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The Huawei Watch, the company’s first-ever smartwatch, will go on sale in the United States starting Sept. 17 in seven styles, ranging from a $349 stainless steel watch with a leather band 349 to a $799 version made from rose gold-plated stainless steel with a rose gold-plated link band.
The pricing and availability for the new Android timepieces, which were unveiled in March at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, were announced Sept. 2. Preorders are being taken for the devices immediately at Huawei’s Website or at the Google Store, Amazon.com or BestBuy.com. Stainless steel and black models are available for preorder immediately, while rose gold models will be available later this year.
“Designed first and foremost as a watch, the Huawei Watch is unlike any smartwatch available today,” Zhiqiang Xu, president of Huawei Device USA, said in a statement. “We are committed to meeting U.S. consumers’ demands for premium products and the Huawei Watch is a step in that direction. It embodies Huawei’s technology innovation heritage, pursuit of premium design and integration of useful functionality that we strive to develop in each product.”
The Huawei Watch, which is powered by Android Wear 1.3, features a 1.65-inch classic round watch face and a 1.4-inch touch-sensitive AMOLED display that’s covered with a scratch-proof sapphire crystal lens. The Huawei Watch features a Qualcomm 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of onboard storage and Bluetooth 4.1. The watch connects to smartphones running Android 4.3 or higher or iOS 8.2 and later and allows users to receive call notifications, texts, email, calendar notifications and more.
The Huawei Watch includes a built-in advanced heart rate monitor sensor, a six-axis sensor, a barometer sensor, a touch motor, and a built-in microphone for a wide range of health tracking and sports functions. It will be available in more than 20 countries, including the United States.
The watch can be personalized for each user, thanks to some 40 unique watch faces that can be chosen and switched out, as well as six body and band combinations. A magnetic charging station is included.
The 300mAh battery of the Huawei Watch offers up to two days of battery life with regular use, and fast charging offers 80 percent battery life in just 45 minutes, or 75 minutes for a full charge, according to the company. The watch has an always-on face that gives immediate access to the time of day displayed on the face. The device also includes WiFi connectivity for instant notifications when the user’s phone isn’t in Bluetooth range.
The watch sells for $349 with a stainless steel body and a black leather band or for $399 with a stainless steel body and a steel link bracelet band or a stainless steel mesh band. A black DLC-coated stainless steel body with a black-plated link bracelet sells for $449, while a rose gold-plated stainless steel body with an alligator-pressed brown leather band sells for $699. The luxury version, with a rode gold-plated stainless steel body and a rose gold-plated link bracelet band, sells for $799.