A Different Kind of Watch – Huawei Buds Watch

The Huawei Buds Watch is a different kind of smartwatch. We have the Apple Watch Ultra, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Garmin watches, and now we have the Huawei Buds Watch, which is a smartwatch, but it also has a pair of bluetooth earbuds inside of it that are stored and charged inside of the watch.

The Buds Watch comes in two colors, black and khaki, and both colors sport a leather band. The leather band on the watch is actually quite comfortable and the watch itself isn’t very heavy, but I do worry about the longevity of the leather band, especially in humid environments or over the long term if worn while exercising.

Unsurprisingly, the earbuds are the biggest selling point of this watch, and it has some surprising features. The bluetooth earbuds have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and Transparency Mode. The Buds Watch has 47mm watch face, with a 1.43″ display, IP54 dust and water resistance, and 3 day of battery life. The earbuds are rated for 4hrs of listening time with ANC off, and 3 hours of listening time with ANC on, and the watch papckaging includes three total sets of earbud tips (S/M/L), and the earbuds even have touch controls, which I wasn’t expecting. The earbuds themelves are actually quite confortable, but I worry about using them for heavy workouts or running, due ot their compact nature, I worry they might fall out of the ear. I will say that the sound experience isn’t the greatest in the world, but you can definitely tell a difference when the ANC is on and when using Transparency Mode. The volume and sound quality certainly isn’t Bose or Sennheiser level, or quality, but considering you can store and charge the earbuds inside of your watch, it’s not the end of the world. I’ve been testing them out connected to my Oppo Find N2 Flip, and it’s quite convenient for when I’m laying down at night, and also doing some light exercise like walking on the treadmill. Sadly, you have to have a Huawei account to get them paired with any phone or tablet. You can create a Huawei account, but it’s a slightly larger headache than setting up most earbuds.

Likely most people outside of China will ever really use this watch, but that’s not the point. The Buds Watch is proof that the concept works and maybe can be improved and done on a more mainstream level for the global community – I hope this happens one day!. The watch itself runs on Huawei’s own operating system, but it has a lot of familiar features like heart rate monitoring, oxygen saturation reading capabilities, sleep monitoring, step counter, and more. Overall the Buds Watch has been a fun experience and I’m still testing it out, but I am glad that Huawei put the effort into designing and manufacturing this watch. I could envision an WearOS equivalent one day that’s more mainstream with better sound, better battery, and mainstream support.