LG Debuts The Urban Luxe: A High-End, Classy, Wearable

For those who want to wear smartwatches but don’t want to look like geeks, LG has a stylish, classy model coming out in October: The LG Urbane Luxe looks more like a dressy watch good enough to wear with business casual ensembles than a smartwatch.

Bathed in 23-karat gold, the LG Urbane Luxe takes the Urbane design up several notches. The price tag has also followed, since the premium model fetches whopping $1,195. By contrast, the LG Urbane was priced at $349.

The strap is said to be made of alligator skin, while the clasp was patterned after a watch clasp design by Louis Cartier originally debuted in 1910. The premium feel, and the equally premium price tag for the watch may sound prohibitive for the masses, but it seems to be a calculated move on LG’s part. LG spokesman Ken Hong communicated with PC World’s Tim Hornyak, saying that the company doesn’t believe that smartwatches and wearables aren’t for the majority of the market at the moment, which is the reason why they’re angling for the premium market instead. Only 500 units of the LG Urbane Luxe will be released, and the shipping begins in October. Each of these 500 smartwatches will have a unique serial number, “for authenticity,” the official LG press release reads.

The pre-order period has already started, and units can be reserved at LG’s design and retail partner for the Urban Luxe, www.REEDS.com.

The Urban Luxe will come in what the LG official press release describes as, “an exclusive piano-gloss lacquer case.” The promo photos feature the premium smartwatch with brown alligator skin leather, but it is also available in other leather strap colors, including black, white, blue, red, and green.

As for the technical specs:

Processor/Chipset: 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400

RAM: 512MB RAM

OS: Android Wear, compatible with Android 4.3 and above

Internal Storage: 4GB eMMC

Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi

Display: 3 inches full circle P–OLED with a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels and a 245 ppi pixel density, protected with Gorilla® Glass 3

Battery: 410 mAh with charging cradle

Goodies: 9–Axis Sensors (Gyro/Accelerometer/Compass)/Barometer/PPG, including a Heart Rate Sensor, built-in mic, offline music play, waterproof for up to 1 meter for 30 minutes

The average Joe may not be able to imagine himself wearing one of these, but certainly, the Sheryl Sandbergs, Marissa Mayers, and the Mark Zuckerberg, even Kanye West types, would. Of course, Tim Cook and Jony Ive are, no doubt, wearing the best of Apple watches, so it’s almost impossibility for them to wear one of these.

The LG Urban Luxe may not be a Rolex, but it’s certainly more useful than that.