Montblanc TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap: Tech Forays
Montblanc’s first salvo of 2015 is a cautious venture into the realm of smart devices. The TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap here qualifies as wearable tech, but is both less difficult to produce and less risky than a completely new line of smart watches. As its name suggests, the e-Strap is a “collection extension” for the […]
Montblanc’s first salvo of 2015 is a cautious venture into the realm of smart devices. The TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap here qualifies as wearable tech, but is both less difficult to produce and less risky than a completely new line of smart watches. As its name suggests, the e-Strap is a “collection extension” for the TimeWalker line, which is understandable given the latter’s contemporary design – a similar accessory for the Villeret 1858 will probably be very out of place, to say the least. The e-Strap can be paired with TimeWalkers that have lug widths of 42 and 43mm, but there shouldn’t be any reason why it cannot be paired with other watches with suitable dimensions.
The heart of the TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap is a gadget sporting a 0.9” monochromic OLED screen, an accelerometer, and a Bluetooth Low Energy chip. Together, these devices provide an array of functions when paired with a mobile phone (recent versions of both Android and iOS are supported). At its most basic, Bluetooth connectivity allows smart notifications such as messages, emails, and reminders to be pushed from the phone to the e-Strap. On the fitness front, the inbuilt accelerometer tracks the user’s activity levels, with daily progress and long term reports viewable on the e-Strap display and accompanying phone app respectively. As the screen is touch sensitive, the strap can also function as a remote control to operate the smartphone’s camera shutter and music player. Finally, the e-Strap and its paired mobile phone can locate each other within a range of 30m should their user misplace either device.
As the e-Strap uses Bluetooth Low Energy, which transmits only small packets of data and not audio or high bandwidth streams, the device should have a longer battery life. Montblanc has not revealed exact figures, but said that the device should require a recharge roughly every 5 days depending on usage levels. Beyond the electronic device on the strap, the actual strap itself is NATO style, and constructed in Montblanc’s Extreme Leather in Florence. The e-Strap will be available in June 2015, and retail for 350 euros.
