjoy discovering your new gadget.

Which is a shame, because the water focused features deserve a smooth introduction. With 20 ATM water resistance and a dive rating to 150 meters, you can take the Watch Ultimate 2 out in heavy rain, to the pool, snorkeling, freediving or on scuba, and even on fast water sports where the watch has to handle serious forces on the wrist. For comparison, the Apple Watch Ultra 3 tops out at around 10 ATM, so if you only look at depth and pressure numbers, Huawei has the upper hand for now.

In real world use I obviously did not take it anywhere near 150 meters, but longer submersion, pool sessions, showers and blasts from a strong tap did not cause any odd behavior. The dedicated dive modes, decompression algorithms, gas mix handling and warnings all show that this is not just a marketing line slapped on the box. The watch behaves like a real dive computer, with an extra layer of smart features built on top.

Sonar, X Tap and next level health tracking

One of the most impressive tricks of the Watch Ultimate 2 is being the first smartwatch to offer sonar based underwater communication. Two Ultimate 2 watches can exchange messages and predefined signals at distances of up to 30 meters, which lets divers send instructions, status updates or alerts in complete silence. There is also a dedicated emergency mode that can fire off an SOS to another watch if things go wrong.

The catch is obvious – both divers have to be wearing the same watch model, which means that for now this is more of a tech demo than an established industry standard. If the diving community embraces it, it could quickly become the killer feature that makes people choose this over a traditional dive computer, but at the moment it still sits in the “cool to have, not essential” category.

You see the same “fully loaded” philosophy on the health side. The TruSense system and the Distributed Super Sensing module combine several types of sensors – optical, electrical, acoustic and mechanical – to improve the accuracy of heart rate, SpO2, ECG, stress and sleep tracking. The most interesting addition is the X Tap sensor on the side of the case, designed for fingertip measurements rather than wrist readings. In general this gives a cleaner, more reliable signal, especially when your heart is pounding during harder efforts.

In practice, when you want a deeper health check, you place your finger on the marked area and in about a minute the watch compiles a snapshot of your overall condition. It pulls together several key metrics in one report – heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen saturation, stress level, ECG and so on. It is exactly the kind of summary we used to associate with medical equipment rather than something you wear like a regular watch.

New battery tech, old school endurance

One of the biggest, if least visually obvious, upgrades on the Ultimate 2 is its so called high silicon battery. In simple terms, Huawei adds silicon to the traditional graphite anode in order to squeeze more capacity into the same volume. The end result is an 867 mAh battery, a big jump from the roughly 510 mAh in the first Watch Ultimate, and clearly ahead of the just under 600 mAh cells in the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Day to day, that translated into between roughly three and eight days of battery life depending on how hard I was pushing it. With always on display enabled, daily GPS workouts, regular health measurements running in the background and a constant stream of notifications, I was getting around five days before it had to go back on the wireless charger.

According to Huawei’s own figures, you can expect about 3.5 days of “normal” use when paired with an iPhone and around 4.5 days with an Android phone. The difference comes from fewer reconnections being needed on Android, which saves a bit of power. If you dial back the features and use a more economical mode, hitting more than ten days is not unrealistic. It is not quite in the “forget it exists for two weeks” class, but given how many sensors and smart functions it has to feed, the endurance is still very good.

For activity tracking the watch proved reliable from start to finish. Running, walking, cycling, indoor workouts – heart rate, SpO2 and ECG readings were in line with what I have seen from previous Huawei watches and rival sports watches. Side by side, it is clear that TruSense is not just a marketing label – there is a real gain in accuracy.

Accurate GPS, solid software, oversized case

Huawei’s in house multi band GPS system, called Sunflower, has also been updated, and you can feel that out in the real world. In urban canyons, dense forests and open terrain alike, it locked on quickly and the recorded tracks did not cut through buildings or randomly straighten corners. What I saw on the map was basically where I had actually been, without weird jumps or phantom zigzags.

The issue is not accuracy, it is physical bulk. Even though the watch logs workouts very cleanly, the weight and thickness of the case make it uncomfortable for a whole range of activities. On long runs, intense sessions or certain gym exercises you are always aware of that big block on your wrist, with the nagging feeling it could snag on something or slam into a bar or machine at the wrong moment. At night, for sleep tracking, a watch this large and heavy quickly becomes intrusive.

On the software side, however, HarmonyOS does a very good job. The system is responsive and easy to read, the menus are laid out logically and the small text labels under icons genuinely help you find your way around when there are this many features in one place. Notifications, calls and messages are handled smoothly on both iOS and Android, without random disconnects. The main drawback once again comes from the ecosystem – Huawei’s own app store and the need to sideload certain apps will feel like a step back for anyone used to the convenience of Google Play or the App Store.

In the end, the Huawei Watch Ultimate 2 is a smartwatch that clearly flirts with the idea of “too much”, whether in technology, materials or underwater capability, but in the best possible way. If you can live with its size and its price, you get one of the most serious, most specialized and most forward looking watches you can strap to your wrist today.

-Gergely Herpai “BadSector”-