Intel, Google and Tag Heuer Release Luxury Smart Watch

Swiss watch maker, TAG Heuer teamed up with Google and Intel to launch their first luxury smartwatch: TAG Heuer Connected, sold at $1,500 price tag with a trade in option.

TAG Heuer on Monday launched their smartwatch debut in New York. As Bloomberg reported, the product is developed in partnership with Android and Google. It runs Google's Android Wear operating system, and it can work with both Android phones and iPhones. TAG Connected is able to connect to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or later version and iPhones running iOS 8.2. TAG Connected is using bluetooth LE to connect to smartphone, it also has Wi-Fi connectivity with 4 GB of onboard storage for apps and media. Gyroscopic sensors are also available for basic fitness tracking, with up to 30 hours of battery life in normal usage and comes with a USB charging cradle for powering up. However, it is lacking in GPS, heart rate sensor and speaker.

TAG Heuer began as Heuer, a watch company founded in 1860 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. TAG Heuer is known for holding several chronograph technology patent, and its most famous line is its 1963 Heuer Carrera, which also becomes the basic model of TAG Connected. In 1985, TAG (Techniques d'Avant Garde), French trading company purchased Heuer hence TAG Heuer was formed.

According to Forbes, TAG Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver said that his number one goal with the Connected product was to have a "smartwatch that looks like a watch." It comes as one of the enduring arguments between traditional watch lovers and watch manufaturer with the emergence of smartwatch. Especially with Swiss pride of watch maker tradition which already outdated, comes silly question such as: is a smartwatch a watch? The answer is definitely it is, yet many people continue to feel that smartwatches and traditional watches belong in distinct categories.

Although Google called it as the first luxury smartwatch with price tag of $1,500, but Venture Beat does not think so. Since Apple already retails a handful of luxury Apple Watch models priced as high as $17,000, and LG sells Urbane Luxe gold smartwatch at $1,200. Moreover, TAG Connected is not even the first Swiss-made smartwatch. Mondaine had already delivered Mondaine Helvetica 1 smartwatch in February. It also doesn't appear to be the first Intel-powered Android Wear smartwatch either. As Fossil had already done that in October last year.

Apparently, lacking confidence of their smartwatch product, TAG Heuer offered a trade in to their product with an old traditional TAG Heuer. TAG has already seen that its product may be outdated soon. So they provide trade in option in two years. The owner of TAG Connected is able to to bring their watch to TAG Heuer retailer, trade in their smart watch with additional $1,500 and receive a mechanical TAG Heuer smart watch.

Although with TAG Heuer entering the smart watch market, it seems the traditional watch maker is ready to embrace smart watch technology. Teaming up with Google and Intel, TAG Heuer made a bet with its Connected product.