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HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2:Essential Tech for Extreme Cave Diving

Written by Frédéric Swierczynski

HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2:Essential Tech for Extreme Cave Diving

7 min read
Published on 09/01/2026 · 10:30

7 min read

Published on 09/01/2026 · 10:30

My name is Frédéric Swierczynski. I was born on the Atlantic coast, and water is my second nature. I started spearfishing at the age of seven and scuba diving with tanks at twelve. The Atlantic Ocean is a vast playground for a diver like me, and as soon as I came of age, I became passionate about searching for World War I and World War II wrecks buried off our shores. That is when my quest for exploration began, because hardly anyone dived in this ocean, let alone at the depths where these historical treasures lie.

The need to train at great depths pushed me to dive underground. Cave diving makes it possible to avoid poor sea conditions and to practice at any time without needing a skipper or a boat. The safe standard is to dive with a buddy at all times in line with agency rules and local regulations. When I undertake demanding dives, my suit’s regulators and instruments become trusted allies, offering a real source of psychological calm. The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 has also become a key part of this routine, logging depth and time and accompanying me to operational depths of up to 150 metres.

About the Author

Frédéric Swierczynski

Record-Setting French Technical and Cave Diver

Frédéric Swierczynski is a record-setting French technical and cave diver, mechanical engineer, and CCR/Trimix/Cave instructor based in Marseille. On 3 November 2023 he reached 308 m in the Font Estramar system during a seven-hour dive, setting a new cave-diving depth world record at the time. He presents internationally on deep cave exploration, rebreather procedures, and expedition logistics. Frédéric is also a Seacraft DPV ambassador. His work spans instructor training, exploration projects, and multimedia documentation of extreme diving environments.

Into the Giens Blue with
HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2

Today I am in the Mediterranean, at a site I have never visited, diving with a partner I know and trust. It was the perfect chance for both of us to put the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 through a real dive together. We synced our dive settings on the boat, compared gas plans and safety stops, and then set the same targets in Dive Mode so our alerts would line up underwater. We were able to set our water and gas types, max PO₂, safety stop duration, and various reminders.

Off the Giens peninsula near Hyères lies a submerged cave more than fifteen meters down. We planned to travel by underwater scooter and capture video in this magnificent place where rock formations meet the teeming life of French waters.

After checking our diving gear and syncing the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 camera with my watch, it was time to set up the messages that will let us communicate at a distance underwater using our HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2. I was able to set up to 64 messages from a preset list to use for each diving mode. When it was almost time to get in the water, we ran one last check of our health metrics with X-TAP, which gives us a quick readiness snapshot: resting heart rate, HRV-based stress score, blood oxygen (SpO₂), and skin temperature, to list a few. Pre-dive, that helps flag fitness and wellbeing concerns for the planned workload and gas plan. Post-dive, running the same checks helps provide comparative data and insights about recovery. After pre-dive health checks, we validated our breathing-gas settings and the decompression protocol calculated by the smartwatch.

"The SOS mode on the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 is priceless. If something bad happens, I can [...] start an SOS, sending a distress message every 25 seconds."

From Surface Check to Safety Stop with HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2

We are on the surface, ready to descend. Being able to trigger the Insta360 camera with a simple finger snap lets us stay focused on the rest of the equipment occupying our hands. My eyes go back to the compass on my HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 to locate the cave entrance, which lies off our boat at a depth of twelve meters.

When diving deeper, I was able to simply scroll down my list of preset messages and send messages to my dive buddy, indicating if I need help, for him to follow me, or to look here, just to name a few examples. It is a relief not to have to turn around or search for my buddy to communicate face-to-face when we are traveling at high speed on scooters, and also when visibility is poor and hand signals become hard to interpret. This communication mode builds confidence, because underground it can be difficult to assess a dangerous situation. Without rapid intervention from your partner, a lack of communication or the impossibility of communicating can be fatal. The SOS mode on the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 is priceless in that regard. If something bad happens, I can hold down on the upper-left button or the advanced menu to start an SOS, sending a distress message every 25 seconds. This message can even be spread up to 60m, and forwarded further away.

