As rumoured, at Baselworld, Switzerland, watchmaker TAG Heuer has announced a new partnership with Google and Intel to create an Android Wear powered smartwatch. The watch will leverage over 150 years of watch design and manufacture from TAG Heuer, the hardware prowess of Intel and the software from Google, the smartwatch from TAG Heuer will be ‘both luxurious and seamlessly connected to its wearer’s daily life’.
There’s very few details on the actual watch, apart from that it will run Android Wear and be powered by Intel. Dates, specs, design have all been left out of the announcement but there’s certainly quite a few quotes floating about:
“Swiss watchmaking and Silicon Valley is a marriage of technological innovation with watchmaking credibility. Our collaboration provides a rich host of synergies, forming a win-win partnership, and the potential for our three companies is enormous,” said Jean-Claude Biver.
Guy Sémon, General Manager of TAG Heuer added: “The quality of Swiss watches is renowned worldwide. When this is allied with the creative technology and global power of two companies like Intel and Google, using the Android Wear platform and based on Intel technology, we can see the launch of a technological revolution in our industry, of which I am proud to be a pioneer today with TAG Heuer.”
David Singleton noted, “By fusing beauty with technology, the Swiss watch has inspired generations of artists and engineers alike—including us at Google. So we’re thrilled to be working with TAG Heuer and Intel to bring a unique blend of emotion and innovation to the luxury market. Together, and using the Android Wear platform, we can imagine a better, beautiful, smarter watch.”
” As we work to enable technology experiences that provide greater utility and value to people, Intel is confident that a collective approach will inspire new innovation in wearable technology. The collaboration with TAG Heuer and Google brings us closer to realizing the vision of wearable technology with a distinctive smartwatch that elevates the category,” remarked Michael Bell.
Obviously we’ll be watching this with close interest and be sure to update with any developments. With smartwatches from the likes of manufacturers without a luxury watch design heritage such as Motorola and LG pushing the $350 mark for their smartwatches, the question remains the same: How much will it cost?
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Interesting that the partner is Intel. The current crop of Android Wear watches use a reference design based on a Qualcomm chip.
Could be a sign of coming specification competition which would be good for consumers.
A crown and two buttons? It’ll be interesting to see what features they implement with those.
i wish a button will boost brightness 🙂
that’d be handy in daylight…. and it switches to a torch function at night?
Red button will have to be for stopwatch.. it’s a TAG!