After a boring year of Android smartwatches, it seems that Google’s new Wear OS 3 is finally catching on. Montblanc just announced the Summit 3, the first non-Samsung smartwatch to support Wear OS 3. It launches July 15th for an outrageous $1,290.
Back in 2021, Google and Samsung decided to inject some life into the Android smartwatch market. They began work on Wear OS 3, a modern operating system that requires a decent amount of processing power. Most smartwatches can’t run Wear OS 3, but that’s kinda the point—this OS was supposed to purge Android smartwatches of their seven-year-old chipsets.
But here’s the problem; Wear OS 3 launched exclusively for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. Google told us that the OS will eventually support Snapdragon Wear 4100 and 4100+ chipsets, but it’s been nearly a year, and Wear OS 3 is still a Samsung exclusive.
That changes with Montblanc’s Summit 3. While we still don’t have a ton of details for this watch, Montblanc confirms that it will support Wear OS 3 features (like Google Maps turn-by-turn directions). It has a rotating crown, two control buttons, and comes in a 42mm configuration. Features included in the 2020 Summit 2, like sleep and heart rate tracking, also make an appearance.
Now, we expect a flurry of Wear OS 3 smartwatches to arrive later this year. There’s the Pixel Watch, of course, but there’s also the Fossil Gen 6, which launched in late 2021 with the promise of an eventual Wear OS 3 update.
Montblanc’s Summit 3 launches July 15th for $1,290. While that’s obviously a lot of money, the Summit 3 looks gorgeous and comes with some perks, like “a broad range of support tools to maximize the full lifecycle experience, as well as battery replacement by Montblanc Service.”
Source: Montblanc via 9to5Google
