Montblanc Summit 3 Watch!

[The_Chief]

Hooray! The long-awaited successor to the Summit 2 series will be available starting July 15th!

Montblanc's timeless design couples with the latest technology: a 42mm sapphire face; Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor; Wear OS 3.x, rotating crown and two customizable buttons will make it the perfect companion for any Android or iOS phone.

I've owned my Summit 2 since it was released, and it has been, hands-down, the BEST smartwatch I've ever worn. It allows me to see notifications, respond to messages, and check my calendar - reducing my need to whip out my phone at least 60%.

Now I just need to sell lots of books and get the money together for it

 

[olbriar]

I couldn't help but take note that it comes with a substantial price tag.
I hope that you love it and share all to coolness about it with us.

 

[mikedt]

Does it have a heart rate monitor in it?

I won't be buying a Montblanc Summit, but following advice from my cardiologist after my angioplasty, I'm now using a Huawei Band 4. https://consumer.huawei.com/cn/wearables/band4/
I never really got into smart-watches. mainly because Wear OS around here is locked to Baidu, and not Google.

 

[olbriar]

My Sammy Watch3 does heart rate. Blood pressure requires joining a study group in the US. Don't know about China.

 

[ocnbrze]

https://www.engadget.com/montblanc-summit-3-smartwatch-wear-os-3-211209089.html

$1290 that is indeed a hefty price!!!!

i dig the looks, not sure if it is worth that much money. now if it can do my taxes or wash my car, i might consider it......lol

 

[mikedt]

My Sammy Watch3 does heart rate. Blood pressure requires joining a study group in the US. Don't know about China.

I've already got an electronic sphygmomanometer, which I use three times a day(doctor's recommendation). But the Huawei Band 4 I've got does pedometer, heart rate, blood oxygen level, sleep monitor, messages and notifications, music control, weather, and contactless payments via AliPay.

 

[Hadron]

Does it have a heart rate monitor in it?

From the look of the sensor cluster on the back I'm pretty confident it has a heart rate monitor (also the Summit 2 has one).

This cleaner watch face is more my style than some of the other options.

I do have a basic smart watch, but I use it for health monitoring and notifications - for time I prefer to use an actual watch.

This does look nice, but for me the problem is that I regard a smart watch as a "good for a few years" device, which makes the value proposition of a high-end one more difficult. Of course many people here spend more than that on a phone and churn those faster, so I don't see any problem with it. I think it's just that this feels more like an actual watch to me, and I always expect those to last me for decades, which leaves me a bit conflicted.

(Plus 42mm is slightly large for me - I prefer 35-40mm. There, that saves me some money! )

 

[Bearsyzf]

For the price of that watch, you might as well buy another phone

 

[The_Chief]

For the price of that watch, you might as well buy another phone

Well, the Fold 4 will be released in August! If I'm gonna set up a new Montblanc watch, it may as well be with a new Fold... I guess I'll just sell my red McLaren F1... nobody really needs three, anyway...

 

[The_Chief]

Looks like the Summit 3 will be the first Wear OS 3.0 watch to work with iOS... so all those walled garden snobs, sitting with their iPads in upscale coffee shops, can sip their mochaccino latte and look bougie doing it, wearing a Montblanc watch instead of that obnoxious square thing Apple sells...


https://www.gsmarena.com/incoming_m...30_will_be_compatible_with_ios-news-54843.php

 

[The_Chief]

Okay, okay... call me excited! I've already got my money sorted out and I'm ready to buy this watch. In fact, I've already drafted the eBay listing for my Summit 2 (which has been my faithful daily driver for four years). The sneaky bit is that I'll be traveling from July 15-22, the week it's released... so I have to wonder if I can buy the new one; sell the old one; all while on the trip and the Darling Bride won't know the difference when I return! LOL

 

[olbriar]

Good luck with that. I'm almost always busted when I attempt well planed and executed tactics. I enjoy victory until my purchase is used to better her buying position at a most unexpected time.

I bet you are excited about the new Summit 3. I can't say that I blame you.

 

[The_Chief]

I bet you are excited about the new Summit 3. I can't say that I blame you.

