5 luxury smartwatches that are even more expensive than you thought

Smartwatches have been around for a long time and prices have dropped as cheap smartwatch brands enter the market. That said, a high-end smartwatch is still an expensive piece of tech for most people, with the Apple Watch Series 11 selling for hundreds of dollars. But what happens when a luxury-focused brand enters the smartwatch market?

There are a number of luxury watch brands to choose from, but only a few of them offer dedicated smartwatch models for their watches. When a major luxury brand enters the smartwatch space, one can expect its watches to cost the average person an arm and a leg. Adding smart features to an iconic watch comes at a cost, with some brands creating entirely new watches with their own custom operating system.

We scoured the internet to see what high-end luxury brands are doing in the smartwatch space. Here are a number of watches that we found to be not only expensive, but way more expensive than you might have imagined. These are watches for tech enthusiasts who want to be at the forefront of classic style and modern functionality.

I know Montblanc thanks to its very chic high-end fountain pens. My father still has the Meisterstück fountain pen that he bought a long time ago and used only for signing business documents. When I found out that Montblanc was getting into the watch business, I knew the company was going to come up with something elegant and expensive.

The Montblanc Summit 3 smartwatch is a luxury watch that costs over $1,000, making it one of the most affordable watches on this list. This Montblanc smartwatch doesn’t use its own software, but instead takes advantage of Google’s Wear OS. Wear OS allows for a more minimalist look and users don’t need to learn a new operating system if they plan to upgrade from another Android smartwatch.

While you can find a new Google Pixel Watch for less than half of what the Montblanc Summit 3 will cost you, you’ll miss out on the distinct Montblanc style aesthetic that mimics a classic analog watch. If you love having a smartwatch and all the features that come with it but want something a little more luxurious, Montblanc might be a brand to check out.

Breitling is a brand renowned since 1884 for manufacturing high quality watches. Even its most basic watches often sell for thousands of dollars, making them once-in-a-lifetime purchases for many people. So when Breitling entered the smartwatch business with the Breitling Professional Exospace B55, it did things a little differently than most others.

Beyond the nearly $9,000 price tag, the Professional Exospace B55 isn’t your typical smartwatch. Breitling considers this timepiece a smartwatch, meaning it features traditional watch parts and precision, with two thin rectangular screens. One just above the arms, and the other a slightly larger screen just below. When not being used to alert you to calls, messages or emails coming from your smartphone, the screens serve as a time and date display.

The bulk of the work is done by the app, allowing you to control the watch’s features from there and not requiring you to swipe and navigate menus on the watch face itself. This also allows the watch to maintain its distinctive look which, according to the brand, is designed and tailored for pilots and boaters. It’s a classic look that’s still a watch, not a smartwatch face trying to emulate one.

Garmin may not be a brand that comes to mind when you think of luxury watches, but with the Garmin Marq Athlete costing almost $3,000, the company is firmly entrenched in the luxury sector. The Marq Athlete is a serious, premium smartwatch machined with over 130 layers of carbon fiber, and the domed sapphire lens helps highlight the AMOLED touchscreen.

Sure, the included leather hybrid strap might not look very luxurious compared to its competitors, but the goal of the Marq Athlete is to merge the world of luxury with the world of sports in one watch. Instead of having one watch dedicated to sports and another for casual affairs, the Garmin Marq tries to kill two birds with one stone.

And since you’re dealing with Garmin, you’ll also benefit from solid GPS capabilities thanks to the included SatIQ technology. This enables multi-band GPS, providing users with high-quality positioning in any environment. Monitoring and GPS features include ClimbPro climb planning, TopoActive maps, morning reports and more, making the Garmin Marq a decent deal even at an incredible price.

Tag Heuer is well known for its high-end timepieces. Since its Monaco Evergraph sold for nearly $25,000, the brand has become known for its expensive watches that regularly sell for thousands of dollars. Tag Heuer offers a few smartwatches that are much more expensive than your average smartwatch, but probably the most interesting is the Tag Heuer Connected Caliber E5 Golf Edition.

This smartwatch is designed for golf enthusiasts, offering a very sleek, sleek and lightweight design that won’t hinder your back swing. At nearly $2,550, the Caliber E5 is expensive, but many golf aficionados seem to really like it. They point out that the built-in Golf app is one of the best available.

Others take issue with the Tag Heuer Connected line, suggesting that aside from the Tag Heuer faces, the series is nothing more than an overpriced smartwatch. But these voices seem to be in the minority as reviews of the Caliber E5 Golf Edition are mostly positive, really showcasing the design, build, and interface.

Vertu is one of the more interesting brands on this list. The company is best known for creating luxury smartphones, the most affordable being the Metavertu calfskin, which retails for $1,599. So Vertu moving into the smartwatch space makes a lot of sense, especially if it can pair its high-end phones with corresponding high-end smartwatches.

Its Fusion Black Diamond smartwatch costs $2,380. One of the cool features of the Vertu Fusion is the ability to quickly change watch faces by rotating the watch crown. But other than that, the Vertu Fusion Black Diamond feels behind in terms of smartwatch capabilities.

The operating system feels slow and looks a lot like some cheap smartwatches. Additionally, the chip that powers the watch is described as high performance, but no details are given on the operating system used. What’s worse is that Vertu has been called out in the past for marketing claims, exaggerated capabilities, and quality issues from tech YouTube channels like MKBHD and JerryRigEverything. The Fusion Black Diamond may be a decent smartwatch, but it’s a lot more expensive than what it offers.

When selecting smartwatches for this feature, we turned to the Reddit community of watch enthusiasts. These smartwatches are luxury devices that will cost you a lot more than your typical smartwatch from Apple or Samsung. Even though the price may be astronomical, that doesn’t mean the smartwatches featured aren’t worth the investment for some people.

We also researched professional reviews and opinions from well-known tech YouTube channels who have written and created content about the featured smartwatches, and specifically highlighted the cost compared to a standard smartwatch.