Skip to main content

Louis Vuitton’s $2,450 smartwatch will drain your savings account (and looks great)

Louis Vuitton, the fashion brand known more for its handbags than its luxury watches, is dipping its toes into the luxury smartwatch market with the Tambour Horizon, a 42mm Android Wear-powered timepiece that starts at an eye-popping $2,450.

You’d expect spectacular craftsmanship for an asking price that costs more than some used cars, and you’d be right — Louis Vuitton hasn’t taken any shortcuts. The Tambour Horizon’s case, which is made in Switzerland, features a convex design that maximizes its diameter while minimizing its weight. It comes in three styles — stainless steel, brushed steel, and black — with 60 strap options, including 30 for men and 30 for women.

Recommended Videos

But the Tambour Horizon’s real draw are Vuitton-inspired touches like City Guide, which recommends restaurants and places of interest based on your location, and Flight, which alerts you to changes in your flights and itinerary. The watch will also be available in China, albeit without Google services — Louis Vuitton has partnered with local platforms like Weibo so that corresponding platforms in the West automatically switch for usage when appropriate, according to the New York Times. We’re unclear how this really works, and we have reached out to Louis Vuitton for clarification.

tambour horizon
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Under the hood, the Tambour Horizon is a little more like its Android Wear siblings than Louis Vuitton would probably care to admit. It has a 1.3-inch 390×390 AMOLED screen that’s about the same resolution as the Huawei Watch 2, along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 smartwatch processor. The Tambour Horizon omits a heart rate-tracking sensor and skimps on RAM a tad, opting for 512MB instead of its rivals’ 1GB (the Fossil Q Founder) and 768MB (LG Watch Style). It packs 4GB of storage, or about enough to hold about 800 songs.

Then there’s the price. At $2,450 (or $2,900 for the black version), the Tambour Horizon is far and away one of the most expensive Android Wear watches on the market. Unlike luxury brands like Tag Heuer, which put the purchase of smartwatches toward analog watches, the Tambour Horizon comes with no trade-up or incentives. But the Tambour Horizon is less about function and more about form.

“For us, the aesthetic is nonnegotiable,” Michael Burke, chief executive of Louis Vuitton, told the New York Times in an interview. “There’s a lot of ugliness out there, [and we] want to participate in the future.”

In any case, Louis Vuitton has high hopes for the Tambour Horizon, which it thinks can double sales. “In the early 20th century we built helicopters,” Burke said. “It didn’t mean we were going to turn into Boeing or Airbus. But it meant we were part of the conversation.”

Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
Google demos its smartglasses and makes us hanker for the future
A screenshot from Google's TED Talk on its smartglasses.

At a recent TED talk, Google’s exciting XR smartglasses were demonstrated to the public for the very first time. While we’ve seen the smartglasses before, it has always been in highly polished videos showcasing Project Astra, where we never get a true feel for the features and functionality in the real world. All that has now changed, and our first glimpse of the future is very exciting. However, future is very much the operative word. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/shahram_izadi_the_next_computer_your_glasses?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Read more
I bought $9 AirPods Pro, the results were shocking!
9 dollar pair of AirPods Pro 2

Have you ever been to China? I’m on my eighth visit to the biggest country in the world, at least by population size, and a country that’s integral to all of the technology we use today. 

A boom in manufacturing and technological advancements over the past 40 years has positioned Shenzhen, located next to Hong Kong and previously a fishing village, as arguably the most important city in technology. Most major tech companies have a significant presence in this city, and alongside that, many of the factories that produce our favorite consumer electronics are also based here. 

Read more
Amazon’s Marvel-themed ‘Pro’ kids tablet is marked down to just $95 today
A closer look at a Marvel-themed Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet.

While we don't want our little ones glued to a screen all the time, there's no doubt that tech is a part of our kids' lives right now. If we're going to integrate tech into kids lives, we may as well get the best. This deal on an Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet gets you a Marvel-themed tablet for just $95, saving you $55 off of the typical $150 price point. This tablet is designed with kids' safety and well-being in mind -- and it just looks cool. Tap the button below to see the tablet and its features yourself, or keep reading to see why this is one of the best tablets for kids you can buy at a discounted price today.

Why you should buy the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet
The Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet is an accessible 8-inch tablet that comes with a 2-year guarantee in case it ever breaks, 6 months of free Amazon Kids+ for ad-free and age-appropriate content and smart activities, and simple parental controls. This tablet is designed for kids up to 12 years old, so its web browser has built-in guardrails to protect against weird content getting on screen.

Read more