Maybe I'm not as "excited" as I should be... but this watch has served me well; and longer than any other watch I've ever owned. I am understandably curious to find out if the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor is everything they say it is (the 3100 certainly wasn't). Hopefully, I'll have enough downtime that week (VFW National Convention) to read the early hands-on reviews before buying it.

And don't worry about the Darling Bride: Trout Goddess is busy compiling all the components for her Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing 3rd Year rod (being the Dear Hubby, I know what it will look like and it'll be EPIC when complete); and has a fly fishing outing out in Montana scheduled next month. I'm pretty sure there are plenty of big trout between here & there, but she's quite determined...

 

[The_Chief]

Rant coming:

I think it's fairly poor form, and I told Montblanc as much, that anyone can reserve the Summit 3 smartwatch... in certain parts of the world. Places like the United States, however, where consumers are likely to pre-order items like this? NO. In fact, I expressed my disappointment that registered owners of their Summit, Summit 2, Summit 2+ and Summit Lite watches were not given front-of-line privileges in reserving the new model, regardless of location. That would make sense - it's called rewarding brand loyalty!

Not that I can reserve it anyway, since I will be traveling out of state for a one-week convention on launch day. It would arrive later in the day I left! And I dare not have it shipped to my lodging address, in case a delay in shipping results in its delivery after I return home. I'll exercise courageous restraint, read early unboxing and hands-on reviews to determine if it works as well as expected... and if so, I'll order it later next week to arrive after I'm already home. My eBay listing for the Summit 2 is already drafted, so I can list my existing watch as soon as I know the new one is on the way.

/rant

 

[The_Chief]

So much for "available from July 15th" - it's July 17th and what is on the Montblanc website? "Available soon".

That tells me that one of two things has happened:

(A) the supply chain has slowed to a crawl, even for European manufacturers; or

(B) the production version of the watch has bugs... er, "undocumented features", that have to be resolved before release.

Both are bad news. Let's hope it's just a weekend delay and it will be, well, available soon.

 

[MirageMirror]

Got mine today. Haven’t had the time to do a system update yet, but poor initial experience. I would stay away for now as this was likely hastily released.

Here are my observations:

-Fit and finish is OK, but not comparable to Tag Connected E4
- I’m on an iPhone. The setup process had me delete the Wear OS app before the watch could pair with the MB app. Process was painless.
- MB app is a dud other than for basic connectivity and watch face/tile selection as it can’t display health/workout data from the watch
- Google is horrible compared to Apple as an integrated environment. The watch collects all this health data (24/7 hr, stress, energy, sleep) but it stays on the watch and that’s it! It is not viewable on the MB app and is not exported to Google Fit by the watch. Google Fit is better at pulling health data from Apple Health than from Wear OS watches. Go figure! I can get all my data from Garmin to Google Fit via Apple Health (24/7 HR, Resting HR, Sleep, steps, workouts,…) but not from a Wear OS Watch. The only thing that transfers from the watch to Google Fit is steps.
- I can’t understand the fuss over Wear OS 3. It is still a rubbish OS compared to Watch OS or even Garmin.
- The marriage of Richemont tech neophytes with the inept Wear OS platform is no match for Apple or Garmin. In fairness, Tag Heuer’s implementation with the E4 while still sub-optimal is way better than MB’s.
- For the MB exclusive features licensed from FirstBeat (stress, energy, sleep), the initial impressions are not promising. Stress is close to zero all the time and there is no energy measurement (as of 8 hours from purchase). Perhaps a system update will fix this, but what an amateurish launch effort! Garmin has the same FirstBeat features and they just work. Perhaps Swiss watch companies should stick to their knitting, which is convincing people to fork over large sums of money for the equivalent of watch bullock cart technology.

Sorry folks, nothing positive to report here. I will do a system update tomorrow and see if that can get the FirstBeat features to work. This watch is likely going back to the manufacturer.

For those of you disappointed that loyal customers didn’t get first dibs on the watch, you should feel good as first dibs on crap can make for a stinky situation.

 

[The_Chief]

I have yet to see how you got it, since the MB website still shows "available soon". And while I can't speak to your experience with pairing a Wear OS watch to an Apple phone, my experience with Wear OS has been quite positive.

