TAG Heuer Connected Smartwatch Hands-on, First Impressions

The newest smartwatch that arrived in the country doesn’t come from any usual tech brands, but rather from premium Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer. We were able to quickly check out the Connected smartwatch last night, and here’s how it went.

The Connected, surprisingly, is a great-looking device. Its frame is a well-crafted piece of time-telling mechanism, which design were took from those of the brand’s existing mechanical watches with the trademark engravings and the etched brand and model at the upper-right part.

The grade-2 titanium frame gives the device a lighter weight compared to other smartwatches of the same caliber, and our feature unit — a watch with rubber strap — felt very comfortable to place on the wrist. Its locking mechanism seem to be one of the most secured, too. The sides of the metal plate have to be pressed before prying it open, making it one of the most elaborate ones we’ve seen.

On the side of the device is a switch that can be used to navigate the device back to its home screen, and can also act as a power/lock button. At the back side is a 4-pin connector base that can be connected to its charging dock. TAG Heuer says that the device is splash-proof, but precautions should still be made.

The screen display, on the other hand, isn’t its strongest point. It has a 1.5-inch full-circle LTPS LCD packing in 240ppi pixel density, then covered with a sapphire glass. Screen density is not as well-packed as other smartwatches, but it delivers with having good contrast, color, and brightness on most angles.

The Connected also has a low-power mode that puts your smartphone in a monochrome clock watchface when not in use. A number of good-looking watchfaces can also be seen from the watch’s menu including those from other personalities like Jeremy Lin and Leonardo DiCaprio.

On the performance side, the main interface is baked with Android Wear and is powered by a dual-core Intel Atom Z34XX CPU. It’s the first smartwatch released with the said chip, and the device feels fluid enough to navigate through the interface seamlessly.

TAG Heuer Connected specs:
1.5-inch full-circle LTPS LCD display @ 360×360 px, 240ppi
1.6GHz Dual-core Intel Atom Z34XX CPU
1GB of RAM
4GB internal storage
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1
410mAh battery
Android Wear
Titanium case: 12.8mm thick, 46mm in size
52g

The TAG Heuer Connected Smartwatch is now available starting today, August 6, with prices starting at at Php69,999USD 1,193INR 101,121EUR 1,136CNY 8,687 for the rubber strap variant, while a leather-laden one will cost you Php79,999USD 1,363INR 115,567EUR 1,298CNY 9,928. Before we go down and bicker on the rather exorbitant price point, here’s why I would actually say that this is a good deal: You get to have the smartwatch replaced once by a refined mechanical model from the same brand after two years, which is a part of its ‘eternity upgrade’. That’s a great investment should the technology for this product may become obsolete over time.