The Huawei Watch is now under £170

If you want a good Android Wear smartwatch, your options are a little bit limited. Samsung uses its own Tizen software on its watches, and the Apple Watch uses WatchOS. Motorola has all but given up on the Moto 360, so what’s left?

Huawei is a company well worth considering. Not only do they make excellent smartwatches, but they seem to be in the game for the long haul. The Huawei Watch 2 is one of the few smartwatches we’ve actually reviewed this year – and yes, the review was glowing.

But the appearance of a new Huawei Watch means that the older model – released back in 2015 – is tumbling in price. It cost £289 at launch, but can now be had for a very tempting £169.07 at Amazon.

At the time of writing, in fact, you can get it even cheaper if you dig into Amazon Warehouse, where it goes for as little as £120.93 for a used model in “acceptable” condition, or a little more for a “good” condition version.

So what makes the Huawei Watch great? In our review, Jon Bray wrote that it “nails every aspect of the smartwatch formula” with everything from its “crisp, vibrant AMOLED display to its sapphire crystal glass top.” In fact, the only issue Jon had with it was the price – which obviously isn’t such a big deal now.

The only fly in the ointment is time marching on and the presence of the aforementioned Huawei Watch 2. While both wearables now run Android Wear 2.0, there are some other differences between the watches. The Huawei Watch 2 has 4G support, for one thing, allowing you to put in a separate SIM and use it independently of the phone. It also has built-in GPS and NFC allowing more convenient Android Pay transactions.

But these added features come at a cost: the Huawei Watch 2 is very slightly larger. While the original Huawei Watch is 42x42x11.3mm, the newer version is a bit chunkier, coming in at 49x45x12.6mm. To my eyes, the original also looks a bit smarter, with a thin metallic bezel making it slightly more “dressy.”

In other words, both watches are excellent buys, but you don’t need to worry too much about missing out on the Huawei Watch 2’s new features unless you really want to leave your phone at home. For me, personally, I’d rather carry around my phone: I’d still have room in my pocket for the £120 I saved, after all.