LG Electronics Inc. Will Showcase Its Watch Urbane at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Germany
LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's second largest tech company, has announced on Monday that an upgraded luxury edition of their Watch Urbane smartwatch will be on display on Sept. 4 at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) electronics show at Berlin, Germany.
Yonhap News reported on Monday that the smartwatch with crocodile-skin leather strap and 23-karat gold body, which is placed in a limited-edition case made from piano-gloss lacquer, will be available in the US-based store REEDS Jewelers. There will only be 500 pieces of Watch Urbane sold at $1,200 each by the end of October.
The luxury edition watch will be equipped with Louis Cartier's 1910 invention - the deployment clasp - to give it a more elegant and unique look, according to an article by LG Newsroom on Monday. The leather strap has undergone 50 separate processes by 30 skillful leatherworkers before attaching it to the gold body, which is harder and stronger than some jewelry pieces' 24-karat gold.
LG Electronics' Watch Urbane will run on Android Wear platform and will feature a 1.2 gigahertz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. It will also come with a 410-milliampere hour battery and a 1.3-inch circular plastic organic light-emitting diode (P-OLED) display.
On Feb.15, Engadget notes the smartwatch has a feature on the body that monitors the user's heart rate, like other LG smartwatch. The bezel around the metal body, which comes in gold and silver finishes, is shaved around the edges - not found on the G Watch R.
To ensure authenticity, each smartwatch will be engraved with their own serial numbers.
"Wearable devices shouldn't be thought of as an extension of one's smartphone but an extension of oneself," says Chris Yie, head of marketing communications and LG Mobile Communications Company vice president.
"This blending of craftsmanship and technology is a natural evolution of the smartwatch, which is becoming more of a lifestyle accessory than a piece of hardware. We think this is a good direction for wearables and we want to encourage this transformation."