I have little use for the stylish bells & whistles of the Apple Watch, prefering the simple utility of Wear OS. It does exactly what I need it to do: let me deal with the mundane, routine stuff without pulling out my phone a hundred times a day. It doesn't have to be pretty... I don't spend that much time on my watch apps.

I'm glad to hear you're happy with the way everything "just works" together in the Apple ecosystem. I have Montblanc, Samsung, Google and Microsoft products and services, and they all just work. I suppose you will remain in the walled garden, then: if that's fine with you, it's fine with me. We have that freedom of choice and it's great!

I'm still waiting for the watch to be available here, as I'm sure the user experience with an Android device will be very different from your experience with an Apple device. Based on your words of caution, however, I look forward to reading plenty of reviews before making a purchase.

 

[MirageMirror]

My local MB boutique in SoCal called me. They had just received one each of the titanium, black titanium and bi-color models.

BTW, I did the system update, but it didn’t fix the health features. MB’s app is the major issue here. Weird for your health/fitness data to just sit in the watch with no ability to export to an app or fitness platform.

 

[MirageMirror]

BTW, Chief, I switched from Apple Watch to a Tag Heuer Connected E4 and it is just gorgeous compared to an Apple Watch with beautifully designed watch faces and a case design reminiscent of high end mechanical watches (I have the 42mm version). The Google Watch Assistant works great and the only thing I can’t do is send messages from the watch (which is more of an IOS issue). The watch can upload workouts to the Tag app (unlike MB) and the Tag app can in-turn upload the workouts to Strava.

As an aside, I couldn’t figure out how to install Google Assistant on the MB Summit 3, so that’s another ding against them, as this should come pre-installed at their price point.

Finally, the straps just feel better on the Tag compared to MB. The only reason I considered a MB was the FirstBeat features and those didn’t work on my watch!.

I would recommend cross-shopping the MB against the Tag. Tag doesn’t have Wear OS 3 yet, but even so, it is already miles ahead of MB. Tag need to develop their app for Wear OS 3 (like MB did) and word is we’ll receive an update in Sept.

 

[The_Chief]

Thanks for the input, @MirageMirror . I guess you couldn't decide between the three color options so you got them all? Well, good on you... I hope you returned the MBs, however, since you found that the Tag does almost everything you want it to do.

Trying to shoehorn an Android device into the Apple ecosystem is a tricky business, since Apple wants only Apple products working with Apple products. That's how they keep users in the "walled garden" - an example was the five years it took Apple, trying to figure out a way to make Apple devices only charge wirelessly with an Apple charger. Cupertino finally threw their hands up on that one, but it's an exception.

I've yet to read critical reviews from Android users, however. I haven't read many good "hands-on" reviews either, as the United States Montblanc website still shows "available soon" for the Summit 3. Apparently you're a lucky early adopter.

 

[MirageMirror]

I got just the all-black . Still testing the MB after the system update. Overall execution leaves much to be desired compared to the Tag connected (case finish, watch faces, implementation of ambient mode are all much, much better on Tag), but if the FirstBeat features come through, it may be worth it.

I can’t help but thinking that the Richemont bean counters screwed the pooch here. Either the Tag team were given more creative freedom, or they just hired better people.

 

[The_Chief]

I'm sure Tag watchfaces are pretty and all, but I use a watchface from the Play Store. I need function over fashion, so I'll have to look at reviews for both the Tag and Montblanc. You may very well save me money and aggravation here!

 

[The_Chief]

I actually pulled the trigger on the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. It will be here tomorrow! If it does what it says it will, it will outperform the Summit 3 at a fourth the price. I can then sell my Summit 2 and have money in the bank for the Galaxy Z Fold 4.

You snooze, you lose, Montblanc...

 

[MirageMirror]

I think you’re making the right decision. Deeply disappointed with the Summit 3 after additional testing of their fitness/health apps. They should be ashamed of themselves for the sub-par effort and disrespect for the customer.

 

[The_Chief]

Wow, I hate to hear that because it's very uncommon for Montblanc to get something so wrong. I'm not much on brand loyalty: I want what works for me and looks good doing it (outside the Cupertino ecosystem). Hopefully you can still return your purchases... when Montblanc starts getting a lot of returns and lousy reviews, they might get the hint that, perhaps, they need to stick with mechanical watches.