Meet the world's first luxury Wear OS smartwatch with eSIM support for 4G LTE activation
Montblanc is one of the few brands to branch out from the world of fashion, traditional timepieces, and luxury goods to smartwatches without enlisting the help of the very prolific Fossil Group behind such Wear OS devices as the Michael Kors Access collection, Diesel On Axial, and the aptly titled Puma Smartwatch.
Of course, just like the German company's writing instruments, leather bags, jewelry, and "dumb" watches, 2017's Montblanc Summit and the 2018-released Summit 2 limited their target audience by pairing luxury designs with extravagant price points.
As the name suggests, the newly unveiled Montblanc Summit 2+ is essentially an upgraded variant of its forerunner, which unsurprisingly entails a price hike of close to 200 bucks. For virtually any other Wear OS-powered Apple Watch alternative, that would obviously be inconceivable, going so high as to double the MSRP of certain popular options with fairly respectable lists of features.
For the Summit 2+, however, that represents a measly increase of less than 20 percent over the $995 starting price of the non-Plus model, bringing that number up to an ever so slightly more prohibitive $1,170. The hike is almost entirely owed to the addition of built-in cellular connectivity, made possible by integrating the same eSIM functionality as the latest LTE-enabled Apple and Samsung smartwatches.
Put simply, the Montblanc Summit 2+ can make and receive voice calls over Verizon's 4G LTE network without having to pair with a smartphone or needing a dedicated slot for a physical SIM card. As the company puts it, this bad boy is the "first luxury smartwatch that can directly activate cellular connectivity right in the Wear OS by Google app", following in the footsteps of the non-luxury TicWatch Pro 4G/LTE.
The stunning design and the rest of the Summit 2+ specs seem largely identical to what the "regular" Summit 2 has going for it, including everything from a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor to a 1GB memory count, standalone GPS support, a built-in heart rate monitor, and a beautiful AMOLED display. Said screen is slightly larger this time around, though, which also means you'll be getting a bigger battery.
Then again, the actual endurance numbers are likely to be negatively impacted by the 4G LTE integration. Oh, and for some reason, Montblanc appears to have downgraded the water resistance of this absolute beaut too. Of course, the target audience of a luxury Wear OS smartwatch probably doesn't include professional athletes or swimmers anyway. There's no word on a commercial release date yet, but it might be wise to keep an eye on Montblanc's website over the next few weeks... if you have close to 1,200 bucks to spend on a new watch.
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