Montblanc Summit 3 review: a watch for nobody

If you buy something from a link, they may make a commission. Our ethics statement can be found here.

I hid the Mont Blanc Summit 3 on my wrist a few weeks ago. I wore a $1,290 luxury watch on the grimy New York City subway on a not-so- special day. I have no fear about using a high-end phone during my commute. I wanted to try out this fancypants watch that runs Wear OS 3.

I expected a James Bond-level advanced feature or something ostentatious enough to be worn by a finance bro on a yacht in Majorca. Neither of those things is what it is.

The Summit 3 is the first watch with a Wear OS 3 chip. Future Wear OS 3 watches will probably run on the newer W5 Plus and every other watch on that platform is stuck on Wear OS 2. The watches run on a newer chip. The Summit 3 is the first Wear OS 3 watch to work with Apple's phones. The upcoming Pixel Watch won't support Apple's mobile operating system.

The Summit 3 is a bit strange. It's a $1,300 watch with the guts of a $300 watch, but less features, running tomorrow's software on last year's chipset that works with a platform where nobody with any sense would buy anANDROID WATCH. It costs almost thirteen hundred dollars again.

It looks fancy, with a titanium case, and calf leather strap. A colleague said that it looked like a $500 watch. That's not a $1,200 one. I might be able to afford a fancy Swiss automatic watch that is meant to be passed down as heirlooms. This isn't a watch. It will last you around two to three years before you need to upgrade. It looks like any other Wear OS watch from a distance.

The craftsmanship is more apparent up close. When I picked up my review unit from Montblanc, I was told that each case has a hand polished finish to give it that artisanal feel, and it does look nice. The Montblanc logo makes the crown stand out. It is one of the best-constructed crowns I have used. It feels like an actual watch crown and is less prone to accidental presses. Since it requires more force to turn or press, I'm only concerned about people with limited mobility.

The Summit 3 wears a lot. The case design is about a half-inch thick and has a 1.65 inch diameter. The case is not light for a titanium watch. The 45mm watch, which has a titanium case, weighs only 46.5 grams.

The Summit 3's specifications aren't really special despite the design. It has 1 giga of ram and 8 giga of internal storage. You get SpO2 monitoring, built-in gps tracking, and a lot more. The TicWatch Pro 3 and Fossil Gen 6 are the only Wear OS watches that have this feature. The stripped-down version of Wear OS 3 is capable of delivering the same performance as the full version. It is less laggy than the 3100-powered Wear OS watches. The bar is not very high. I had a day's worth of battery life on this thing.

I don't think the Summit 3 is good for fitness tracking because it doesn't have a scratch- resistant crystal. It is possible to track outdoor workouts with the watch, but the display is hard to read and the weight distracts from the activity. I would leave it at home if it was more serious. I didn't want to take a watch for more than a few short runs.

It's fine for fitness tracking accuracy. My runs were later recorded as hikes, but the distance, maps, and heart rate data matched the results I got on the Runkeeper app. It is possible that I hit the hiking activity instead of running, but it is more likely that the native fitness app is not up to date. It will be in a later update. If you want to get a broad overview of health features like sleep tracking and SpO2, this is fine.

The Summit 3 is the first indication of what Wear OS 3 can look like outside of watches. We heard at I/O that there will be a more improved version of the device. Montblanc said this is the most basic version of Wear OS 3. There is a Wear OS 3 skin for the watch series. The Wear OS 2 devices powered by the 4100 platform have not received the Wear OS 3 upgrade yet. This is it for the time being.

I have concluded that the version of Wear OS 3 is okay. I expected Wear OS 2 to be better than it is, but it is. There is a new card-like look that is easier to read. You look through tiles. I felt strange the first few days I used it. I was not used to that on a non-samsung watch, so I realized that it was because everything was working well. Mobvoi's TicWatches aren't terrible.

The play store is better. It isn't a wasteland of forgotten applications anymore. There are a number of popular services that have been made compatible with the platform. You don't need to stick with the Montblanc apps that come with the Summit. One of Wear OS 3's main strengths so far is a robust third-party appecosystem, and if it stays that way, this whole experiment stands a fighting chance.

There is a baffling omission. It isn't there... Montblanc told me to ask the search engine. There are nearly every Wear OS 2 watch and all Wear OS 3 watches with the same phone number. Apple watches have a voice assistant. You have a choice between the two assistants. Amazfit is one of the budget brands that features the Amazon.com voice assistant. There is a proprietary assistant forHuawei. It costs less to have a voice assistant on a watch. It is hard to imagine paying over a thousand dollars for a watch.

Summit doesn't use the Wear OS phone companion app You can pair the Summit 3 to a Summit app on either mobile device. The Summit app isn't a big deal. There isn't much to do besides futz around with watch faces, read instructions, and tinker with settings.

I put the watch with my two phones. The experience is the same, at least as far as the setup and swiping through actual tiles. The Summit 3 works better with mobile devices. If you're on the iPad, you can't use either of the two services. I tried a lot. You can download the app on the wrist, but it won't allow you to add a card. Adding a card to your wrist is not something that can be added to your phone's wallet.

When it comes to Montblanc, Lauren Miller said that the maps and wallet are not available with the mobile operating system. When we have more to share, we'll let you know.

It is disappointing, but expected. Most of the people who have gone all in on Apple gadgets don't need a Wear OS watch. Montblanc is aiming at a group of people who want to spend a lot of money on a wrist accessory but don't want an Apple Watch, not even the Herms version, and that's why they decided to include it in their product. Wear OS 3 may end up being a fragmented platform.

It is possible to see the signs. The Wear OS watches have a skin that gives them more of aGalaxy flavor. If you wanted, you could completely ignore the search engine on the watch. Montblanc used a Fossil- branded companion app when they used their Wear OS 3 watches. Mobvoi's Wear OS 3 TicWatch will be compatible with the new platform. We will get to see what the true vision for Wear OS 3 is when we see the Pixel watch. It is not certain whether it is successful. It could be a good thing that the Wear OS 3 experience varies so much from watch to watch. Greater diversity has always been a good thing. It could go very badly. The majority of Wear OS 3 watches aren't here yet.

The Summit 3 left me with more questions than answers. The verdict is easy to understand. I don't think this watch is good for sleeping at night. I might be singing a different tune if it were more affordable. The midtier watch is made from materials that are too nice to throw away, so it could be useful for three years. You do it if you can afford it. I would like to see what the rest of fall has to offer.

Victoria Song is a photographer.

Every smart device has a set of terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you can use it. It is not possible for us to read and analyze all of them. We started counting the number of times you have to agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people can't negotiate.

If you want to use the Montblanc Summit 3, you need to pair it with a mobile device. The phone's terms of service, privacy policy, and any other permission you give are included.

You agree to using the Summit 3.

You can grant location information and other optional permission. Third-party apps that are downloaded onto the watch from the Play Store have their own privacy policies.

Three mandatory agreements are included in the final tally.