Watch Insider: Montblanc Goes Smart with the Montblanc e-Strap

Montblanc CEO Jérôme Lambert has given us a New Year’s gift. The Richemont Group brand has announced the TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap, a piece of wearable technology built into the strap of a watch. I think it’s a great idea. Why not use the huge real estate of the watch strap to display information coming from a smartphone? In this post from my blog, Watch-Insider.com, I take a look at this all-new technological development.

These days everybody is taking about smartphones and smartwatches. Now here is Montblanc with a clever, original approach to the idea. Did you expect Montblanc to present such a device? Honestly, I did not. The e-Strap was developed at Montblanc headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, by a team of engineers charged with developing high-tech gadgets for the brand. It is manufactured in Hong Kong for Montblanc. The strap is part of Lambert’s global strategy for Montblanc. His aim is to push the brand toward intelligent digital developments.

The e-Strap has multiple functions. It vibrates to notify the wearer of incoming emails, texts and calls, as well as alerts from calendars, social media, and other apps. On its built-in touch-screen display you can read texts and see who is contacting you, or preview the subject line and sender of an email. The display also can be used to navigate the device’s various functions. Thanks to an accelerometer, the e-Strap’s activity tracker can log calories burnt, steps taken and distance traveled. Through the device’s association smartphone app, you can track athletic progress over weeks and months. The device also uses vibration alerts to remind the wearer to stay active and keep him or her updated on daily progress. The e-Strap can be used as a remote control for different smartphone capabilities, too. You can use it to play, pause and skip through songs playing off your phone. And especially useful is a camera remote: it lets you trigger the shutter of your smartphone camera with a tap of the strap.

The device also comes with a “Find-Me” function, letting you search for your watch via your phone, or your phone via your watch, within a range of 30 meters. The touch screen is readable in daylight. The e-Strap has a stainless steel case, rubberized for shock protection. It is 40 mm long and 14.2 mm wide. In normal use, it will require charging via USB once every five days. It is compatible with the iPhone 4s, 5, 5C, 5S, 6 and 6 plus; with Android devices running Android 4.3 or higher; and with the Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, Note 3 and Note 4. The strap, made out of Montblanc’s original “Extreme” leather, was made by the Montblanc Pelleteria in Florence, Italy. Its upper surface has a carbon-like appearance. A special treatment is used to improve the structural integrity of the leather. Montblanc says that it is abrasion-resistant, water-repellent, and resistant to wear from both water and fire. It can be adjusted to all strap sizes 20/22 mm.

Here are the full specs for the device:

The e-Strap is available with the TimeWalker Urban Speed Chronograph, the TimeWalker Urban Speed UTC and the TimeWalker Urban Speed Date Automatic. The e-Strap by itself costs approximately $240, and approximately $300 on a NATO strap. In the future there will be a stand-alone version that comes on a bracelet, costing approximately $540. With the Urban Speed chrono as pictured below, it costs roughly $5,600.