The Watch Urbane 2 LTE would have been the first Android Wear smartwatch to support 4G mobile data. It featured in a Google blog post introducing the latest version of the wearable OS and has been widely welcomed by fans.
Last week, the hype abruptly ended though. LG suddenly sent out notices that the launch has been indefinitely cancelled due to an issue which can affect the “day-to-day functionality of the smartwatch.” Apparently found late in the quality assurance process and impossible to immediately fix, LG was left with no choice but to abandon the launch of what would have been an important product.
LG said little at the time except to reassure that the issue posed no danger to the user. It maintains that there are “no safety issues or concerns” with the Watch Urbane 2 and has today revealed a few limited details to explain what happened.
Trusted Reviews reports the company has issued a statement explaining that the Watch Urbane 2 includes a new “advanced component” that it hadn’t used before. After hours of testing, it determined this component may fail and impact the image quality of the watch’s display.
LG said: “What we can share is that the hardware issue was related to a new advanced component that we had incorporated in the device that had never been used in an LG wearable device before. During aggressive testing over thousands of hours under severe conditions, it was revealed that this component failed to meet LG’s quality standards and could potentially impact our image quality over the life of the device.”
The company hasn’t given any details on the nature of the component involved or what its purpose was. It cites “competitive and supplier relations reasons” as preventing it from making any more information public. It remains unclear whether the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE will make it to sale in the future or whether the whole generation will now be scrapped and erased from the books.
