But they naturally want the watch to be a success. And for that they chose one of their most iconic watchfaces as a base. They most likely considered the alternatives and some - like the TimeWalker Urban Speed are offered. But I think the frustration would likely still be there if they used an image of the original Montblanc Summit as a watchface but their commercial success would be less.
I cannot say that I am a big fan of the smartwatch development we are seeing (the use case is still not fully convincing for me) but as Ken said, it's a trend that's here and Richemont needed to dip its toes in the water...