Montblanc e-Strap: Right idea, wrong wrist?

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Montblanc e-Strap: Right idea, wrong wrist? - Smart watches
The Swiss watch industry’s answers to the Apple Watch are slowly coming to market. But is it the right market?

I’ve been interested in buying a Jawbone 3 activity monitor for a while and have endured several postponed launches in Switzerland. Imagine my frustration, therefore, when my wife forwarded me an e-mail announcing the Jawbone 4 in the US. The e-mail consisted of just two sentences, the first of which was “Now when you have your hands full with kids, groceries and a mind full of to-do’s for today, you can simply tap to pay at merchants which Accept American Express contactless payments.”

Note the clear targeting of women. There is no mention of juggling agendas or paying for a quick coffee on the way to your next meeting; nor any allusion to any confirmations of sporting prowess and athleticism that you might want to share with your peers. No, just kids and groceries…

With women such a clear target audience for wearable technology, it begs the question whether watch brands are shooting wide of the mark by pitching their first smart watches exclusively at men (with the sole exception of Alpina, which has a ladies collection of four reduced-size, diamond-set versions of its gents’ model).

Since the only Swiss Made brand to have wearable technology, rather than a smart watch, arriving on the market is Montblanc, with its e-Strap hitting stores right now, I put the question directly to Alexander Schmiedt, who heads up the brand’s watchmaking division. “It’s a valid point,” he says, “because the whole idea of having the e-strap is to combine it with other models in the collection. If we can find an aesthetic fit, we could imagine combining the e-strap with a ladies’ watch.”

Montblanc

Smart watch or smart strap?

Montblanc seem to have hit upon a promising idea with their e-Strap. It is not tied to the watch, so you can wear it on any watch that can accommodate the extreme leather NATO strap to which it is attached (or even remove the module and attach it to any type of strap), although Montblanc are understandably bundling it with their new TimeWalker Urban Speed Chronograph for the launch. After all, do people really want a smart watch? “Since other watch brands have now launched their smart watches, we have even more interest as people realize that the e-strap is unique,” explains Alexander Schmiedt. “We are not trying to put a smart thing in a watch which means that the watch will be obsolete or old-fashioned after a year.”

Montblanc

What about Big Brother?

In the great smart watch debate, surprisingly little attention seems to have been given to the subject of privacy. Wearable technology collects a wealth of personal information that marketers are eager to get their hands on. After all, wearable objects are even more intimate with us than our mobile phones, which already collect humungous amounts of data about us. How long will it be, for example, before an insomniac is bombarded with advertising for sleeping pills based on the recordings of their sleep patterns?

True privacy is one aspect where Montblanc’s e-Strap excels. The privacy policy for the new strap consists of a mere A4 page of text and can even be summarised in just one sentence: data is stored locally on the device and can only be accessed on your device. Montblanc is in a unique position to offers such a level of privacy because the device and its application have been developed internally by a dedicated team of 10 people.

When you use the Jawbone device or its applications, on the other hand, you transmit anything from precise location data, detailed activity information to sleep patterns and the calories you burn to the company’s servers. The seven-page Apple privacy policy is an easy read compared with the 28 pages you have to wade through if you want to install iOS 8. But here too, the act of “syncing” your device sends information across the ether, in this case allowing Apple to use your personal information to help it “create, develop, operate, deliver and improve our products, services, content and advertising”. If in doubt, opt out!

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