Samsung Electronics unveiled its new smartwatch Gear S3 at the annual technology show IFA on Wednesday evening.

“With the Gear S3, we continue to build on our wearables heritage of offering diverse choices to enhance consumers’ unique lifestyles,” said Lee Young-hee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ global marketing and wearable business, at the event in Berlin. 

The new gadget, which features water resistance, mobile payments, long-term evolution connectivity and GPS, is available in two designs Gear S3 frontier and Gear S3 classic.

Gear S3 frontier was designed to perform in any setting or environment -- whether business or leisure while Gear S3 classic was designed with meticulous attention to detail -- with its size and shape chosen to attain the same consistency and balance of a luxury watch, the company said.

Samsung’s new smartwatch is expected to compete with the Apple Watch 2 slated to be unveiled Sept. 7. Apple’s new smartwatch is reportedly to come with GPS and would not feature cellular networking.

In the fledgling global smartwatch market, Apple has grabbed the largest share by selling 1.6 million units in the second quarter of this year while runner-up Samsung sold 600,000 units, according to market research firm IDC.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)