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3 new smartwatches head to wrists

LG, Samsung and Sony all showed off new smartwatches, taking their own approaches to the nascent category.

LG went for full luxury, announcing that its new $1,200 Urbane Luxe would be available at the end of October. The watch sports a round face, a 23-karat-gold body and an alligator strap, and it is a more premium version of the LG Urbane that the company released earlier this year.

Sony, meanwhile, unveiled a Japanese crowdfunding campaign for its new watch that comes with a smart band. The company has raised more than $154,551 for a campaign for the watch, which has a normal face but houses its tracking and payment options in the clasp of the timepiece. It's planned for release only in Japan and will work with iOS devices rather than Sony's own smartphones.

Samsung also announced its new Gear S2 smartwatch ahead of the IFA tech conference in Berlin on Monday. The company had teased the product last month when it launched new smartphones, revealing a smartwatch with a round face and clean interface that, at least at first blush, seemed to be a great improvement on its predecessors. The company showed off two models of the watch. The base model is the Gear S2; a “classic” second model has more-traditional jewelry details such as a leather band.

There wasn't any information about pricing or availability, although AT&T has said it will carry the Samsung Gear S2.

Analysis firm IDC estimated last month that the wearables market grew 223.2 percent in the second quarter of 2015 compared with the same period last year. That's in part because of the introduction of the Apple Watch, which put Apple in striking distance of the market leader, Fitbit. But the product category is poised to keep growing as more companies head to market with different approaches to the wearable trend.

Consumers are set to be spoiled for choice. Google also announced Monday that it will start offering its Android Wear app on Apple devices, meaning that iPhone users have a whole new world of smartwatch options to pair with their phones.

Eventually, at least. The Android Wear app is available Monday, but only for the LG Watch Urbane (the Urbane Luxe will have it at launch). But, Google promises, the system will be coming to more smartwatches soon.

“All future Android Wear watches, including those from Huawei, Asus, and Motorola will also support iOS, so stay tuned for more,” the company said in a blog post.

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