Armani, a famous Italian clothing label, this week expanded its presence among the high-growth smartwatch category.

The Armani A/X Exchange Connected is the first touchscreen-watch from the company and it packs NFC, GPS, Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, Google Wear OS, Google Assistant and heart-rate tracking into a 1.2-inch, swimproof display.

It is a mildly goodlooking device, which will be available in the US, Europe and select countries worldwide from September 2018.

Its wholesale (trade) price today sits around US$250, putting the watch in tough high-end competition with established brands like Apple Watch Series 3 and Samsung Galaxy Watch.

The Armani A/X Exchange Connected is a niche model. It blends a fashionable brand with young-at-heart design for light sports and fitness usage. But there are dozens of such models already on the market, from Fitbit and others, and Armani will struggle to stand out from the crowd.

One ace up its sleeve, though, may be the firm's distribution channels. Armani wristwatches are usually sold in high-end retail or fashion stores, such as John Lewis UK, and this gives it a chance to target younger professionals with deep pockets, who may enter a shop looking for a "Swiss watch" and exit with an Armani A/X smartwatch.