Known for signature travel cases and leather goods, Louis Vuitton recently unveiled its first smart watch. Building on previous experience with exquisite timepiece design and modern technology, the Tambour Horizon merges historic watch manufacturing with Android applications.
Going against the majority of smart watch design, and with one eye on the recent Mont Blanc Summit smart watch, the Louis Vuitton Horizon focusses on the aesthetics. Unless you looked closely, you’d be hard pressed to notice it’s a smart watch and packs some of the features you’d find in a regular mechanical Louis Vuitton watch.
Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon
Produced as a stunning complement to its current Tambour watch line, the watch includes a crystal clear AMOLED screen, but is relatively small at 42mm. Luckily you have a huge choice of 60 interchangeable straps which are sold separately. There are also three case finishes – polished, our favourite black PVD-coated stainless steel or brushed steel. Prices start at $2450.
As it’s a smart watch, you receive the benefits of a customisable dial design which include the Louis Vuitton multi-coloured Escale, enabling you to see multi time zones on one of the watch faces. One disappointing aspect of an Android-powered watch is the lack of apps. Only two are included by default.
One of the two apps is ‘My Flight’, which uploads information on flight times, gate numbers, and other details relevant to your air travel via your phone calendar. The other app is an ‘Arrival’ app based on the unique city guides which Louis Vuitton has produced, and uses the geolocation to provide your guide related to your location.
What this isn’t is a watch packed with active, sports or health features. There’s no heart monitor or GPS, so it’s not a smart watch you’d want to take for a run. But, would you want to with this watch? It’s to be seen on the street, not to be taken to the gym.
The watch runs on Android Wear 2.0, has a battery life of over 20 hours and is waterproof up to 30m. To check out the watch and strap combinations, and to examine the price options, head to the Louis Vuitton website or visit one of the stores.