The watch display is very readable, and I have all the data I need to manage a technical Nitrox dive. There are a wide range of options for gas types and for decompression management. The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 offers technical diving with multiple gases including air nitrox and trimix and in-dive gas switching. It records essential underwater data like depth, dive time, water temperature, descent & ascent rate, gas mix and PO₂ settings. It also shows the deco ceiling and stop times when needed, and saves everything to a dive log upon surfacing.

The watch display is very readable, and I have all the data I need to manage a technical Nitrox dive. There are a wide range of options for gas types and for decompression management. The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 offers technical diving with multiple gases including air nitrox and trimix and in-dive gas switching. It records essential underwater data like depth, dive time, water temperature, descent & ascent rate, gas mix and PO₂ settings. It also shows the deco ceiling and stop times when needed, and saves everything to a dive log upon surfacing.

Inside the cave I keep a close eye on our path. Precise synchronization between the watch data and our video ensures accurate mapping and supports our marine life studies.

Time flies and the watch’s end-of-dive alert brings me back to reality. It is time to head for the surface, following the ascent rates and stops indicated by the HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2.

Post-Dive Insights: Physiology, Safety, Endurance

I mostly dive for research projects or video shoots in remote areas. That forces me to take meticulous care of my equipment, which is my only lifeline. This watch provides all the technology required for such committed diving in a rugged case with a resistant crystal, yet it still looks elegant enough to wear every day despite everything it packs inside.

Sonar-based underwater communication

150M diving technology

Luxury liquid metal case with sapphire crystal glass

Multi-sensing X-TAP technology

Learn More

Monitoring our heart rate, blood-oxygen percentage, and many other physiological parameters has completely changed the way we dive. It opens new avenues for safety that did not exist before. I use this same type of data every day for my run training in the Calanques and during swim sessions. One last point worth noting is the versatility of the apps and the incredible battery life, which supports expeditions lasting several days.

"The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 has become my primary dive companion and daily active memory, whether for my health metrics, my training, or my many different adventures"

Conclusion

The HUAWEI WATCH Ultimate 2 has become my go-to dive buddy. I use it to track my health metrics, train, and document all my dives. The ease of remotely operating the Insta360 Ace Pro 2 camera frees me from needing an assistant to film in hazardous environments and gives me greater creative freedom even during risky projects.

This watch fits my forward-looking projects and frees me from much heavier gear that would serve similar functions. That reduction is a priority in my expeditions and opens up new horizons and goals. The same applies to enriching videos with metadata from the watch. These data points include 3D spatial positioning and other metrics that are useful for the scientific studies I support. The latest revolution is the underwater sonar in the silent world of diving. It is incredible, both for safety and for everyday use.

The author of this article is Frédéric Swierczynski. The views expressed are his own.

The information is to be used as general information only, and is not to be taken as advice with respect to any individual situation and cannot be relied upon as such. A healthcare provider should be consulted when attempting to diagnose a condition or when determining the best course of action for any health-related concern.

Users should exercise in a safe and suitable manner which is commensurate to their own exercise capabilities and limits.

The heart rate monitoring, SpO2 monitoring, stress monitoring, heart rate variability (HRV), skin temperature monitoring features are not a medical device, and therefore its monitoring data and results are for reference only and should not be used as a basis for medical diagnosis or treatment.

Supports diving up to 150 metres. After wearing the device in water activities, clean and dry it promptly, remove the water stains from the product surfaces and all holes, and use the device's drainage feature to avoid negative impact on device performance.

Divers up to 30 metres apart can use sonar-based communication to share texts and emojis, or send SOS messages. If enabled, the receipient may forward the SOS message, boosting the range up to 60 metres. External factors may interrupt signals and reduce the effective communications range.

The Insta360 camera is an independent brand and does not in any way affiliated with or belonging to any HUAWEI smartwatch series.