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The LG Watch Urbane LTE will be the first smartwatch with LTE, NFC but won’t be using Android Wear

The LG Watch Urbane is getting more unusual by the day. Apart from being the first real premium smartwatch (in before the Apple Watch), LG has just announced that the Urbane, or rather the LG Watch Urbane LTE, is going to be unveiled as the world’s first LTE-enabled smartwatch. This will allow the smartwatch to make calls, send and receive SMSes and will allegedly have a data-based ‘walkie talkie’ capability. LG also says that the device will have access to NFC technology, and will be powered by a massive 700mAh battery, though it probably needs it for the LTE shenanigans – for reference, the Moto 360 has a 320mAh battery.

But by far the most unusual part of this press release is the announcement that the LG Watch Urbane will not be using Android Wear, instead opting for the “all new LG Wearable Platform operating system” – unless I’m mistaken, that is probably read “webOS”. This does seem to suggest that we may have gotten an early look at the Urbane during Audi’s conference at CES last month when a mysterious LG-made watch running webOS was spotted. Is it the same watch? Probably not, but the watches do share the 3-button configuration, which LG says is the Urbane’s way of giving users access to quick settings like adjusting brightness and volume or sending a safety beacon signal.

It will be very interesting to see what else the LG Watch Urbane has up its sleeve, though we have to say we’re decently interested in how long the battery lasts with all that technology in there. What do you think of the LG Watch Urbane LTE? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.