It wasn’t long ago that checking your phone for the time felt like the peak of convenience. Now, we’re monitoring heart rate variability while waiting at traffic lights, measuring blood oxygen on a morning run, and glancing at messages on our wrists during meetings. Huawei’s Watch 5 arrives as a symbol of this shift, packed with sensors that once lived only in hospitals, now condensed into a sapphire-clad disc on your wrist.
Yet as we celebrate what wearables like the Watch 5 can do, it is clear they are stepping stones to something bigger – or perhaps smaller. The future of devices is heading towards your face, in the form of AR glasses and micro-wearables that will make the screens we clutch today feel clumsy tomorrow.
Huawei’s quiet but relentless drive towards this future is worth noting. The Watch 5’s X-Tap sensor, which can read nine health metrics in a minute, gesture controls that let you silence calls with a finger flick, and dual-mode connectivity all hint at how we are preparing to interact with technology in more natural, seamless ways. It is no longer about convenience alone; it is about building an ambient layer of technology that assists quietly, allowing us to remain present in our lives.
Wearables are no longer accessories; they are gateways to how we will live, work, and connect in the years ahead. Huawei’s Watch 5, with its advanced health sensors and gesture controls, demonstrates just how far technology has come in miniaturisation, placing accurate, hospital-grade monitoring into everyday hands.
Features like Health Glance, which reads your heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen, skin temperature and arterial stiffness within a single 60-second scan, are reshaping the conversation around personal health. Gesture controls, currently used to silence alarms or skip tracks with a simple finger flick, are a glimpse into a world where we interact with our digital environments through intuitive movements rather than constant screen tapping.
Huawei’s commitment to premium materials like sapphire glass and aerospace-grade titanium signals a shift in how we perceive wearables: not just as tools, but as lifestyle pieces that align with who we are. This aligns with a broader trend demanding technology that blends into our lives seamlessly, enhancing them without intrusion.
While the wrist is our current interface with the digital world, it is only a waypoint. The true evolution lies ahead, in AR glasses and micro-wearables that will project essential information into our line of sight, allowing us to remain heads-up and engaged with the world while staying connected.
Imagine health metrics displayed discreetly during a meeting, contextual overlays guiding you through your day, and gesture-controlled interfaces that feel as natural as breathing. The same sensors monitoring your health on your wrist today will soon provide real-time feedback through glasses, supporting our well-being and connectivity without demanding our constant attention.
Huawei may not be shouting about AR glasses yet, but every step in refining gesture recognition, health tracking, and low-latency connectivity in the Watch 5 is laying the groundwork for this future. The watch on your wrist today is not the endgame; it is a quiet promise of the immersive, screenless, context-aware world that is coming.
While these trends are global, they matter here in South Africa too. Wearables and AR glasses will rely on the connectivity fabric we are building today, from 5G rollouts to improved fibre networks. It will take local innovation, investment and accessibility to ensure these future-facing technologies do not remain out of reach for most South Africans. But make no mistake, they are coming, and South Africa’s readiness will determine how much we can truly benefit from this evolution.
We are ready for this future. Are you?
