I t isn’t surprising that luxury watches today are smart. The digital impetus put into designing timepieces, even from the house of Montblanc, is reaping fruit. The Montblanc Summit 2 bears testimony to this fact. This timepiece is something that an android aficionado would aspire to own.

At first glimpse, you wouldn’t imagine the watch to be anything spectacular. The face is minimalist, housed in a stainless steel casing — something that’s commonplace among luxury smartwatches. The strap is made of leather and sits handsomely on the wrist. Clasping it shut needs some dexterity; otherwise, it’s quite sturdy. Montblanc has made a swappable strap to suit the many dynamic personalities who would be donning the Summit 2.

On its side, the watch sports a couple of programmable buttons. One of them re-directs to Google Play, while the other prompts Google Fit to open. There’s also one on the centre of the dial that acts as a home screen button. The crown on the dial is designed to perfection and the buttons are easy to press. The sapphire glass adds to the premium feel. The 1.2-inch AMOLED (mobile display technology) face of the watch is clear, vibrant and shows off some rather impressively designed pre-set styles. At a resolution of 390 x 390, everything seems to be clear and detailed on the display. The bezel is thicker, which makes the analog clock face look great, with the right amount of vintage authenticity.

The Summit 2 offers four vastly different case finishes that include Grade 2 titanium, black DLC Steel, bi-colour steel, and regular stainless steel. These are accompanied by 11 strap options, ranging from calfskin to rubber sport, from nylon to steel. You can switch from a classic strap option that looks like it’s from the 1800s to a digital, sporty look with appropriate face and strap options. Being an old soul, I went for the former.

The main machine

Look under the hood of Summit 2. It runs on the formidable Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, powered by a 1GB RAM. This makes it among the quickest smart timepieces around. You can load this one with ample data for it has 8GB space. Now comes the important aspect of battery life that every high-performance smartwatch has to deal with. The Summit 2 needs to be charged once every day and that is if you’re milking all the features. Montblanc has added a Time-Only mode that disables other features, and can make the Summit 2 run for an entire week without recharging. In the week that I tried this watch out, I was off this feature only for a day, when I tried out the location and smart apps. For the rest of the week, the Time-Only function served well.

I loved the way the dial adjusted its colour depending on the ambient lighting. The Timeshifter feature (developed by NASA) offers personalised tips for frequent flyers who’re always battling jetlag, by taking their sleep pattern, chronotype, flight plan, and a range of personal preferences into account. Montblanc also packs the Travel Info app into this one, which acts as a companion on your vacation. This app is voice-activated and offers translations in multiple languages, directly on to the watch display.

Clocking the workout

I was curious to know how well the watch would fare in fitness circles. It isn’t one that’d be picked only as a fitness watch, but with the processing power it offers and Wear OS to back it up, you can expect decent results. The back of the watch is made of resin and has a heart-rate sensor in it. Paired with in-built GPS, it can make for a fine workout tracking accessory. It can even stand submersion up to 50 metres underwater. Montblanc’s Running Coach app comes pre-installed in the timepiece. The most important aspect is the durability of the Summit 2. The stainless-steel case has a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating, which makes it resistant to scratches, while the face sits securely under the sapphire glass. You could more than do with these features if you’re out on an adventure trip or hiking or even on a treadmill. But then again, would you like wearing a leather-strapped, stainless steel bodied timepiece in the gym? I’d rather sport this with a suit. If you’re looking for a smartwatch that will have to trudge through your fitness regimen, then this one’s surely not for you. The fitness aspect is more of a good-to-have feature here. It’s the kind of watch that you sport under your Ralph Lauren ensemble as you step out of your Porsche coupe. For a device of its price, you’d rather have a living-and-breathing fitness instructor to take care of all else and leave all the styling to the Summit 2. The Montblanc Summit 2 is priced at $995 (₹73,157) approx. onwards.

Dhiram Shah is the Mumbai-based founder of LuxuryLaunches.com

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