TAG Heuer created a brand new category, the luxury smartwatch, with the launch of its Connected timepiece in 2015, just six months after the launch of Apple’s Watch.
The first Connect was billed as a combination of Swiss engineering with Silicon Valley tech from Intel and Google.
CEO at the time, Jean-Claude Biver, ensured it was a hit by promising every customer the chance to trade in for a mechanical watch for free after a year.
The plan worked, Connected found an audience, and TAG Heuer continued to develop the smartwatch, in collaboration with its technology partners, and opened it to new potential customers with the creation of special editions for golfers and even to aging gamers with a fitness version featuring Super Mario as a digital personal trainer.
Through it all, the ‘luxury’ element came as much from having TAG Heuer on the digital watch face and bezel as it did from a particularly opulent feel to a wristwatch that sat inert and black for most of the time.
Today, the early promise of true luxury in a smartwatch is bought to life in the form of a 42mm Golden Bright version of the TAG Heuer connected.
It is launched alongside a 45mm Bright Black edition, which comes in a titanium case with black DLC coating and gold lacquer details on the bezel and crown.
The first gold edition of the Connected is not, in fact, all gold. It is a steel watch with rose gold PVD treatment.
The colour, and its smaller 42mm size, give it a unisex appeal, TAG Heuer suggests.
Both new models come with a new digital watch face called TONOS, which has ten different ways of using golden indexes and complications to complement the case designs.
They are available from today at TAG Heuer boutiques, the brand’s e-commerce websites and select partners worldwide.
The Bright Black edition is priced at CHF 2,700 while the Golden Bright piece is CHF 2,250.
