Huawei launches blood-pressure Watch D3 as Apple and SKG expand health-wearable features

According to TechRadar, the Watch D3 is the third generation of Huawei's blood-pressure-focused health watch. Its inflatable band acts as a cuff to measure blood pressure. The D3 is said to be 11.3 mm thick and weigh 40 g. Huawei says it offers 24-hour ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring in line with medical guidelines; at night the watch inflates automatically with quieter operation to reduce sleep disturbance. Users can set daytime measurement intervals, take manual readings, and measure blood pressure before and after exercise. The watch also includes GPS, outdoor route navigation, running analytics and a Health Community feature for family members to view each other's statistics.

The Watch D3 is available in black, white and gold for £399.99, about $545 or AU$745. TechRadar said it is not sold in the United States because of the ban on Huawei telecommunications equipment.

Alongside the D3, Huawei introduced the Watch GT 7 series, Watch 6 series and FreeBuds Neo earbuds, Android Authority reported. The Watch GT 7 series adds indoor snow-sports tracking and maps for more than 3,000 resorts. The GT 7 is offered in 46 mm and 41 mm sizes with eight colorways, while the GT 7 Pro has a nano-tech ceramic bezel and titanium-alloy middle frame. The Watch 6 series adds more than 100 workout modes and eSIM calling, and the FreeBuds Neo have adaptive noise cancellation up to 30 dB, lossless and spatial audio, and dual-device support.

The D3 launch comes as Apple, Google and startup Signal Ring pursue blood-pressure tracking with optical LEDs rather than an inflatable cuff. TechRadar said Apple now offers a Hypertension feature that monitors sleep over 30 days to flag signs of possible hypertension, and Google's Pixel Watch 5 has Blood Pressure Detection. Signal Ring, founded by a former head of Android, is building a smart ring focused on cuffless, calibration-less blood-pressure sensing.

9to5Mac's test showed GymKit in iOS 27 can work without an Apple Watch. GymKit has been available on Apple Watch since 2017. With a GymKit-compatible treadmill, the publication tapped an iPhone to the machine, selected an indoor walk, and used AirPods Pro 3 as the heart-rate source; the AirPods Pro 3 are the first AirPods with heart-rate tracking, following the earlier Powerbeats Pro 2. The treadmill received heart-rate data from the AirPods; the iPhone's Fitness app received distance, incline, pace and calorie data from the treadmill. Workout data was stored privately on the iPhone and removed from the equipment, according to the report. In a 16-minute sample walk, the iPhone recorded 0.66 miles, 65 active calories, 97 total calories, 32 feet of elevation gain and an average heart rate of 115 beats per minute.

The report, based on iOS 27 beta 1, said that without AirPods the iPhone disconnected when the workout started, and that when an Apple Watch was worn, iOS directed the user to the watch's Workout app. It also said watchOS 27 improves Apple Watch treadmill workout accuracy, but that GymKit remains the most accurate data source.

Leiphone reported that SKG signed the agreement with Peking Union Medical College on Sept. 1 to jointly study sleep-apnea detection algorithms. The project will run multi-center clinical validation in three Class A tertiary hospitals, using medical-expert-annotated polysomnography data as the gold standard to calibrate the algorithms in SKG's Xiaojingwei watch. The watch uses a four-channel PPG design and combines oscillometric and PPG methods for blood-pressure readings, with a nominal accuracy of ±3 mmHg.

According to Leiphone, the Xiaojingwei has an embedded 4G communication module, so it can upload data without a phone. If it detects an abnormal event, algorithms can trigger an AI warning of possible heart or cerebral infarction and signal a customer-service team, which proactively contacts the wearer's pre-set friends, relatives or emergency contacts. Relatives can check health indicators remotely through the SKG Health app; abnormal trends in blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen and other metrics send synchronized app and SMS alerts. The device covers seven abnormal indicators, with vibration, SMS and phone-call reminders, and has obtained Class II medical device registration in China.

Leiphone said the product-and-research combination illustrates that competition in wearable health devices is expanding from measurement accuracy to organizing follow-up responses after abnormal readings are detected.