The Huawei Watch GT 3 Pro is a nice smartwatch many of us can’t buy

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Last year, as the competition in the smartwatch space was heating up, the company announced it was launching the HUAWEI WATCH 3 on a new proprietary operating system called HarmonyOS 2. It followed that up with a new watch. It's not a huge surprise that the HUAWEI WATCH GT 3 PRO is back.

Last year's Watch 3 was a good attempt and reminded me a lot of the Tizen watches from South Korea. I haven't had the GT 3 Pro for a long time, but what I have seen so far continues that vibe. There are two versions of the GT 3 Pro: titanium and all-ceramic. The smaller case has a 1.3-inch display while the larger one has a 1.4-inch display. Both have water and dust resistance and are swimproof up to 5ATM. The titanium model has a battery life of up to 14 days and the ceramic model has a battery life of up to 7 days.

Image: Huawei

Both watches have all the sensors you would expect to see on a premium watch. An optical heart rate sensor, SpO2 sensors, an accelerometer, and a gyro are included. It has a temperature sensor, a barometer, and a magnetometer. The watches have a new free-dive workout mode and built-in gps. Only in countries where the appropriate clearance from regulators is received, it has EKG capability.

When it comes to consumer tech, the company is in a weird spot. The company is banned from using US tech in its gadgets due to an executive order issued by Donald Trump. That includes the proprietary OS. I can try out the Watch GT 3 Pro, but it's not a watch I can buy in the US. If you are living in Europe, you can.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

It's a shame since it's a shame since HUAWEI has been in the space for a long time. The titanium version of the GT 3 Pro is a nice watch. The display is vivid, the apps load quickly, and the watch will appeal to people who like a more masculine, traditional-looking watch. I would get an alternative strap for working out. The metal link straps are not great for heart rate accuracy. It took me a long time to get the watch down to a size that fit my wrist because the links are a pain to adjust.

I can tell it has the same issues as the HUAWEI WATCH 3. I can see the bones of a good watch, but I can't use its best features because I live in a different area. I can use the voice assistant. That's because the HarmonyOS 2 doesn't use any of the above. It uses a proprietary assistant that requires you to have a phone from a Chinese company. Since there is no real third-party app support, this is more of a fancy-pants fitness tracker than a true watch. It feels like an elevated Fitbit with a much more premium build quality and a snazzier OS to boot. It would be popular if it came out with something like that.

Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

A lot of this won't matter once Fossil and other third-party watchmakers are on Wear OS 3. Like the Tizen watches, theHuawei's Wearables are locked into their own ecosystems. When Wear OS 3 becomes more widely available, other third-party watchmakers will be able to provide access to popular apps. That will be great for users of the operating system. The best watches for people with Huawei phones are from the company.

The watches are stuck in limbo. Even if the third-party app ecosystem is not present, I could see plenty of people digging the watch's snappier performance, health tracking, and analog aesthetic. At the same time, none of its watches are revolutionary. At the end of the day, you are not missing much.