Tag Heuer just announced the most expensive Android Wear smartwatch ever. It’s called the Connected Watch, and it costs $1,500 (£1,000). That’s about double the price of the second most expensive Android Wear device from Huawei, and it marks a move into the proper luxury market for Google’s wearable OS.
As you would expect from a legendary Swiss watchmaker, the watch deliberately looks like a traditional model, specifically the company’s Carrera analogue watch. The company has gone to great lengths to ensure that it doesn’t look like other smartwatches on the market, and for the price that makes sense. Tag Heuer are trying to make something special here, with a 46mm sapphire crystal face and titanium frame. The watch can be customised with six different rubber straps too.
Inside, the Connected Watch is also a bit different to its cheaper Android Wear siblings. The watch is powered by a 1.6GHz Intel chip, where almost all previous models have used Qualcomm or TI chipsets. It also has 1GB of RAM; all other models have used 512MB (half as much).
Otherwise, it’s fairly similar to many of its predecessors, with one day of battery life and wireless recharging. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a microphone allow the watch to connect to your phone and take voice queries; there’s no GPS on the Connected Watch. It’s also IP67-rated for water and dust resistance.
Tag Heuer have designed three unique watch faces for the Connected Watch: a chronograph, a world time clock and a standard three-hand face. You’ll also have access to the normal built-in Android Wear watch faces and the full range offered by the Google Play marketplace. When it comes to apps, Tag Heuer have also made their own alarm and stopwatch apps to match their analogue watches.
It’ll be interesting to see how successful the Connected Watch is, both for Tag Heuer and Google. I can’t see many sales of the watch given its luxury status, but use by a few key celebrities could go a long way towards legitimising the platform in the minds of the general public.
What’s your first impression of the Tag Heuer Connected Watch? Let us know in the comments below.