An unannounced Louis Vuitton smartwatch bearing the model numbers QA05 and QA08 was recently approved by the FCC, indicating that the French fashion house is preparing to introduce a new Wear OS device which will presumably be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform. Additionally, the FCC documents include screenshots of e-labels for regions such as the U.S., Canada, South Korea, Australia, Japan, Singapore, China, and Taiwan, suggesting that the wearable will take advantage of worldwide availability. One label, in particular, namely the one for the South Korean market, reveals that the watch will be assembled in the United States.
Other details revealed by the FCC indicate that the smartwatch will take advantage of Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth connectivity, while a rough sketch depicting the front view of the wearable confirms that the unit will have a circular dial. According to the sketch, the smartwatch measures 52.35 millimeters in height including the lug ends and has a width of 47.49 millimeters including the crown. Exact hardware details are missing but the device will likely be powered by the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset introduced by Qualcomm in September. During the platform’s announcement, Louis Vuitton was one of the brands confirmed to adopt the Snapdragon Wear 3100 SoC for future wearable products, along with Montblanc and Fossil, and seeing how the QA05 / QA08 approved by the FCC is the first Louis Vuitton smartwatch to hit the radar following Qualcomm’s announcement, it becomes a strong contender for the chipset by default. Additionally, since the Snapdragon Wear 3100 is designed for Wear OS, it’s logical to assume that the smartwatch at hand will adopt Google’s platform, even though this detail doesn’t seem to be mentioned in the FCC documents.
Louis Vuitton’s previous smartwatch, i.e., the Tambour Horizon was unveiled in July for the price of roughly $2,500 and was powered by Qualcomm’s previous wearable-centric chipset known as the Snapdragon Wear 2100. With that in mind, it’s likely that the QA05 / QA08 smartwatch will fit a similar pricing range and will be marketed as a luxury wearable fused with high-end technologies. At the moment there’s no official word on when the wrist gadget will hit the shelves, but with FCC’s approval out of the way, more details could be unveiled before the holiday shopping season begins.
