Today, LG announced it will unveil its first “all-metal, luxury” LG Watch Urbane at Mobile World Congress this March.
The Android Wear device is “designed for a sophisticated and cosmopolitan wearer,” while delivering the utmost in tech and performance, according to a company statement.
Finding a way to overcome the ugly connotations with tech devices will be a large challenge to the industry. While tech purists may enthusiastically strap them on, smartwatch manufacturers still have to find a way to get the fairly expensive products to appeal to a mass audience. The fashion world is no fan of the gear, either, as this report from Racked on New York Fashion Week attests.
“LG Watch Urbane is an important part of our strategy to develop wearable devices that are worn and viewed as everyday accessories, not electronic gadgets,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications in the statement.
Following in the footsteps of LG’s G Watch R, which launched last October, the LG Watch Urbane features a thinner profile and is available in polished silver or gold stainless steel with a leather strap. It is compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 or above, with a 1.3-inch P-OLED display, 4GB of memory and a heart rate sensor.
No word on price yet, but it will be interesting to see how these fashion-forward pieces compete against Apple’s smartwatch coming in April.
