Tag Heuer Unveils $1,500 Luxury Android SmartwatchTag Heuer Unveils $1,500 Luxury Android Smartwatch

Beyond Apple Watch: What's Next In Wearables

Renowned Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer is jumping into the smartwatch space with the Tag Heuer Connected, a luxury smartwatch that runs Android Wear. Costing $1,500, Tag's new device has the distinct honor of being the most expensive Android smartwatch in the market.

Tag Heuer, Google, and Intel all got together and conjured up a smartwatch. The Tag Heuer Connected borrows its design from the non-smart Tag Heuer Carrera watch. The case and bezel are made from titanium, and the latter has a "sandblasted carbide coating" to prevent fingerprints from marring the design. It features a raised "Tag Heuer shield" to protect the display. The strap is made from vulcanized rubber, and comes in green, blue, orange, red, white, black, and yellow. The clasp is also made from titanium. The wearable measures 46mm across and 12.8mm thick. It weighs in at 1.83 ounces.

The LCD screen measures 1.5 inches across and its resolution is 360 x 360 pixels. The display is protected by sapphire glass, which is scratch-resistant and able to register multiple points of contact. Tag says it can be seen easily outdoors. This is pretty standard for a modern smartwatch. The wearable is rated IP67 against rain, sweat, and splashes, but don't go diving with it.

The Tag Heuer Connected is powered by a dual-core Intel processor clocked at 1.6 GHz. It comes with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The vast majority of Android Watches on the market run on Qualcomm processors and have just 512MB of RAM, so Tag's partnership with Intel is notable. The device has a 410mAh battery, which Tag claims is good for up to 25 hours on a single charge. It has a typical profile of sensors, including a gyroscope, a microphone, a haptic engine, and tilt detection. Wireless radios include Bluetooth and WiFi, so the device can be used without a smartphone nearby.

[Read Apple Watch Shipments Reach 7 Million.]

Tag said it created several unique watch faces for the Connected, which are each based on its analog designs. The faces are customizable and can reveal details such as the weather, steps walked, and calories burned. The Android Wear operating system means it is compatible with more than 4,000 mobile apps, all of which are available from the Google Play Store. The Connected runs the latest version of Android Wear, and is compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 or iOS 8.2 and up.

At $1,500 Tag Heuer Connected costs nearly twice as much as the next most expensive Android Wear smartwatch (the Huawei Watch, which costs $799). It is second in price only to the Apple Watch, which ranges from $349 to $17,000. With the majority of Android watches falling in the $250 to $350 range, Tag Heuer is clearly targeting a higher-end set of customers. The Tag Heuer Connected is available online.