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Montblanc's fitness-centric Wear OS smartwatch arrives in the US for $860

That money gets you Wear OS with some tweaks and a Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip.

Montblanc

Montblanc, one of few luxury brands still making Wear OS smartwatches with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear processors, is announcing today that its Summit Lite is coming to the US. The fitness-centric smartwatch has been available globally since January, and is now available stateside for $860. Compared to the company's flagship Summit 2+ smartwatch, which launched last year for $1,170, the Lite doesn't look very different.

Not only does it run Wear OS and use the same aging Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset as the more-expensive model, it's also about the same size, with a 43mm case. The Lite's 1.19-inch AMOLED screen is slightly smaller than last year's model (1.28 inches) and its 400mAh battery is also 10mAh short of the older version. Unlike the Summit 2+, the Lite doesn't offer cellular connectivity, either. But it does have onboard GPS and 5 ATM of water resistance.

The Lite has more of a fitness focus than the Summit 2+, and Montblanc's made its own proprietary apps to offer features Google's Wear OS doesn't. These include sleep and stress tracking and "personalized workout recommendations based on your current fitness level (VO2 max) and live coaching advice." The company calls that latter feature Cardio Coach, and it'll note your progress and adjust its suggestions accordingly. The Summit Lite will also consider your sleep, stress and activity data to calculate and show you what it calls your Body Energy level.

A company having to tweak Wear OS to offer more comprehensive health tracking features isn't new: Fossil has done this for years. But with Google having bought Fossil's smartwatch intellectual property in 2019 and recently completing its acquisition of Fitbit, we may be seeing a big update to its wearable platform soon. We'll have to wait till that happens to see what it will mean for companies like Montblanc and Fossil who have steadily continued to make Wear OS watches in the last few years. For now, it looks like those in the US who have $860 to spare for a three-year-old chipset, limited OS and Montblanc's brand cache can get the gym-friendly luxury smartwatch if they want.