World's Cheapest Smartwatch Vs. The Most Expensive: Cost Vs. Craftsmanship
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After Apple helped popularize the smartwatch around seven years ago with its second iteration, smartwatches are now available everywhere, and in all shapes and sizes. Luxury watchmakers have their own versions, while other phone brands have their mainstream models, and there are even off-brand options for anyone who wants to save a bit of cash. With so many options out there, an obvious question arises — what is the cheapest smartwatch available on the lower end, and what is the most expensive on the higher end?
Two smartwatches represent the full range of the technology: the H76 Smart Bracelet and the Tag Heuer Connected Modular Full Diamond. With tech so cheap and widely available now, companies can offer products that would have been amazing 10 years ago for mere pocket change. However, just how big is the gap in features, style, and capability between the cheapest smartwatch on Amazon, and the most expensive smartwatch in the world?
What is the H76 Smart Bracelet?
With a price tag of just $9.99, the H76 Smart Bracelet is possibly the cheapest "smartwatch" available. It's the kind of dodgy Amazon product with zero reviews and just three ratings — but its brand, Amazing for Less, does have its own website.
They were founded in 2015 and focus on "human-centered products" with a focus on outdoor furniture, toys, and games. The site features an eclectic range of merchandise, offering everything from pet waste bags to adult toys — and ten-dollar smartwatches, of course. Having said that, the H76 model doesn't seem to be featured on the website, only on the Amazon store.
The product itself is primarily a fitness tracker, allegedly able to measure heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen. It can also link with compatible phones via Bluetooth so users can view their messages and notifications through the watch. Incoming calls are also displayed, but if you want to accept, you'll need to grab your phone and pick up the old-fashioned way.
What is the Tag Heuer Connected Calibre E4?
Tag Heuer is a Swiss watch brand that's been making luxury timepieces since 1860. The company designed and built timing gear for use in athletics, medicine, and vehicles. In the 20th century, Heuer supplied chronographs for the Olympic Games, and eventually went on to time motorsports like Formula One races.
The first Tag Heuer smartwatch, named the "Connected watch," was released in 2015, and the newest model is the Connected Calibre E4. The watch itself costs between $1,800 – $2,500 depending on the size and case you choose, but there's also a very special modular case and strap available that's embedded with 589 diamonds. At $180,000, it's the most expensive smartwatch ever made. The tech is powered by an Intel chip and runs Android Wear, with features like a heart rate monitor, GPS, and an accelerometer.
One of the first features advertised on the official page is the ability to display NFTs on your watch face with verified proof of ownership. This, along with the price, should give you all the information you need about this product's target audience.
All of the expected sensors, allegedly
As you might expect from products with a $179,990 price difference, there's quite a gap in functionality between what you can do with the H76 Smart Bracelet and the Tag Heuer Connected watch.
Surprisingly, the H76 claims to offer heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygen measurement — features you'd usually only expect in a high-end smartwatch. Only the Apple Watch Series 6 and up, for example, can measure blood oxygen, and not even the top models can measure blood pressure without accessories.
However, according to the product specifications, the H76 only has an SC7A20 triaxial sensor, a type of acceleration sensor that takes care of movement-based metrics like step counting, distance, and calorie burn. It doesn't have any sensors for tracking blood flow through the wrist, which is what most smartwatches use to calculate heart rate and blood oxygen, or estimate blood pressure.
The Tag Heuer Connected watch, on the other hand, is equipped with a heart rate sensor along with a compass, microphone, accelerometer, and barometer. This allows it to track various health metrics throughout the day, such as heart rate, calorie burn, steps, altitude, and distance — all of which are saved and analyzed in the dedicated Tag Heuer app.
Smart features on both watches
As well as tracking health, both watches offer a way to connect your smartphone and receive notifications. For the H76, this is a non-interactive feature — you can connect your phone so that messages, emails, social media notifications, and even phone calls pop up on your watch screen, but you can't pick up or reply on the watch itself. There's no microphone, so calls are out of the question, as is message dictation.
Other features do include a flashlight, anti-loss notifications, stopwatch, remote camera, music control, weather information, and more.
The Tag Heuer watch runs on Google's Wear OS, which gives it access to all sorts of apps and features: Maps, payments, search, YouTube Music, Google Home, messaging, calls, notifications, and everything else you might expect from a normal smartwatch. With access to the Google Play Store, you can download your favorite smartwatch apps, and you can also enjoy the pre-installed Tag Heuer Golf, Sports, Wellness, and NFT Viewer apps.
Bigger screen doesn't always mean better
Surprisingly, the H76 actually has a bigger screen than the 45mm Tag Heuer. It boasts an HD color screen of 1.57 inches, but the pixel count is a little less than clear. According to the product information, the "exquisite" display is "up to 240*360" pixels. Does this mean some units have less than 360 pixels? It's impossible to say. The screen is made from "hyperboloid glass," which probably refers to its curved edges.
The screen on the Tag Heuer watch is 1.39 inches, circular in shape, with a 454x454 pixel count. Although it's smaller in comparison, the AMOLED display packs in more pixels for a smoother, higher-quality look, finished with sapphire crystal glass.
The watch faces can mimic other analog Tag Heuer designs so that you can barely tell you're wearing a screen on your wrist. The watch also retains the fixed ceramic bezel of a classic watch, displaying minute markers around the watch — even though you can opt for a watch face that only displays digital time.
The cheap watch doesn't have any diamonds
The H76 comes in three colors, each with a "two-tone strap." There's "Brilliant Silver" with a gray and blue strap, "Obsidian Black" with a black and red strap, and "Streamer Gold" with a pastel pink and blue strap. Amazon lists the product material as silicon, which likely denotes what the straps are made from. This material reduces allergic reactions, but could cause discomfort for some wearers whose skin reacts to the trapped moisture that can build under the strap.
Although there are many straps available for the Tag Heuer Connected watch, the Modular strap is perhaps the most interesting. The case and strap are made from 18K polished gray gold with a titanium buckle and 23.35 carats of baguette-shaped diamonds.
The diamonds are studded all over the entire strap, with 78 on the bezel, and 495 on the bracelet. Even for the rich folk the watch is aimed at, it might seem somewhat wasteful to spend $180,000 on a smartwatch that will become outdated in just a few years. As such, Tag Heuer has made it possible to switch the smartwatch out for a mechanical movement (or even a newer Tag Heuer smartwatch) so you can keep using the strap for longer.