The Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro is my new favourite fitness watch for cycling

Introduction

Frequent recharging is an unwelcome reality for most wearable tech – but not for the Watch GT 6 Pro. Huawei’s latest smartwatch lasts twelve times longer than Apple’s newly released Watch Ultra 3, yet doesn’t skimp on the heath and fitness tracking to achieve it. It even has one feature that could persuade dedicated cyclists to ditch their Garmin sports watches.

The Watch GT 6 Pro is the first wearable I’ve seen that can calculate functional threshold power – or FTP – right on your wrist, without needing expensive power meter pedals. It also keeps the sporty-yet-serious styling the GT series has become known for, and at £329 undercuts heavy hitters like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic.

Is that enough for Western buyers to overlook the few software limitations they’ve come to expect from post-US ban Huawei? After several weeks of testing, I think it might be.

Design & build: enter the octagon

This year’s Watch GT isn’t a huge design departure from the old one. Huawei has kept the distinctive geometric bezel, but moved the numerals to the outside edge rather than around the watch face, freeing up space for an even bigger screen. The inner bezel has been tweaked with more detailed markers, so there’s still plenty going on even before the display blinks into life.

Unlike the last-gen watch, which could easily swallow third-party bands and straps, the latest Watch GT has seemingly gone back to a proprietary lug system. It lets the strap blend seamlessly into the watch body, which is thicker than before and with dramatic angles continuing the geometric theme. Annoying if you like to mix and match your straps, perhaps, but not an issue if you’re find with the bundled one.

There are two side buttons, as usual: a digital crown for scrolling and a lower button for making selections. Neither protrude very far, so never got accidentally bumped even without a crown guard.

I’ve been testing the brown model, which pairs a silver case made from aviation-grade titanium alloy with a hybrid band that’s part stitched fabric, part sweat-resistant rubber. The pattern looks like something you’d find covering the seats of a 1970s supercar – I didn’t expect to like it as much as I do now I’ve worn it for a few weeks. There’s also a black version with darker case and matching band, or a titanium model with metal bracelet.

All three have sapphire glass protecting their screens and a ceramic rear cover, so they can take a beating and not receive any battle scars. They’re also IP69 resistant, as you’d hope for a watch with open water swimming and diving modes.

This is a big watch, eclipsing even the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic I wore previously, but it doesn’t protrude up as far, so is nice and easy to slip out from a shirt sleeve. It’s not the lightest I’ve used recently either, but I didn’t find it uncomfortable or distracting to wear at night while sleeping.

Screen: size matters

Going Pro gets you Huawei’s largest wearable display at 1.47in, but it doesn’t buy you any extra pixels. The Watch GT 6 Pro has the same 466×466 resolution as the biggest version of the regular Watch 6. I’m not complaining, though. It’s wonderfully detailed – so much so that Huawei can get away with some rather tiny fonts, which would be blurry on a lesser display. I also found fitness metrics that bit easier to see at a glance than on a smaller smartwatch.

It’s an OLED panel, so of course the colours are exceptionally vivid, and black levels are pretty much perfect. The numerical inner bezel basically goes right up to the panel’s edge, though, so you aren’t forced to use mainly black watch faces or widgets to avoid an unsightly black ring between screen and watch body. Viewing angles are excellent, too.

The always-on display mode is going to sap your wear time, but now that Huawei is using variable refresh rate tech to keep power consumption down, it’s not as big a loss as you’d expect. Think a day of wear less than usual, which given this watch’s outstanding lifespan, isn’t a huge deal.

Rival smartwatches have now drawn level with Huawei’s claimed 3000 nits peak brightness, and the Watch GT 6 Pro isn’t going to hit that figure very often, but it certainly shone bright enough that I could see it clearly while out on a bike ride in sunny conditions. While wearing sunglasses.

Interface: mostly harmonious

You don’t need to have worn a Huawei watch before to be at home with the HarmonyOS interface. It has the same basic layout as its WearOS rivals, with full screen widgets found when swiping right from the watch face. A swipe up reveals any recent unread notifications, and a swipe down opens the Quick Settings menu. There’s a stack of quick cards available with a left swipe for weather, calendar appointments, music controls, and health insights. Everything is smoothly animated as usual, and really packs information onto every screen.

Prodding the digital crown opens the app drawer, which can show or hide app names with a downward swipe – very handy if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, given the sheer number of health and fitness-related apps installed right out of the box. I still find it annoying to have to grant permissions to every single one individually, rather than just allow everything workout-related in one go.

