Wrist-on with Huawei Watch, Android Wear’s best-looking timepiece

At Mobile World Congress, attendees are sure of only two things: you’ll sleep poorly; and you’ll be surprised by at least one product.

After watching the cringe-inducingly bad promo videos for the Huawei Watch, I was extremely surprised this morning when, clasping it to my wrist, I inadvertently smiled and decided then and there I had to have one.

Well-designed and extremely comfortable, the screen was the biggest differentiator for me: a 400 x 400 pixel OLED panel that bears almost no resemblance to the similarly-shaped circle of the Moto 360.

It’s a bit big, and that Huawei chose to make it in a single 40mm size may turn off those with smaller wrists, but the company’s marketing appears to be targeting men looking to replace their traditional Swiss watches.

Made with substantial and long-lasting materials like metal and leather, the Huawei Watch feels like what a smartwatch should feel like: a watch. That statement doesn’t make up for the ridiculously clumsy sentence seen in the promo, but after wearing it I get the gist.

The problem with current smartwatches is that the screens aren’t sharp enough yet to perceive them as real-world objects: to our eyes, we’re still looking at an analog or digital projection conveyed in watch face format. But on the Huawei Watch, with a 286ppi, that line starts to blur. Delightfully.

Look for the Huawei Watch to arrive in Canada in the second quarter, likely closer to the summer than spring.