Earlier this week, LG announced yet another round smartwatch, this time dubbed the ‘Watch Urbane’. This latest watch does away with the G Watch moniker, despite looking like a G Watch R in disguise and it’s a more traditional-looking watch. It’s just another Android Wear watch in many respects, it’s not got any sort of special features that make it stand out on paper, and it does everything the original G Watch on my wrist does. This is all true, but you know what the Watch Urbane looks like? A watch.
That much is fairly evident, it’s a round face attached to a piece of leather you fasten to your wrist, but my point is that the Watch Urbane looks like…any other watch. You could say this of the G Watch R as well, but the numbers around the bezel make the G Watch R a more modern-looking watch. The Moto 360 is fairly traditional too, but only in that its round, if you see one in person it’s quite obviously something more than a wrist watch. The Watch Urbane on the other hand well, from a distance that could be any fairly good-looking timepiece and while it’s no Breitling or Rolex, it’s a sharp watch, and something I can see older users taking to more than say the G Watch R or the Moto 360.
By “older user” I’m certainly not trying to say that those past a certain age (to be determined by yourself, and not this writer) can’t wear a certain type of watch. My Dad is 69 years old this March and he wears the same G Watch as I do, in fact he hasn’t even changed the strap from the silicon that comes as standard. Truth be told, it was on offer with the G3 he purchased last summer, but he still wears it day-in, day-out and loves it. No offence to my Father here, but it does look, shall we say, ‘out of place’ on his wrist. See, my Dad goes to work every day and spends a lot of time working in an office and talking to clients, he might not look his best every day, but he likes to wear a shirt and look the part wherever possible. This is the point I’m trying to make here; my Dad would be better off with a Watch Urbane on his wrist than a G Watch, or even G Watch R. Never mind that, the Watch Urbane is the watch that my Dad wants and he hasn’t been quiet about it since I showed him LG’s renders earlier in the week.
Older users, and perhaps those that wear a suit and tie to work every day, are probably just as interested in smartwatches as us young whippersnappers, but the G Watch and Moto 360 are decidedly “modern” for a lack of a better word. The Watch Urbane however is better suited to the distinguished, the well-dressed and those that need a watch that looks the part, but doesn’t stand out. My friends and family expect someone like myself to wear a square-looking digital wrist-mounted computer like the G Watch, but a company director like my Father is expected to wear a watch. With the Watch Urbane, G Watch R, ASUS ZenWatch and the Moto 360 we finally have a decent selection for those looking to wear a watch first, and smartwatch second. More designs like this can only be a good thing.