Eye on Style
Connected...
A New Era For Swiss Watches The idea of a watch that doubles up as a kind of mini-laptop (‘wristtop’ perhaps) isn’t new. Apple, after all, got their first with the Apple watch. But Apple’s device, however clever, has gained few fans amongst watch afficianados.
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here are still many of us, it seems, who don’t rely on our phones to tell the time and who prefer our watch to carry a recognised brand name. And it’s always best if that brand name happens to be Swiss. Enter TAG Heuer, the leading edge Swiss watchmaker with a reputation for being a bit less conservative than some of the other Alpine brand names. The company has been taking the market by storm with its TAG Heuer Connected range, a line-up of smart watches starting in price at £1,100. It’s a price tag which opens up all sorts of potential markets, and the same can be said of the watch itself... trendy, upbeat and highly practical at the same time. The TAG Heuer Connected is being sold here exclusively by the company reponsible for selling more luxury watches around these parts than any other, Lunn’s The Jewellers. And the Belfast-based firm has enlisted the help of a powerful ambassador. Suzanne Lunn, Marketing Director at Lunn’s commented, “Digital technology has become so important to many aspects of our daily lives. Yet, there has been a gap between this technology and luxury watches. It is so exciting to see them combined so successfully in the TAG Heuer Connected watch. Lunn’s were the first business in Ireland to sell the Connected, and have been blown away by the demand for it in store and online.” Ulster & Ireland rugby captain Rory Best has been putting the TAG Heuer Connected through its paces during the last Ulster campaign and throughout Ireland’s
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Richard Buckley and Rory Best
summer tour to South Africa, which included that memorable June victory over the Springboks in Cape Town. “I love the fact that it’s lightweight, but also the way it looks,” says Rory. “The TAG simply doesn’t look like most people’s idea of a smart watch. In fact, at first glance, very few can tell that it’s anything different from a normal luxury watch. “I’ve used it for apps, I’ve used it for calls, and I’ve used it to keep an eye on my schedule.....to check where I’m supposed to be on an hour to hour basis. To have that kind of information on your wrist is pretty amazing.” The TAG Heuer Connected is a highly flexible piece of wristwear. It’s based on the highly popular TAG Heuer Carrera, so it looks as good as any TAG, yet it comes with touchscreen technology and access to thousands of mini-apps. It works by way of a partnership between TAG Heuer, Intel and Google, and it comes with a small microphone to allow communication with apps such as Google Fit and Google Maps. And, on the aesthetic front, it also comes with a choice of coloured rubber straps (green, red and the best-
selling orange among them) or – for the most traditional customer – leather versions. One thing users will have to get used to is the concept of charging their watches. The TAG has a battery life of about 24 hours following a 2-hour charge, comparable to most modern smart phones. And the target market? “It’s not all about younger customers, although they love the new TAG Connected,” says Brian O’Kane, Manager of Lunn’s Victoria Square store. “We’ve had interest from a really wide range of different customers. In fact, we’ve been struggling to match demand with available stock. “What impressed the customers most? The way that the watch looks and how functional and easy to use it really is.” The TAG Heuer Connected Watch is available now exclusively in Northern Ireland at Lunn’s, Victoria Square and online at Lunns.com and is priced from £1100. www.lunns.com www.tagheuerconnected.com