TAG Heuer Connected 2020 smartwatch pairs hefty price with sports tracking
TAG Heuer has revealed its latest smartwatch, the third-generation of its Wear OS wearables, with the new TAG Heuer Connected focusing on sports in return for its premium price tag. Following the Connected Modular Golf Edition of last year, the new Connected watch looks like a 45mm traditional TAG from the outside, but behind the OLED touchscreen there's a new set of sensors.
That includes onboard GPS, updated heart-rate monitoring, a digital compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope. They're used in tandem with the new TAG Heuer Sports app, which supports activities like golf, running, cycling, walking, fitness, and other activities; TAG says more are on the way.
Last year's model supported golf alone, but this time the range of metrics the smartwatch can capture has been significantly expanded. There's speed, pace, distance, heart rate and splits, for example, for runners. A new stopwatch app promises millisecond accuracy. All the data can be synchronized from the watch to TAG's app, and from there to third-party platforms and services such as Apple Health and Strada.
TAG Heuer will offer a choice of three stainless-steel cases – with a black ceramic bezel with optional PVD treatment, in either polished or brushed finish – and a titanium grade 2 case in full matte black. There'll be a perforated black rubber strap, and a steel bracelet offered with the stainless-steel case. As before, TAG has various physical controls: the top button launches the Sports app, the middle button and crown are for navigation through Wear OS, and the lower button is for the stopwatch.
The screen is a 1.39-inch 454 x 454 resolution circular OLED, mounted flush, with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal on top. That can switch between an active and an ambient mode, depending on how the watch is being used, though TAG says it'll always display the time. TAG is using Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset.
The battery clocks in at 430 mAh, and is rated for 20 hours of standard use plus an hour of workout, or six hours of sports use with GPS, heart-rate monitoring, and music active. It'll recharge – with a magnetically-attached charging puck – in 1.5 hours.
As a Wear OS watch, the TAG Heuer Connected obviously does all the usual smartwatch duties too. Notifications, media playback, access to the Google Assistant, and third-party app support are present and correct, as you'd expect.
Similarly, the Connected is as expensive as you'd expect from a TAG Heuer watch. It'll go on sale from March 13, priced from $1,800 in the US, though expect to pay considerably more for the lightweight titanium model.