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Intel’s Vice President of New Technology Group, Jerry Bautista, recently sat down to talk about the new Intel-powered TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 smartwatch and also about the possibilities of smaller smartwatches down the road with Android Central. While the new TAG Heuer smartwatch comes with a hefty 45mm size (and an equally hefty price starting at $1,650), it certainly makes a statement. It makes a bold statement about you according to Bautista. The design, the wrist strap, the lugs, and the bling tell people something about you as an individual. Watches that expensive and more are often bought by people that collect watches and consider them a sort of heirloom which can be passed on to family members or given as a special gift.
The TAG Heuer does run Android Wear 2.0, but Bautista insists that it is much more than an expensive watch running an OS found in much cheaper or older watches. He said that like other expensive mechanical watches, the specs and standards used are exact and precise. The ‘modular’ part of the name means that it is highly customizable with different colors, bracelets, and buckles. TAG Heuer will even allow you to trade it in when the insides become obsolete. You can swap them out for a mechanical inside or an entirely new watch. The smartwatch is running on an Intel Atom Z34XX processor and is claiming to have up to 30 hours of battery life. They even squeezed NFC into the new model to allow for mobile payments, and it includes WiFi, Bluetooth, and is good to 100 feet in the water.
When asked about the possibility of smaller smartwatches designed for the smaller wrists of men and women, Bautista just hinted that they were working on smartwatches that are smaller in size. Although not commented on, October time could be when an announcement for a smaller version of the Connected Modular could come through. This should help boost sales for the elite watchmaker, which is already doing well with its first TAG Heuer Connected selling approximately 60,000 in 2016, which is also being upgraded to Android Wear 2.0. Android Wear 2.0 is a major upgrade bringing Android Pay to those models with NFC, which the new Connected 45 does have. Google Assistant is also available and the ability to download apps from the Google Store directly to your smartwatch.