Born and bred in St-Imier, Switzerland, there has always been something special about TAGs to a layman consumer. On the other hand ,to a timepiece aficionado the brand is usually the butt of jokes but its heritage is world-renown. Same goes for their ability to innovate; streamlining the chronograph just one illustration. Somewhere down the line, they’ve lost their footing and are trying once again appeal to the wider consumer base. How can they turn it around with the TAG Heuer Connected?
Jan-Claude Biver the CEO has officially announced how much this luxury watch will go for – setting you back a cool US$ 1,500 (RM 6,581), this wearable better be worth the money. If you ask us personally, knowing that your buying a TAG at that price (even if it doesn’t have the Swiss-made seal of approval) is a good deal; a quick run through some of their most affordable models and you’ll see that the starting price hover around the US$ 1k mark.
Obviously geared for a posher market, Mr Biver was quoted to say that it’ll be similar to the Apple Watch, in terms of what it can do, though you shouldn’t in any way compare the two together. “I forbid my colleagues to say Apple is our competitor” – as said by the CEO.
The titanium built Carrera inspired Connected will run pretty much like other smartwatches by wirelessly connecting to your smartphone for a wide array of features. On your wrist this 46mm beast will be relatively large when compared to the biggest Apple Watch at 42mm. It might even be larger than the 46mm Moto 360, as far as we can tell from photos.
Ladies, if you’re into the whole smart wearable luxury segment (if that existed prior to this – no we aren’t gonna bother comparing to the US$ 17,000 Apple Watch), the Swiss makers have plans to fashion a smaller version in the future. Admittedly, TAG Heuer have mentioned for the time being, their main market base are for males.
Those on the edge of heritage, craftsmanship and tradition who’d want to try out a named smartwatch can give this wearable a go for 2 years; after which, if you decide its not for you, a US$ 1,500 top up will get you a trade-up/in to a traditional mechanical Carrera. Keep in mind that Carreras retail way over US$ 3,000, a worthy bargain if you have the cash to splash.
Running on the Android Wear platform, you’ll have access to some special watch faces and some dedicated apps to help you with dining options and golf tracking. It’s has a 1.5-inch LCD sapphire glass screen at 360 x 360 resolution and come with 4GB of internal storage. Paying a pretty penny for this smartwatch, it leaves out an important piece that you’d expect to get for its price; an optical heart-rate sensor.
Considering you aren’t too bummed out, it does however house a gyroscope, tilt detection sensor, microphone, haptic engine and a 410 mAh battery (that TAG Heuer promises will get you 30 hours of battery-life). With Intel-inside, it’ll run a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom processor mated to 1GB of RAM. For connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi (B/G/N) and Bluetooth 4.0 to pair with your iOS 8 (or higher) device or at least an Android running version 4.3 (and up).
Big tech giants Intel and Google both had some part in creating the smartwatch, proving that it could be a formidable time piece. It’ll hit New York first, available in 6 watch strap options, with only 1,000 units for sale, while Europe will see it in similar fashion 3 days after.
