Huawei Watch D3 review: Cuff-based blood pressure monitoring in a surprisingly slim watch

Blood pressure monitoring has become one of the next big battlegrounds for smartwatches, and Huawei’s Watch D Series has been leading the way for years.

Unlike other health watches that estimate blood pressure using optical sensors and algorithms, Huawei built a miniature mechanical airbag directly into the strap that inflates around your wrist like a conventional blood-pressure cuff and produces actual systolic and diastolic readings.

It’s not entirely new for the company, as the original Huawei Watch D could already take blood pressure readings. However, the Watch D3 shrunk and made the hardware significantly more appealing; from a distance, you’d find it hard to tell the Huawei and a mainline Apple Watch apart.

The body is now just 11.3mm thick, down from 13.3mm on the D2, and its 1.92-inch AMOLED display reaches a claimed peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Huawei has also reduced the weight of the strap and narrowed the airbag.

As a result, the Huawei Watch D3 no longer feels much like a medical device. The company has hidden some unusually sophisticated health hardware inside something that looks and feels like a normal smartwatch. Whether its blood pressure readings are quite as convincing as the hardware, however, is another matter.

Huawei Watch D3 review

Price and availability

Huawei announced the Watch D3 in September 2026, and it's available now at Huawei UK for £399.99. It comes in Black, Gold and Mocha Gold. That puts it firmly at the premium end of Huawei’s smartwatch range, although the integrated cuff-based blood pressure monitoring gives it functionality few mainstream rivals can match.

The Watch D3 costs €449 in Europe, and there is no official US launch or pricing, so American buyers would need to import it if they wanted one. AU price and availability TBC.

Design and display

The Watch D3 feels like an ordinary smartwatch on the wrist in the best possible sense. The strap is inevitably thicker than a conventional smartwatch band because it contains the inflatable airbag, but I never found it cumbersome.

Huawei has done an impressive job miniaturising the pump, pressure sensors and cuff system into something that still resembles a mainstream wearable.

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The D3’s proportions aren't far removed from an Apple Watch, either: the case measures 46.5 x 41 x 11.3mm and weighs around 40g without the strap.

The 1.92-inch AMOLED panel is another highlight, with its bright, colourful screen that’s easy to read outdoors. The brand quotes 3,000 nits of peak brightness, making it noticeably larger and brighter than the D2's 1.82-inch, 1,500-nit panel.

Blood pressure monitoring

Taking a blood pressure reading is remarkably straightforward on the Huawei Watch D3. Start a blood pressure measurement, position your arm correctly across your chest, and the airbag quietly inflates around your wrist – simple stuff.

Huawei uses the oscillometric method, combining a mechanical cuff with a pressure sensor to produce systolic and diastolic readings. I was told the system has EU CE-MDR medical-device certification.

I was surprised by how quiet the watch was during the readings. It makes virtually no sound, and the only way to tell it’s actually working is the increasing pressure around your wrist. Traditional blood pressure monitors aren't exactly deafening, but you'll certainly know when one starts inflating. I’ve never had a similar experience with the Watch D3.

However, my results gave me pause. I compared the Watch D3 with a Garmin Index BPM upper-arm monitor several times and consistently got lower readings from the Huawei:

Across those three tests, the Huawei's systolic result was around 16 mmHg lower on average, while diastolic pressure was around 5 mmHg lower. That's too consistent a difference for me simply to ignore in a review, particularly when blood pressure monitoring is the main reason to buy this watch.

These are only a handful of examples from my review period, but the Huawei generally reported lower figures than the Garmin, and almost all readings from the Huawei were under the optimal 120/80.

It’s worth noting that mine wasn't a clinical test and Garmin’s device isn't a laboratory reference device, either. Not to mention factors including body position, timing, and even which arm you use for the test can affect measurements. As such, I wouldn't conclude from my testing that the Watch D3 is universally inaccurate.

Interestingly, the Huawei app never warned that my readings were abnormally low, which makes sense as even my lowest result of 105/72 remains comfortably above the NHS definition of hypotension, which is below 90/60mmHg.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring

The Watch D3 can also perform ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, or ABPM, taking readings repeatedly throughout the day and night.

