The Galaxy Watch 6 Astro Edition takes to the stars with a new astrolabe-inspired design
Samsung has unveiled a limited Astro edition of the 47mm Galaxy Watch 6 Classic with a new design inspired by an astrolabe.
Astrolabes, if you don’t know, are instruments that ancient people used to determine the position of stars at night. It was used at the time for travel and to determine the time of day.
It’s clear that the Galaxy Watch 6 can already do things (it comes with Google Maps). Instead, the inspiration from the astrolabe shines through in the rotating black astroring. It now features etchings of constellations and celestial bodies around the display. The new watch face appears to be a continuous video of space, presumably the Milky Way. like you take a good look at the sample videosyou see objects moving around the screen. The seconds hand has a crescent at the tip.
All told, the Astro Edition is a series of nice little details.
Besides the redesign, the Astro Edition has even more to offer as Samsung added two star-related features. On the left side of the new dial are trackers that allow amateur astronomers to track the phases of the sun and moon. A simple compass complication can be seen on the right. For many users, these are not the most essential features, but they are nice additions nonetheless.
Limited availability
As beautiful as this smartwatch looks, it’s going to be hard to get your hands on one as it’s currently only available in the MENA (Middle East/North Africa) region. This includes countries like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The reason why Samsung chooses that specific area for the initial launch is because that part of the world has contributed a lot to science – “particularly (toward) astronomy and math.” Think of it as a themed gift.
The announcement does not reveal the price of this version of the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. However, if we look at Samsung’s Levant website (a sub-region in the Middle East), we see the Astro Edition costs 350 Jordanian Dirham, that’s about $500 USD. Purchasing one grants users an additional Fabric Band, “Astro Edition collectibles” plus access to the company’s VIP promotional store.
Hopefully this smartwatch will launch elsewhere, and we think Samsung actually has plans for that. After all, this information comes from the tech giant’s global website; we’ve reached out to Samsung asking if it plans to release the Astro Edition in other countries, such as the United States. This story will be updated if we hear anything.
We should mention that the original post states that the Astro Edition is the “first of several collections of limited edition watches”. In other words, there are more redesigns to come.
While we have you, be sure to check out TechRadar’s list of the best smartwatches for 2023.