The announcement of the Apple Watch has catalysed the entry of traditional mechanical watch makers into the smart watch domain. Partnering with Google and Intel, Tag Heuer plans to release a smartwatch based on the design of the Carrera watch that will combine expertise from Android Wear and Intel’s hardware technology with Tag Heuer’s experience in luxury watchmaking.
With the announcement, Tag Heuer has officially become the poster boy for the traditional embracing the new. Wareable.com reports that the Tag Heuer smart watch, slated to go on sale in October or November 2015, will retail for $1400 with a 40 hour battery life span.
Tag Heuer Carrera watch
If you find the generic 18k Apple Watch or the customisable Moto 360 too mainstream, look to the luxurious side. Tag Heuer joins a handful of traditional Swiss watch makers such as Swatch’s Touch Zero One, Brietling’s B55 ,Mondaine’s Helvetica 1 Smartwatch, Frederique Constant’s Horological Smartwatch, MontBlanc’s TimeWalker Urban Speed e-Strap and Alpina’s Horological Smartwatch for ladies in going smart.
Barely 2 years back, the Fitbit Flex was considered groundbreaking with its wrist based activity tracking. With the duplication of functions of activity trackers and smartwatches, one can only imagine how soon it’d be before one cannibalises the other.