This can be much more useful than taking your blood pressure only when you remember. Huawei's system collects regular daytime and overnight readings, helping reveal patterns a single measurement can't show.

When the watch wants to take a daytime reading, you still need to get yourself into the correct position, with your wrist raised across your chest. That's perfectly manageable if you're deliberately monitoring your blood pressure, but it can become a faff during a normal working day.

However, I missed several scheduled readings simply because I was busy doing something else. Night readings are fine, as they are done automatically, but during the day, you must assume the Watch D3 reading position with one elbow cradled in your other hand. This ensures the best readings (well, about that).

It’s completely understandable that you need to do that; you would have to do the same with a blood pressure cuff, and I don’t expect the Watch D3 to do everything automatically and be just as accurate as full-size cuffs. I would have liked it to be a bit more accurate, though.

One caveat is that Huawei says battery life drops from up to six days in normal use to around one day with ABPM enabled. Not like you would have to do it too often.

Health and fitness tracking

Blood pressure might grab the headlines, but the Watch D3 is also arguably Huawei's most comprehensive general health watch.

Health Glance can combine up to 11 measurements into a single report, while the watch also offers ECG, heart-rate monitoring, SpO2, HRV, sleep tracking, skin temperature, stress and Huawei's expanded Emotional Wellbeing feature.

It also adds a new Physical Readiness Score, improved sleep analysis, and Health Insights that combine longer-term blood pressure trends with activity and sleep data.

The Huawei Health app does an excellent job of exposing all this information. It has a similar issue to the Ultrahuman app, namely that it can be overwhelming to see all that health data presented. It's comprehensive rather than elegant.

To me, Oura’s approach is still the gold standard. It shows a few top-line numbers but allows you to dig deeper if you want to. The Huawei app tries something similar but ends up showing you way too much information.

This is not a Huawei-exclusive issue. As wearables get smarter and collect more data, you’ll inevitably be shown more and more. Gamification (e.g., sleep and stress scores) helps package it in a more palatable way, but at the end of the day, all I care about is whether I’m healthy. I don’t need to know how my light sleep was 7% under my average.

Fitness tracking is robust, and the Huawei Watch D3 offers more than 100 workout modes, including golf, skiing and trail running, route navigation and off-course alerts. I still wouldn't buy one instead of a dedicated Garmin Watch or one of Huawei’s dedicated performance wearables if serious endurance training were my priority, but fitness tracking doesn't feel like an afterthought.

Smart features and battery life

The Watch D3 covers most smartwatch basics well, including notifications, Bluetooth calling, calendar features and NFC payments through Curve Pay in the UK.

Huawei officially quotes up to six days, but my Watch D3 comfortably exceeded that figure. After charging it from 8% to 100% in no more than 55 minutes, I still had 34% remaining six days later.

That testing period also included a software update and an hour-long GPS-tracked walk. Based on the average drain I saw, the watch was heading towards roughly nine days between charges, although your mileage will obviously depend on which health features you use.

Verdict

The Huawei Watch D3 is the strongest argument yet for putting proper blood pressure monitoring into an everyday smartwatch.

Huawei has managed to hide a mechanical pump, pressure sensor and inflatable cuff inside something that looks and feels remarkably close to a conventional wearable. Add its bright display, long battery life and enormous collection of health metrics, and this is probably Huawei's most comprehensive health smartwatch to date.

The only reason my recommendation isn't more straightforward is the one feature that matters most. My Watch D3 repeatedly produced lower blood pressure readings than the Garmin Index BPM I used for comparison.

As a small-scale test, my results aren’t enough to overturn Huawei's medical-device certification or prove either device definitively right or wrong, but the discrepancy was large enough that I'd want to look into it further. That's a shame because almost everything else about the D3 is superb.

It isn't cheap, but there’s still nothing quite like the Watch D3, a wearable that puts genuine cuff-based blood pressure monitoring into a smartwatch body that doesn't look or feel like you've strapped a medical instrument to your wrist.