Premium smartwatches have more or less all caught up to each other when it comes to features like heart rate tracking, smart assistants, and crisp OLED displays. So how does a company like Tag Heuer make its digital timepiece stand out? It teams up with Porsche for a special edition model that can remotely control certain features when paired to a user’s supercar.
Tag Heuer and Porsche have already teamed up for a handful of more traditional mechanical chronographs, but this is the first smartwatch the two companies have collaborated on, and the TAG Heuer Connected Caliber E4 Porsche Edition brings with it more than just a unique design featuring a matte black titanium case, “Frozen Blue” accents borrowed from the electric Porsche Taycan, and a custom “Circuit” watch face option that blends circuit board elements with subtle nods to race tracks. It’s not quite as subtle or ‘dressy’ as most of Tag Heuer’s offerings, but it certainly feels more modern.
Image: Tag Heuer
Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100+ processor and running Google’s Wear2 OS, the TAG Heuer Connected Caliber E4 Porsche Edition promises up to 24 hours of battery life after a 90-minute charge, although that will vary depending on how it’s being used. Its fitness-tracking and heart rate monitoring features may knock that down a bit. Basic features include a compass, barometer, NFC functionality for tap-to-pay systems, and waterproofing to a depth of 50 meters: standard stuff for a premium smartwatch today.
Where the TAG Heuer Connected Caliber E4 Porsche Edition gets interesting, and might start to justify its $US2,750 ($3,818) price tag, is its added connectivity with current Porsche vehicles, including most of the car maker’s 2022 lineup and newer models. Users can add complications to the smartwatch’s face displaying their vehicle’s total mileage, the car’s current charge level and estimated range (for electric models), or just the estimated range (for gas-powered models). The smartwatch even includes controls on its OLED touchscreen for adjusting a Porsche’s air conditioning and heating, which is presumably more useful for making sure the interior is comfortable after remote starting the vehicle than making temperature adjustments on your wrist while driving.
The TAG Heuer Connected Caliber E4 Porsche Edition will officially be available starting in September, and while you don’t need to own an actual Porsche to buy one, it really seems like the only way to take advantage of its uniquely expanded functionality.