Intel

TAG Heuer has made no secret of it’s smartwatch ambitions. Earlier this year the LVMH owned company announced it was working with Google and Intel to develop the wrist piece. This week TAG Heuer announced that it was planning to launch the device in either October or November with pricing expected to start at $1,400. This is $100 less than the Carrera model the smartwatch is said to based off of. Jean-Claude Biver, head of LVMH’s luxury watch devision, said that users should expect 40 hours of battery life. This is well ahead of all current Android Wear devices so it will be interesting to see how TAG Heuer plans to accomplish this.

With a $1,400 price tag, the Apple Watch is the closest smartwatch competitor by price. Biver said of the rival device, “I hope they sell millions and millions and millions of them. The more they sell the more a few people will want something different and come to TAG Heuer.”

It will be interesting to see what a Swiss company, with such a vocal history about smartwatches, envisions the device should be.

TAG Heuer has been very vocal about smartwatches over the past 12 months. In January the watch maker announced it would release a device later this year. It seems the Swiss watch maker is ready to divulge a few more details. Today, at the Baselword watch convention, TAG Heuer announced it has partnered with Intel and Google to produce the smartwatch. Intel will be providing the silicon and Google will provide the software, Android Wear.

According to Jean-Claude Biver, the company’s interim CEO and head of watches for TAG Heuer’s parent company, LVMH, TAG Heuer decided not to produce a watch that was compatible with iOS devices because Apple was producing their own watch. Those of us here at Circuits And Cable Knit are not terribly surprised by this news and speculated earlier this week that the Swiss company had very little choice besides turning to Android Wear. TAG Heuer’s smartwatch is rumored to be based off of the Carrera model (pictured at the top of this post), the mechanical version of which sells for several thousand dollars, depending on configuration.