I tried the CMF Watch Pro 3, and here’s why I’m so disappointed with it

How a smartwatch feels on your wrist and how it makes you feel when you look at it is just as important as the specifications.

A smartwatch can’t have great specifications and look awful, just as it can’t look brilliant yet have overly basic functionality. There has to be a balance. Otherwise, we’ll tell you to look elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the CMF Watch 3 Pro doesn’t get the balance quite right, and I — as a watch fan — find it very difficult to say it’s one you should put on your wrist. Let’s talk about it in more detail.

Not one to wear with pride

If you must put it on, cover it up

I’m going to ignore the specs for now, because design matters in a watch.

Yes, it has a metal body and an unusual textured bezel, I like the position of the crown which is easy to twist with your finger, and the IP68 dust and water resistance rating is welcome, but that’s where the good things end.

The plastic caseback, tiny lugs, floppy silicone strap, and rather rattly nature of the whole thing make it feel cheap. I hate using that word, but it does suit the CMF Watch 3 Pro well.

At no point when you handle it or after you put it on does it feel like anything more than a watch built on a strict budget.

The short lugs mean it fits poorly on my 6.5-inch wrist, and although it’s not a very large watch, I can barely see the strap.

It’s very light at 53 grams, but rather than marveling at its featherweight, it feels insubstantial, and interacting with it is unpleasant.

I can’t quite work out how the 1.43-inch AMOLED screen, with a decent 466 x 466 pixel resolution, makes the choice of watch faces appear so disappointingly ordinary.

There’s not much flair in their designs (the Data Pulse face is particularly egregious), and because you’re restricted to keeping six faces stored on the watch, it takes a while to swap them out in the app. Again, it just feels basic.

There’s such a gulf between it and not only its more expensive smartwatch brethren, but also almost any non-smartwatch.

You’ll be disappointed by its looks and presence on your wrist, almost regardless of whether you’ve worn any kind of other watch before.

Performance hasn’t won me over

Getting it going was a mission

I think it’s clear that the CMF Watch 3 Pro’s design hasn’t made the best first impression on me, and things didn’t get any better when I tried to get it working.

The Watch 3 Pro has been around for a few weeks at this stage, and it connects to the Nothing X app on your Android or iOS phone. Well, it will if you’re lucky.

It took multiple tries for me to pair the Watch 3 Pro with my current Android phone, the Xiaomi 15T Pro, and it wasn’t any better when I tried with my Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max.

The Nothing X app repeatedly failed to pair, and no matter which version of the app I used (I’ve been testing a pre-release version to use the CMF Headphone Pro), it took hours before it connected.

Now that it’s connected, it has remained so without a problem. However, the smartwatch is far from a snappy performer.

Get too enthusiastic with your swipes and it’ll start to lag, which, considering the lack of high resolution, animated tiles, and screens is disappointing to see.

The smartwatch isn’t short on functionality, though, with 131 sport and workout tracking modes, heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring, sleep tracking, dual-band GPS, Bluetooth calling, and various widgets including the weather and music controls.

Battery and charging

Can this save the Watch 3 Pro?

I’ve only worn the CMF Watch 3 Pro for a few hours (due in part to the length of time it took to pair it with my phone), so I can’t comment on the real-world battery life yet.

Nothing says the battery will last for around 10 days with heavy use, but less than half this time if you use the always-on screen.

It’s charged using a tiny, two-pin proprietary magnetic charger, which doesn’t attach itself in an upright position and barely has enough pull to keep itself attached to the back of the watch, so it is very easy to knock and displace.

It means the watch really has to be charged face down, so you won’t see the time at a glance. The lead is also quite short, which may make it awkward to use on a bedside table.

The silly charging adapter and its weak magnets won’t matter to everyone, but it is another example of how the experience of owning the CMF Watch 3 Pro is substandard.

It’s not Nothing’s finest hour

Don’t let the price tempt you

The CMF Watch 3 Pro costs $99 or £99 and comes in a selection of styles, with the latest model coming in a fetching light green color. I know this isn’t a high price for a smartwatch, but you really can do a lot better.

The Garmin Vivomove Sport can be found for $180, the Huawei Watch Fit 4 is £150, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 can be had for around $250 upwards.

Alternatively, Casio’s circa $165 G-Shock GBD-200 with step tracking and the $299 G-Shock DW-5600 with heart rate monitoring are both excellent buys.

I’m aware that they are all more expensive, but each feels like a proper, substantial, solidly engineered piece of technology with a thoughtful, stylish design you’ll be proud to wear.

If you want to spend $99 on a CMF product, get the CMF Headphone Pro instead, and it’s surprising just how much better the headphones feel and operate for the same amount of money as the Watch 3 Pro.