Tag Heuer's launches new smartwatch

New York - There's the smartwatch, then there is the traditional luxury Swiss movement watch. Never were the twain expected to meet, until Tag Heuer decided to change that. Tag Heuer has unveiled a new smartwatch called Connected in collaboration with Intel Corp. and Google.

As of a Monday morning press conference, Tag Heuer became the first Swiss watch making company to officially take on Apple. The price point for the watch is 1500 dollars, putting it in the standard entry level luxury watch category. On the morning the watch was released, there were already lines forming outside of the Tag Heuer store on Fifth Avenue.

Details of the watch were first hinted at the Baselworld Fair in March, although any real information surrounding it was kept tightly under wraps. At 12 noon on Monday, November 9 the watch became available at 20 retail doors, including Macy's Herald Square and Tourneau Time Machine. The watch is oversized at 46 mm in diameter. The face, back, and lugs are forged from grade 2 titanium.

The new smartwatch is modeled after the brand's classic Carerra watch. The textured black rubber strap the watch comes with can be switched out for six other colors that are sold separately.

The most unique thing about the watch is it's one of the few smartwatches that doesn't immediately look like a piece of technology. In an article by WWD, Google’s David Singleton named it the “world’s smartest luxury watch” and Intel’s Brian Krzanich aptly called the partnership a “marriage between Silicon Valley and Swiss craftsmanship.”

Tag Heuer becomes the first Swiss watchmaker to enter the smartwatch market

The idea was in development for over a year before it came to fruition. According to a press conference remark from Jean-Claude Biver, president of the watch division of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the Intel technology used in the watch will be exclusive to Tag Heuer for a limited time, and will eventually expand to other companies. The timeline for the expansion to other companies has not been revealed.

Apple became an official player in the luxury watch game when it partnered with Hermes in September. The three watches from the Hermes and Apple collaboration range in price from 1100 dollars to 1500 dollars.

Biver told WWD that the two reasons Tag Heuer became the first brand to launch a smartwatch is because they wanted to ensure customers wouldn't be going to other companies to buy Tag Heuer's products, and because they wanted to bring a new customer into their brand.

Tag Heuer is declining to comment on what their sales goals are for their new Connected watch because they want to be similar to Apple in the sense that they don't give figures.

This watch is a rarity for Tag Heuer in the sense that it is not entirely Swiss made, with a large portion of the production done by Intel. Biver says that the next round of watches will be entirely constructed in Switzerland, however. In order for a watch to qualify as "Swiss made" it must be assembled entirely in Switzerland.

Another unique aspect to the Tag Heuer Connected is that if the smartwatch trend dies out, the customer can turn it into a standard mechanical timepiece for 1500 dollars.

While the technology is made to be more compatible with Android phones, it is also compatible with I-phones as well.

As the first Swiss watchmaker to launch a smartphone, Tag Heuer has changed changed the watch market potentially forever. Now the question is, who will follow suit next?

photo:technewstoday.com