The watch is stage one. So is it any good?

Made in conjunction with Google and Qualcomm Technology, with a case made in Switzerland, the Tambour Horizon does what most smartwatches do — it alerts you to your email and texts, counts your steps, has lots of apps — though it does not contain a heart monitor and is not meant to replace the phone. It works with both Apple and Android devices and has a battery life of about a day. Like the Apple Watch, it charges when you click on to a magnetic pad, connects to your phone via Bluetooth and also works with Wi-Fi. It comes in three finishes (polished steel, brushed steel and full black), and it has 30 different straps for men and 30 for women, which snap on and off with a satisfying ease.

So far, so not surprising. Anyone who has followed my history with smartwatches, which began when I broke up with my Apple Watch, knows that I have a somewhat conflicted relationship with the product category. To me, it seems, largely, to be solving problems that aren’t actually there, and creating new ones. (Like: How do you justify talking to your forearm in a public space?)

But the Vuitton watch is a small step forward in certain areas.

First, the watch face (which can be customized like a handbag in myriad ways — with various dials, with different color stripes, with Vuitton’s monogram, with your monogram), never entirely goes dark. It fades a bit in sleep mode, but unlike, say, the Apple Watch, it does not become a black hole when your arm is at rest, thus obviating the need to wave said arm around endlessly to wake it up and so not look like an adult version of a “Star Trek” transporter.

In addition, the Tambour, like the new mechanical Tambour Moon, has a convex side case, which allows maximum face diameter with minimum weight. So even though it’s quite chunky for a watch, it is less chunky than some of its smart peers (42 mm in diameter, as opposed to 46 mm). That said, it still looks like a smartwatch.

Second, it contains a cool proprietary app associated with the Louis Vuitton city guides. The watch will know where you are at what time and, like a very good concierge, will be able to recommend the best nearby restaurant or bar or shop in seven world capitals. It also has a special travel app, which can track the progress of any flight and let you know of delays, gate changes, wait times and so on.