Nothing’s CMF sub-brand has seen steady expansion across earbuds, smartphones and smartwatches. The Watch 3 Pro is the latest wristwear device from the brand as it replaces last year’s Watch Pro 2 with some major upgrades. Namely, a larger display, larger battery, and dual-band GPS with a new color palette.
cmf watch 3 pro specifications
- Display: 1.43” AMOLED touchscreen, 466 x 466 px resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, 670 nits maximum brightness, Always-on Display (AOD)
- Straps: Detachable 22mm straps, 140-220mm adjustable length
- features: IP68 rated, real-time heart rate monitor, 24/7 blood oxygen level monitor, sleep tracking, stress monitoring, sports tracking, step counter, meditation, notifications, idle alert, phone finder, weather forecast, music and camera controls, alarm, stopwatch, linear vibration motor, flashlight.
- game mode: Outdoor runs, indoor runs, outdoor walks, cycling, hiking, pool swimming, jumping rope, freestyle (130+ more in the NothingX app)
- Sensor: Optical Heart Rate Sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Ambient Light Sensor
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3, Compatible with Android 6.0 and iOS 13+, Dual-band L1+L5 GNSS, Microphone and Speaker
- Battery: 350mAh
- Colour: light brown, light green, orange, dark brown
- Dimensions: 47 x 47 x 14.4 mm
- Weight (without strap): 51 grams
You also get the sophisticated software experience of Nothing, at a price under $100/€100, along with over 120 minimalist watch faces and general health and fitness tracking. This reviewer spent more than two weeks with the CMF Watch 3 Pro strapped to his wrist 24/7, keeping pace with work and play. Read on for our full assessment.
Table of Contents:
- design
- Software and Features
- Health and Activity Tracking
- battery life
- decision
design
You’ll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Watch 3 Pro and its predecessor as both have the same basic design with a metal body and silicone watch strap. The new model does not have a removable watch bezel, which was the main design focus of last year’s model. We’re not exactly sure why Nothing abandoned the interchangeable bezel concept after just one generation, but it is what it is.
The screen size on the Watch 3 Pro hasn’t expanded at all, and now measures 1.43 inches compared to 1.32 inches on the Watch Pro 2. It’s still an AMOLED, so you also get Always-On Display (AOD) functionality, which is always a welcome feature. Screen brightness is at 670 nits, which is fine even in bright sunlight, although not as bright as the Huawei Watch GT 6 for example.
It’s still a 47mm watch, so it’s definitely massive. Its thickness is also 14.4 mm, which is more than many competitors.
Our review unit comes in a refreshing light green color, which sports a metallic finish on the upper part of the bezel. The midframe and rotating crown button get a dark gray shade, while the bottom, where we have the sensors, is made of plastic. We’ve come to like the clean design language of Nothing, and the Watch 3 Pro is certainly a good-looking smartwatch, and it feels great on the wrist too.
The included silicone watch strap is interchangeable so you can swap it out for another 22mm style. The Watch 3 Pro weighs 52 grams, which is a little heavy, but not too heavy.
The retail package is quite slim and only includes the watch, watch straps, and the proprietary two-pin magnetic charging cable.
Software and Features
The Watch 3 Pro boots a custom real-time operating system (RTOS), which looks almost identical to last year’s Watch Pro 2. It features a minimalist nothing dot matrix style and covers the basic wrist-wearable functionality you’d expect. Before we delve deeper, we should mention that there are no third-party apps or NFC support for contactless payments, nor is there any cellular connectivity option.
You navigate the UI via swipes for the most part, but you can also use the crown button to quickly launch apps and sports activity tracking. The crown button gives a good vibration response and also supports programmable double-press action.
The latter is limited to 13 actions, which isn’t bad, but there are some glaring omissions. For example, you can’t assign a double-press gesture to a timer, which is something this reviewer uses frequently on his Huawei Watch Fit 3.
While Nothing doesn’t hesitate to bring a second physical button, it does bring two alternative gesture controls. You can use a wrist rotation gesture or hand wave to launch any app on the watch, manage incoming calls, or even control music playback.
Elsewhere, the Watch 3 Pro comes equipped with the standard set of features you’d expect from a midrange smartwatch in 2025. Thanks to the OLED screen, you get Always-On Display (AOD) functionality and over 120 watch face options.
We have to give Nothing credit as the selection of watch faces looks and feels better than the usual bland mix you see from most manufacturers. From clean minimalist faces with analog dials to more modern and feature-rich faces, we can safely say there are enough options for any style and the best part is that they’re all free (note Huawei!). Most watch faces support a dedicated AOD mode, which still shows you key complications.
You can only store 7 watch faces on the watch at a time, which is less than most competitors give you, but still a good selection. Nothing also has three custom watch face tools with the Album Dial, Video Dial, and Studio Dial. The Album dial shuffles pre-selected photos from your phone’s gallery.
Video Dial lets you select a 5-second snippet of any video from your phone’s gallery, which then syncs with the watch and plays every time you check the time. This is an original idea that is really fun to use and is a great party trick.
