If only Montblanc had their own wearable operating system…
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(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)T3 VerdictAlthough Wear OS (yet again) tarnishes the user experience, the Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t a terrible smartwatch for those seeking premium-quality wearables. Buy it if you need a premium smartwatch that’s not as bulky as Garmin’s top-end watches, not as quirky as Fitbit’s wearables and classier than an Apple Watch.Reasons to buy+High-quality components (e.g. titanium, Sapphire Glass)+Tracks sleep, stress, heart rate and calories+Plenty of smart features on boardReasons to avoid-Montblanc tries and fails to make Wear OS work (again)-Battery life is far from impressive
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
T3 VerdictAlthough Wear OS (yet again) tarnishes the user experience, the Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t a terrible smartwatch for those seeking premium-quality wearables. Buy it if you need a premium smartwatch that’s not as bulky as Garmin’s top-end watches, not as quirky as Fitbit’s wearables and classier than an Apple Watch.Reasons to buy+High-quality components (e.g. titanium, Sapphire Glass)+Tracks sleep, stress, heart rate and calories+Plenty of smart features on boardReasons to avoid-Montblanc tries and fails to make Wear OS work (again)-Battery life is far from impressive
T3 VerdictAlthough Wear OS (yet again) tarnishes the user experience, the Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t a terrible smartwatch for those seeking premium-quality wearables. Buy it if you need a premium smartwatch that’s not as bulky as Garmin’s top-end watches, not as quirky as Fitbit’s wearables and classier than an Apple Watch.
T3 Verdict
Although Wear OS (yet again) tarnishes the user experience, the Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t a terrible smartwatch for those seeking premium-quality wearables. Buy it if you need a premium smartwatch that’s not as bulky as Garmin’s top-end watches, not as quirky as Fitbit’s wearables and classier than an Apple Watch.
Reasons to buy+High-quality components (e.g. titanium, Sapphire Glass)+Tracks sleep, stress, heart rate and calories+Plenty of smart features on boardReasons to avoid-Montblanc tries and fails to make Wear OS work (again)-Battery life is far from impressive
Reasons to buy+High-quality components (e.g. titanium, Sapphire Glass)+Tracks sleep, stress, heart rate and calories+Plenty of smart features on board
High-quality components (e.g. titanium, Sapphire Glass)
Tracks sleep, stress, heart rate and calories
Plenty of smart features on board
Reasons to avoid-Montblanc tries and fails to make Wear OS work (again)-Battery life is far from impressive
Montblanc tries and fails to make Wear OS work (again)
Battery life is far from impressive
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Montblanc Summit 3 deals
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I always get super excited when I get to test premium smartwatches such as the Montblanc Summit 3. Call me shallow, but the thought of wearing watches with a 4-digit price tag is exhilarating. And indeed, this Montblanc Summit 3 review is a little bit like a love letter to premium watch craftsmanship; and why, even in 2022, we need premium smartwatches like this one.
Maybe that’s why I felt a bit cheated when I reviewed the Summit Lite a couple of years ago (here’s myMontblanc Summit Lite review), as it tried to water down this high-end experience. Worst still, that watch usedGoogle’s Wear OS, which is infamously laggy and terrible. Truth be told, newer iterations of the wearable operating system are slightly more tolerable, as the Montblanc Summit 3 exemplifies.
Is the Montblanc Summit 3 thebest smartwatchmoney can buy? Is it better than thebest Garmin watchesin the same category, such as theGarminEpix Gen 2? Why would anyone buy the Montblanc Summit 3 over anApple Watch Ultra? Let’s discuss this.
Montblanc Summit 3 review – Price and availability
The Montblanc Summit 3 was announced in July 2022 and is available to buy now directly fromMontblanc US,Montblanc UKandMontblanc AUfor a recommended retail price of $1,290./£1,105/AU$2,030. Currently, it’s available in three standard versions, including Titanium, Black Titanium, and Bicolor Titanium.
There is also aNaruto Editionof the Summit 3, which is more expensive and also completely random, with special engravings of Naruto‘s signature weapons on the watch case and a leather strap with embossings of the Konohagakure symbol. For all those Naruto fans out there who like high-end smartwatches.
Montblanc Summit 3 – Build quality
The watch with two strap options: a black calf leather strap and a blue rubber sports strap, both with a pin buckle made of stainless steel. The Summit 3 arrived with the black leather strap attached to the case, which I promptly changed to the blue rubber option as leather straps are terrible for any sports activity. Thankfully, the blue strap doesn’t cheapen the watch one bit.
As for water resistance, the Montblanc Summit 3 is rated at 50 metres / 5 ATM bar. From a sensor point of view, it has an optical heart rate sensor, barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor. No altimeter or temperature sensor, however. At least it was storage (8 GB) to store apps on the watch.
