Why it matters to you
Watches are like jewelry, and the more special they are, the more you’ll want one on your wrist. Porsche Design’s Huawei Watch 2 ticks all the right boxes.
If you’ve been patiently waiting for a better look at Porsche Design’s Huawei Watch 2, the time (sorry) has finally arrived. The special edition smartwatch, announced alongside the Watch 2 earlier this year, but strangely absent since then, is now ready to be purchased directly from Porsche Design. However, there are a couple of problems. The first is that the watch is only sold in Europe and the United Kingdom, and the second is that it’ll cost you 800 euros, or about $925. The Huawei Watch 2, without Porsche Design’s involvement, will cost you less than $340.
What’s so special that it warrants three times the price of a normal Huawei Watch 2? The main design change is on the bezel, which is made from ceramic like the regular version, but features a tachymeter scale around the edge, something seen on other Porsche Design timepieces. What does this do? If you’re good at math, and have some time to spare, it can be used to calculate average speed. In reality, because no one will bother messing around with this, it just gives the watch an extra helping of motorsport-inspired cool.
The strap is a Porsche Design version of the leather/rubber hybrid strap available on the regular Huawei Watch 2 Classic. Here it has the Porsche Design logo and some red stitching — again, giving the watch a motorsport style — with breathable, ridged rubber next to your skin, and leather on the top for a classic look. The red highlights continue on the Huawei Watch 2’s buttons, which are mounted on a slick, black stainless steel case covered in a scratch resistant coating. There’s no mention of an upgrade from Gorilla Glass to sapphire for the cover over the screen, which is unfortunate at this price.
It wouldn’t be a special edition smartwatch without some custom watch faces, and Porsche Design has added several to its Huawei Watch 2, complete with a one-touch chronograph feature. Otherwise, the technical specification is the same as a standard Huawei Watch 2 Classic. It doesn’t come with 4G, but has all the Watch 2’s fitness tracking abilities, GPS, IP68 water resistance, 4GB of storage space, and the Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor with 512MB of RAM. Android Wear 2.0 is the operating system.
Huawei last teamed up with Porsche Design for the Porsche Design Mate 9, which would be the ideal companion device to the new smartwatch. Grabbing the limited edition phone will add another 1,400 euros ($1,630) to the final bill, but if you’re considering the watch already, that probably won’t matter.