TAG Heuer Connected smartwatches (Photo : Twitter)
The Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer has a long history of manufacturing luxury timepieces, and just introduced its first Android Wear smartwatch. The $1,500 TAG Heuer Connected wearable is the company's challenge to high-end Apple Watch models.
TAG Heuer's goal was to design a wearable device with a smartwatch's functionality, and a traditional wristwatch's appearance. Its grade 2 titanium is durable at 12.8 millimeters, yet also lightweight at 52 grams.
TAG Heuer Connected has a 46mm crystal sapphire screen. It contains a 360 x 360 LCD and 240 pixels per inch (ppi) density.
The luxury smartwatch includes an Intel Atom Z34XX processor. It also has 1 gigabyte of RAM, 4GB of storage, a 410 milliampere hour (mAh) battery with a 25-hour single charge, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and microphone.
The $1,500 Connected includes a black rubber strap. Other bands must be bought separately.
Time will tell how well TAG Heuer's Android Wear smart watch does versus the Apple Watch. However, some criticisms of the device are that it is too bulky, too expensive, and too much like a mechanical watch, according to Seeking Alpha.
An irony is that the Swiss company clearly wants to compete with Apple's smartwatches. However, it lacks the engineering resources to produce its own processor and operating system.
TAG Heuer previously launched and then discontinued a line of luxury Android smartphones, but this time used its forte to go head-to-head with Apple, according to MarketWatch. TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver explained that the company hopes Connected will attract the next generation of watch wearers. It cannot "lose the wrist."
However, tech analyst Jan Dawson believes it will be difficult for TAG Heuer to grab much smartwatch market share from Apple. He described Connected as an "experiment."