There hasn’t been a lot of change on the ‘smart’ side of this smartwatch, with most of Huawei’s usual features and apps making a return. You can answer incoming calls from your wrist, remotely control your phone’s camera, get weather and calendar alerts, and make contactless payments through Huawei Wallet (though only if it’s supported in your country). You can also manage music playback, either from your phone or directly on the watch, though it takes an absolute age to transfer tracks and neither it nor the companion app are any good at telling you how much storage you have left. Allegedly there’s 64GB on board.

App Gallery, Huawei’s third-party app store, is nowhere near as well stocked as the Google Play Store or Apple Watch app store, with just one or two I thought were actually worth downloading. I appreciate the Huawei Health companion app being able to push out your exercise sessions to big-name services like Strava when syncing with your phone, though. iPhone owners will be more restricted on features, though being able to pair at all puts Huawei ahead of some WearOS watches.

I also have to point out that Android owners must sideload Huawei Health. Not everyone will find this straightforward, as some phone brands make you jump through several hoops before installing apps downloaded from places other than the Play Store. Granting all the necessary permissions is also fiddlier than the WearOS alternative. However, there are still more smarts here than you’ll get from many sports watches from the likes of Polar or Coros.

Health & fitness: pedal power

While you don’t get the X-Tap pressure-sensitive electrode seen on the Huawei Watch 5, the Watch GT 6 Pro isn’t short on health tracking ability. Placing a finger on the lower button for 60seconds lets you perform an ECG reading and check for arterial stiffness, while sensors on the back of the watch then handle heart rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen, along with the usual step and sleep tracking.

Sports-wise Huawei has focused on cycling, skiing and golf this year. With no snowy slopes (or golf club membership) handy I can’t vouch for the latter two, but I was seriously impressed with the Watch GT 6 Pro’s ability to display my current functional threshold power (FTP) without needing to be paired with power meter pedals first.

It’s not perfect, with Huawei’s +/-15 watts variance feeling like an understatement at times – but it uses the Watch GT 6 Pro’s sensors and GPS data to great effect on climbs and descents. My data was largely representative of my effort, with just a few optimistic spikes over ten miles. Even better, my ride average was within 2W of my Zwift FTP. Given a set of power meter pedals cost upwards of $400/£350 (and good ones being several times that amount), I can see this watch having massive appeal with cyclists.

Heart rate measurements were a very close match for my chest strap, and I also appreciated the improved GPS, which more closely matched my high-end bike computer even when among taller buildings – something previous Huawei watches struggled with. It was impressively quick to acquire a positional lock when starting exercise, too, which is great when you just want to get going.

My only grumble was that the automatic walking detection didn’t kick in as soon as I expected it to a few times – maybe because I was pushing a stroller rather than pressing on with any real purpose. Otherwise this is a fantastic fitness watch in every aspect. It’s a more inclusive one, too, with fall detection and a wheelchair mode for the first time.

Battery life: endurance athlete

Huawei watches have always been ahead of the game when it comes to longevity, and this one is no different. The Watch GT 6 Pro finds room inside for an 847mAh cell, which is simply massive for a smartwatch. Even with a sizeable screen and suite of sensors to power, it just keeps going.

In the two weeks I’ve had it strapped to my wrist, I’ve only needed to charge the Watch GT 6 Pro once. With light use, it’ll manage a mighty impressive 21 days between pit stops, and with the always-on display enabled a week is comfortably within reach. This is well beyond the realms of other smartwatches and more comparable with full-fat multisports watches, and as much as a week more than previous big battery Huawei watches could manage.

GPS activity recording remains the biggest power drain, but continuous tracking will still keep going for 40 hours before it runs dry. That’s more endurance than I have, for sure.

The magnetic charging puck still has a USB type-A connector – maybe next year will finally see Huawei embrace USB-C for its wearables. I appreciated how strong the magnets were, and that it was fast enough to refuel the watch in around an hour.

Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro verdict

While it’s not as smart a smartwatch as some Western rivals with better OS integration, simpler setup, and access to third-party apps, the Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro is a more accomplished fitness watch. Cyclists in particular will find more useful data here than any rival, and the cost of entry is considerably lower than a cycle computer and set of power meter pedals.

For everyone else there’s still plenty here to like, including an eye-catching design and simply fantastic battery life. It’s a genuine alternative to the likes of the OnePlus Watch 3, which might cost less and be more Android-friendly, but can’t last nearly as long – or provide such detailed sports tracking.

Huawei Watch GT 6 Pro technical specifications

Screen	1.47in, 566×466 AMOLED
Sensors	Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, optical heart rate sensor, barometer, temperature sensor
Connectivity	GPS, Bluetooth, NFC (country-dependent)
Storage	64GB on-board
Operating system	Harmony OS
Battery	847mAh
Dimensions	46x46x11.2mm, 51g