We’ve got a first look at Honor’s new smartwatch, with a hint at its features

Honor Magic Watch 2
Honor Magic Watch 2 (Image credit: Future)

In late 2019 Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, launched a fantastic fitness-centric smartwatch called the Honor Magic Watch 2, and TechRadar has been given an exclusive look at its successor.

We don’t know what this new smartwatch is called - our money would be on the Honor Magic Watch 3, but this hasn’t been confirmed - but Honor has shared with us the first poster for the smartwatch which shows off a silhouette of the model, a hint at its features, and when we’ll find out more.

The poster says the smartwatch is ‘coming soon’, but there’s a date below - September 4, at 11am CET (10am BST / 5am ET / 1am PT). That date falls within annual tech event IFA 2020, so it’s likely Honor is hosting a launch event there where we’ll see the watch, with a release date some time later.

A look at the new Honor smartwatch

Honor’s new smartwatch poster

Honor’s new smartwatch poster (Image credit: Honor)

From the poster above we can see the new Honor smartwatch will have physical buttons, which gives it a more sleek and fitness-centric design than its predecessor, which had crowns and therefore a more ‘classic’ watch look.

It looks like the compass-design bezel from the Honor Magic Watch 2 is back though, as you can see it faintly round the outside of the screen.

The picture inside the watch shows a man looking out over a mountain - while this doesn’t necessarily confirm any fitness features, it does strongly hint to the prospect of more outdoor exploration modes.

The Honor Magic Watch 2 has plenty of fitness tracking modes that would be useful in a gym and doing your standard outdoor activities, like running or cycling, but maybe this Watch 3 (or whatever it is) will have modes that would make it suitable for wilder areas. There could be hill walking, mountain biking or long-distance hiking modes.

In addition we could see a bigger integration of maps into the user interface of the watch, so you can see where you are at all times or track your longer adventures via the Huawei Health app on your phone.

These are all just guesses for now, but the poster does make us think the new Honor watch could have loads of features we haven’t seen from the company before. Since the Honor Magic Watch 2 was a great little smartwatch - and a pretty affordable one at that - we’re intrigued to see what new features the upcoming watch could bring.

When Honor launches its new smartwatch at IFA 2020 on September 4 we’ll make sure to bring you everything you need to know, including this new contender for our best smartwatch list and any other products that are shown off.

Tom Bedford
Contributor

Tom Bedford was deputy phones editor on TechRadar until late 2022, having worked his way up from staff writer. Though he specialized in phones and tablets, he also took on other tech like electric scooters, smartwatches, fitness, mobile gaming and more. He is based in London, UK and now works for the entertainment site What To Watch.


He graduated in American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Prior to working on TechRadar, he freelanced in tech, gaming and entertainment, and also spent many years working as a mixologist. He also currently works in film as a screenwriter, director and producer.