ReviewTAG Heuer Connected – Meet the world’s first Luxury Smartwatch

For more than 150 years, TAG Heuer has been behind some of the most accurate chronographs of the world- by inventing and manufacturing some of the most iconic watches the Swiss watch industry has ever seen, and they’ve taken a giant leap way before anyone else in the luxury watch world with the TAG Heuer Connected. Described as a “Marriage of Watch Valley and Silicon Valley” at the launch by CEO Jean-Claude Biver, this watch is, coincidentally, their first-ever digital watch and perhaps the most shall we say ‘forward’ device from a traditional watch company.
Yes, it is divisive. It does make a few ‘connoisseurs’ upset and does spark a debate between real watchmaking and luxury devices, with challenges thrown by opposing sides of the watch world. But that doesn’t take away the fact that the Tag Heuer Connected is an important device, not because it’s a first true smartwatch from a legendary Swiss watchmaker, but because it’s easily the best Smartwatch in the world right now.

The Design and case: Just like the good old Carrera

The Connected is designed to refer very explicitly to TAG’s most famous watch, the Carrera chronograph, created by Jack Heuer. And you’ll find several additional iconic face designs of the same collection inbuilt that can be activated as per the wearers’ wish. Now you might argue that any other smartwatch can do the same (*Insert – Apple watch*), but only TAG can really display, with credibility, what many watch lovers consider to be among the greatest timepiece designs in history.

And I don’t blame them either for this step because even though, this is a smartwatch, the pillars that make a luxury watch have not been compromised at all. This is a luxury brand and you’re treated to luxury materials as well. The 46mm case is made of grade 2 titanium, sandblasted and brushed, with black carbide coating on the button and bezel. The use of Titanium not just makes the watch lighter, but stronger and more resistant to impact and scratches as compared to stainless steel or any precious metal in the world.
The 1.5-inch display is protected with sapphire crystal for scratch resistance and also gives the watch an IP67 water resistance certification, but we would recommend you NOT to take a plunge into the pool with this one. Barring that, all the rest makes for a solid build that’s going to be easy on your wrist as a daily driver.

View the entire TAG Heuer Connected collection

The Specs: What lies within the watch?

TAG Heuer worked closely with Intel and Google behind this watch. The Intel® Atom™ processor, one that powers some of the best compact computers in the world, is what breathes life into this timepiece – A dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z34XX processor, with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage (Never did I think I’d be discussing these specs about a watch).

But does all that really make a difference? Sure does. The association with two of the biggest names in Silicon Valley is a testimony to the fact that TAG Heuer has left no stone unturned to ensure the experience of using this watch remains seamless.
Intel engineered the intelligence inside the watch to optimize performance and enable a multitude of connectivity options, which include audio streaming, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi as well as allow the wearer to take full advantage of the thousands of applications offered by the Android Wear platform. And apart from the usual Android wear applications, you will find some of TAG Heuer’s own set of applications made exclusively for the watch pre-installed, which we will get to shortly.

The Connected has a healthy battery life compared to any other smartwatch, thanks to a 410 mAh lithium battery. It just takes 2 hours of charge to give this smartwatch a healthy dare I say “Power reserve” of 25 hours. Good enough for a day’s wear.

The Dial: ‘Rendered’ to perfection

TAG Heuer have infused their 150 glorious years of watchmaking & craftsmanship into the unlimited power and potential of wearable technology with this watch.

View the entire TAG Heuer Connected collection

The 1.5-inch display, protected by sapphire crystal has a 360 x 360-pixel resolution. It’s not the sharpest, but fits the bill with their official watch faces and avoids one of the biggest bugbears of smartwatches i.e. Beaming out excessive brightness, so much that you can’t see the face outdoors on a sunny afternoon. Simply put, the screen or ‘digital dial’ as I would like to call it, is less brash, clean, and when dimmed, looks strikingly similar to a mechanical watch.
Tag has some pre-installed watch faces like I mentioned earlier, which reflect the design of Carrera collection. You get the classic Chronograph face, the Simple and clean ‘Day-date’ dial as well as the GMT face, whichever one the wearer prefers.

View the entire TAG Heuer Connected collection

The apps? This is where it distinguishes itself from the entire Android wear platform, with a more ‘comprehensive’ alarm/stopwatch/timer, which can, of course, be clubbed and added to the multiple faces. These apps are completely exclusive to the ‘Connected’ users only. They’ve gone a mile further by giving the wearer exclusive access to a plethora of other third-party applications. You’ll have to register your watch, giving you access to ‘Insiders’, ‘Viewranger’, ‘Golfshot Pro’, giving you a little more to play with.

Of course, you can install other watch faces if you prefer that, Tag ditched most of the standard Android Wear faces by default, which I don’t think anyone should mind as it helps keep things tidy.

And because the  Connected is above all, a watch, the digital hands, and indexes remain visible at all times, even when the watch is not in use with the ambient energy-saving mode.

The Verdict?

I’m sure you must be saying to yourself: “A 30k smart watch can do all this for a fraction of a price”, and might dismiss the TAG Heuer Connected as a waste of time (pardon the pun). If the price is what comes between you and this watch, well then this isn’t the watch for you.

View the entire TAG Heuer Connected collection

But the TAG Heuer Connected isn’t a watch without a purpose, it knows who it is and knows itself really well. It’s meticulously designed to look and wear like a Tag and it does. It’s a smartwatch with a bold design, which makes this the best smartwatch we’ve seen so far (Which is why we found it worthy of featuring it on The Watch Guide, in the first place).

The watch has seamlessly brought the world of luxury and technology together. No, you’re not bound to use their own apps, so feel free to use it to control your music, ask for directions or use Uber to book a cab for you without having to take your phone out.
But having said all that, The Tag Heuer Connected is an expensive luxury toy, but that’s what luxuries are for. Quite easily, a smartwatch that anyone would one to have.

And when it comes to watches, ‘wanting to wear it’ is the most important thing.

View the entire TAG Heuer Connected collection

What are your views about the first ever Luxury Smartwatch? Let us know in the comments section below!