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
Montblanc Summit 3 – Features
I wasn’t expecting a mind-blowing performance from the Montblanc Summit 3, a Wear OS watch, despite the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor, after my fiasco with the Summit Lite. Some smartwatches in the past, such as theMobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra, made the operating system work, but Wear OS still isn’t my favourite, to say the least.
Like most smartwatches these days, the Montblanc Summit 3 can track heart rate, monitor sleep, stress, workouts and more – it can even estimate VO2 max! I found the sleep tracking accurate; maybe not as good as theFitbit Sense 2, but definitely good enough for most people. Better still, you can see details about your sleep on the watch, and not just in the app.
Stress tracking on the Montblanc Summit 3 works in mysterious ways. I couldn’t tell whether it was based on data from the sensor, workout loads, calories burned or something else. Most of the time, the watch said I was recovering, which I assume means that I wasn’t working out too hard, and my sleep was well.
Thanks to the watch running Wear OS, the Montblanc Summit 3 offers a slew of additional features. These include a digital compass, Calm meditations, Hole18 gold maps, and more. I haven’t given these a thorough enough try, so I can’t tell how useful they are, but they are available on the watch.
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
Montblanc Summit 3 – Battery life
Initially, I was massively disappointed with the battery life of the Montblanc Summit 3. I couldn’t find any info about the official battery life of the watch, but with the always-on screen active, it barely lasts a day. Learning from the mistakes of theApple WatchandPixel Watch, Montblanc should know that even a day-long battery isn’t enough in 2022, especially from a watch that is meant to be worn in bed.
‘When watches like the Sense 2 mentioned above can have a 6-day long battery life, and the full AMOLEDHuawei Watch GT 3lasts nearly two weeks on a full charge, how come the Montblanc Summit 3 can barely last a day? After some tinkering, I found a solution, which might not please everyone, but it helped me. On the watch, there is a ‘Theatre mode’, which disables the screen unless you press the buttons (normal sleep mode only dims the screen).
With this mode on, I managed to get nearly three days of battery out of the Montblanc Summit 3. Granted, the screen wasn’t on most of the time, but the sensors were doing their bit, which is good enough for me, although I appreciate some people will want to see something on the screen when they flick their wrist. They’ll have to change the battery more often.
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
Montblanc Summit 3 – Sports tracking and accuracy
The Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t arunning watchor amultisport watch. Yes, it’s a smartwatch that can track various sports activities, so technically, itisa multisport watch. However, the way it tracks workouts closely resembles how fitness trackers do the same job.
Although the Montblanc Summit 3 tracks runs and cycles, it doesn’t really do in a performance-wearable sense. It’ll log some stats, but the accuracy of these is questionable. It won’t help you improve form either; the Summit 3 is more of a reactive fitness tracker than a proactive performance watch.
Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would buy the Montblanc Summit 3 instead of theGarmin Forerunner 955for running training. No one should trade in theirPolar Pacer Proto monitor recovery with the Summit 3 instead.
The Montblanc Summit 3 is meant to addsomehealth and fitness tracking capabilities to your premium smartwatch; nothing less, nothing more. Sure, it can’t take on the health-tracking capabilities of theGarmin Venu 2, and it can’t measure ECG like theWithings Scanwatch. But neither of those will look as classy on your wrist as the Montblanc Summit 3.
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
Montblanc Summit 3 – Verdict
The Montblanc Summit 3 isn’t without contradictions. It’s a premium watch through and through; even the box it comes in is one the prettiest wearable container I’ve seen in, like, forever. It’s built with premium materials like titanium, stainless steel, sapphire glass, etc. (I appreciate that stainless steel isn’t the poshest material, but in this context, it adds to the watch’s overall premium feel).
What lets down the Summit 3 is the Wear OS operating system and its battery life. The user interface does its best to mitigate the frustration that inevitably arises from using a Wear OS device. Still, I can’t help but feel that no matter what watch companies do, Wear OS will never work properly.
It’s too energy intense, looks samey-samey on all watches, and is way too laggy, even on watches with decent processors. I appreciate it’s more effort to develop and design a proprietary operating system, but it’s far from impossible. Montblanc should at least give it a try; that would elevate the user experience of its watches instantly.
Montblanc Summit 3 – Also consider
TheApple Watch Ultrais thebest Apple watch– apparently. It has a large AMOLED display and tough casing that enables the watch to be used for diving. It has the best battery life of an Apple watch, which still isn’t remotely close enough to any multisport watch on the market. It looks pretty, though, not to mention it’s cheaper than the Summit 3.
TheWithing Scanwatch Horizoncan be yours for less than half the price of the Montblanc Summit 3. This premium hybrid smartwatch has a 30-day battery life, an integrated altimeter, smart notifications, Bluetooth connectivity, different sports modes, and ECG and SpO2 sensors. Not bad.
Montblanc Summit 3: Price Comparison
$1,270View$1,270View$1,290ViewNo price informationCheck Amazon
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$1,290View
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No price informationCheck Amazon
No price informationCheck Amazon
No price informationCheck Amazon
No price information
No price information
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