Samsung reveals new Gear smartwatch in garish fashion shoot

Samsung gave the world a brief first glimpse at the Gear S2 smartwatch this morning before saying that we'd have to wait until September for the full announcement. But apparently we don't have to wait until then to actually see what the watch looks like: the Gear S2 is already being shown off by Samsung in a fashion shoot, of all things. Samsung has a weird history with fashion wherein it continually partners with high fashion companies to make tacky accessories and the public continually facepalms; this time, it's just partnered with fashion figures to put together a photo shoot showcasing the new phones it announced today, the Galaxy Note 5 and the S6 Edge+, as well as its upcoming smartwatch.

Read next: The Samsung Gear S2 watch review.

At least from a tech perspective, the Gear S2 smartwatch is the obvious star of the show here. It appears in two photos, both of which make it look pretty stylish and maybe not totally huge. The rest of the photos are worth checking out too — they're apparently a mashup of "the fashion industry’s seasonal collection" and Samsung's new phones. I can't speak to the accuracy of Samsung's presentation of the current fashion season (honestly, I'm not even sure if we're looking at Fall 2015 or Spring 2016 here), but I would definitely question some of its choices here.

I asked several of my colleagues over at Racked for some thoughts on the shoot, which they described more as being super thirsty than outright terrible. "It looks honestly like a series of tears from fashion editorials of the last three decades with big rectangles ('phones') placed in," says Nicola Fumo, Racked's shopping and style editor. Samsung brought in established fashion names to make this, she says, and in doing so likely spent a ton of money.

"Clearly they're trying to art different attitudes/needs of women, those foreign creatures," Fumo says. "The problem is that fashion seduces people into other worlds, but fashion-for-fashion's-sake isn't itself seductive. This lookbook is that."