As we reported earlier today, TAG Heuer today officially unveiled its first Android Wear running smartwatch: the Connected Watch. Despite being its first smartwatch, the Connected carries many of the design cues of TAG Heuer’s analog Carrera watch.
The luxury smartwatch is made of titanium and will be available with seven different wrist bands to choose from. The company will be offering the watch in only one 46mm diameter dimension that might just be a wee bit big for female wrists. The circular “transflective” display of the watch is protected by a sapphire crystal that is less prone to scratches than Gorilla Glass used on other Android Wear running smartwatches.
Inside, the Connected is the first Android Wear smartwatch to use an Intel powered chipset. The company did not really reveal much details about the chipset, but mentioned that the Connected comes with an “all day” battery life. The premium smartwatch can be recharged using a bundled dock easily. Other features of the Connected include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, along with a microphone for issuing voice commands. These features are present on every Android Wear smartwatch out there, so their inclusion on the Connected is not really a big deal.
TAG Heuer says that they have developed three watch faces for the Connected to match the design of some of its popular analog watches. These watch faces can be customised to display your step count, calendar appointments, and weather. Obviously, since the watch runs on Android Wear, you can also download third-party watch faces from the Google Play Store.
The TAG Heuer Connected goes on sale in the United States and Europe through the company’s website and a selected few luxury boutiques for $1500.
At $1500, the TAG Heuer Connected is the most expensive Android Wear smartwatch out there. It will be interesting to see how long TAG Heuer and Google support the smartwatch through OS updates and how it performs a couple of years down the line.
Update: TAG Heuer’s presentation had a footnote which mentioned that the company will swap the Connected for a classic Carrera watch once the former reaches its End Of Life two years from now. This certainly goes a long way in justifying the $1500 price tag of the watch.
