Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Astro Edition is a beautiful smartwatch most people won't be able to buy

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Limited to the Middle East and North Africa for now

Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Astro Edition
(Image credit: Samsung)

The Galaxy Watch 6 is already the best smartwatch for Android users, but Samsung just upped the style considerably with a new special edition of the wearable.

The Galaxy Watch 6 Astro Edition takes the $429, 47mm Classic version with its rotating bezel, and adds design flair inspired by astrolabes. These ancient astronomical instruments were used to calculate the position of stars in the night sky, in order to navigate and figure out the time.

Nowadays, even basic smartphones can do that for you, of course, so the astrolabe inspiration is mainly aesthetic. 

The rotating bezel contains etchings of constellations and celestial bodies, while an exclusive watch face shows a moving galaxy with a moon attached to the second hand. The watch face also comes with a couple of complications — there’s a compass on the right, and another to “track movements of the sun and moon” on the left. 

The watch comes with two fabric straps, according to Samsung — but it’s not clear whether they look different, or are just for sizing purposes.

It’s probably all academic anyway: Unless you’re reading this in one of a handful of countries in the Middle East and North Africa, then Samsung doesn’t want to sell you one.

A regional exclusive

Yes, Samsung has decided that the Galaxy Watch 6 Astro Edition is an exclusive for the MENA region — that’s the Middle East and North Africa. 

In all, Samsung lists 11 countries getting access to the timepiece: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

This isn’t by chance. In the press release announcing the wearable, Samsung describes the watch as “dedicated to the region”, as it’s “inspired by MENA’s explorers and innovators”.

It’s a “testament and tribute to the Middle East’s innovators and their historical prominence in the fields of mathematics, science and innovation, while simultaneously setting the stage for the region’s future pioneers,” according to Omar Saheb, Regional Marketing Director at Samsung Electronics MENA.

While Samsung calls it exclusive to the region in its headline, hopefully it’s a timed one. It’s a very stylish wearable, and it would be a shame for the rest of the world not to have access at some point in the future. 

If it does, a quick currency conversion suggests that the 350 Jordanian Dirham asking price on Samsung’s Levant website is around $500. If it doesn’t, hopefully equally cool designs will follow for other regions. Samsung describes the Astro Edition as the “first of several limited-edition collections of watches” after all, so watch this space.

Alan Martin
Alan Martin

Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are found all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. He also handles all the Wordle coverage on Tom's Guide and has been playing the addictive NYT game for the last several years in an effort to keep his streak forever intact.