How, for heart health, new Huawei Watch D beats Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch

What if you had a smartwatch that could measure your blood pressure and generate an electrocardiogram (ECG) too? A ticker for your ticker, so to speak. Well, there is one: Huawei’s new Watch D.

Someone with dangerously high blood pressure normally does not feel it. Left undetected and untreated for years, it can gradually damage blood vessels and increase the risk of a heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

For those who would rather use a modern medical wearable device to measure their blood pressure than get themselves a conventional blood-pressure gauge, the China-based telecommunications equipment giant Huawei offers its Watch D. Is it a genuine alternative?

This is rather bothersome, and the watches must be calibrated every 28 days to ensure measurement accuracy.

Like the Galaxy watches, the Aktiia blood pressure monitor bracelet uses optical sensors. It is best suited for 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. But it, too, must be regularly calibrated – a rather fiddly process.

Huawei’s Watch D takes a different approach. It has an inflatable strap hidden in the wristband, similar to classic wrist blood pressure monitors by manufacturers such as Omron, Boso and Beurer.

According to Huawei, the margin of error for the device’s blood pressure readings is ±3 mmHg, or millimetres of mercury. A test showed the readings to be very close to those by the Boso Medicus X upper arm blood pressure monitor, which the German consumer watchdog Stiftung Warentest has rated “good”.

As with all blood pressure measurements, you have got to sit calmly and quietly for a few minutes immediately before, and then during, the reading. Your wrist should be supported at heart level. If you fidget, the reading will not be accurate.

If the software detects a deviation from the correct posture, it tells you – and gives you tips on a better sitting position. The sophisticated mechanics of the inflatable strap ensure reliable readings but also make the watch less than a beauty.

The boxy housing is considerably thicker than that of an Apple Watch, and the fabric cover of the inflatable strap sticks out a bit from the silicone wristband.

Its ability to measure blood pressure, though, gives it a one-up on the Apple Watch in terms of health features.

Although the device meets the IP68 standard for dust and water resistance, Huawei says the Watch D is not designed for swimming or other activities that involve immersion in water, such as diving. The company also advises that it not be worn under a shower or in a sauna. Getting caught in the rain while you are jogging is not a problem, however.

To track your jogging routes with greater precision, it comes with GNSS satellite positioning, so it includes GPS (US), Galileo (Europe), Glonass (Russia) and BeiDou/Compass (China).

The device’s downside is the absence of some classic smartwatch features that make your life easier. You cannot make contactless payments with it, for example.

But like other smartwatches, Watch D has a smart voice assistant, alarm clock and can display messages. It also provides weather forecasts and has music playback control, although you cannot store songs on the device itself. So if you like to listen to music while jogging, you have got to have your phone with you too.

Finally, the Watch D’s smartphone compatibility is exemplary. The Huawei Health App cannot only be connected to Huawei devices, but also to Android and iOS smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy watches’ blood pressure monitor requires the Samsung Health Monitor app, which is available only on Samsung devices, and the Apple Watch only works with an iPhone.