Montblanc Summit Review: luxury smartwatch with Android

April 14, 2020

Montblanc Summit: scope of delivery

With a watch that focuses on prestige and luxury, the premium feeling should begin with the packaging. For example, we have had a positive memory of the Star Wars drone with its elaborate, illuminated box and sound effects. At least on this point, the Summit will not be able to do this: it comes in an inconspicuous hard cardboard box with a Montblanc look. Of course, we don’t expect pure gold or the Star Wars tune when unpacking, but a fine and high-quality case is more suited to the brand that is famous worldwide for its leather goods. With the first generation of its Huawei Watch (picture gallery), Huawei provides a good example of how a technology accessory can be packed elegantly, but not playfully.

Once the corrugated cardboard cladding has been removed, the charging station and connecting cable appear in the field of vision. The manufacturer does not include a USB power supply for the socket. Actually, that’s not a problem, after all, most of us already have quite a few at health home – but at the price point, we would have been happy to have an adapter with the Montblanc logo.

Charging takes place either via USB on the computer (Type A) or with the existing charger of your own smartphone. With a conventional power supply with a current of 1.5 amperes and a voltage of 5 volts, it took 2 hours and 11 minutes in the Review until the battery was full.

The Summit receives the electricity via the charging station. The watch snaps into the shape magnetically, two spring contact pins are responsible for the electrical connection. Montblanc dispenses with wireless charging via an induction coil in its first smartwatch. Basically, this is not a problem, but in the past other wearables with this charging technology had contact problems if sweat, rain and remnants of creams and Co. settle on the metal plates and cause corrosion. Time will tell how Montblanc performs here.

Montblanc Summit: design and workmanship

The Montblanc Summit is one of the highest quality Android smartwatches currently made. This is evident from the materials used and – more importantly – the level of detail in the processing. The watch is available in different versions. The housing is either made of stainless steel with or without a physical coating Vapor deposition or made of titanium; the bracelets are made of rubber, calf and alligator leather, for example.

For the Review report, a 88.3 gram and 12.5 millimeter thick Montblanc Summit in black with a PVD-coated stainless steel housing in front. The watch is smart health connected at the top and bottom with a brown Sfumato Pelletteria bracelet. Sounds great, is ultimately calf leather and comes from Italy. Whether and how sustainably it is won depends on the current one CSR report for 2017 not out.

The material of the touchscreen is scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass. It is slightly convex and reflects in the light.

Back to the case: The frame of our model is in matt black, the bezel is not embossed with numbers. In contrast to the Gear S3 from Samsung (hands-on), the ring on the top is not rotatable. Nor can the winding crown be moved on the right side of the watch. In the middle there is a mechanical button with the Montblanc emblem. When pressed, the software returns to the start page of the operating system. With a diameter of 46 mm, the Montblanc is one of the big smartwatches.

The Summit is IP68 certified and therefore resistant to dust and water. Steam, rain and fresh water don’t bother the watch. After contact with salt water, the device should be rinsed with clear water to prevent corrosion on the bottom of the watch.

Fortunately, Montblanc relies on the popular 22 mm standard for the bracelets of its first smartwatch and refrains from proprietary constructions such as Apple on its watch or Fitbit on the Ionic (Review report). The quick-change mechanism for exchanging the wristband offers flexibility in design and different occasions.

Montblanc Summit: hardware

A Qualcomm Wear 2100 is working in the Summit. This processor is currently common in watches with Android Wear OS. There is also 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of memory for storing music files if you want to listen to them wirelessly via a headset smart health connected to Bluetooth. The watch also supports WLAN according to 802.11 b, g and n and, if necessary, can also access the Internet independently if the associated smartphone is not within Bluetooth range.

The Summit battery has a size of 300 mAh. That is also average. As a rule, the watch lasts for a whole day and then has to be loaded onto the station. The vibration is medium-strong and ensures that you receive incoming messages. The intensity of the vibration motor cannot be adjusted, but the duration in a few steps.

A heart rate monitoring sits on the lower side of the watch, optically measuring the wearer’s pulse. The values ​​can be found in the app, among other things Google Fit again. What the summit is missing is GPS. It goes without saying: you only buy a 1000 euro smartwatch for jogging. But because Montblanc attributes it to terms such as “digital world clock” or “recommended travel tool”, at least the technology for determining the location is a must. NFC for contactless payments is also missing. That should not be relevant for most German users, Android Pay is not supported in this country. Nevertheless: If you offer a smartwatch in the upper price segment, you have to be measured against everything that the technology currently has.

The Montblanc Summit has a microphone for receiving voice commands for Google Assistant or translations, but it cannot make calls. Only the smart health connected smartphone accepts calls. In sporadic situations in which the hands are not free, this feature would have been useful – but admittedly, nobody runs through the city and speaks into his wrist.

Montblanc Summit: technical data

Montblanc Summit: software

The Summit smartwatch runs with Android Wear in the current version 2.0. However, Google has only recently distributed the update to 2.9 began. The new software brings revised notifications for incoming events such as SMS, WhatsApp or emails. It is unclear whether and when the Summit will receive the update. The Montblanc watch certainly fulfills the technical requirements.

The Summit does not have its own software functions or even a Montblanc interface. The latter is also not permitted by Google under the Android Wear guidelines, so that the platform looks uniform on all devices. The goal is to use a single surface globally. One that Google thinks is the most user-friendly. With smartwatches, you try one Fragmentation, as is common with Android smartphones and tablets. Advantage for the customer: He quickly learns how to use Android Wear watches. Disadvantage: The manufacturers have hardly any competitive advantages and can only differentiate themselves from the material and brand. Therefore, the largest manufacturer, Samsung Electronics, goes its own way and develops smartwatches with the Tizen OS operating system, which is also open.

Buy Montblanc Summit?

Montblanc, a German manufacturer of luxury goods, is launching its first smartwatch on the market as part of its digitization strategy. Technically, it is not a high-flyer, real highlights such as a full range of sensors, GPS and NFC are missing. The operation and interaction of the Summit are also familiar fare and nothing out of the ordinary.

What Montblanc can show its strength in is the extraordinarily high quality of workmanship. The clock is okay for the first throw, but it is much better. We would skip the purchase and wait for the second generation. Whether and when a Montblanc Summit 2 smart health watch will follow is still in the stars.

If you don’t want to wait and have the money for this luxury smartwatch, you can consider buying it: it’s not bad, but one thing should be clear: you don’t pay the high price here for the technology, but for the brand and design. An alternative in the same segment is the 500 euros more expensive, but technically worse, smart health connected TAG Heuer Modular 45 .

And if you want more technology than fashion, you should take a look at significantly cheaper models like the Fossil Q Explorist (3rd generation) or the Huawei Watch 2.