The smartwatch market has led to a bunch of electronics companies making questionably fashionable wrist watches, but now the Swiss are here to (supposedly) show everyone how it's done. Tag Heuer has teamed up with Google and Intel to create a $1,500 Android Wear device called the "Tag Heuer Connected."
There was always a question of how much technology you would get for this $1,500, and unfortunately, it seems that the device has mostly normal smartwatch guts. There's a 1.5-inch, circular 360x360 (240 PPI) LCD, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi (802.11n) and a 410mAh battery. The one unique item is the processor: a 1.6Ghz dual-core Intel Atom Z34XX. It's hard to not be disappointed by the LCD when the $350 Huawei Watch clocks in at a superior 286 PPI.
It seems that you're mostly paying for the titanium watch body, sapphire crystal, and the Tag Heuer design and brand name. The watch band is rubber and comes in a variety of colors, and the device has an IP67 ingress protection rating. On the back of the watch, you'll find pins for the charging dock but no heart rate monitor. The Connected is 46mm in diameter and is 12.8mm thick.
Of course, your standard Swiss watch lasts forever and is meant to be passed down for generations, while a smartwatch is good for maybe a year or two. Tag's solution to this problem is a trade-in program where you can turn in your smartwatch plus another $1,500, and Tag will give you a mechanical dumb watch that looks just like the Connected.
On the software side of things, the device seems to use the same basic Android Wear OS that everything else is running. The only tweaks appear to be some special Tag Heuer watch faces and a few custom apps like an alarm and stopwatch.
If $1,500 for a smartwatch with a two-year warranty sounds like a good idea to you, the Tag Heuer Connected is on sale now.
