Tag: luxury smartwatch

TAG Heuer’s Android smartwatch proves itself

Article

TAG Heuer’s Android smartwatch is (relatively) popular | Engadget

My Comments

TAG Heuer have launched their Connected Android Wear smartwatch and have seen their efforts in designing and promoting it pay off.

This is in the face of the Apple Watch which is seen as being part of the Apple brand which has a similar “status symbol” appearance to the likes of Nike footwear; and in the face of LG’s Watch Urbane which is LG’s dress-watch effort. Rather, the TAG Heuer will keep itself in the premium “Rolls Royce” or “Lamborghini” end of the market while premium watches offered by Apple, LG and others will keep themselves with the popular “BMW” or “Audi” end of the market.

There were some Initial doubts whether a luxury smartwatch, especially one based on the Android Wear platform would become successful . But TAG Heuer have ramped up the production of their Connected smartwatches from 1200 timepieces per week to 2000.  They also intend to run the Connected Android Wear smartwatch as the basis of a series of smartwatches that have different varieties, materials and finishes.

What I see of this is TAG Heuer achieving the combination of a true smartwatch running a common smartwatch platform emanating from one of the names associated with Swiss luxury dress watches. This is compared to some other attempts in the traditional luxury-watch sector to have a “connected watch” which is a traditional watch with a baseline remote-indication ability for your smartphone.

Time to impress her at that fancy restaurant or impress them in that C-suite upstairs!

TAG Heuer announces an Android Wear dress smartwatch

Articles

TAG Heuer and Intel announce Swiss Smartwatch for 2015 | Smarterwatching

Watch Out Apple Watch, There’s a Swiss-Made Android Wear Watch Coming | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

Intel

Press Release

TAG Heuer

Press Release

Video Press Announcement

My Comments

Most smartwatches that were being released were pitched as “everyday wear” watches or sports watches which were something you wouldn’t really choose to wear if your goal was to impress someone special. That is unless they were someone who was impressed by the concept of the smartwatch and what it can do.

But when Apple put forward their Apple Watch, they put forward a few premium models that would go alongside or replace that Rolex Presidential as a status-symbol dress watch. Here, they set the cat amongst the pigeons when it came to providing a smartwatch of the calibre that you would wear in the Member’s Stand at Flemington during the Spring Racing Carnival (Melbourne Cup) or you, as the father of the bride, would have on your wrist as you walk the bride down the aisle at the start of the wedding.

TAG Heuer, along with Intel and Google, have worked on an Android Wear smartwatch that uses technology from the microelectronics name. Here, the idea is to create one of these watches that is pitched to the luxury-watch market rather than keeping Android Wear and the smartwatch scene for so-called “all-purpose” or “sports-class” wearables.

As well, TAG Heuer are even pushing to allow the qualification of a Swiss watch to expand to smartwatches that integrate electronics from other countries like Intel’s silicon but still have the watch assembled in Switzerland and have decorative and electromechanical parts coming from there. It can also be a good chance for Intel to investigate the idea of using Switzerland as a hub for activities associated with manufacturing, research and development for wearable technology.

What I see of this is the fact that companies are stepping forward to sell smartwatches fit for wearing at that exclusive club or in the boardroom of that Fortune 500 company in America. It also means that the smartwatch market can become like the traditional watch market with watches that suit different price ranges and different dress senses.

Two more interesting smartwatch designs are surfacing

HP and Casio are each premiering a smartwatch that, like Swatch’s and Tissot’s idea, are different from the pack. One of these is a something that would be kept as a dress watch to wear when you are going out while the other one can identify those tunes playing on the radio or background-music setup while you are out and about.

Articles

HP’s luxury dress smartwatch

Take a look at HP’s luxury smartwatch | Engadget

HP, Gilt and designer Michael Bastion teaming up for a smartwatch | Android Authority

From the horse’s mouth

Gilt

Press Release

Casio’s G-Watch that identifies music

Casio’s Next G-Watch Uses SoundHound To Discover New Music | Engadget

Casio’s Latest Bluetooth Watch Puts Song Recognition On Your Wrist | Gizmodo

My Comments

The first of the watches is a luxury fashionable dress watch that is engineered by HP but designed by Gilt along with the fashion designer, Michael Bastian. This men’s watch has a round 44mm stainless-steel case and swappable leather bands, taking with it the “stylish yet cool” interior designs associated with some of the recent luxury cars out there.

For functionality, this is meant to interlink with iOS and Android devices using a platform-specific device, this courting the luxury market’s penchant for preferring the Apple iPhones as their smartphone options. At the moment, this watch offers notification functionality for email, text and calls along with being a control surface for music playback and some other apps.

Personally I would see the HP watch’s emphasis on style rather than geekiness more about either the watch to wear when you are going to the Melbourne Club or wanting to take out someone whom you are really trying to impress.

The second of these watches is Casio’s latest G-Shock smartwatch. This has notification functionality through its LCD display which exists behind the traditional clock face and also acts as a control surface for your phone, especially with your music using a knob on the edge of the bezel. It would work alongside a Casio-supplied platform-specific app for your smartphone and maintains the rugged look of other G-Shock watches.

But it also works along with SoundHound and an internal microphone to identify the music that is playing. Once identified, the song details appear on the watch’s LCD display.

The Casio watch would be on a par with other Android Wear smartwatches but has a long battery life thus avoiding the need for you to charge it every night. It would look the part more as a utility watch for everyday activities.

At the moment, these watches along with the previously covered Swatch watches come across more as baseline “control and display surfaces” that link to your smartphone using Bluetooth 4.0 LE a.k.a. Bluetooth Smart. But they would require the use of different apps to provide the software connection. Personally, what Google, Apple and Microsoft should work on is a baseline wearable specification which allows different wearable devices offering baseline functionality to link to the phone without the need to run many extra apps. As well, the watches should at least support using the phone as a “reference clock” for setting the time and adjusting for different time zones and daylight-savings time.

What is happening is that there are smartwatches that place less emphasis on the “geek nature” and could expose this genre of product to most of us.