Studio Dial takes advantage of AI to create an on-the-spot watch face on your phone, which can then be transferred to the watch – a cool concept, though more on the gimmicky side.
The onboard speaker and microphone allow you to take voice calls directly on the wrist but nothing went a step further. Essential News is a unique feature that uses the built-in speaker in the watch to read news based on your interests.
You select the topics you’re interested in in the NothingX app, and then the top stories sync from your phone to the watch. The voice of Nothing CFO Tim Holbrow reads your daily headlines out loud. It’s a nice feature, and we enjoyed our time using it…
You can also access our phone’s digital assistant through the watch and even access ChatGPT. Nobody has implemented a native voice note recorder, which is useful if you want to jot down an idea when your phone is out of reach. You also get notifications with the ability to send preset replies to texts directly from the watch.
Connectivity was great during our time with the Watch 3 Pro as it managed to maintain a stable connection with this reviewer’s iPhone 17 Pro and provided quick notifications.
Health and Activity Tracking
health tracking
The Watch 3 Pro brings an optical heart rate sensor, which also tracks blood oxygen saturation, along with the usual mix of health tracking metrics for sleep and stress. These are the same options we saw on last year’s model, covering the same general health insights. As such, we can’t guarantee their accuracy, but we got comparable results to the Huawei Watch Fit 3 for heart rate and SpO₂ and stress measurements.
You can also turn on the frequency of heart rate monitoring with options for every 1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes, along with alerts for low and high resting heart rate levels. The watch can also send alerts if the oxygen level in your blood drops below a certain percentage.
In terms of sleep tracking, you get the usual monitoring metrics with sleep stage breakdown, total sleep duration, and sleep quality score. The CMF Watch 3 Pro showed the time to go to sleep in the same way as the Huawei Watch Fit 3, but when it came time to wake up, it gave a far more accurate reading by showing the actual time I woke up instead of constantly having to get out of bed, like on the Watch Fit 3.
You can view key sleep metrics directly on the watch, while the NothingX app offers even more detail and the ability to reference longer streams of data points to track your progress.
activity tracking
In terms of activity tracking, the Watch 3 Pro brings an expanded roster of 131 sports modes compared to the outgoing Watch Pro 2 along with an updated 6-axis accelerometer. You also get dual-band GNSS positioning.
Our biggest problem with the Watch Pro 2 was its dreadful GPS performance, which would take years to lock onto, but we can confirm that did nothing to solve the problem with the Watch 3 Pro’s GPS receiver, as it locks onto position in just a few seconds. GPS accuracy is peak so you can safely leave your phone at home when you go for a run.
Speaking of running, the Watch 3 Pro offers the usual running metrics you’ll find in most fitness trackers, along with some more advanced trackers like VO2 Max, training load, and recovery. You can also sync your workout data with Strava, Apple Health, and Google Fit. The warm-up and stretching guides with 3D animations are another nice touch.
There is a dedicated running coach that leverages AI to create personalized workout plans to help improve your running performance. The feature also adapts to your performance and adjusts training sessions according to your progress.
While we’re confident with the CMF Watch 3 Pro’s activity tracking for running and casual gym sessions, we can’t help but be disappointed that it lacks tracking for swimming and other water sports.
battery life
There’s nothing claimed that you can expect from the Watch 3 Pro’s 350mAh battery to last up to 13 days with moderate usage and up to 10 days with heavy usage.
In our testing, we got 7 days with auto brightness on, AOD off, a constant flow of 100+ daily notifications, 24/7 health tracking, and 3 workout sessions. Although not on the level of Huawei’s recent wearables, the CMF Watch 3 Pro offers respectable battery endurance.
It takes 90 minutes to charge from 0-100% with the in-box dual-pin magnetic charger. A quick top-up of 10 minutes gets you to the 20% mark, while 30 minutes gets you to the 50% mark.
decision
The CMF Watch 3 Pro builds on its predecessor with a larger AMOLED display, significantly improved dual-band GPS, and a refined software experience, while keeping its price comfortably under the $100/€100 mark. Core features like notifications, calls, and voice assistant access work reliably on both Android and iOS, which isn’t always a given at this price point.
The minimalist nothing style remains a strong selling point, and despite the watch’s large size, it proved comfortable to wear all day. Extras like the expanded watch face selection, clever customization tools, and essential news and voice notes add personality without straying from the brand’s clean UI approach.
Health and activity tracking is reliable for everyday use, with heart rate, SpO₂, sleep and stress metrics delivering consistent results. The advanced GPS performance is a huge improvement, and the AI-powered running coach adds real value for runners. Still, the omission of swim tracking is a notable omission that even budget smartbands offer these days.
Battery endurance isn’t record-breaking, but it remains respectable after about a week of mixed use. Charging is pretty fast, and the proprietary puck gets the job done, though the addition of wireless charging would have been nice.
cmf watch 3 pro
Overall, the CMF Watch 3 Pro offers a great smartwatch experience with an exceptional design, reliable tracking, and thoughtful software features. It may not be the Swiss Army Knife of smartwatches, but considering the price it gets our approval.
